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Spencer.
Don't misunderstand whay I said. When I say that to him only it is a sin, I mean that it is not a sin but in his conscience it is considered a sin. God will not damn him, because he wrongly believes it is a sin, but he damns himself (wrongly)
And something else. In greek faith and belief is the same word. So for better understanding of that verse, substitute the word faith with the word belief.
My understanding of that verse may differ from others'.
First lets consider what the specific passage is about. It is about those christians who may consider as a sin something which is not really a sin, like say eating meat, like celebrating a specific day like Sabbath, etc, but to them it is considered as a sin. And Paul ends up saying that everything that does not originate from one's faith is sin, which means that something which in accordance to one's faith is sin then to him (and only to him) it is a sin. That is why Paul says, " And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin." In general that means that if one eats meat which he considers as a sin, then in his conscience he damns himself because he sins according to his faith, so eating meat is not right in his faith, it is not of his faith or from his faith (of right and wrong).
The problem with the question of eternal security lies in having NO KNOWLEDGE of God's WORD.
If one deeply studies the PROPHECIES, one will see that at some point in the ages to come all the tribes of Israel are going to once again exit.
BUT, in this AGE he is ONLY calling out the PREISTHOOD, the house of David, the kind of firstfruits as is the tribe of Judah, lawgivers that will rule and reign and serve him when he resurrects all the DEAD back to there bodies of flesh and blood.
If one studies under the spirit of truth, you find these prophecies in the blessings of Israel to his twelve sons, from the beginning the tribe of Judah was CHOSEN to be God's lawgiver. The blessing on the remaining tribes will be fulfilled after all the lawgivers are put in place.
Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zachariah, and Revelation all prophesy ONLY a PART will be save in this age, one third (probably symbolic) since other prophecies seem to say ONE TENTH, the tithe to God, those without blemish being sacrificed with Christ on HIS CROSS.
You find this in the blessings of Jacob and Esau.
Hebrews 11:20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau CONCERNING THINGS TO COME.
There are TWO DEATHS, TWO RESURRECTION and TWO JUDGEMENTS,
The first death and resurrection is those SAVED in this AGE, the ones Christ CAUSES TO BELIEVE in this AGE, they are being judged by the words of God.
1 Timothy 4:10 ... who is the SAVIOUR of ALL MEN (not necessarily in this AGE), especially THOSE (in this AGE) that BELIEVE.
Isaiah 6:13 But yet in it (the land) shall be a tenth, and it (the tenth) shall be eaten (same as Christ is eaten, eat the words and digest them) as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance (CHRIST) IS IN THEM, when they cast their leaves (administer judgement), so the HOLY SEED shall be the substance thereof.
Obadiah 1:21 And SAVIOURS (those conformed to the image of Christ) SHALL COME upon Mt, Zion to JUDGE the house of ESAU
and the Kingdom shall be the LORDS.
I always appreciate those who will join with me in prayers.
Besides, this is the "discussion" section, not the comment section. Everyone is welcome to express their views and opinions about a specific verse.
I am an advocate for winning souls to Christ, and I have been doing so for the past 14 years. Let's keep the momentum and win more souls for the Kingdom.
Blessings to you!
I agree 100 % with you and Spencer that what is not of faith is sin. This agreement is made evident by my statement in a previous post stating that it is impossible to have faith in sin, for sin is faithlessness.
Because having faith in sin is synonymous with believing in its existence, i.e it is real, reality, factual, non fiction, true, etc.; shouldn't we remove from our mind the idea of sin, which in essence is proclaiming that sin is actually a fiction, i.e. not real, not reality, is an illusion, is a lie, etc?
The idea of sin is the most holy concept in the ego's thought system; lovely, powerful, and wholly true, and necessarily protected with every defense at its disposal.
So where then, did the idea of sin originate?
We MADE what we would destroy, everything we would hate, and attack, and would kill. We MAKE what we defend against, and by our own defense against it, does it SEEM real and inescapable. We need but lay down our arms, and then will we perceive it as FALSE.
Lies, illusions, fiction --- The Mind of God not being their source; therefore impossible to exist in his awareness. God does not dream; specifically in nightmarish form, which is what this world APPEARS to be. It is evident we are in a sleeping state and need only to awaken to realize we are still as God created us: perfect, holy. We've literally never left Him and in reality are at home in God merely dreaming of exile, but perfectly capable of awakening to reality.
