I have a question for you.
Do you believe God really saves?
? Why do you ask such a strange question?
Of course!
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I have a question for you.
Do you believe God really saves?
? Why do you ask such a strange question?
Of course!
If what God gave us can be lost? Then we were never really saved to begin with.
God is not auditioning us for salvation.
grace and peace....
If what God gave us can be lost? Then we were never really saved to begin with.
God is not auditioning us for salvation.
grace and peace....
Three reasons I don't believe in perserverance of the saints:
1. Paul warns Christians from living in sin and encouraging them to run the race til the end.
2. There are passages mentioning Christians leaving faith.
3. Lastly, from personal experience.
(Luke:15 / 16:19-31)(Gal. 5:4)(Heb.10:26-31)(2Peter 2:20-22)(1Cor.9:27)(Rev.3:5) All teach the saved can be lost eternally if they do not repent. (Luke 13:3 ; 17:3,4)
I have gone back to "saved by faith alone". Why? One reason was I could find no peace when I had to look at my own life to see if I was saved. Do works matter? Surely so! By obedience we keep our faith, but it's by faith through the Holy Spirit we are connected to Christ, the cross, the forgiveness of sins. Through the Holy Spirit we are children of God.
Tim 4
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; 8 in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.
When I got saved in 2010, there was no thought of it having anything to do with works. I turned to God for forgiveness and God forgave me. On the other hand disobedience to God mudded up my heart so badly that I almost turned away from God. I couldn't believe God would restore me, but He did, not by works, but by faith and trust.
Can good works change a heart, or is it the forgiveness that changes man's heart? I am asking. I have never experienced works to change my heart.
It's so easy to fall into the pit of trying to earn salvation. If it's all about forgiveness, we become humble. It's easy to get angry at first, thinking "so I can do nothing"? It's natural for man to want to pay for everything. When it's about forgiveness, I need genuine humbleness, to acknowledge I don't deserve it, can do nothing to deserve it, that it's all about God's mercy. When we give up trying, we open our hearts to him, hoping on him, hoping for mercy.
"Lord I can do nothing! Take my life, it's yours. It's all I have to give you. I know it's broken, torn in the edges. Use me in any way you can!"
We are not saved by works (lest anyone should boast).
God saved us to do works.
Works that will save us in given situations, when done in the Spirit.
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do." Eph 2:10
God saved us so we would do good works. Works of our own making don't save us. Works, when from God, shows us that we are saved.
We in our salvation are declared "justified" by the jury of heaven, when a believer walking in the Spirit produces God's works. A quality of works that Satan could never get his own people to perform.
Why has God prepared works in advance for us to do?
To reveal the huge contrast between Satan's leadership and His own, as reflected in all those on earth who walk after the cosmic system. We are to find ourselves doing works God wishes us to do to show Satan and all the angels what a cheap and shoddy way of life Satan has given men of this world to walk in. Men of this earth doing works in Satan's desire to prove himself equal to God. "Save the whale" type works. We must keep in mind... Satan's fall began with..."I will make myself like the most High." (Can he equal God in quality? )
When God can get believers to fully mature in Christ?.. To cut through all the pseudo spiritually and insanity found in a lot of Christianity all around us today? To get believers to walk in sound doctrine to go on unto full maturity in Christ?.. Believers having a transformed mind, having an abundance of knowledge that opens the door for the Spirit to transform our souls into the Lord's image? Satan then ends up looking like where Joe Biden is today. Poor Joe, who makes the weakest impossible empty promises, who can not even speak coherently.
When God finds those believers willing to give up all this world has to offer? Raising up believers willing to fight the good fight to completion? Then, God will display these believers for those in the world to see. When that happens? Satan's delusion of greatness by the contrast becomes apparent to all watching God's Justice play out to its logical outcome. Satan can not even come close to being like the Most High. Its why Satan pushes false doctrine so strongly. It keeps believers from reaching a place where they can humiliate him and his demons.
We are not saved by works. We have been saved by God to do works.
Keep in mind... Maturing in grace and truth is also a work!
We are to do works that God will bring our way, and in God's timing.
And, those works will be simultaneously used to save us.
Save us from Satan's control and manipulations that permeates the world. Controlling men into walking in evil life styles having dead works (political correctness). People that Satan's kingdom exploits in their dumbed down state. Those who are ruled by their emotions and pride which they live by. Not by Spirit and Truth. They hate sound doctrine.
Do a good work today? Eat your daily bread of Life.
"But be continuously growing in the grace and knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory
both now and forever. Amen." 2 Pet 3:18
Greatest work of all works... to submit ourselves to be gaining more (sound doctrine) knowledge from God's sacred Word. Till the day we die.
Pray in Jesus name for sound doctrine for every area of your life. Mean it though. Not just because it sounds like a good thing to do.
Grace and peace...
We are initially and foundationally saved by both God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ, believing the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4), and in seeking forgiveness with the Lord Jesus (Which is a process of salvation that is without the deeds of the Law). But then...
After we are saved by God's grace,
God’s works (done through us) are also required as a part of the Salvation Process:
You say you were looking for peace.
Peace is only found in TRUTH (Jn 17:17).
There is not one scripture which says anyone is saved by faith ALONE.
Until that verse can be found "Faith Alone" is a false doctrine and opposes God.
There s a very important point found in (James 3:17).
Jas 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
Gods wisdom must first be "PURE".
When people add the word "ALONE" to the word faith as Martin luther did they are clearly committing sin. (1Jn 3:4) (Deut.4:2) (1Cor.4:6) (Rev.22:1.19)
When truth is polluted (or changed) truth no longer has no saving power. (1Tim. 4:1-4) (2Tim. 4:1-4)
By doing the will of the Lord (Mt. 7:21) (Eph. 5:17) (Jn 7:17).How did you get saved?
You say you were looking for peace.
Peace is only found in TRUTH (Jn 17:17).
There is not one scripture which says anyone is saved by faith ALONE.
Until that verse can be found "Faith Alone" is a false doctrine and opposes God.
There s a very important point found in (James 3:17).
Jas 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
Gods wisdom must first be "PURE".
When people add the word "ALONE" to the word faith as Martin luther did they are clearly committing sin. (1Jn 3:4) (Deut.4:2) (1Cor.4:6) (Rev.22:1.19)
When truth is polluted (or changed) truth no longer has no saving power. (1Tim. 4:1-4) (2Tim. 4:1-4)
Heb.10:26-31?
"If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Heb 10:26-31
Hebrews was written to whom? To the Jews. Jews living in Jerusalem. Both Jewish believers and about the unbelievers.
Why did it say this?....
If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left."
Certain Jews were refusing to believe in Jesus. They were still depending upon the animal sacrifices for the forgiveness of their sins. They were told the truth about the blood of Christ. They deliberately sinned by continuing to refuse to believe, and instead, insisted that the blood of animals was what God desired. ( no sacrifice for sins is left." )
It had nothing to do with losing one's salvation. It was about refusing to believe the knowledge of the Cross that brings salvation.
Remember! That was written to a Jewish audience. Jews who lived in a culture encased in the Law of Moses. They thought and lived by the Law all day long. Those spoken about stubbornly refused to believe that there is no other SACRIFICE other than the Cross. They deliberately continued sinning by offering animal blood at the Temple to save them.
Its why God had the Temple destroyed in 70 AD. The Book of Hebrews was written as a warning of punishment to the rebellious Jews only a few years before Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.