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Does speaking from the heart count for those who are mutes?that if you confess with your mouth the LORD Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Rom 10:9-10 Now how does one gets saved according to words from God? Only how He states it.
If a person is saved, they're saved by Jesus, regardless of whether they've heard His name or not.
I don't believe that telling people this would help.Does telling Christians: “You are personally responsible for teaching the lost and if any are lost it is your fault.” help?
I don't know who this was directed to. I just wanted to say that a lot of the times I pray, I make no audible sound. The majority of my prayers would be this way.... and.... God hears me loud and clear.When you pray to the Lord or think thoughts do you think God hears you even though you make no sound? that will give you my answer. Thanks
You cannot believe in the one whom they have not heard. That is a fact. So........how does God, then, determine if they should have salvation? It is by the evidence that is presented to all who live a life on this earth. Everyone will, in some way shape or form, accept or reject the existence of and power of and worthiness of our creator, due to things in their life that will be presented to them and they will be, in God's presence.... with out excuse for how they reacted. lived and the attitude of their heart.How do you reconcile the idea that they can be saved without hearing the Name of Jesus with Paul's rhetorical question in Romans 10?
NIV Romans 10:14b And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?
.....how does God, then, determine if they should have salvation? It is by the evidence that is presented to all who live a life on this earth. Everyone will, in some way shape or form, accept or reject the existence of and power of and worthiness of our creator, due to things in their life that will be presented to them and they will be, in God's presence.... with out excuse for how they reacted. lived and the attitude of their heart.
Indeed; it is quite interesting to me that modern scholars such as Piper can easily dismiss out of hand what the early church believed as the Apostle's Creed expressed the very foundation of what they believed. Scholars will emphasize that any questions regarding our doctrines should be informed by what the early church taught and believed. Yet Piper does not seem to take his own advice when it comes to the Apostle's Creed.Well, since you quoted I'll reply. I'm not interested in an argument.
But it seems that just because we don't like what a passage says, and want to believe it says something else, isn't much of an argument (your first link).
The early Christians - the ones who recognized the documents accepted as Scripture as being true and had a part in their canonization - took them to mean what they say.
That Christ descended into Hades (not hell, that's a poor translation), which is the place of the dead. That He preached to the spirits there. They left off the verse that also says He led captivity captive ... in other words He freed those souls that had been captive in Hades.
That's what the Scripture says, and that's what the early Christians took it to mean.
Now there has been some modern and very heretical idea that Christ went actually to hell to be punished - THAT did not happen. I just want to be clear that's not what I'm saying.
It seems to me that a major truth taught in Romans (and other parts of the Bible) is that based on "how they reacted, lived, and the attitude of their heart" no one deserves the gift of eternal life:
NIV Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,So, I'm not denying that people will be judged for how they lived. But based on how they lived, without God's grace that comes only by faith in Christ, all will be condemned.
Indeed; it is quite interesting to me that modern scholars such as Piper can easily dismiss out of hand what the early church believed as the Apostle's Creed expressed the very foundation of what they believed. Scholars will emphasize that any questions regarding our doctrines should be informed by what the early church taught and believed. Yet Piper does not seem to take his own advice when it comes to the Apostle's Creed.
Indeed; it is quite interesting to me that modern scholars such as Piper can easily dismiss out of hand what the early church believed as the Apostle's Creed expressed the very foundation of what they believed. Scholars will emphasize that any questions regarding our doctrines should be informed by what the early church taught and believed. Yet Piper does not seem to take his own advice when it comes to the Apostle's Creed.
On one hand it is certainly true that God's grace only comes by faith in Christ. However the second clause in your sentence (all will be condemned) is not necessarily true. John 12:32 states: And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to Myself." We know that Jesus met the first condition as he was in fact resurrected. That condition having been met, the conclusion then is that he will draw ALL men to himself. Jesus imposed no qualifications in this verse as all means all.So, I'm not denying that people will be judged for how they lived. But based on how they lived, without God's grace that comes only by faith in Christ, all will be condemned.
It would help if you could explain your view a bit more thoroughly .. in saying this, how is it to say more than He merely descended to earth itself? (eg: 1 John 3:14, Psalms 23:4).Not hell. The place of the dead.
Using your same argument, our doctrines are not part of the Word of God either so what we believe could also be in error.I certainly don't agree with everything Piper says, but overall I respect him and have been helped and blessed by his teaching ministry many times.
With respect to the issue of Jesus descending into Hell and the Apostles Creed, there are two quick points I would like to make:
1. Grudem has carefully documented evidence that the Apostle's Creed might not have originally contained the words indicating that Christ descended into Hell.
2. Even if it did, the Apostel's Creed is not part of the Word of God and could have had one phrase that was in error.
It would help if you could explain your view a bit more thoroughly .. in saying this, how is it to say more than He merely descended to earth itself? (eg: 1 John 3:14, Psalms 23:4).
This opens doors of philosophical thought for me though. Meaning what does it truly mean to 'Reject Jesus' or 'Except Jesus'?? As an extreme example, person 'A' has never heard, as they lay on the ground dying of a gunshot wound. Person 'B' starts telling them about Jesus...person 'A' has the reaction of "What is this guy talking about??" then he dies. Did person 'B' just condemn person 'A' because now he officially heard?I think this questions God's fairness. If God is a perfect judge, wouldn't he judge people fairly? Would someone who has never heard of Jesus be responsible for responding to a message they haven't heard? If that is unfair, then God wouldn't do it.
So what about people who haven't heard? I would assume that God would judge fairly. If there were a verdict that wasn't fair, God wouldn't render it. If God judges someone and renders a verdict that eternally separates that someone from him, then it would only be because it was the deserved verdict.
This may not fully satisfy the question though - we're not privy to God's knowledge and so do have the required information to know how to judge "someone who hasn't heard." We can take comfort in knowing that God is Just and wouldn't judge someone unfairly. So if someone thinks that someone else is "going to hell" and it's believed that's an unfair assessment of their eternal destiny, then we can know that God wouldn't do it.
What I think we can know is that, if any of us are to be judged on our own merit, then we're in trouble. If we're to believe Paul, then:
Rom 3:10....“There is no one righteous, not even one,....3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
But people aren't unrighteous because they haven't heard and people don't fall short because they haven't heard a message. No, we would be unrighteous and fall short because of who we are and what we do. Hearing the message leads to salvation, but not-hearing doesn't cause damnation.
Of course I don't know why your siblings and mother don't believe. But I do pray that God will work powerfully to bring them to Christ.
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