Why do people reject Jesus Christ?

Emli

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I believe John 17:17 is saying this:

49 “For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.” (John 12:49-50).
That's a good point. He was pointing to the Father, and to sanctification.

Also:
"But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come." John 16:13
 
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Emli

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The biblical answer is that either they are unregenerate sheep, or they are goats. It’s not complicate.
It may not be complicated to you. But when the questions come, and God tends to put me in complicated situations, then it gets more complicated and I have to seek Him and His wisdom. And He wants us to live by His Word, not just parts of it.
 
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Emli

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I wouldn’t know. But God’s word was proclaimed.

You cannot argue someone into the Kingdom.
But was it proclaimed by the Spirit and by the power of God so it reached the hearts of the people who were listening?

Yes, we don't usually argue anyone into the Kingdom, though our discussions can definitely seem like arguments. But we destroy their arguments by using Truth led by the Spirit of God.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5.
"4. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

But that means that we first have to understand their arguments, and Truth, or else how do we tear down those strongholds? By saying to the unbeliever "you're unregenerate and a goat"? That's not gonna work.
 
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Zoii

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Because each human will find his own spirititual paradigm. Christians are a very prideful group. We disdain that any other group has found a spiritual pathway and ridicule their spiritual knowledge. We scorn them.

The truth is - the religion we chose is about where we were born and what religion our parents were for 95% of people. It has very little to do with being informed about Jesus or Allah or Brahma or God, or Buddha. Its where you were born.

So if you are born in Yemen, then you think Christians with their silly 'Jesus is the son of God who is actually himself, ' as ridiculous; and Jews will agree, but think the whole Mohammed thing is insane. We laugh at Hindus for their many God-like emanations of Brahma yet we have three Gods in one concept ourselves..... I could go on, but you get the picture.
 
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Hammster

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But was it proclaimed by the Spirit and by the power of God so it reached the hearts of the people who were listening?
If you read scripture, you’ll see that it’s not necessary.
 
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Hammster

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But that means that we first have to understand their arguments, and Truth, or else how do we tear down those strongholds? By saying to the unbeliever "you're unregenerate and a goat"? That's not gonna work.
I would never say that to s person. The discussion we are having is in-house. So let’s stick to the topic and not make this about what I wouldn’t say.
 
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Dave G.

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That sounds interesting. Is it available on their webpage? I like watching sermons online. How did it work out? Did God put some fire in your heart?
I just woke up and am on my way to work. 5 am. :expressionless:
You can watch all their most recent archived services and generally their live services as well. It's kind of amazing how it worked out actually, the evening service came up with an error and could not be loaded, so we watched the 11 am archived service ( it was live at 11 am but already archived by evening). That service spoke to me and brought hope to my heart about some things that have been floating around in the back of my mind lately. FWIW, on Sunday est they have 9 and 11 am services and 6:30 pm. Wed evening is a service at 7:30 est. But these are all archived so if not in that time zone you can get the recorded message. Also weekdays they have a 1 hour broadcast that can be seen and heard at their facebook page called Grace Hour. This is a devotional from scripture then they take calls or online messages and answer questions, respond to comments etc. They get a lot of the same callers but also calls from over seas missionaries too. I much prefer the live broadcasts because to me that is more Holy Spirit interactive for lack of a better term, but the archived messages run smoother in terms of electronics. And I find Grace Hour to generally be a blessing, it airs between 1-2pm est every week day except holidays.
 
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Dave L

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While that sounds good on the cover, unfortunately that is not how it works. While God does change our hearts and gives us new desires, He does not force us to do good unless we choose daily to obey Him and or surrender to Him. Another problem in those who say that we are saved by a "Belief Alone" and that God regenerates us to do good is that they really do not believe they can actually live holy in this life. They also believe that they sin on some level and they can still be saved because salvation does not depend upon works and or in doing good. But little do they realize that God's grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and that we should live righteously and godly in this present world. If I was zapped to be a slave to righteousness, then I couldn't learn or be able to be taught what God's grace does for me. God's grace teaches me to deny ungodliness. Teaching is something that is done by free will. But if I am a puppet or a drone, I cannot learn anything. I am a mindless robot that is just fulfilling it's programming.
“Now may the Lord direct your hearts toward the love of God and the endurance of Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 3:5)

“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12–13)

“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12–13)
 
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Emli

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I would never say that to s person. The discussion we are having is in-house. So let’s stick to the topic and not make this about what I wouldn’t say.
Once again, it's my topic. And I posted the thread to gain wisdom, not to limit myself to shallow thinking.

