Could be
LOL
I'm answering one paragraph or more at a time.
Hmmmm. I always thought that the wheat and tares were the saved and the unsaved of mankind, not that they were both in the Church, though some unsaved believe they are saved. As far as your last sentence here, the unsaved lovers of sin
inside the Church are no different than unsaved heathens, and both are tares, and do not resemble the wheat at all.
Me- There is a difference between someone who loves their sin and refuses to give it up, and someone who finds themselves in Romans 7, doing what they hate and unable to do what they long to do.
We must be careful not to be too quick to assume all who are caught in the grip of sin must be unsaved. I believe many are simply sheep who have been led into pastures that have left them weak. Think for a minute. Have the sheep been taught HOW to overcome sin? HOW to bring every thought unto the obedience of Christ? Sadly, that is our great lack and what is about to be addressed by God Himself.
Truthfully, right now it is almost impossible to differentiate the wheat from the tares inside the church. But all will be awakened. Yet only the wheat shall respond and light their lamps.
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I'm really not clear on where you find this in scripture. Can you show me. Many are talking about this, but I don't know where they are getting this before the second coming and the Millennium. What I've believed is this 'eye-opening' will be the last seven years when the partial blindness of national Jews will happen, and all Israel will be saved. Romans 11. But the beginning of that point will be the end of any further Gentiles coming into the Church. Any Gentiles that haven't believed will have a strong delusion placed on them by God. 2 Thes. 2:9-12. It will be time for the rest of the living Jews to come into the Church. Unlike some who also see the last seven years are for the Jews, I see One Church, not a Gentile Church that gets raptured at the beginning of the last seven years (or 3 1/2), then a Jewish Church. I'm not pre-trib.
Me- The main scriptures are in the parables and the old testament. The parable of the 10 virgins is critical in our understanding. Until we "get" what 'lighting our lamp' is, it is an easily overlooked part of scripture.
The early and latter rains are important as well. Pentecost was the early rain, followed by 1900 years of dry weather, with but a few intermittent showers to keep the crop alive. Ahhh, but the harvest is coming! When many in the church are called to ready themselves, they will be too busy with the affairs of this life and prove in tbe end that they were tares. But at the same time, a huge harvest of the lost who are the weak, the poor, the lame, the homeless, the addicts and the prostitutes will respond to the truth that sets them free indeed. We will have come full circle, for in Jesus' day, the religious loved their life, and Jesus found the outcasts of this life far more responsive to His message. And so shall it be again.
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I don't know how you could miss a new nature if you've been given one. It is not by faith in the unseen. You
KNOW it! It changes you immediately. Yes, there is still growing the fruit of the Spirit to maturity, and mistakes will be made, but you've been given power over willful sins of lawlessness, and never have any desire to commit them, 1 John 3:9. That is why I see the "unfortunate" as ignorant of how to become truly saved in the first place, that it takes
repentance of all sin, knowing that there is no way for you to be good on your own (the Romans 7 experience), and ask Jesus to cleanse you of all desire to sin so you can live righteously, and be free indeed. John 8:34-36. In the meantime, the unsaved inside the Church are learning, and the Spirit could be drawing them to full repentance where victory awaits.
Me- What? LOL? Do you realize how many there are of the elect of God who are still laboring under the schoolmaster.... self effort and the law? They were given new natures the day they were saved. Their old flesh was dead from day one. But they have yet to learn that faith is what makes these two truths real. This is what we as a whole are being awakened to!
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Again, I'd like to see scripturally when this happens.
Yes, I believe the falling away will be from inside the Church, but I'm not sure they were ever filled with the Holy Spirit and belonged to Christ (Romans 8:9) in the first place. At least, I could never imagine falling away, but don't know if all Spirit-filled believers will endure to the end, or some could someday fall away. As we see in Revelation 2 and 3, even the Laodecians are called a "church" but Jesus is on the outside of the door knocking. That is an unsaved church.
Me- The Laocedian church was most definitely in dire straights and in danger of not making Heaven their home. Enduring to the end is proof that we are the elect. In the parable of the sower, on some ground, the seed fell and sprouted. It was good seed. It sprang to real life. But for one of several reasons, it did not endure to the end and produce fruit.
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Just so you know, not many people agree with my beliefs, even in Pentecostal circles. My beliefs may be a little extreme for some, but that's what I see in the Word, and will go with it, until someone can show me differently.
Don't forget, I want to see more scripture on this upcoming (or already started) spiritual awakening that some are calling, the glory.
Me- The best scripture as to our awakening is found in Ezekiel 36. This is when the heathen will know that He is the Lord when He shall be sanctified in us before their very eyes. This occurred in the book of Acts and will again during the harvest.
I believe there are multitudes outside of the organized church right now who are part of the elect, Rhey simply have not seen Christ in the lives of Christians and who can blame them for not wanting what we are selling? All rhat is about to change, and in the end, just as Ezekiel 36 tells us, men will exclaim "Look! That which bore only briars and thorns has become again like the garden of Eden!
Glory! Hope this helps a bit.
Gideon
God bless,
lady