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I do not believe in "early" and "latter" rain (as you are using it), because it is not taught by the Apostles, and I will not discuss it--again, the Scripture is already difficult enough to understand without adding terminology to it, so I prefer to stay within Its bounds.

God works in Christians, but Christians do not always walk in God's works--eg, "obey, for it is God at work in you" Php 2:12,13--that is part of the issue addressed in this thread.

The reason I mentioned that John's letter is against Gnosticism is because it can be abused otherwise--eg, John says that "every spirit that confesses Christ is come in the flesh is of God", but we know that that cannot be true in every case, because the Galatians were never told to not believe...

This issue is easily resolved: it is true that our flesh is sinful, which is why Christ destroys it for us when we share in His death (Ro 6:6, 7:4), but Christ's flesh was not. It may be that this was the reason He had to have no human father--the curse of the sinful flesh may be passed through...

Thanks.

Romans 2:6-16, 14:5,23 disagree with the idea that works we do will not justify and save us--justification by faith alone, and by works of faith is the conundrum this thread seeks to address, and you are free to interact with the material I've furnished which seeks to reconcile the seemingly...

Please go out of your way to not make remarks about others, as it could offend them, and that could start a flame war, which would waste tons of time and space, and destroy the discussion. PLEASE DO NOT MAKE REMARKS ABOUT OTHER USERS.

I'm not going to go out of my way to use or wrangle about terms not used by the Apostles--eg, "early rain". The texts are difficult enough to understand on their own without introducing new terminologies.

As I said before, the actual objection Paul seems to have to the idea of "justification by works" is when it consists in "a righteousness of my own from [the knowledge of good and evil]", but that form of "righteousness" would, by definition, not encompass "God's righteousness" revealed "from...

Well, I need a coherent message before proceeding, so I have had to study and pray about the things the Bible teaches. The idea that "I have to have faith" doesn't work unless you know the message you're supposed to be believing--and that is what this thread is about, making sense of the...

Here is the other post about reconciling the two

In the replies I've sought to reconcile the two etc

At least you don't try to wave the reality away, like so many do. LOL

Right, the thread is called "balancing" the two ideas, or "reconciling" them--I've explained how I would reconcile them in the replies.

What does "justified by faith and or works" mean? Does this mean "you have to choose whether you believe you're justified by faith or by works"?

I'm not saying we serve by the Law--in fact, in the replies, I explicitly condemn that--so that's not the issue. "Salvation by works" (as you are using it) is really a misnomer, as I've argued. Works will save you on the Day of Judgment, so the question is how both can be true, and I've covered...

1. As the OP shows, there is a judgment coming at which only doers of the Law will be justified, thus we must ask God how it is that we are both judged justified in the present by faith alone (not by our own works, so that it can be a gift, not a payment), and, yet, how we are judged justified...

I've heard this epistle was in part a response to Gnosticism, which taught that physical matter was evil, and spirit was pure--and that, as a result, 1) Christ was a spirit, couldn't have incarnated, bc He'd have been sinful if He'd incarnated, 2) they expect Christians to continue on in gross...

Notice: In Galatians, the solution to their error of trying to become perfect by being "under Law" is never "Christ alone--you're not saved by works", the solution to their error is "faith which works by love" and "serve one another by love". This is a working description of... Galatians 3...

Also, even with the rule of Romans 14:5 ("each man must be fully persuaded in his own mind") holding true, there is apparently yet a danger of being persuaded incorrectly: Being incorrectly persuaded, persuaded of a lie, with respect to service to God after being saved by grace through faith and...