Brakelite
Well-Known Member
Exactly. Can there be any life, in any of it's forms, if separated from He who gives and sustains it?
Where is hell? Where is heaven?
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Ronald Nolette
Well-Known Member
Well if the bible speaks of it we should pay attention to it. We are supposed to study to show ourselves approved unto god as well! This sounds like you just wish to throw out an opinion and then tell those who show you wrong- that "Hey, it isn't a salvation issue so why keep talking".
If that is your guideline then why don't you simply discard all teh parts of Sacred Scripture that don't deal directly with salvation. Then you won't be bogged down by "knowledge".
Speaking the truth in love requires one to be faithful to Scripture in all things the church is to keep! and Hell and heaven and the lake of fire happen to be part of that knowledge we are to acquire.
It just depends on what exactly God did when He created us. And how we define life, and existence. I don't believe all existence is life.
Much love!
How are you coming to all of those conclusions about me when all I did was ask questions on my last post to you. You did not answer my questions.
For your information I read all of the Bible continuously, but I don't draw conclusions because someone else did. I look to and wait on the Lord! Anything for which I may not have an answer is put on hold until I do... if ever I do. I have never discarded any verses at all. I read all of them. But reading and studying does Not and cannot give us all of the answers that God has available!
"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." John 14:26
I find that none of these doctrines exist in a vacuum. What we think about one thing will affect how we think of others. And then there is the matter of how we read an interpret the Bible.
The more I learn, about whatever is in Scripture, the more I seem to trust Him, and to love Him.
Much love!
Brakelite
Well-Known Member
Having an inaccurate knowledge of the state of the dead can affect our salvation.
KJV Isaiah 8:19-20
19 And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?
20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
If we do have the Light of God in us and we are always led by the Spirit we will never seek after inaccurate knowledge nor follow after inaccurate knowledge which would lead us away from God.
Our knowledge or the lack thereof regarding the state of the dead will make no difference IF we are staying on the Lord's side. He will not lead us astray. Our problems arise or are aggravated when we follow our own carnal ways and work in anything other than the Holy Spirit.
Led by the Spirit, we should seek to become more knowledgeable in the things of God, but while we are walking along the highway of holiness and are unable to see beyond our next step are we lost? Peter looked away from Jesus for a very short time not realizing the danger in it, but immediately he called out and Jesus took hold of his hand so that he did not continue to sink back into the death that was beneath him.
No, not if we are following Jesus! Our anchor sure and steadfast, holding through the veil.
Much love!
Brakelite
Well-Known Member
The only alternative to life is death, and when death is destroyed in the fire what then? I know that's only metaphorical... But it is explained elsewhere... There shall be no more death.
Can you explain existence without life that yet has awareness?
Let me approach my idea from a different direction.
What if we are to postulate that when God made man, that He made him with a soul, as it were, that begins, and continues, and is made to be forever.
Man fell, and changed because of sin, and became dead, a dead humanity. But still it goes on reproducing, living and dying in our own eyes, but dead to God, the thing He made man as had died from sin, and this carcass is all that is left.
But the inside part I call me had been made to last, we are all of one stuff, and when we come back to life, it's because this part gets reconnected to God.
Where my body is, and where I am in relation to my body, again, I saw the dead, small and great . . . this is not where the body is. That's lying in a grave on earth . . .
Much love!
Brakelite
Well-Known Member
How would a missionary explain from scripture why the massive tribes he is speaking to should cease from ancestor worship? How does he explain that who they are worshipping are not their ancestors, but demons, off that missionary firmly believes his own grandmother visits him from time to time, and that this is a common thing among humans for the spirits of the dead to wander the earth, talk with us, are "delayed" in going to heaven... Or hell.
Ronald Nolette
Well-Known Member
Simply stating what your answer to me appeared to be. Whether it is or not I know not.
Well your picture puts you like me- a seasoned saint. Don't know how long you have been a believer and have read the Bible, but if you want the verses that shopw that heaven, hell, and the lake of fire are actual real places, let me know, I will gladly show you.
Ronald Nolette
Well-Known Member
Well as Peter said, no teaching of the Scripture is of any personal interpretation. The reason we are living in the age of apostasy of the church is due to there is too much interpreting going on and not enough obeying!
If Christians interpreted peoples conversations the way they "interpret" Scripture we would be offending about 90% of the people we talk to!
One person at the time: The missionary must be concerned with doing his job to assure his own salvation while he is trying to help others. For his own sake he has to do what he believes is the right thing which means he teaches what God has shown him...or what he believes God has shown him. This is so on any point including what he believes about hell and heaven. How well is he following the Light? That is his own salvation.
The salvation of each person that hears the missionary would be dependent on what the hearer does with what he has heard. Don't make it harder than it is. The missionary cannot save or condemn anyone, but God can and does use Him to convey information. God knows what he doing and looks at each heart...that of the missionary as well as each heart that hears the ma. While the missionary would be may interested in the final judgement of another person he does not and usually does not need to understand all of the whys for the individual hearer.
How hungry and thirsty is the hearer for righteousness? If he is hungry and thirsty he will be filled through the missionary or by some other means.
"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." Matt 5:6
And our God knows more than both of us combined. He is certainly the one to follow!
Over the years I have moved from here to there. About 30 years ago I was moving steadily but too much under my own steam and I back slid for 10 years. When God brought me back He gave me a better Way telling to keep my eyes and ears open.
Answers I have for me, but I don't insist that others receive them and embrace them. I was likely once precisely where they are so who am I say, "Be ye followers of me"... I would always have to add as Paul did... "as I also am of Christ". When I miss a step and stumble I don't want anyone falling into the ditch too..
I really appreciate your offer, but would just the verses reestablish where I am? I was 32 years old when I started reading a Bible in 1976. I tried to stop when I was out for 10 years, but God was there all of the time. Since coming back in 2002 I 've been striving to be a reasonable service type of person. How well have I failed or succeeded? The success is not in the striving, but in the surrender. The end is not yet...!
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service" Rom 12:1
Ronald Nolette
Well-Known Member
I wish you would have finished the thought of Romans 12:
Romans 12:1-3
King James Version
12 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
2 Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
King James Version
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
As I tell all my classes of adults,
1 Right living comes from right thinking
2. Right thinking comes from right knowledge
3. right knowledge comes from he word of God!
We are all called to be service type people. Serve God and serve others. But if we are to serve them with divine power, we must have doctrine correctly established in our souls.
