Belief In The Resurrection Is Essential To Saving Faith

[Saint Steven]

The thread is claiming that the resurrection is an essential element of the Gospel.
Salvation is received by believing the Gospel, not being indoctrinated into a church doctrine.
I offer a simple message, but it is the Lord who brings the increase. Can you agree with Paul here:
1 Corinthians 3:7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but
God who gives the increase.

Can you explain how the resurrection works? How was it that Christ was raised from the dead? How did God do that? Can you explain it?

How can you expect the unsaved to grasp such a thing as a REQUIREMENT for salvation?

 

[Mr. M]

How do you know that the person repeating after you actually understands and believes in the resurrection? Repeating after you does not prove anything. If they want to be saved they will say anything you instruct them to say. Will they even remember what they said the next day?

Sounds like you are referring to dictating a sinners prayer when you say, "repeating after me".
I don't do that, it doesn't prove anything. The Lord is salvation. My words are my faithfulness
to the Lord. I don't speak because my words save people. I speak out of obedience to my Master.
I include the resurrection when I share the simplicity of the Gospel because all the apostles did so.
As the OP explains, rebuking His closest disciples for not believing the report of His resurrection was
the first order of business after He was raised. It is about believing the Word of God. How can
you be faithful and not state what you believe? I believe that God raised His Son "according to the
scriptures" to prove His claim to be the Son of God, for which He was crucified in the first place.
"In a nutshell" Let's find a basic statement of the Gospel for believing.
1 Corinthians 15:
1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand,
2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures,
4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.

Wow! That's it? Isn't everyone who posts on this forum supposed to be accountable
to a basic Creed?

 

[Saint Steven]

That isn't the question I asked. I asked whether babies and the other categories of people I mentioned are saved or have the possibility of salvation even though they don't believe in the resurrection. Do you have an answer?

You make a good point. Many testify to having come to Christ at a very young age. How could such youngsters understand the resurrection and believe in it to be saved? Even an adult with a Bible school degree would struggle to explain how that works. Maybe that is where our evangelism efforts need to be focused. Bible school graduates. - lol

They would be the only ones that have a prayer of being saved according to this thread.

 

[Mr. M]

Can you explain how the resurrection works? How was it that Christ was raised from the dead? How did God do that? Can you explain it?

How can you expect the unsaved to grasp such a thing as a REQUIREMENT for salvation?

Who said anything about explaining it?
What does it mean to say that Jesus is the Son of God? John 3:16
Hard to explain, but if I accept it as Gospel Truth, I am given the Holy Spirit by which I overcome
the world. We preach the Gospel not because we are adept at explaining it, but because the
Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. John 16:8
We can only be faithful.

 

[Saint Steven]

Wow! That's it? Isn't everyone who posts on this forum supposed to be accountable
to a basic Creed?

Perhaps, but no one seems to be able to get past your topic title.

"Houston, we have a problem..."

 

[Saint Steven]

Who said anything about explaining it?

I think I just did.
Do you expect people to believe something that is incomprehensible as a requirement to be saved?

Saint Steven said: ↑
Can you explain how the resurrection works? How was it that Christ was raised from the dead? How did God do that? Can you explain it?

How can you expect the unsaved to grasp such a thing as a REQUIREMENT for salvation?

Saint Steven said: ↑
Can you explain how the resurrection works? How was it that Christ was raised from the dead? How did God do that? Can you explain it?

How can you expect the unsaved to grasp such a thing as a REQUIREMENT for salvation?

 

[Mr. M]

Perhaps, but no one seems to be able to get past your topic title.

"Houston, we have a problem..."

That is because they do not see the resurrection as essential. Yet they say that Salvation is by
Faith alone. By confessing what you believe. If you believe God raised Christ from the dead,
then you say what you believe. This does not require an elaborate or scientific explanation.
The stoics and epicureans at Athens scoffed at Paul for preaching the resurrection, but some
believed. He was faithful to the message given, the Lord brought the increase.

 

[Saint Steven]

Who said anything about explaining it?
What does it mean to say that Jesus is the Son of God? John 3:16
Hard to explain, but if I accept it as Gospel Truth, I am given the Holy Spirit by which I overcome
the world. We preach the Gospel not because we are adept at explaining it, but because the
Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. John 16:8
We can only be faithful.

Shouldn't the gospel message be comprehensible and relevant to human need?

 

[Mr. M]

I think I just did.
Do you expect people to believe something that is incomprehensible as a requirement to be saved?

