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To: Bookshelf

“Nestorians do not recognize the book of Revelations. Are they Christians?”

The Bible itself may sometimes be complicated and difficult to understand. But the Gospel message, revealed in the Bible, is simple.

2 Peter 3:16
...Some things [are] hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.

2 Corinthians 11:3
But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Matthew 18:3
[Jesus] said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”

People are not saved or lost based on a perfect understanding of the Bible. Nor are they saved or lost by joining a particular group or subscribing to a set of doctrinal statements. Faith is not merely an intellectual pursuit. It is a matter of the heart.

So, you are asking the wrong question. The premise of your question is false. In other words, just your asking of it reveals that you have subscribed to erroneous and destructive ideas.

I do not know if you have an agenda or are seriously seeking the truth. If you are simply trying to win an argument, you will do so to your own destruction. And I can not help you. But if you want to know the truth more than proving you are already right, then perhaps what I have to say can be helpful to you.

The need to become a Christian is predicated on the fact that all have sinned. All are transgressors of the laws of God.

Romans 3:23
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

James 2:10-11
For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law

1 John 3:4
Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.

Our sinful state means we are spiritually dead and separated from God.

Ephesians 2:4-5
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).

A person becomes a “Christian” by hearing and believing the Gospel which, according to 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 and Mark 1:15 and related passages, contains the following:

1) The Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins.
2) He was buried.
3) He rose again.
4) These things and the Gospel itself were foreordained by God and prophesied in the scriptures.
5) Christ was seen by many witnesses after He rose from the dead, and the New Testament contains eye-witness accounts proving He rose from the dead.
6) God commands all people everywhere to repent, and...
7) Believe the Gospel.

A person who does so is born again and is now a child of God.

A person who has not believed the Gospel is under divine wrath.

I have no interest in assessing people’s salvation by membership or non-membership in some particular group. My opinion on this is totally irrelevant. The issue is what Christ says about the state of their souls. And more importantly, for your sake, what does He say about the state of your soul? Have you repented of your sins and believed the Gospel?


69 posted on 04/10/2018 11:29:25 AM PDT by unlearner (A war is coming.)
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To: unlearner

Selah


70 posted on 04/10/2018 11:51:45 AM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensational perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: unlearner; HarleyD; MHGinTN

I submit the purity of the Gospels, the perfection of the spoken Christ, do not require the chapter of Revelations. It is a book that scaremongers and greedy pulpiteers alike utilize to fill their pockets with something that cannot be known. I submit, Mark 14:30-33 alone is worth all the hobgobliny of Revelations.


71 posted on 04/10/2018 2:00:03 PM PDT by Bookshelf
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