1. You have utterly no idea what I think faith is. Faith is not mental acknowledgement, It is deeper than this, If you would read my posts. You would see this. But for whatever reason, You think you are all knowing. Thus you know what I believe/
I never said a word about "what you think faith is." I can read for myself, and experience for myself, what the mainstream Christian narrative is about faith. I've been listening to mainstream Christian sermons for 40 years. I did not claim to read your mind. Modern, mainstream Christian theological perspective was the subject of my comments. I literally said that, specifically. I do know that faith without works is dead.
2. In saying this
You prove my point that your focus is on works. No matter how you deny it. You claim you have faith in God. But your faith is in your works. You claim you can not be saved by works, Yet you claim if you do not work hard enough to not do whatever it is you think would cause you to lose salvation. That you will in effect lose eternal life (which means it was never eternal to begin with.
The NT is replete with instructions about works, including "good works versus dead works." I pointed out that there are HUNDREDS of verses on the topic. If we eliminate verses about "works" and "obedience," there will be very little NT left to read.
You say, "you claim you have faith in God. But, your faith is in your works."
My response: "You have utterly no idea what I put my faith in."
EVERY NT writer talks about obeying YHVH. Some people want to distill that down to "obeying Jesus." OK. Jesus said to obey the Law. He NEVER put a time limit on it. He never said it was going to expire. Jesus said, "as long as heaven and earth remain, not one consonant or one diacritical mark will pass from the Law until it is ALL fulfilled."
Heaven and earth are still here, and much of the Law is yet to be fulfilled. So, it has not passed away. It is still the Law.
I NEVER said "if I don't work hard enough I will lose my salvation." That is a complete distortion of what I said. At the very least, it is a dishonest characterization. I did not expect that from you.
I can, however, choose to reject the goodness of YHVH and return to the world. 2 Peter 2 is an entire chapter regarding that very thing. I specifically said, "...unless I did something extraordinary and foolish." Rejecting YHVH and abandoning the faith, just as Peter describes, would be that.
3. You claim the carnal mind can not please God. I agree.. Yet the lost has no basis for having a non carnal mind, everything they do, whether it be a good deed. Or sin, comes from a carnal mind, Its why they can do no good. Because it is who they are. Scripture says we love because God first loved us, You have no capacity to love unless you are saved. Because you have self love fleshly love, Not spiritual love which comes from God.
What the lost have, or don't have, is moot. 1 Corinthians 3 is an entire chapter addressed to a bunch of Christians whom Paul calls "carnal." They are carnal because they are "babes in Christ." They don't know enough to let go of the world they knew before their conversion. They have yet to get past the initiation stage. They have no depth of knowledge. The eighth chapter of Romans is written as a warning to Roman believers. They, too, are hanging on to their past. They have yet to understand that the Law is prophetic evidence for the Messiah. The things they observed in the past honored other gods. Now, they should submit to the Law of YHVH. They can't do that while continuing to honor the gods they once embraced. The feasts of the Torah are all about Jesus. (John 5:46) The carnal Christians have trouble letting go of their traditions. The carnal mind has nothing to do with "the lost." It is about hanging on to paganism while claiming to belong to Jesus.
You ask why people can drown if they are shown Grace. Its easy. Grace was offered to them, They rejected it. They did not believe the one sent to rescue could or would save them. Their pride kept them from trusting, or they trusted self. They either acted like the pharisee, who praised how good he was. Or act like th earthiest, who says their is no God. Or make up their own God (romans 1)
When was grace offered? All I see is that YHVH saw the wickedness of mankind and decided to destroy them. The Bible does NOT say grace was offered and rejected. They did not find favor with YHVH because of their actions. Noah DID find grace because of HIS actions. In BOTH cases, the grace was NOT "unmerited." It was COMPLETELY merited! Those that drowned acted one way, Noah acted another. Those that drowned would have gotten unmerited favor if they had survived. Otherwise, they got what their choices merited.
None of these people are saved. A religious person can look saved, Act saved, Do all these great christian works. Yet in the end, As jesus said, On that day many will come and say did I not do all these great works in your name
Jesus will say, depart. For I never knew you.
Matthew 7:23 "you workers of iniquity." The Greek renders it as "ergezomenoi ten anomian." That literally means "workers without the Law." All the religious people Jesus does not know are the ones who do not obey the Law. They are the carnal Christians. They are the babes in Christ. They may have been a Christian for 30 years. They may have a world-wide ministry. But, they have not moved past the initiation. They are still hanging on to the world and its religious system. For some, they make too much money in the God business. Obeying YHVH would threaten their livelihood.
You want to talk about sanctification and christian growth, We can talk about it. But until we talk about how one will be raised from God on the last day, as apposed to delivered to him for judgment, Then all talk of personal sanctification is meaningless
Again, you return to the "are you saved" theme that reigns supreme. "Saved" is the initiation. It's the first grade. Hebrews 6 tells us it is time to get past the fundamentals and move on to perfection. Of course, he can only write this letter to Hebrews. Only THEY have the background to understand what he is saying. They don't have a phobia about not being saved. That's a modern Christian phenomenon.
How would one move on to perfection? He might look for some instructions. 2 Timothy 3:15-17 tells us that the Scriptures Timothy had from his youth are the instructions in righteousness that will make us perfect. Timothy did not have the NT from his youth. He had the Law and the Prophets.
I don't doubt that you are saved. So, let's move on to sanctification. Sanctification is separation from the world's system of religion. Sanctification is separation from Babylon. Babylon is the system that rejects YHVH's prophetic shadows regarding the Messiah in favor of renamed pagan rituals. Babylon changes YHVH's times and laws.
Daniel 7:25