Saint Steven said: ↑
Can you explain how the resurrection works? How was it that Christ was raised from the dead? How did God do that? Can you explain it?

How can you expect the unsaved to grasp such a thing as a REQUIREMENT for salvation?

Saint Steven said: ↑
Can you explain how the resurrection works? How was it that Christ was raised from the dead? How did God do that? Can you explain it?

How can you expect the unsaved to grasp such a thing as a REQUIREMENT for salvation?

They are saved by the conviction of the Holy Spirit. If I quote John 3:16, they will either respond
to the Light or reject it. I can't explain it, I can only be faithful to the Word.

 

[Saint Steven]

That is because they do not see the resurrection as essential.

What?
Forum members do not see the resurrection as essential?

Saint Steven said: ↑
Perhaps, but no one seems to be able to get past your topic title.

"Houston, we have a problem..."

 

[Mr. M]

Shouldn't the gospel message be comprehensible and relevant to human need?

Nope. The Gospel touches the heart, the need of the spirit. The Gospel is nonsense to human need.

 

[Saint Steven]

They are saved by the conviction of the Holy Spirit. If I quote John 3:16, they will either respond
to the Light or reject it. I can't explain it, I can only be faithful to the Word.

Where is the resurrection in that? Oops.

 

[Saint Steven]

Nope. The Gospel touches the heart, the need of the spirit. The Gospel is nonsense to human need.

That seems contradictory to me. Isn't the need of the spirit a human need?

 

[Hmm]

You make a good point. Many testify to having come to Christ at a very young age. How could such youngsters understand the resurrection and believe in it to be saved? Even an adult with a Bible school degree would struggle to explain how that works. Maybe that is where our evangelism efforts need to be focused. Bible school graduates. - lol

They would be the only ones that have a prayer of being saved according to this thread.

My first experience of church was a church where they told me that all I had to do to be saved was to believe that Jesus rose again and that if I didn't I would go to hell. When I kept asking what does it actually mean to say that Jesus was ressurected they told me to stop asking questions and just to believe. I remember one guy thought I must be possessed by the devil because I asked questions. I realised that what they were asking me to do was simply to confess with my tongue that Jesus is the risen Lord and that's all was that needed. It didn't matter if it made any sense to me, a simple recitation of a piece of text was all that was required, and anyone who died without those words passing their lips would go to hell. All that's required is chanting a slogan as if it were some kind of political demonstration. Luckily I realised in time what a travesty that was and left but it put me off Christianity for quite a while. I found faith later but if I had died in the intervening period and was sent to hell because I didn't believe I think that would have been a tad unfair.

 

[Saint Steven]

The Gospel is nonsense to human need.

Who needs it then?
Or, who KNOWS they need it then?
Why should anyone act on the message if they don't need it?

 

[Mr. M]

Shouldn't the gospel message be comprehensible and relevant to human need?

1 Corinthians 2:
10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things,
yes, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?
Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God,
that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the
Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

 

[Mr. M]

My first experience of church was a church where they told me that all I had to do to be saved was to believe that Jesus rose again and that if I didn't I would go to hell. When I kept asking what does it actually mean to say that Jesus was ressurected they told me to stop asking questions and just to believe. I remember one guy thought I must be possessed by the devil because I asked questions. I realised that what they were asking me to do was simply to confess with my tongue that Jesus is the risen Lord and that's all was that needed. It didn't matter if it made any sense to me a simple recitation of a piece of text was all that was required, and anyone who died without those words passing their lips would go to hell. All that's required is chanting a slogan as if it were some kind of political demonstration. Luckily I realised in time what a travesty that was and left but it put me off Christianity for quite a while. I found faith later but if I had died in the intervening period and was sent to hell because I didn't believe I think that would have been a tad unfair.

Sounds horrible. Not my style at all. Now that you have read the Bible, you know that God
brought Jesus back physically from the dead without corruption to fulfill prophecy. I don't know
what their problem was, but the resurrection assures us that we need have no fear of death.
It also proves that Jesus is who He claimed to be. They put Him to death for claiming to be the
Son of God. Either He is who He claims to be, or a complete nut job.

 

[Mr. M]

Where is the resurrection in that? Oops.

The resurrection is the proof, just as Paul taught.
Romans 1:4 declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness,
by the resurrection from the dead.

They put Him to death for claiming to be the Son of God. His Father resurrected Him
to provide the proof. Isn't that what you mean by explaining? Where's the proof?
Where's the beef?

 

[Joy]

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[98cwitr]

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