What God did not create does not exist. And everything that does exist exists as He created it.The world we see has nothing to do with reality. It is of our own making, and it does not exist. It can only be in our own mind apart from His.
Opposites, i.e. what is opposing, cannot exist in God's Mind, as it is the cause of confusion. It can only exist in a split mind that believes it possible to maintain two opposing thought systems, and remain sane.
Peace
Rather search for a debate to win on this topic eternal security, Let's join in bringing people to Christ and give them the Gospel that saves!
If you can lose it, you have to first get it.
There's many that will be deceived that's on both sides of that argument.
That's one of the problems with the Church today, There's a lack of preaching the Gospel and a great interest in debating.
Why not tell someone how to be saved and let them come to their own mind whether they can lose it.
God bless.
Thank you for your time given sorting out the history of this ongoing conflict.
I am concerned for what you are experiencing with your daughter-in-law and son, and will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. I'm also confident that your obvious unwavering dedication, devotion, and confidence in God is sufficient at its highest level to ultimately bring you and all concerned peace and comfort from His Spirit. I genuinely join with you NOW and into eternity, inviting the love of Christ, proclaiming that our ONLY desire be that God's Will be done. In Jesus Name. Amen.
John 15:2: "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit."
I heard so many people saying that salvation cannot be lost. I think there is a necessity to define what "lost" means. Does it mean losing the communion with the Lord on this earth? Or does it mean going to hell after death? In my argument, I have chosen the latter definition, losing salvation = going to hell after death. If one finishes up not making it to heaven, it means the person has lost his salvation because the goal of salvation is to live where Jesus is ( John 14:3)
1. Who are the branches Jesus spoke about? The believers, here Jesus was not talking about non-believers (because they are not "branches").
2. Two types of branches: Branches that abide in Jesus, and branches that do not abide in Him, meaning believers who abide in Jesus, and believers who do not. Those who abide bear good fruit, but those who do not abide bear no fruit.
3. Note that there is a difference between accepting Jesus and abiding in Him. Some people accept Jesus but do not ABIDE in Him, meaning that they do not obey and completely surrender to Him in their journey.
4. Those people (who believed at first, but did not abide in Him later) are the branches that do not abide in Jesus, and therefore, they will be cut off.
Conclusion: It is a big mistake to believe that one cannot lose salvation once saved. Philippians 2:12-13 said, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you..." If salvation is "granted" once, why did the Apostle Paul say we should work with "fear" and "trembling"?
I Corinthians 9:27: "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." Look at the last word of the verse. "CASTAWAY", meaning losing salvation.
Brethren, Let's walk in holiness.
We can pray for God's will to be accomplished in this arena for all people involved. This small sliver of land in or big world has been fought over since time immemorial and peace or independence has not lasted long there for the nation of Israel over the centuries. Much of this is because of the disobedience, idolatry, and lack of faith among the Jews. God had promised to punish them when they live this way. But the Muslim Arabs do not want any sort of peace or any presence of Jews in the area or for there to be a country of Israel at all. They made sure that they desecrated the Temple Mount (if this is the true site of the temple or the Praetorium of the Roman Anatonia Fortress is yet to be determined) with the Mosque on the Dome of the Rock. This was to intentionally desecrate the most holy site of the Jews. And yet, it still stands without Israel tearing down the mosque. With nations that are predominately Islamic all around Israel and the world it is so telling that the Moslems cannot tolerate a Jewish nation. They probably would not tolerate a Christian one in that region either, considering their history over the centuries. So many Christian nations overtaken by Islam. So sad for the believers in these countries.
Having a Moslem daughter-in-law and a son who converted to marry her in our family is concerning for my husband and I. We pray and hope that things will change for them to be saved.
This area of the promised land is now held by Jordan mostly. And Gaza held by Hamas. Most of these "Palestinians" are of Arab descent that entered the lands from the Islamic conquest of the Levant. The Philistines were pretty much eliminated by Babylon at the time of the captivity of Judah and Assyrian captivity of Israel. From the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. it seems that the land of the Levant was inhabited by Jews, Samaritans, Christians, and other ethnicities forming a mixture of peoples until the Islamic conquests in the 7th century. The Arabs moved into the area. But the crusades retook the area for a time only to lose it again to the Moslems. Egypt took over the area for a time, and then the Ottomon Empire held control. eventually the British and French took over the whole land of Palestine. At the turn of the 10th century the Balfour agreement sought to establish a Jewish Homeland. And this was accomplished in 1948.
