Assurance of salvation

[aspen]

There is a basic difference between our understanding of human nature, lively stone. You seem to believe that people are basically evil - that they are trying to fool God and actually hate him and resent having to put up with his heavy handedness.

I believe people are basically good. They behave selfishly because they feel vulnerable, abandoned and afraid due to their own lack of trust.
When God offers them love, they react like a scared animal - snapping back instead of responding with faith.

In the end, I believe some will refuse all attempts by God to reach them with love - they will continue to react out of fear. Hell will be their mercy.

 

[Lively Stone]

There is a basic difference between our understanding of human nature, lively stone. You seem to believe that people are basically evil - that they are trying to fool God and actually hate him and resent having to put up with his heavy handedness.

I believe people are basically good. They behave selfishly because they feel vulnerable, abandoned and afraid due to their own lack of trust.
When God offers them love, they react like a scared animal - snapping back instead of responding with faith.

In the end, I believe some will refuse all attempts by God to reach them with love - they will continue to react out of fear. Hell will be their mercy.

Huh? No one is good. We, in the natural are at enmity with God. We are all born unsaved and destined for condemnation without Christ. Hellfire is not mercy. it is JUDGMENT.

Romans 8:7
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.

Psalm 14:3
They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one.

Psalm 53:3
Every one of them has turned aside; They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one.

Romans 3:12
They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.”


When God says things twice, it is set in stone and we'd best listen! Here He has said it three times.

 

[aspen]

Mmm...I disagree. Genesis 1 tells us that God created us good. I believe him.

The Fall was not into total depravity - if it was, we would not even be able to respond to God at all.

The Fall left us with a tendency for sinful behavior - selfishness.

 

[Lively Stone]

Mmm...I disagree. Genesis 1 tells us that God created us good. I believe him.

The Fall was not into total depravity - if it was, we would not even be able to respond to God at all.

The Fall left us with a tendency for sinful behavior - selfishness.

I believe God, too! We are an excellent work fo God's hands. Everything he made is good. Aways will be. However, man suffered a fall due to sin, and so he is no longer good. Spiritually, without Christ he is dead. When He says no one is good, I believe that, too...don't you?



Jeremiah 17:9
“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,
and desperately wicked.
Who really knows how bad it is?

Psalm 14:2-3
The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

Ephesians 2:5
that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience he brought us to life with Christ. It is by God's grace that you have been saved.

 

[Episkopos]

If someone says that God cannot destroy the wicked...then that person is limiting God. God will act righteously...not according to men but according to His own word.

 

[RichardBurger]

What was the sin that caused mankind to fall?

The answer is simple.

God said "don't eat of this tree or you will die, --- Satan said you can eat of the tree and you will not surely die ---- Who did they believe? --- They believed Satan!

Sin is to not believe God. --- God said, through Paul, that He had a gospel of grace for fallen mankind that was totally based on the work of His Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross..

This thead is titled "Assurance of Salvation and in the O.P. there are many scriptures that support the thread. I think we should believe them.

 

[Lively Stone]

What was the sin that caused mankind to fall?

The answer is simple.

God said "don't eat of this tree or you will die, --- Satan said you can eat of the tree and you will not surely die ---- Who did they believe? --- They believed Satan!

Sin is to not believe God. --- God said, through Paul, that He had a gospel of grace for fallen mankind that was totally based on the work of His Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross..

This thead is titled "Assurance of Salvation and in the O.P. there are many scriptures that support the thread. I think we should believe them.

Amen, Richard...we definitely have God's assurance of salvation!

1 John 5:11-13
And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. [sup]12[/sup] Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. [sup]13[/sup] I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.

Romans 8:38-39
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. [sup]39[/sup] No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

[Episkopos]

What was the sin that caused mankind to fall?

The answer is simple.

God said "don't eat of this tree or you will die, --- Satan said you can eat of the tree and you will not surely die ---- Who did they believe? --- They believed Satan!

Sin is to not believe God. --- God said, through Paul, that He had a gospel of grace for fallen mankind that was totally based on the work of His Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross..

This thead is titled "Assurance of Salvation and in the O.P. there are many scriptures that support the thread. I think we should believe them.

They did not become blind in the spirit until they actually ate the fruit.

 

[aspen]

If someone says that God cannot destroy the wicked...then that person is limiting God. God will act righteously...not according to men but according to His own word.

how about claiming that people cannot be redeemed by God? The idea not only limits God, but damns people

 

[Justinian 1]

how about claiming that people cannot be redeemed by God? The idea not only limits God, but damns people

Dams people that he himself made, I might add.

 

[Lively Stone]

Who's fault is it that people reject God's gift of salvation and eternal life with Him and end up condemned and eternally separated from Him?

 

[Justinian 1]

Who's fault is it that people reject God's gift of salvation and eternal life with Him and end up condemned and eternally separated from Him?

God's for he Himself made us and knew us before we were in the womb. He could have just not made them, but He did, which, unless you believe in the God that I believe, is a horrible thing to let happen.

 

[Lively Stone]

God's for he Himself made us and knew us before we were in the womb. He could have just not made them, but He did, which, unless you believe in the God that I believe, is a horrible thing to let happen.

Sorry, wrong answer, friend!

God is always love, always has been and always will be. People fail at love.

 

[jiggyfly]

Who's fault is it that people reject God's gift of salvation and eternal life with Him and end up condemned and eternally separated from Him?

So you don't believe that God is omnipresent?

 

[Lively Stone]

So you don't believe that God is omnipresent?

God is omnipresent. The Lake of Fire is a place where God confines all evil away from His presence. He is not present in the place of damnation, which is why it exists.

 

[jiggyfly]

God is omnipresent. The Lake of Fire is a place where God confines all evil away from His presence. He is not present in the place of damnation, which is why it exists.

Then we obviously don't share the same understanding of what omnipresent means. What do you think it means?

 

[Lively Stone]

Then we obviously don't share the same understanding of what omnipresent means. What do you think it means?

Hi, jiggy...I am not going to argue with you about this. Omnipresent is only a word and God is beyond such a description. We cannot put God even in that box. He is the creator of the Lake of Fire, reserved for Satan, his angels, death and sinners. He will not be present there.

 

[jiggyfly]

Hi, jiggy...I am not going to argue with you about this. Omnipresent is only a word and God is beyond such a description. We cannot put God even in that box. He is the creator of the Lake of Fire, reserved for Satan, his angels, death and sinners. He will not be present there.

Then by your opinion here God is not omnipresent.

According to Merriam-Websters Dictionary omnipresent means : present in all places at all times

 

[aspen]

It is true.....all three characteristics of God - omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient are all challenged by the doctrine of Hell.

 

[goodshepard55]

Hmmm..but He is there..We walk in God daily, whether we are saved or not..He is everywhere..no where on Heaven or earth or even hell..That His presence is not there....