If you read scripture, you’ll see that it’s not necessary.
If you read Scripture, you will see that it's all about God and His power, His Glory, His work in us. We must preach the Gospel by the Spirit, as we must also walk by the Spirit. Or else it would be us and not God who is doing the work. That would reduce the Gospel to human doctrines. It's His Gospel and not ours.
 
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I agree with you. With all of what you wrote, except I am putting a lot more weight on the Spirit Himself. As I said, and as you said, the Bible is God-breathed.

I agree (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

You said:
And the Spirit is His breath through which He breathed His words to us.

I agree (2 Peter 1:21).

You said:
The Father created the Heavens and the Earth by His Word

I agree.

1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:1-3).

You said:
The Father created the Heavens and the Earth...by the Holy Spirit.

I agree.

"By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth." (Psalms 33:6).

"By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens;..." (Job 26:13).

You said:
And He gave us His written Word so we can get to know Him,

I agree.

"Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." (John 14:23).

"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." (John 15:10).

"And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." (1 John 2:3).

You said:
...because our entire existence is about Him.

I agree.

"For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring." (Acts of the Apostles 17:28).

"that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us," (Acts of the Apostles 17:27) (ESV).

You said:
But we have to remember not to but the Bible above God Himself, which many do.

This is where we may disagree, my dear sister.

It is not possible to put God's Word above God because God's Word (the Bible) are the very thoughts of God (and or the very heart felt words of love of God towards us). Every word (and even every number) in our Bible is for the express purpose of instructing us in His salvation and His good ways. Every word of it leads us to GOD. His love. The Bible is like a love letter.

Now, it is possible for a person to wrongfully put the Bible (contrary to what His Word says) above God in a way that He did not intend like turning the Bible into a magical object to be worshiped as if it has power of it's own outside of God. A person can bow down and or kiss the Bible as if it deserves glory separate from God. This would be wrong. They can treat the Bible as an entity and yet ignore the existence of God. That would be weird. This would be like a woman who received a love letter from her fiancé and all of a sudden she snaps (mentally) and she starts to treat the love letter as if it was a person. She could take the letter out on dinner dates, kiss it, and talk to the letter as if it was her fiancé (While ignoring her fiancé). That would be weird. There are some people who are close to doing this. I have seen pics of those who kissed the Bible before. I don't think they fully understand the Word on a spiritual level if they were to do this. So in a way I guess that is a person putting the Bible above God (But they are doing so at the expense of what the Bible actually says, though). If a person were to truly surrender to what their Bible says, they will never treat the Bible as an idol object to be worshiped by kissing it or bowing down before it.

On the other hand, we have to be careful here in talking about the importance of the Bible because it can make people think God's Word (the Bible) is not important for our lives at all (or should play second fiddle in our lives). However, nothing could be further from the truth because we have to apply God's Word to our life. It is how we get our faith. The Bible is essential to our knowing God and in our knowing how to please Him. There are some I am even arguing with now that says that we should not regard God's Word as important as following what they claim to be God. They attack God's Word by de-emphasizing it's importance in favor of their version of God (who moves in their life) that is contrary (in some way) to the GOD described in the Bible.

I'm thinking about Jesus in the wilderness, as He was tempted. The devil took verses out of context, but Jesus countered it by saying "it is written..." and then He spoke verses that were not taken out of context, but had a lot more understanding about God's nature, and about sin and righteousness,

I believe sin is what gets in the way of the soul's understanding (Whether you be a human or an angel). Sin is like a disease that clouds a person's mind when reading the Bible. God seals up the book of it's understanding fully for certain specific souls who read the Bible (like evil spirits, or those who have committed an unforgivable sin); Otherwise, God is calling by His Word all men to repentance, when they read His Word. He is there in His Word trying to tug at their hearts by His spiritual and divine message (the Bible). They may try to suppress it in some instances because of their sin, and or sinful doctrines, but God is there with His Word (the Bible) who is trying to call out to their hearts. Knocking on the door of their heart with His Holy words (the Bible).

That is why we must seek understanding and wisdom, and diligently study the Scriptures. We have to live by every word that comes from the mouth of God, and not just some of them. Led by the Spirit, so we can sure that we are listening to Him and not to our own minds or to the devil. That is the point I am making, and trust me, I'm not telling anyone not to read the Bible, in fact I am trying to tell everyone to read the Bible a lot more. I'm just saying that there is a lot more to it than just quoting a few verses which a lot of people do.

