These verses are of no use in your argument. You are taking them completely out of context and misapplying them elsewhere.John 15(16): YOU HAVE NOT CHOSEN ME but I have chosen you : Christ speaking .
Matt15 was spoken directly to the disciples at the last supper, and them only.
He was not talking about calling unbelievers to salvation, but calling Godfearing Jews into service as his disciples and apostles.
You are the one who has issued a "blanket statement" by insisting that all verses have equal application to all believers, even when the context specifies who is being addressed.See, I have a problem with "blanket" statements like that.
Absolutely agree.I remember reading somewhere in scripture that "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:"
Absolute nonsense. I never said that, so please don't put words in my mouth.If we take "spoken directly to the disciples...and them only" as the standard, then absolutely nothing in the Old Testament should ever be taught in any church.
Silly straw man argument with no connection to what I said.Why? Because the OT scriptures was addressed to the Hebrews and them only!
Silly, did you read anything I said?And, if you want to go so far as "spoken directly to...and them only." We have no recourse than to throw out the entire NT as well. Why?
Try addressing what I said, rather than introducing your own points and then heroically shooting them down in flames.To whom was Paul's epistle to the Romans addressed? Is there any of that audience alive today? No?
Another heroic straw man argument. Pray show me where I said anything remotely like this.I wish I could count on my fingers and toes the times some well intending group has told me that the promise of the coming "Comforter" in Jn. 16, does not apply to Gentiles since Jesus was addressing "the disciples...and them only".
Apart from empty waffle and straw man arguments, you have presented absolutely nothing that refutes my post. On the other hand, you have exposed yourself as not understanding the significance of scriptural context.I am sorry, but I simply cannot, and will not accept the theory that Jesus was addressed "the disciples...and them only". As an axiom.
You are the one who has issued a "blanket statement" by insisting that all verses have equal application to all believers, even when the context specifies who is being addressed.
Absolutely agree.
Absolute nonsense. I never said that, so please don't put words in my mouth.
Silly straw man argument with no connection to what I said.
Silly, did you read anything I said?
Try addressing what I said, rather than introducing your own points and then heroically shooting them down in flames.
Another heroic straw man argument. Pray show me where I said anything remotely like this.
Apart from empty waffle and straw man arguments, you have presented absolutely nothing that refutes my post. On the other hand, you have exposed yourself as not understanding the significance of scriptural context.
You have a serious problem here because your argument produces laughable results.
Acts16v9During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
By your direct argument, every Christian should go to Macedonia with the gospel!
Jonah1v1The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2“Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
So have you been to Nineveh, and if not why not because scripture surely commands that of you. Or are you like Jonah running the other way? I suggest you watch out for the big fish. lol
Was the word to marry Mary given to Joseph alone, or to all Christian men.
Was the word that she would give birth to the Messiah given to Mary, or all Christian women?
Etc etc.
This is being no more silly than your post. You and I know that we have to check the context to understand the true meaning of a scripture.
The 12 were called to a specific purpose whilst Jesus walked his ministry, but even then there were differences between them. (Ignoring the extreme difference that Judas presented).
John21v20Having turned, Peter sees the disciple whom Jesus loved following, the one who also had reclined on His bosom at the supper and said, “Lord, who is it who is betraying You?” 21Therefore having seen him, Peter says to Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man?”
22Jesus says to him, “If I desire him to remain until I come, what is it to you? You follow Me!”
Like Peter, as we grow daily in our salvation, we each need to follow the calling that the Lord reveals to us individually. Only a fool would chase someone else's calling.
spoken directly to the disciples...and them only.
Matt15 was spoken directly to the disciples at the last supper, and them only.
spoken directly to the disciples...and them only.
Pray show me where I said anything remotely like this.
By your direct argument, every Christian should go to Macedonia with the gospel!
On the other hand, you have exposed yourself as not understanding the significance of scriptural context.
You have a serious problem here because your argument produces laughable results.
Deu 30:19
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
God did not try to tempt Adam (mankind) by giving Adam the power of choice. The only way we can love God is through the power of free will choice. With the option to choose between obedience or disobedience to God's will, man now has the capability to love God. God gave Adam the tremendous opportunity to offer love, from his heart, to God. Upon man receiving free will toward the command of God, now, not only does God love man, but man can fulfill his purpose in life and love God in return.