At first, in the negotiations with the Arabs and Jews, a two state proposal was suggested. The jews agreed, but Arabs repeatedly refused. So here we are almost a century later. The Arabs in Palestine are not original to the area.
God encourages Johsua, reminding him of how God had brought the victories for His people so profoundly and to therefore have courage and not fear as he takes the lead in bringing the people over the Jordan. God promises to fight for them and the promise to take possession will be fulfilled by the hand of God.
It is always a good thing to recall all of the ways God has helped us in our life, in the lives of other believers we know, and in the lives of people in biblical history. The faithfulness of God over the ages and in the present encourages us and gives us boldness to trust in His promises and in the strength that He will give us to face the giants in our lives.
After all of this, Moses turns to the LORD and asks to be allowed to enter the land and view it all the way to Lebanon. But it says that God was angry that Moses asked Him this, saying, essentially, Enough! do not speak of this any more to me, you will not go into the land. But says that Moses will go up mt. Pisgah and will be able to view the whole of the land from their. God did the same thing with Abraham in Gn. 13:14.
The chapter ends with God telling Moses to encourage and strengthen Joshua as he would be the one to enter the land with the people and take possession as its military captain and spiritual leader.
And then they abode at Beth-Peor.
But I don't agree with what Jesse implying, its unscriptural, against sound reasoning & Christ Spirit bears witness against it in my heart.
Numbers 21 says that the people of Moab served the idol Chemosh (which is the same as Molech) which involved sacrificing children by passing them through fire to be burned at the idol statue of Chemosh. This idol statue was huge, perhaps because the people of this area were giants and Sihon and Og even bigger giants than those further mixed with normal people and giants. The text in verse 29 says that this idol, Chemosh had failed the Moabites and given many of the sons and daughters of the leaders of Moab over to be slaves of Sihon, who had defeated the king of Moab and taken the land from the Moabites. The Moabites had turned away from the true God to hideous idols.
After taking all of the land and destroyed the cities and people of the kingdom of Sihon, the LORD leads the people to take over the land of Bashan of Og. First, they sent out spies to look over the land strategically. As they marched towards Og's stronghold, Og came out against them with all of his people. The land was known as the Valley of giants, so most likely most of the people of Bashan were giants. God promised Moses that they would do to Og what they did to Sihon, king of the giant Amorites. Moses lead Israel into battle and smote Og and his sons, and all the people until none were left alive, taking all the fortified cities, leaving no inhabitants alive. Again, they kept the cattle for themselves along with all the spoil of the cities. They took possession of the land of Bashan.
After explaining the boundaries and various areas of the land east of the Jordan that the Israelites now possessed, it is said that Og was the last of the Raphaim. There still were many giants in the land of Canaan, but it seems that Sihon and Og may have been two of the original Raphaim that emerged post flood, from whom the giants descended.
Yes, that is a very powerful statement, "For whatsoever is not of faith is sin." So, anything that is not of faith is sin. Wow! Anything that is not prompted by God's Spirit is sin. That's what it is saying. That's what faith is. The word "faith" in the Greek text is a word that literally means persuasion.
So, faith is the persuasion and leading of God's Spirit. And anything that is not of faith (persuasion of God's Spirit) is sin. That pretty much sums up what sin is. Anything that I do which is not under the persuasion of God's Spirit, for me that is sin. It can even be something that we see as being perfectly okay, such as a hobby, sports, or participating in something we like to do. Anything we do apart from the persuasion (faith) of God's Spirit, that is considered sin.
An example of this would be God's Spirit persuading me to study the bible later on tonight. But later in the day, my wife wants me to take her to a new movie that just came out, and she wants to go tonight. What am I going to do? I mean I love my wife and I want to make her happy. Is it a sin if I choose to go to the movie, and just study longer tomorrow? But you see, we are constantly faced with choices like this each and every day.
Do you think that we sin throughout the day?
