Well it is simple, that is why we must trust God and not man when it comes to his word. God has given his people the Holy Spirit for a reason in which we should NOT abandoned it.
Stop there, wait a minute, hold up. Who is trusting man rather than God when it comes to his word? I will tell you who, every liberal neo calling themselves a "Christian" whom deny Biblical inerrancy. On the other hand, God used His chosen men to pen the Bible. Do we not trust the writers of Scripture because they were men? Of course not. How can anyone claiming to be a Christian, under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, be trusting man? I agree we must trust God, and not man, nor fear what man can do, but fear Him who can destroy body and soul. I agree God has given His people the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, but I disagree with the second part where your theological presupposition comes into play where you assume the elect in Christ can abandon the Holy Spirit....that is not biblical, that is your interpretation, and it is not correct. Why would a saved person, abandon the Holy Spirit, when it was God who sealed them with the Spirit in the first place, did God make a mistake, that He should save, only to allow them to unsave theirselves?
The Holy Spirit is a comforter, teacher, and a counselor. It gives me visions, revelations, and words of wisdom in my sleep while I am put under a deep sleep/trance by God. I have seen Jesus and heard God speak, so they do exist, but many professing Christians and many other religions do not even know that they are here right now in the heavens watching us due to unbelief.
"It"? The Holy Spirit is a person. You have seen Jesus? Am I mistaken or are you suggesting you've heard the audible voice of God? In a dream or? That's interesting how in your mind, the existence of God seems to be dependent upon your subjective personal experiences. Well, you're not alone, many if not most people's beliefs come from touchy feely subjective personal experiences. Here is my position, God exists whether or not you or I have any experience of Him at all. He exists because of the impossibility of the contrary, His existence is necessary, everything is dependent on His existence. I have past personal experiences, but my belief in God, is not totally dependent upon personal experience. People from all different religions have personal experiences, true or not, they're real to them. The false prophet Joseph Smith claimed to have visions, etc. which is not to say there is not a real vision, but that there are more counterfeits than genuine.
These are one of the things that I have witnessed. I have experience the Holy Spirit coming upon me like a dove just as Jesus had experienced. This very proof and even other proofs have proven to me that the bible is legit and truth.
It is a personal proof, everyone has not had the same experiences, nor every Christian. There is evidence of God's existence all around us. However neither personal nor external evidences prove the Bible is true. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. We start with faith in Christ, not evidence or proofs. Christianity is our most basic presupposition, and the reason we are Christians, is because of the monergistic work of the Holy Spirit, where God so graciously granted us the gift of saving faith in Christ. Try using your proofs to convince someone from another religion, you will learn what I am trying to convey.
I rely on my bible and visions. I don't rely on church congregations or teachers to teach me who claim to know it all.
I've never met a Christian who claimed to know it all, and personally, I sometimes feel as dumb as an ox. I am really slow to learn, and I know I am as stubborn as a mule. I commend you on one hand, that you're so dependent on the Bible....certainly the Bible is the Protestant rule of faith, or summed up in latin "Sola Scriptura". The Bible should be every Christians, final say so. Christians should be a "people of the book". What worries me though, is your....emphasis on visions...or the weight you give them. I will not judge, whether they be real or not, whether they come from God or not. Maybe they are real, I would like to hope, and if they are, what a wonderful gift, or maybe not. I would urge you to take time to study in the field of Christian apologetics, and if you really get down to it, I would suggest that the Biblical method and approach, for defending the faith, is called "presuppositionalism", and the particular type of presuppositionalism is sometimes called "Van Tillian" but also "biblical presuppositionalism" and "revelational epistemology". I am sorry to use wordy terminology, but it saves loads of time and space.
Now so far as relying on Church congregations or teachers to teach you, well this may come as a surprise, but I mostly agree. Personally, I have learned more about Christianity outside of Church walls than inside. A born again person with the God given desire will likely learn more from personal Bible study, than from a local Church (at least in the area where I live), and there is more freedom and less influence in reading and interpreting the Bible for oneself. However, it can also be extremely difficult to understand Scripture without a foundation or framework, and as I mentioned previously the dangers of learning on a desert island. I propose a compromise, where you do not rely on, but at the same time keep an open enough mind to learn from, and humble enough to be corrected because we are all prone to error, Christian or otherwise.
People should not need to rely on going to church to know the truth. God/The prophets/Jesus/Paul never mentioned in the bible that we have to attend a church in order to make it into the Kingdom of God/heaven.
I absolutely agree....at the same time we read in Scripture:
Eph 4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting," (NKJV)
again...
1 Cor 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. 28 And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way." (NKJV)
From these passage we read that GOD has promised the Church teachers....what a shame it would be, maybe even disobedient, to not learn from teachers God has given the Church.
READ: John 3:16, John 14:6, John 6:44-51, and Ephesians 2:8-9. We are only called to obey God's commandments and we are also called to persevere/endure to the end in order to make it into the Kingdom of God.
I love those verses, but they do not support your theology which follows. Unfortunately, what follows strikes me as self-centered legalism. I'm sorry to be harsh, but it is God the Holy Spirit who makes obedience possible, and it is God who enables a person to persevere, and we do not have it in ourselves to "make it", only by the grace of God, by the blood of Jesus, and the imputed righteousness of Christ will any of us "make it".
I use to think that being a Christian/Catholic was to go to church, to take communion classes, and to do my confessions, but as I got older, I found out that most of the Churches that are promoting heresies and false doctrines are being operated/run by Pagans and Pharisees.
It is good news to my ears that your eyes were opened to the errors of the Catholic Church. Now that I see where you came from, I think I understand better where you're coming from...one extreme to another.
I was completely disillusioned when I became aware of the heresies and false doctrines that are being taught in the churches. I found out from the bible that Christians who are chosen by God are the (church). As Christians, we are God's temple/God's sanctuary/the temple of God. The temple/church of God is not a man made building made by human hands, nor is it made out of gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw. The temple of god is our body, which our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives/dwells in us, whom we have received from God (1 Corinthians 6:12-20 + 19-20).
READ: 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Ephesians 1:19-23, and 1 Corinthians 11:3-16.
In (Hebrews 10:25 + Hebrews 10:19-25), it says we are not to forsake the assembly of ourselves together, that doesn't mean we must attend a church, no, it means that you need to gather up with other Christians just as Jesus gathered up with his 12 disciples.
You should gather up with other Christians that does not involve in the churches.
I agree people take the "not to forsake the assembly" and twist it. The earliest Christian gatherings were nothing like what is commonly seen today. They gathered in homes etc.
