Originally posted by DaveKerwin
Who says your stipulations are the only possibilities?
What are the other possibilities that you seem to think are so apparent then Dave? What, it was a teamwork thing?
Jesus saved me, I did not save myself. He stood at the door and knocked. I needed to open to door. Which I did.
This is past the point of getting nowhere. Look at your own words Dave. Is His knock the reason you are saved, or is it you answering that is the reason? Or are there a bunch of other possibilities to this statement too?
It was not my own work that saved me, it was my recognition of my need. It was my recognition of my need.
HELLO!! Don't you even see that when you say it was "your anything" that saved you you're giving the credit to what you did? Look at this statement, "
It was not my own work that saved me,
IT WAS MY RECOGNITION of my need." I don't think it could be any clearer who you credit with the reason
you are saved. If you don't see this, just ask yourself one little question. "Was I saved
before I did anything?" If you say no, then it's quite obvious where you place the credit for you receiving your salvation.
On the contrary, this is where YOU are wrong. I take the emphasis OFF OF myself, and on to Christ, the one who did what I could not do !!
Please,...clear it up then. Apart from your actions (which, by the way, includes you recognizing something and then acting on it), what exactly did
JESUS ALONE secure for you? Are you saved
because He died and rose again, or, are you saved because
you "accepted" His sacrifice? It should become very clear who is responsible
for YOUR salvation.
He has not made us for the specific purpose of going to hell to be away form him. He made us so we could be with him.
Yes, that is why He made those He saves. That is not why He made those He did not select to save:
Romans 9:17
For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, "
For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth."
What purpose did He raise Pharaoh up? So that He could show the world that the most powerful man in the world was but an insignificant flea that was subject to the Will of the Creator,
DESPITE PHARAOH'S OWN WILL, which you claim is "free."
Romans 9:21
Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump
to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
Does it seem like God has the same plan in mind for all of His creation? One for honor, and
ONE FOR DISHONOR. What exactly do you think that dishonor is, Dave? It's eternal condemnation.
Romans 9:22-24
What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,<SUP> </SUP>and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the
vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,<SUP> </SUP>even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
Hmmm...so we have vessels of wrath prepared for destruction and vessels of mercy prepared for glory. Hmmm...seems pretty clear that He makes some for the purpose of destruction and dishonor.
If this is what you have to resort to, then post somewhere else. Seriously.
Seriously? You don't mean "seriously," do you? Oh my gosh! Seriously. Sorry if you don't like to hear an opposing viewpoint. Would it be better if I qualified my statements with "coughSarcasmcough?" Would that make them sound more acceptable? I got an idea...
Matthew 7:3
And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not
consider the plank in your own eye?
If you equate "believing" with "something", then fine, I`ll play your word game.
It's not a word game Dave. Is believing something you do? Are the things you do a work?