Thank you, and yes, I agree that salvation "is not done by an alter call or an profession but by the Spirit of God that searches the heart."
There is no formula, such as an alter call, or saying a "sinners' prayer" that guarantees salvation. To anyone reading this, please know that I am not against going up for an alter call to receive Christ or calling out to Him in prayer (sinners' prayer). I am not saying that a person cannot be saved by doing these things. What I am saying is that there is no guarantee.
God knows the heart of every person, and a person with a sincere heart who calls out to the Lord to have mercy on them and to save them, His promise is that He will save them ( Romans 10:13). For some, salvation takes place immediately. For others, it could take a while for God to prepare a person's heart before they are ready to completely surrender their life to Him, but the promise still remains. God promises that all who call upon the name of the Lord will, not might be, but will be saved. That is a promise to anyone who calls out to Him with a sincere heart!
Also, thank you for sharing these great scriptures which show the result of salvation.
God Bless!!!
Thank you for taking the time to read my post. Brother, I was sitting here pondering on one of your statements in this thread which you said that "One can have the Spirit of Truth working in him; yet, not yet have come to all truth."
Makes perfect sense to me!
I sense you are leading me in a different direction here. If I say that I have the Spirit of Christ living in me, and I stop there, I suppose you might ask me if I ever sin? If I say yes, I do sin, will you say that I am not born again?
The scripture you are sharing with ( 1 John 3:9) reads, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God."
Please allow me to share my understanding of this verse. First of all, the King James translators could have done a better job in their translation of the Greek text. There are some English translations that properly use the word practice, which is what the Greek text reads.
The way the KJV translators wrote it, one might conclude that a person who is born of God does not sin at all. This is not true. A believer will still occasionally commit single acts of sin. However, a believer no longer practices sin. When I say believer, I am speaking of one who has been born of Gods Spirit.
Many of our English translations of 1 John 3:9 have caused a lot of confusion in the church, mainly by leaving this one word (practice) out of the text. According to the Greek, it should read, "Whosoever has been born of God DOES NOT PRACTICE sin; for God's seed remains (or abides) in him: and he CANNOT PRACTICE SIN, that is, he does not have the capacity to practice sin because he has been born of God. There is a huge difference in saying "does not sin," vs "does not practice sin."
So, to answer your question, I will tell you yes, I do have the Spirit of Christ. I am not completely free from sin, but I no longer practice sin as a lifestyle as I did before being born of Gods Spirit. If I do sin, that does not mean that I am not born again. But once I'm born of the Spirit of God, I no longer have the capacity to continue to satisfy a lifestyle of sin. It is impossible!
If I may ask, are you in disagreement on what I shared on Romans 8:9?
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: WHO CAN KNOW IT?
Sometimes just because it felt right doesn't mean it was right, or spirit led.
Look at Peter in Matthew 16:22-24.
Peter never knew what get behind Christ meant until the filling of the Holyspirit.
Afterwards Peter ministered boldly the rest of his life knowing his fate.
"He would die".
I believe God gave his Church ministers Teachers, Preachers, ect and instructions by Paul how to function for orderly conduct.
And I believe that's whenever, wherever and however we meet.
I so called spiritually and Holy conduct shouldn't turn up a few notches upon entering the Church buildings.
We are a called out people who should carry out our orderly and organized conduct to a visual and conflicting world.
Christ was the head of the Church and even though he came to gather the lost sheep of Israel, he conducted himself the same way outside of Jerusalem as he did inside Jerusalem.
If we stay behind Christ and his word we will be Spirit led and when we get off course it's the Spirit that will correct us.
God bless.
One will glean more knowledge form interacting on this forum than will ever be gleaned in our churches, sad but true.
Our churches stand on denominational doctrines instead of of the gospel of the kingdom of heaven.
I was raised in a denominal doctrine church, went they any and every time the doors were open, I never hear a sermon on the gospel of the kingdom of God, It was do good and go to heaven, don't do good and go to hell: all works.
Until God CAUSED me to sit and study his word, I never knew the gospel of the Kingdom of God, I never knew the baptism into Jesus NAME, only the water baptism of John.
I was taught we have FREE WILL, never understanding I DIED on the cross, ONLY the BODY of Christ was resurrected and WE as JOINT HEIRS of his resurrection.
