If my objective is to spend time with God, why be a Christian now?

[drich0150]

That's your interpretation. I read it as a big ad sign that you see in a mall. Everything is on sale, except for .... Unless the item was excluded, everything else is on sale. The second part would apply to the like of Jimmy Swaggart or Catholics priests who molested young boys.


I would not prothesis, cast out demons and perform miracles in his name. Nor will I physically do evil deeds.

The whole casting out demons, refers to the elite or most religious of that day. Not just anyone could cast out demons. Only those who were very knowledgeable or those who were very well in tune with the practice could do this. That said, do you not believe that these men have not undergone every religious or formal ritual that indicates their Faith? You do not believe that they have prayed the sinners prayer? The same one you will pray on your death bed?? On top of which these men have done a great many deeds in the name of Christ. Do not fool yourself into thinking these men are all crooked TV preachers. These men are the cream of Christianity (when view from the vantage of other Christians.) What they lack is the most basic relationship with Christ. Christ tells us this Himself when He says: "Away from me you evil doers I never knew you." These men go through all the motions of Christianity except one. They do not have a relationship with Christ. If they can live a life dedicated to Christ and not have a relationship with him, how do you expect to forge one in the 30 seconds you have allotted before you die?

Again, you are assumed that I would lie to get in

The fact that you will wait till your death bed to repent is indeed a lie. Because repentance is only reserved to those who wish to establish and maintain a relationship with God in this life. The fact that you refuse to do this while you are in your prime but reserve this right till you are on deaths door points to the fact that you do not want a relationship with God. you only want to gain what He can offer.(an escape from Hell.) If I can see this how do you think you can get this fact past God? Do you think God is stupid?

Which makes your act a lie, and not a genuine confession of sin. You confess sin to try and avoid hell. You do not confess sin to have and maintain a relationship with God. As Mt 7 points out If you do not have a standing relationship with God the Christ will say "Away from me evil doer I never knew you."

How do you know for sure there was no other successful death bed conversion?

Because I can read, and another has not been recorded.

Maybe other death bed confessions were not worthy enough for God to inspire writers to write about them. The Bible mentioned Adam's age when he died, but not Eve when she died. Do I assume that Eve didn't die or Eve's age wasn't worthy enough for God to mention it in the Bible?

So you are willing to ignore what the bible does say, for your personal interpretation of what it does not say? How is this not an action of a desperate fool? You are openly choosing to ignore the commands and examples we do have, for something you have reasoned out on your own to justify your preferred way of life. Do you believe you can fool God into accepting your circle of logic as you have fooled yourself into accepting?

Then why this effort?

 

[aiki]

My apology for sounding flippant. I didn't check and just assumed there was John 3:37 where Jesus would append restrictions to the generous offer of John 3:36 or more talk of his generosity. It's just end with that generous offer.

Uh huh.

Is there any passages in the Gospel of John that restricted this offer? So, which take precedent? John 3:36 or the more restrictive covenants of the Bible?

Why should there be an order of precedence? What "restrictive covenants" do you mean?

Again, your quotes are what I normally see and hear Christians said. We are sinners, Jesus died for our sins, accepted Him and your sins will be forgiven and you get to spend the rest of eternity with him.

These are only parts of the whole Gospel.

Should you fail to keep His laws after accepting Jesus, ask for forgiveness. This is the first time that I encountered with restrictions. That begs the question, "Aren't these restrictions contradicted with the generous offer of John 3:36 and Ask and Ye shall received"?

John 3:36 is qualified and explained, not contradicted, by the many other verses in Scripture that speak of salvation. "Ask and ye shall receive" is also qualified by verses like:

James 4:3
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

and,

1 John 5:14
14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

Can I find this quote in the Bible?

"For one who has intended all along to repent only at the very last is not someone who loves God and can't wait to fellowship with Him."

No. It is a quotation from my last post, not from the Bible. It expresses basic common sense. Does a man who puts off marrying his fiancee so that he may sleep around, really love her? Obviously not. Neither does one who puts off receiving God's loving gift of salvation truly love God. But love for God is at the heart of salvation. We are not saved merely to live eternally, but to live eternally with the God we love.

Selah.

