The ancient Greek compares it to the sport of archery, as their word for sin was a word in their competition meaning "to miss the mark." <-- It's their analogies that count. Not yours.
If the target is the size of a gnat and 10 miles away, I will miss the mark.
It is possible to make a target that is impossibly hard to hit. That does not prove we are all bad shots. It just proves the target is unreasonable.
Again, back to my claim: I have observed with my own eyes that nonbelievers can be as moral as believers. Your silly philosophical argument claiming one can make a target so difficult that nonbelievers will all miss it proves nothing. Believers will miss it too. So the fact that I miss an impossible target does not prove you are more moral than me.
I never said "metaphor." The link to chabad.org didn't say "metaphor."
You may not have used the word "metaphor" but you interpreted the verse metaphorically. The verse condemned mixing wool and linen. You interpret that metaphorically to mean don't mix good and bad. That is not what the verse says. It says not to mix wool and linen.
I am not talking about doing something to
earn salvation. I repeat: I am not talking about doing something to
earn salvation. I have told you that dozens of times.
If you win the lottery and are given a check for a hundred million dollars, you did not earn that money. But you still need to physically accept the check to get that money.
Question: If you win the lottery, what do you need to do to earn that money? Answer: nothing. It is a gift. You don't need to earn it.
Question: If you win the lottery, what do you need to do to have that money? Answer: Accept the check and deposit it.
The question of what you need to do to
earn the money, and what you need to do to
have the money are two different questions. Understand?
I am not asking what you need to do to
earn eternal life. I am asking what you need to do to
have eternal life.
All of your many arguments about not being able to
earn eternal life are totally off subject. I am not asking about earning eternal life.
You're not obligated to make yourself bear fruit to earn the status of "tree-ness," or to earn getting planted in the orchard.
I did not ask what you need to do to earn eternal life. I asked you what you need to do to have it.
As a natural habit of living. Again, "fruit." Nowhere ^ here does it say that obedience is the way to "earn" or "merit" heaven. You're reading a contradiction into it from an assumed outside bias on your part.
Again, I am not asking the question of what you need to do to earn eternal life. I am asking what you need to do to have eternal life.
The paragraphs you quoted talk about what one needs to do to have eternal life. Again they say:
Faith must involve a personal commitment to Christ (
2 Corinthians 5:15). It is more than being convinced of the truth of the gospel; it is a forsaking of this world and a following of the Master...
Those with genuine faith—those who are submitted to the lordship of Christ—follow Jesus (
John 10:27), love their brothers (
1 John 3:14), obey God’s commandments (
1 John 2:3;
John 15:14), do the will of God (
Matthew 12:50), abide in God’s Word (
John 8:31), keep God’s Word (
John 17:6), do good works (
Ephesians 2:10), and continue in the faith (
Colossians 1:21–23;
Hebrews 3:14). Salvation is not adding Jesus to the pantheon of one’s idols; it is a wholesale destruction of the idols with Jesus reigning supreme...
Scripture teaches that Jesus is Lord of all. Christ demands unconditional surrender to His will (
Romans 6:17–18;
10:9–10). Those who live in rebellion to God’s will do not have eternal life..
They discuss what one needs to do to have eternal life. You evade the issue, and say they don't discuss what we need to do to earn salvation. Of course not! That is not the question.
Get with the program, please.
it is the SIGN of true salvation, i.e. "fruit of righteousness."
The problem for you is that both nonbelievers and believers do righteous things. If doing good is a sign of true salvation, then I know a lot of atheists that have a sign of true salvation.
That is the same thing as saying you need to obey these commands to have eternal life.
Correct. The link you sent says that if you don't do this you won't have eternal life. You are correct in stating that this is the same thing as saying you need to obey these commands to have eternal life.
One of the two Paulomycins on this account--the one that says you need to follow all of the commandments to get to heaven-- will agree with what you just wrote.
The other Paulomycin brother on this account--the one that says you need not follow any of the commandments--will disagree.
That verse doesn't say heaven is earned either. Jesus is simply stating a brute fact.
Again, we are not talking about what you need to do to earn eternal life. We are talking about what you need to do to have it. Jesus said you need to do the will of his Father to
have eternal life. He did not say this act
earns salvation.
You were raised under a merit-based (works) soteriology. You were taught that the one work of choosing faith saved you, as opposed to others who didn't choose.
No, sir, in no sense was John R Rice teaching works salvation. He said salvation was provided by God, and all one needed to do was believe it. He was clear that there was nothing one could do to earn it.
Rice bases his tract on Acts 16:31: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved". Are you telling me that this verse also teaches works salvation?
Rice taught easy-believism. I find it amusing that you want to call his easy-believism "works salvation" while you yourself accept lordship salvation.