1 John 5:3
For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome,
John 14:15
If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
If there is a way to bring love for God into existence without free will, then why did our loving God allow free will? Murder, the holocaust, abortion, all atrocities, death and damnation all flow out from man's free will. God initiated man's free will and God can end man's free will at any time. If there is a way to love God without putting man in danger of damnation, why did our loving God put man in danger of damnation by allowing him free will?
God cannot force love for God into existence through His Immense Power. Love, by its very nature, must be freely given from one being to another. Love for God emanates through the power of free willed human choices to obey God. The only thing in the universe worth allowing hatred, sin and damnation for, is Love! God allows human free willed hatred in order to make human free willed love for God possible.
Free from the will of God, obedience to the will of God, is love for God. The Ten Commandments are God's instructions on how love for God is accomplished. The reason God does not force men to act as He commands is so that man can love God through choosing to do as God commands. Free will toward the commandments of God gives us the tremendous opportunity to love God.
Deuteronomy 11:1
Love the LORD, your God, therefore, and always heed his charge: his statutes, decrees and commandments."
Romans 13:10
Love never wrongs the neighbor, hence love is the fulfillment of the law.
John 14:23
Jesus answered and said to him, "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.
John 15:9
"As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Live on in my love. You will live in my love if you keep my commandments, even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and live in his love. All this I tell you that my joy may be yours and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you."
1 John 2:5
But whoever keeps his word, truly has the love of God been made perfect in him. The way we can be sure we are in union with him is for the man who claims to abide in him to conduct himself just as he did.
2 John 1:5
But now, my Lady, I would make this request of you (not as if I were writing you some new commandment; rather, it is a commandment we have had from the start): let us love one another. This love involves our walking according to the commandments, and as you have heard from the beginning, the commandment is the way in which you should walk.
1 John 3:23
His commandment is this: we are to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and are to love one another as he commanded us.
Deuteronomy 11:22
"For if you are careful to observe all these commandments I enjoin on you, loving the LORD, your God, and following his ways exactly, and holding fast to him, . . . . "
John 15:22
"If I had not come to them and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; now, however, their sin cannot be excused. To hate me is to hate my Father. Had I not performed such works among them as no one has ever done before, they would not be guilty of sin; but as it is, they have seen, and they go on hating me and my Father."
Luke 10:25
On one occasion a lawyer stood up to pose him this problem: "Teacher, what must I do to inherit everlasting life?" Jesus answered him: "What is written in the law? How do you read it?" He replied:
"You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your strength,
and with all your mind;
and your neighbor as yourself."
Jesus said, "You have answered correctly. Do this and you shall live."
Sirach 28:7
Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbor;
Deuteronomy 5:6
'I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me. You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or worship them. For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishments for their fathers' wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation but bestowing mercy, down to the thousandth generation, on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Matthew 19:16
"Teacher, what good must I do to possess everlasting life?" He answered, "Why do you question me about what is good? There is One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments." "Which ones?" he asked. Jesus replied "You shall not kill"; 'You shall not commit adultery'; 'You shall not steal'; 'You shall not bear false witness'; 'Honor your father and mother'; and 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
Quoted from: Choices of the Heart
So they either do God's will or they die...you call that freewill? If they had freewill they would say "Ok God, we will NOT obey Thee O Lord, but we refuse to die...."
Murder, stealing, adultery, holocaust etc comes from freewill?
No they come from wills that are as the bible teaches enslaved by Satan.
Hello Billy,
Do you reject Jesus teaching on the sheep and the goats, as to how it will be on Judgement Day?
Matthew 25:31
"And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.'...
...Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.'...
...'Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.' And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
I understand it differently...you see the sheep as Christians and the goats as non-Christians but a thoughtful reading of it will show that this cannot be so.
Do YOU accept that you do not fulfil the law "thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and all thy soul and all thy mind"
According to your "gospel" then you cannot be saved.
I am saying that we are saved from this judgement altogether. We are saved because we are sinners, Jesus only saves sinners. For those that believe, Jesus was judged for us, condemned for us and fulfilled the law for us...He died thus fulfilling on our behalf, the law "the soul that sinneth it shall die"
We are saved because we are sinners, not because we love God...you are not answering my question
I'm answering YOUR questions why are you not answering mine?