 

[dazed]

Dear dazed. You had quite a few replies, may I join? You say: " Since no Christian could deny that a truly repentant serial killer/rapist would go to heaven. Why shouldn`t I get my boarding-pass get stamped at the very last minute?" God is Love, compassionate and forgiving, but there is God`s eternal Law of Justice: we know it as: "What ye sow ye will surly reap". And we know that God sees our hearts, and knows our every thought and wish. Do you really believe that the serial-killer, or any other evil or dangerous person, will live a life without fitting rewards for his, or her, evil nature/character? God cannot, neither will He not be mocked. Our loving God is also righteous and just in all His dealings with us, we may be sure of this. God is our Heavenly Father, and God wants us back again. Jesus died that we might live, He is our Saviour and The Way. The Bible, God`s Word to Man, tells us to " Repent," to change our selfish and unloving character TO: 1) Loving God with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our minds. 2) Loving our neighbour as ourselves. And Jesus points out: " On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." God wants Love from us, selfless and freely given, and we`ll have many Blessings. I say this with love, dazed. Greetings from Emmy, sister in Christ.

You are welcome to join but I have a feeling that I will get banned soon.

I have been told, several times in different threads, it's not what I nor you think it's right. It's what God think it's right that count. Since you asked, I think it's not right that a killer will be rewarded with a seat in heaven if he repented as per John 3:36. Now let me turn the table on you, do you believe Son of Sam, the notorious killer, will be in heaven or not as per John 3:36? I've posted this question and I haven't got a NO yet. Neither a Yes.

Again, I'm not mocking nor tricking God with this so called plan. There's no passage in the Scripture said that I must accept Jesus at the very first chance. Nor does it say that I have only limited number of times to reject the offer. I might come around in 10 years, 20 years. With my luck, I will get hit by a car after I truly repent. Then I will have some explanation to do.

 

[drich0150]

Now let me turn the table on you, do you believe Son of Sam, the notorious killer, will be in heaven or not as per John 3:36? I've posted this question and I haven't got a NO yet. Neither a Yes.

From the James Dobbson interview that i heard between those two, let me be the first to say yes.

 

[aiki]

Now let me turn the table on you, do you believe Son of Sam, the notorious killer, will be in heaven or not as per John 3:36? I've posted this question and I haven't got a NO yet. Neither a Yes.

Did the Son of Sam truly recognize his need of a Saviour? Did he in faith take the love-gift of salvation God offers? Was his motive for doing so one of love for Christ, rather than mere self-interest? If one can say "yes" to all three of these questions, then I think one may say that he was truly saved.

You seem to carefully ignore the explanations we have given you about the basis for acceptance into heaven. We have explained that no one merits heaven. No one is good enough to be permitted into God's eternal paradise - not your mother-in-law and not Son of Sam. God saves us because of who He is, not because of who we are. God is not saying to Himself, "Joe over there is sure a nice guy. But that fellow Bill standing next to him is a dirty rotter! Joe is so much more worthy of my gift of salvation. I think I'll let him into heaven rather than that wretched Bill." No, instead, God is going on more like this: "Every person I have made is stained in the horrid foulness of sin! Joe, Bill, everyone! Not one person, save my perfect Son, Jesus, deserves anything but the punishment of hell for the sins against me that they have committed. But, my Son has died for their sins and if any one of them will reach out in repentance and love for the salvation that is in him, I will be reconciled to them."

Selah.

 

[dazed]

You seem to carefully ignore the explanations we have given you about the basis for acceptance into heaven. We have explained that no one merits heaven. No one is good enough to be permitted into God's eternal paradise - not your mother-in-law and not Son of Sam. God saves us because of who He is, not because of who we are. God is not saying to Himself, "Joe over there is sure a nice guy. But that fellow Bill standing next to him is a dirty rotter! Joe is so much more worthy of my gift of salvation. I think I'll let him into heaven rather than that wretched Bill."

1 Corinthians 1:9
9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

I think I was given a few quoted passages that it's God calling me.

No, instead, God is going on more like this: "Every person I have made is stained in the horrid foulness of sin! Joe, Bill, everyone! Not one person, save my perfect Son, Jesus, deserves anything but the punishment of hell for the sins against me that they have committed. But, my Son has died for their sins and if any one of them will reach out in repentance and love for the salvation that is in him, I will be reconciled to them."

Selah.

There's the famous refrain again.

I asked in previous posts, are all the Gospels equal or one is more equal than others.

If John 3:36 was first then Matthews, then it almost like most of advertisements I see.

Accept me and you will be save. Well, everyone will be saved except for the charlatans.

If John was last, then the inducements will sound like false adverstising.

Everyone will be save except for the charlatans, etc. Then big and final announcement, Accept me and you will be saved.