Saint,
If you've been invested, over time, on any Christian Forum, then you have come to the realization, that about 30% of the people who use a Christian Forum are sincere, and sincerely interested in learning more, growing more, and want to use a Christian Forum, for these reasons. But then, you have the other 70% who live on these forums, with no desire to learn, but only a desire to fight, create chaos, and if possible, create confusion within someone else's belief system, regarding their Salvation.
And the worst of these offenders, are Legalists. And you need to protect yourself from their poisonous heretical bible twisting mania, as it can infect you, and truly harm your walk with the Lord , and more.
Lets get to it.
So,... Your New Testament explains that you are to "Discern", .. And this is related to life situations, personal desire, purpose in life, but it also means you are to do it with other people and certainly with other Christians.
The scripture that supports this is : 1 Corinthians 2:15.
Saint, being able to discern will keep you safe in life, and will keep you from being led into dark theology that many on a Christian forum would have you believe, to your hurt.
Now, how do you discern if a person is a Legalist? Well, here are the classic signs.....
First, this heretic will live and obsess on the Old Testament, and also on only 3 books in the new Testament.
1. Hebrews Chapters 4...6....10.
2. James
3. Matthew
Next, this heretic will try to convince you that you can Lose your Salvation. They will be found on a Christian forum, or anywhere, trying to do this to other believers.
They will start Threads, they will endlessly rant and post, always using the Old Testament, James, Hebrews, and Matthew.
Pay attention to this.
You'll begin to discern it.
Next, they will always talk about works, commandments, enduring to the end, dead faith, holding onto your faith, and never will they be able to deal with Pauline Theology, or believe that Salvation is completed.
They will never accept Grace without the condition of WORKS being added to it, to "keep you saved".
"Yes, i know that Jesus shed His blood to save us....BUT, here is the rest of the commandments, enduring to the end, holding unto your faith, confessing your sins.....that you must DO< to STAY SAVED">..
Discern this Saint, as you will be hearing all about it, very soon.
Now keep in mind that the Legalist, does not believe that God & Christ will KEEP THEM SAVED.....so, their entire Christianity is a bitter, joyless, self effort to do it for themselves, and this is why they are endlessly trying to convince you that you need to be doing it also.
They believe that you can lose your salvation, because they find it impossible to TRUST that God and Christ, will keep them Saved.
They read Philippians 1:6, that explains that God started their salvation IN THEM< and will complete it.....and they refuse to accept this, as they are convinced that they need to keep themselves saved, = "Self- Righteousness".
They read Hebrews 12:2, that says that Jesus started their Faith and will complete/perfect it, and they refuse to accept this, and instead will try to keep themselves saved by "holding unto their faith".
Understand, that Faith does not save you.. but rather God SAVES YOU thru your faith.
Faith is not the Savior.....The Savior is Christ on the Cross.
Faith does not save you, but rather God giving you His righteousness, and HAS, if you are born again, makes you acceptable to Him, is what is saving you, right this very second.
So, i mention that you are to discern any teacher, and the best way to discern them, is to find out what they believe about Salvation, and in fact, if they even understand it.
Consider that if a person does not understand God's Grace, (Salvation), then how can they understand anything else in a New Testament.
As obviously, if you dont understand Grace, The Atonement, Justification by Faith, then how can you understand anything else that matters, regarding the New Testament, and "sound doctrine"?
Our New Testament, tells us to "establish our Hearts, with Grace"...Hebrews 13:9
This means to nail down, what Paul has taught us as "sound doctrine" regarding "Justification by Faith", so that you are not led astray by heretics.
Rest assured that if you are ever going to grow in Grace, and receive more revelation and New Testament understanding, then you have to study, not read, but study, Paul's epistles.
And not just a little bit....
As this Apostle, is the only one that Jesus chose to personally give to you what you know that is "Church Doctrine"
Everything that a real student of the word needs to know, that matters, that is the "main thing", "sound doctrine" "church doctrine" ...= you will find and discover by studying the words of Paul.
