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i totally agree, and imo this post should be a banner over the concept, definitelyI haven't been around enough to know the context of what is being said here. And I deeply believe in Jesus' truth of knowing a tree by its fruit. But I would just hate for people to get to the point that they claim people have a mental illness because they disagree with the way you believe. Don't forget that Joy Behar basically said that we all have a mental illness because of our beliefs.
Works are not a means to salvation, but a result and byproduct of salvation. We're saved by grace through faith. It's only through Christ. But James makes it clear that faith without works is dead faith. He's not talking about earning salvation, but just the idea that if you've been transformed by the grace of God, then it's only natural for you to behave differently than you did before experiencing that grace. If you're not behaving differently, then you probably should look at your heart and get back to setting your affection on things above.
i don't disagree with you in spirit here, but i would assert that there are counterfeits for these.
I am skeptical here, mostly bc (because) "there is nothing new under the sun."
God's heart has never changed, but our ability to access God's heart has changed. Jesus paid the price to reconcile us to the Father. We have access to Him now, whereas before Jesus' perfect sacrifice, only the priests had access through sacrifices.
imo this does not stand up very well, Abram would likely disagree, and the command to follow Christ can be found in Leviticus, "Love your neighbor as yourself," and even way before then, to Hammurabi even. "No Son of Man may die for another's sins; the soul that sins will die" should be considered here imo. Jesus did not die for your sins, iow, in a very real sense
I'm not following you here. Are you saying that Jesus didn't die as a sacrifice for our atonement? He didn't die for our sins, but scripture is pretty clear that He died because of our sinful state. The NT is also pretty clear that a lot has changed. Ephesians talks a lot about how the dividing walls have been removed, and Jews and Gentiles all have access together now. 2 Cor. 5 talks about how Jesus reconciled us to the Father. I'm really interested to know how you could possibly come to Christ and read the New Testament, and think that nothing has changed as a result of Jesus death and resurrection.
Haha. I'm sure you're right.
yes; God did not need a sacrifice, otherwise we would not be called to sacrifice again, in "Living Sacrifice."
lol, good one
I have no idea where you're coming from. Do you believe that Jesus literally died on the cross, or not? If you do believe that, why in the world would He do it if it wasn't really needed? If you don't believe He literally died on the cross, then I really have no way to converse with you because we're worlds apart.
there is nothing new in the world, i am convinced. Human perspectives change imo, not God. so, to reply to these briefly,
i would not put it like that, obv our perspectives have undergone several evolutions since then
Lol. Well, first you need to answer my questions in my last post before I can really spend a lot of time on anything.
it took about 40 years, fwiw; but i am hard-headed
standing on the backs of non-religious giants, ok, i got all of this from pastors; well, not paper-ordained ones
yes, but
needed by whom? i know this is a pain, but let's get that est'd first, i guess
People might learn to understand your perspective more if you could stick with the discussion and clearly answer specific questions without evading them by going on wild, philosophical tangents.it took about 40 years, fwiw; but i am hard-headed
are you aware that Scripture was almost surely written from the same perspective as the writers of Tao? "Eastern Dialecticism," they call it. i know esoteric new terms are a pain, but then you, we are intimately fam with the "Hegelian Dialectic" without knowing the term; it is built in to our Logical pov, see, a winner and a loser are implied.
So, everyone else here is prolly sick of hearing it, so you might explore "authors of Torah were acknowledged masters of Eastern dialecticism," or iow Scripture was not written from a logical pov, and i'll be invoking such vv as "God's Nonsense," "hidden from the wise," etc to expand further.
since i'm sure you are now worried about my sanity, let me say that we must follow Christ or be doomed, ok,
iow you are going to end up in some cul-de-sac here.
Strictly a diff perspective; the one little kids have, imo
what do you mean "yes but"?
i have faith in God and his Son Christ, and i no longer believe that beliefs are good for much other than keeping ppl from perceiving better truth when it presents itself. As evidence i might say that regardless of our beliefs on the matter, Christ's crucifixion comes down to us as a story, that we cannot possibly factually verify, right? There was no first-century town of Nazareth, etc etc.
