Ernest T. Bass
Well-Known Member
Salvation, is not you doing something so that God will let you go to heaven.
Listen, if you could earn the right to go to heaven, Christ didn't have to DIE FOR YOU>
Do you understand this?
Will you ever?
Also, there is no example of God ever saving anyone who went to hell later.
Try to understand WHY, and you have begun to understand this......>"Jesus said from the Cross..... "IT IS Finished".
What is """""finished""""", Earnest?
What did Christ FINISH, by shedding His Blood, and Dying, and being raised from the dead. ??????
Listen, what He "finished", you have to have, or you will not go to heaven.
You can not ride a wave of water baptism into heaven.
That wont do it.
You must be "BORN AGAIN"< and Water wont get you there.
You dont understand what is "finished" yet....that Christ has completed..., and until you do, you will continue to try to work your way into heaven, and that is not possible.
One is either 1) obeying God's will or 2) disobeying God's will....there is no middle ground or third option. There is not an example in the Bible of God ever saving those who continued in disobedience and rebellion in doing His will. So the Calvinists argument dies right here. God has mercy upon those who repent/obey and no mercy for those who will not (Jeremiah 18:8-10) and not a single place in the Bible is obedience to God's will described as a work of merit done to earn God's free gift. The Calvinist argument dies another death here.
Romans 6:16, again there is just two options for man, 1) salvation or 2) condemnation) meaning man is serving one of two masters, each person is either serving 1) sin unto death (condemnation) or 2) serving obedience unto righteousness. There is no middle ground or third option. Faith only denies 'obedience unto righteousness' so it has one serving 'sin unto death'. And Paul said obedience UNTO righteousness, he did NOT say one obeys BECAUSE one ALREADY is righteousness for there is no such idea found in the Bible of one being righteous BEFORE he did any righteousness of God.
Salvation is a free gift so it cannot be earned. Yet God has made the gift of salvation CONDITIONAL and meeting the preconditions does not in anyway earn the free gift. This is a common every day truth and fact faith onlyist dent and cannot accept. Therefore they will never have an accurate understanding of Biblical salvation. God did not owe Naaman anything but God would mercifully heal his disease IF he met the condition of dipping in the Jordan 7 times. Not until Naaman OBEYED and dipped as God said did God cleanse his disease. His dipping was an obedient work but earned him NOTHING, yet the dipping was necessary to meet the condition GOD placed upon the free gift of healing.
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When Christ said "it is finished" He was referring to HIS WORK in coming to earth doing His Father's will in dying on the cross for mankind, finished His earthly personal ministry work, (John 17:14). He finished His work in taking away the law of Moses and replacing it with His NT gospel. Christ finished HIS WORK that was necessary for man to have full redemption of of sins, to have all his sins completely, entirely remitted and washed away. Yet Christ did not say man's work is finished for man must work in obeying God to take advantage of what Christ's work provided, that being, full forgiveness of sins. It therefore it is incumbent upon man, man's responsibility and accountability, to obey Christ in believing, repenting of sins, confessing with the mouth and be baptized to receive the benefits of Christ's work...forgiveness of sins. Then for those who obey thereby becoming Christians they are then to "take up the cross daily", to take up what Jesus finished by doing the work of taking Christ's gospel message to the lost world (Mark 16:15-16), in doing good works (Ephesians 2:10) to work out your own salvation, (Phil 2:12) to strive to enter the narrow, strait gate that leads to life (Matthew 7:13-14); to keep Christ's works (Revelation 2:26); to be faithful unto death (Revelation 2:10).
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John 3:5 ...........born of water and Spirit (born again) >>>>>>>>> enter the kingdom of heaven
Matthew 7:21....doeth the will of the Father >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> enter the kingdom of heaven
Since there is but one way to be saved/enter the kingdom, then there is a definite connection between being born again and doing the will of the Father. God has commanded men to be water baptized and those who do so are doing the will of the Father, are born again and can enter the kingdom. So being born again is not an arbitrary decision God makes for men causing God to be a respecter of persons but a decision man makes for himself whereby those (as Nicodemus) who have not been born their OWN culpability and not God's culpability. If God alone determines which men will or will not be born again then those who have not been born again have no personal culpability in that matter and it would be unjust, unrighteous for God to condemn them. Yet since the new birth occurs when one is baptized and men choose for themselves to be baptized or not then culpability lies 100% with man for not being born again and they can rightly, justly be condemned.
John 3:5-------Spirit +++++++born of water >>>>>>> enter the kingdom
1 Cor 12:13---Spirit +++++++ baptized >>>>>>>>> enter the body
Titus 3:5-----Holy Ghost ++++ washing of reg. >>>>> saved
The Bible being its own best commentary sheds clear light on the subject that born of water is referring to water baptism.