Christian Forums

Prior to God's saving you, were you a goat, and then God turned you into a sheep, or were you always a sheep, and then came into His fold?

The most important thing in the world happens one hour per week (every week!). On Sunday morning sometime between 9am-12pm GOD SPEAKS to his creation. Through the instrumentality of sinful, frail, yet sanctified and ordained men God does this. As these feeble servants ascend the pulpit, open the word of God, read it, and explain it, Jesus Christ himself speaks to his people and to his world. He declares his gospel and his kingdom and commands all people everywhere to repent. He strengthens the weak, seeks the lost, heals the broken, humbles the proud, and gives grace to the humble. He judges between brothers and administers justice.

Woe to all who despise the words of the living God! Blessed are all who draw near to hear his voice! All...

A simple question, perhaps, but let's take a closer look. First of all, I am not going to dispute the excesses and injustices that SOME Roman Catholics visited upon other people. This is NOT a forum on the Inquisition or the Crusades. Here, we are only speaking of Authority.

With that in mind, Luther was a Roman Catholic, Augustinian priest-monk. His ordination gave him the authority to do certain things. Celebrate the Mass, hear confessions, anoint the sick, and so on. He was also held a position as Theology Professor at the Wittenberg University 'Leucorea'. He gave lectures over the Psalms (1514-15), Letter to the Romans (1515-16), Letter to the Galatians (1516-17), and Letter to the Hebrews (1517-18). Here he obviously had the...

My daughter's boyfriend cheated on her and lied to her. They broke up, he begged for forgiveness and for her to extend grace. They are both Christian and regularly read their bibles and attend church. He is in a Christian band and is gone several weekends throughout the year.
It has been about 3 to 4 months and my daughters' heart has softened. He has pledged to never go back to his old ways and build a better relationship with him and God. He asked her to read a book about forgiveness and extending grace and after reading it she feels convicted to take him back.
My wife and I, including family and friends have never felt good about their relationship. There were too many red flags. We feel our daughters' heart is taking over and not...

Do Your Best, and Jesus Makes Up For the Rest

Does the above sentence accurately describe how a person is made right with God, i.e., justified. Does our standing before God work in this way?

Have you ever suffered a Spiritual Paralysis? A time when you could not pray?

Forgive me...

#1 i do not choose to believe in annihilation because i WANT it to be true. If that were the case I would choose universal salvation. Also if that were the case I would not have gone many years believing in eternal punishment as being true.

#2 how sweet it is to be able to simply point to a lecture that can describe why I believe it much better than I'd be able to articulate it!! Not to mention that substituting an hour long lecture with writing would be one incredibly LONG post...
I like what he says in the beginning, he tells the audience please don't even make a decision tonight, just chew on the alternative viewpoint that you've probably never heard before.

EDIT...let me add something that will make it more intriguing to wanna...

Lately, the sheer number of posts which explicitly and implicitly state that Jesus saves only those who keep the law has been astounding. Most of those claiming such don't claim moral perfection, but quite frankly, I would have less of a problem with them if they did, because there is no such animal as imperfect obedience.

Does God accept "imperfect obedience"?

Does Christ save only those who obey the law?

Your thoughts?

I understand that our relationship with God is secure and unchanging as it is based on the cross

I understand that our fellowship with God is dependant on obedience, prayer, bible reading/study

I also understand that inevitably we sin every day. The bible says that God cant be in the presence of sin, or look upon sin, so I imagine that when I sin, Gods presence flees from me and it takes weeks to restore the fellowship, or is it just my conscience that fools me into thinking he has abandoned me? probably the latter

anyway.

lets imagine someone has a relatively stable fellowship with God, but also has a weakness in the area of sexual immorality...lets imagine they find themselves in a compromising position with a female and end up...