Paul is the only apostle who told you to "be a follower of ME, as I follow Christ"... 1 Corinthians 11:1
IN 2nd Peter, Peter says that Paul's letters are "scripture", and equal to the Torah. (OT).
Imagine an apostle saying that another apostles letters are equal to SCRIPTURE, the word of GOD. But that is he wrote, as that is a fact.
This is why most of our NT< is composed by Paul.
So, this is one more way for you to discern a Christian's soundness, and accuracy, and truthfulness, regarding what they believe. Notice if they are of the understanding that Paul's Theology, and His Epistles matter most to the believer, regarding understanding what God wants you to know, ...."sound doctrine"..."church doctrine".
Legalists, have a spiritual blindness toward's Paul. They will twist one or 2 verses of his verses to try to teach you that you can lose it....but, they have no grounding in his Theology, are not familiar with his letters, and will never be, as Paul is the one that explains in Galatians 1:8 that they and their theology, are "cursed of God". And Saint, when you run into one of these, and they are foaming at the mouth to try to get you to doubt your eternal security, and they are only too happy to TRY to convince you that you can lose you salvation.....you remember what i have told you in my 3 Legalism Threads, and you can discern these heretics and protect yourself and your family.
Now, its a good idea if you discern me.
You should try.
See, i have no fear of this, and welcome your examination.
Here is what i do......I give God and Christ full credit for saving me and keeping me saved.
I give them full credit for Salvation.
I would not dare pretend that i can save myself or keep myself saved by my works, or anything that i can ever do, such as keeping laws, confessing sin, or keeping commandments, or enduring to the end, or any of this phony baloney, self righteousness.
I know who the Savior is, and its not ME.
I would never try to talk you out of your salvation, or cause you to have doubts about your salvation being completed, "in Christ".
I would never have you living your Christian life, in fear, worried that you might go to hell if you don't do certain things and maintain a certain lifestyle.
See, God didnt save you because of what you would or would not do LATER, after you are SAVED....He only saved you and keeps you saved because of what Jesus the Christ did for you on a Cross that has Redeemed you, for eternity.
Thats IT.
Bottom LINE.
So, now, also discern my understanding of Salvation, as i explain it simply.
The issue is RIGHTEOUSNESS.
We dont have any, of ourselves, ours is "filthy rags" according to Paul and the book of Romans,.....and this condition that we are born into, is called...."LOST".
"Lost", means, in Christian Terms, that our unholiness has created a disconnect and a division between us and Holy GOD.
So, to solve this disconnect, and to build an eternal bridge between Himself and us, He offers a means, whereby we can have His very Righteous, for ourselves.
And this Righteousness, is "Christ's righteousness".
Without it, we are lost and bound for hell.
But with it, we are delivered from Eternal Judgment , = hell = Lake of Fire.
So, God wrapped Himself in Human flesh, was born of a Virgin, and Jesus as God and fully man, was manifested in the flesh to save us. 1 Timothy 3:16
"Save us", means, God as Christ lived a holy life AS A MAN, sinless, which resolved the issue of the Law, that was judging us as unrighteous and lost.
On the Cross, shedding His Blood, ...God as Jesus the Christ, bore our sin's and removed the law from its capacity to judge us in eternity.
Christ rejectors will face God as Judge, and the Born Again, meet God as their FATHER..."abba".
God then, (as we hear the Gospel and believe in Christ), takes our sin and lets Christ die for it, and He takes Christ's righteousness, and imparts it to us, gives it to us, so that we become Born again, new creatures, and have now the very Righteousness of Christ, as OUR Righteousness.
And from that moment, (born again) God never again imputs our sins to us....Romans 4:8, and we are "accepted in the beloved", we are family members, for eternity, and nothing can change this, because its all provided for us, and given to us, and kept for us for FREE.
Philippians 1:6
blessings,
DW