Dead men DO NOT HAVE FREE WILL:
Ezekiel 36:22 I WILL put my spirit IN YOU and CAUSE YOU to walk in my statutes, and keep my judgement (we are judged by the words of God) and DO THEM.
If one believes this scripture he is a SEED of God, ONLY God's WWILL is being done in HIS BODY.
If God is WILLING all things, AND DOING all things in IN US, then WE CANNOT SIN.
This is how Christ was without SIN, He had KNOWLEDGE without measure of the WORDS of GOD.
He KNEW every word from his mouth was OF HIS FATHER, he was just the BODY, every action (works) his body performed was the WORK of his Father.
When Christ became angry, he had knowledge it was the Father CAUSING his to show his anger, but he had knowledge that ALL THINGS (anger and other things we call SIN) all WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD.
We can't see that but GOD'S word says it does, so do we believe our carnal mind of do we let the words of God DESTROY the man of perdition, our carnal mind, and RENEW our carnal mind with the mind of Christ.
HIS mind and his heart were GIVEN TO US by being resurrected JOINT HEIRS with Christ,
BUT even BELIEVING his words have to be GIVEN to us on the BEHALF of Christ .... Philippians 1:29
God Bless YOU!
You are right. We need to rightly handle all of our emotions when they spring up. But anger in itself can be sinful if we are triggered to be angry over something we should not be angry about. Our anger should be righteous anger as the Lord's was and is. He felt anger over what He should be angry about. But if anger rises up in us over something the dog broke while running through the house, then that anger itself is not righteous and therefore sinful. It comes from our sinful nature and we could have reacted differently to the breakage by the influence of the Holy Spirit.
So, while we are to keep our anger in check so that we do not sin only if it is righteous anger. But anger that is unrighteous we are to also keep in check so as to not sin further.
I think it is easy to explain away the wickedness of our emotions fueled by our sinful flesh by believing that our feelings are somehow morally neutral. I don't believe that is so. Our emotions as God gave them to us are indeed good, but as ALL of our righteous deeds are as filthy rags tainted by sin, so are our emotional responses to things that stimulate a response. Not all stimuli warrant the response of our persons. Not every emotion is good when expressed. The depth of our sinfulness we truly cannot know and if the Lord tells us to not sin in our anger He knows even our emotions are tainted by the sinful nature. But when we walk by the Spirit then we develop self-control as a fruit of this walk and can be better in control of our emotions and can keep emotions from rising up in us that once when we were not controlled by the Spirit we would have felt in a sinful way.
Where does one draw the line in the saying, "well I can't help am not responsible) feeling this way because I am only human" as an out to excuse sin? The OT system even had a sin offering for sins of ignorance or not intentional. What sins are these? We sin and we do not know we do or we sin and we didn't really intend to. -- Romans 7.
The real and ONLY failure to trust in God lies only in the false belief that we can usurp His power and separate ourselves from Him. Out of His love, he created us with the free will to choose to think we can do so. We have but the free will to wander off awhile and then return. Prodigal Son? Our Father's loving Voice will always call us back and guard our feet aright. It is He Who makes the ending sure and guarantees our safe returning home. I do not have the ability, thank God, or the power to make my Creator and Father fatherless, just as with my earthly parents, it is impossible to make them parentless. Yet, a delusional mind WILL believe in the impossible.
It is impossible to have faith in sin, for sin is faithlessness; yet it is possible to have faith that mistakes can be corrected. It is impossible to place equal faith in opposite directions; what faith we give to sin, we take away from holiness; and what we offer holiness has been removed from sin. To believe in something is to put one's faith in it.
In all my years in church and Sunday School, and Christian college, listening to Christian radio and television, etc., the majority of the output was focused on sin, and anger and wrath; very little on the holiness of God's Sons. Is it possible we have faith in sin and very little or NONE in the innocence of our brothers Whom God created?
Behold the Son of God and look upon his purity and be still, in quiet look upon his holiness and offer thanks unto the Father that no guilt has ever touched him. Consider giving your bother or sister to the Holy Spirit as part of your self, and be certain he will be released; unless of course we decide to use him to imprison our self. In the name of freedom choose his release, because we will recognize we will be released together.
We go together, You and I.
Peace