I am glad to hear it. I have run into folks who seem like they are attacking the Bible. This is happening to me in another thread. They are placing more of an importance on their version of God over what the Bible actually says. I am glad you are saying you are not doing that.

However, my deep concern was with your statement that said "There is no life in the Bible." That statement deeply troubles me because it is untrue. It is speaking against the faith by saying that. That statement to me is an oxymoron because God always abides with His Word. He may seal up it's understanding to those entities who are evil or to those souls who have corrupted themselves beyond forgiveness, but God is always abides by His Word. For some it is a closed book because of their sin. For others, who seek the truth with a pure heart, it is an open book. But I do not feel it is right to say there is no life in the Bible. It is a spiritual book that God always abides by.

I believe there is life in the Bible because God always abides by His Word.
 
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Hammster

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Once again, it's my topic. And I posted the thread to gain wisdom, not to limit myself to shallow thinking.


If you read Scripture, you will see that it's all about God and His power, His Glory, His work in us. We must preach the Gospel by the Spirit, as we must also walk by the Spirit. Or else it would be us and not God who is doing the work. That would reduce the Gospel to human doctrines. It's His Gospel and not ours.
I believe (and Scripture affirms) that the effectiveness of the preaching is not dependent upon the spirituality of the person preaching. It’s dependent upon the Holy Spirit.
 
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“Now may the Lord direct your hearts toward the love of God and the endurance of Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 3:5)

“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12–13)

“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12–13)

I am sorry. This simply is not a reality for those who say they can sin and still be saved on some level or with a gospel message that says you are forgiven no matter what you do if you have a belief on Jesus. For such a message can be misleading to some and they can sin to the extreme by thinking Jesus paid the price for all their sins. For in other instances, some individuals who use these verses are quick to bring up 1 John 1:8 and or Romans 3:23 (at other times) and say they will always sin in some way. So the above passages cannot be true for this individual who proposes a sin and still be saved type belief because they are not really obeying if they are also saying they are also sinning, too.
 
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Dave L

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I am sorry. This simply is not a reality for those who say they can sin and still be saved on some level or with a gospel message that says you are forgiven no matter what you do if you have a belief on Jesus. For such a message can be misleading to some and they can sin to the extreme by thinking Jesus paid the price for all their sins. For in other instances, some individuals who use these verses are quick to bring up 1 John 1:8 and or Romans 3:23 (at other times) and say they will always sin in some way. So the above passages cannot be true for this individual because they are not really obeying if they are also saying they are sinning, too.
If God works in us to will, he decides for us.
 
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That's a good point. He was pointing to the Father, and to sanctification.

Also:
"But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come." John 16:13

I believe the Spirit can talk to us and put words in our mouth to speak, but I believe this was said primarily as a part of the followers of Christ in writing Scripture.
 
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RaymondG

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Im still little confused as to how discussing the downfalls of others can help them, or help God help them.

How will talking about the sickness of the sick, better prepare God to heal them? How does talking about the reason others are poor, help God make them rich? How does discussing the reasons one is in bondage, help God lose them from bondage? How does talking about why others turned away from God, help them turn back.......

And how will the world look at me, when they see me talking to others, who i believe have made it, about the reasons others haven't? e.g...When they see me talking about the sinners over there?

I know we arent supposed to care how the world views us....but we also shouldnt let our good be evil spoken of..... Im trying to see the good in this....Can someone point me in the right direction..so I, too, can start to feel comfortable talking about the misfortunes of others...
 
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Im still little confused as to how discussing the downfalls of others can help them, or help God help them.

How will talking about the sickness of the sick, better prepare God to heal them? How does talking about the reason others are poor, help God make them rich? How does discussing the reasons one is in bondage, help God lose them from bondage? How does talking about why others turned away from God, help them turn back.......

And how will the world look at me, when they see me talking to others, who i believe have made it, about the reasons others haven't? e.g...When they see me talking about the sinners over their?

I know we arent supposed to care how the world views us....but we also shouldnt let our good be evil spoken of..... Im trying to see the good in this....Can someone point me in the right direction..so I, too, can start to feel comfortable talking about the misfortunes of others...

What you say is a little vague. Could you clarify exactly to what misfortunes of others that believers here are speaking wrongfully about?
 
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And he never fails.

Some would understand this as that a person will live holy after they are dead. But the Scriptures do not teach that we can only live holy after we die.
 
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Dave L

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Some would understand this as that a person will live holy after they are dead. But the Scriptures do not teach that we can only live holy after we die.
“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:” (Hebrews 12:14)
 
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