No Creed But Christ - Restoration MovementThe forum for members of the restoration movement including Disciples of Christ, Church of Christ, and Independent Christian Churches.
God is God. He is the creator of the universe. He does what He wants to do regardless of what we think He should do.
Given that, God has told us what He will do to unrepentant sinners who have not done His will. Yes, God is merciful, but he has also given us dominion over our lives. It's up to us whether or not we will enter heaven. God has shown us the way, but we decide whether we will follow that way.
So if God says be immersed and we instead insist upon being sprinkled, then I fully expect God to send us to Hell. He has spoken. Don't you listen?
Most congregations of Christians, yes. A Christian should support other Christians in spreading the Word and winning souls to Christ. A Christian should not be supporting denominations who do not teach the complete truth or who add manmade fabrications to the doctrine of the church.
For some reason I fail to see any mention of doing good works in those couple of verses. Where to you see any reference there to "feeding the hungry, helping the poor, visiting those in prison", etc.?
Jesus is speaking of those I call pseudo-Christians, those who have not followed God's will in hearing and believing the Word, having faith in God, confessing that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God, repenting of their sins and being immersed for the forgiveness of those sins.
Very few people who profess to be Christians have done all of the above and they are who Jesus is addressing in Matthew 7:21-23. Jesus is talking about people being saved and not being saved. Good works such as you list the Catholic parish down the street as doing has nothing to do with the people Jesus is referring to in Matthew 7:21-23.
I think Brennan Manning puts it better than I could here as to what I think.
I think Brennan Manning puts it better than I could here as to what I think.
Your God is too small for me.
I may be wrong, but I don't believe God has ever mentioned how big he is.
In the opening of that video, Manning says that he believes that on Judgement Day, Jesus will ask each of us one question: "Do you Believe that I loved you?" That's as far into that video that I needed to go.
Why? Because everyone who has ever heard of Jesus and of Christianity will answer "Yes", including Satan himself. By answering "Yes", will Jesus send each of us along to heaven, including Satan himself? What about those who say "No", maybe because they never heard of Jesus? What will Jesus do with them?
In short it's a stupid question and I do not believe that Jesus will ask it.
Instead Jesus will ask each of us if we heard the Word and believed it, had faith in Him, confessed that He is the Messiah and is the Son of God, repented of our sins and was baptized for the forgiveness of those sins and thereafter attempted to live a life dedicated to God's will.
In that video Manning is posturing for his audience. (By the way, I don't have much respect for ministers. Ask me why sometime, but not in this thread.)
My God has told me in the scriptures what he will do and I'll be greatly disappointed if he does not keep his Word.
Does anyone know why I am not allowed to post a link in a message until I have posted at least 50 messages? Do I need the experience of posting that many messages before I can be expected to properly include a link without bringing down the forum?
The reason this came up is that is my previous post here I attempted to quote a message that had a link in it, and the forum software rudely told me I was not allowed to post images until I had 50 posts under my belt.
This seems to be an arbitrary thing that does nothing positive for the forum. It is no more useful than the "Blessings" displayed in each post. Tell me: does the higher the "Blessing" value mean that I am more apt to know what I am talking about, that I am more intelligent, or that I, perhaps, am saved, but you aren't?
These are games forum administrators play that impede good debates.
Instead Jesus will ask each of us if we heard the Word and believed it, had faith in Him, confessed that He is the Messiah and is the Son of God, repented of our sins and was baptized for the forgiveness of those sins and thereafter attempted to live a life dedicated to God's will.
Wow! It's going to take us all a long time to get through the line
Does anyone know why I am not allowed to post a link in a message until I have posted at least 50 messages? Do I need the experience of posting that many messages before I can be expected to properly include a link without bringing down the forum?
The reason this came up is that is my previous post here I attempted to quote a message that had a link in it, and the forum software rudely told me I was not allowed to post images until I had 50 posts under my belt.
This seems to be an arbitrary thing that does nothing positive for the forum. It is no more useful than the "Blessings" displayed in each post. Tell me: does the higher the "Blessing" value mean that I am more apt to know what I am talking about, that I am more intelligent, or that I, perhaps, am saved, but you aren't?
These are games forum administrators play that impede good debates.
It's a guard against spam. People sign up on forums just to post commercial links. Pretty weird, if you ask me, but they do it. Making sure people have X number of posts on the forum before they can post links cuts down on the amount of spam posts Staff has to clean out.
/ex-Admin (and just about every other job around this joint)
__________________
No peace among the nations without peace among the religions.
No peace among the religions without dialogue among the religions.
No dialogue among the religions without investigation of the foundation of the religions. ~Hans Küng
It's a guard against spam. People sign up on forums just to post commercial links. Pretty weird, if you ask me, but they do it. Making sure people have X number of posts on the forum before they can post links cuts down on the amount of spam posts Staff has to clean out.
/ex-Admin (and just about every other job around this joint)
Linear Mode
