Dear GodsGrace,
Thanks for the detailed response. I will respond in a general way to your comments since they are primarily based upon your false belief that a person must add their own works to be saved. Scripture teaches that Christ does all the works, including giving a person their faith in Him. He is the Savior and He does the saving.
First of all, you must remember that mankind was created spiritually marred and subject to vanity. In this condition, mankind developed a carnal mind which causes mankind to sin. When a person sins, they become a child of the Devil who is condemned already.
Also, the carnal mind of man has a hatred for God and cannot understand God's ways, nor does it give a person the desire to follow Christ. If Christ didn't give a person the Early Rain, they would remain an unbeliever until they die.
Below is why Peter and the other apostles were able to recognize who Jesus was and why they had faith.
These verses apply:
Mat 16:16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 13:16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
1Cor 12:3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit.
If Peter's ability to understand who Jesus was came from his own natural abilities, Christ would have told him so at that time. But Christ did not do so because mankind has no ability to "see" and accept who Jesus is a part from having at least a small measure of the Holy Spirit within them. For that reason, Christ tells Peter that the truth that was revealed to Him came from His Father in heaven and did not come from his own natural abilities (flesh and blood).
If the Father had not blessed Peter with eyes that can see, Peter would have never understood or accepted that Jesus was the Christ.
The truth that I explained above is a foundational concept that the carnal mind of man will not accept. The carnal mind tells the person that they have at least some good in them and that they have the ability to make the choice as to whether or not to have faith in Christ. However, this supposed free will ability is a lie from Satan. When a babe accepts this lie, they become a man of sin who sits in God's Temple claiming to be God who alone has a free will ability.
Since God causes all things to happen in this creation, even the evil that is in the world originates with God. When a person sins, it is because it was God's "will" for it to happen. Since this is what Paul taught to the babes in his churches, Paul was asked about the fairness of why God still holds a person accountable for their sins since God was the cause of it happening.
Here is the scripture:
Rom 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? 20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Nothing in this creation happens by chance or by mankind's supposed free will ability. All things come from God - and that includes the evil in this world.
Consider these scriptures:
Amos 3:6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?
Lam 3:38 Out of the mouth of the Most High doth not there proceed evil and good?
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Ecc 7:13 Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?
Prov 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Job 2:10 But he said to her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. We have also received good from God, and should we not receive evil? In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
The pathway to salvation that is presented in many of Christ's teachings includes a time of great tribulation where every babe will fall from grace and become apostate. The babe has no free will ability to avoid it happening to them because it was God's "will" for it to happen. As Mat 4:4 says, mankind is not saved (lives) by bread alone. The pathway to salvation includes a time of eating leavened bread which is the reason why a babe will become unfaithful and mixes in works with faith. When a babe does this mixing, they will no longer be under the New Covenant of Grace through Faith and will no longer be justified.
I want to address one other point that you made which concerns salvation. Mankind's salvation occurs when a person is spiritually made to be like Christ who does not sin and who only walks by the Spirit. In other words, mankind's salvation is being converted from a child of the Devil into being a child of God.
To accomplish a person's salvation, Christ will come to the person without their asking and without their permission (just like Christ did with Paul on the Damascus Road). When Christ comes, He will freely give the person a small measure of the Holy Spirit. The Early Rain will produce faith within the person after they hear the Gospel. It is this faith that justifies them before the Law and before God. However, at this point, the person remains unconverted and is therefore not saved yet. To be saved, Christ must appear to the person a second time (the second coming of Christ) and convert them. It is the person's faith that makes Christ's pathway straight for Him to come and do this work.
Since the time Paul's death, the pathway to salvation started including a time of being apostate. When a babe becomes apostate, they will follow Satan's false gospel which mixes works with faith. When a babe does this mixing, they have spiritually fornicated with Satan which makes them "unfaithful" (no longer a chaste virgin). In this condition, the pathway for Christ to appear to them a second time has been made "crooked" so He will not appear and convert them.
Because Satan teaches the crooked way of works, Satan is called the crooked serpent.
For the babes who are elect, Christ will come to them a second time and give them the baptism of the Holy Spirit. With the Latter Rain, the person's spiritual blindness will be healed and they will come out from Satan's deceptions. This is when the person will see the Abomination of Desolation that previously occurred within themselves.
After the person's faith has been restored by the Latter Rain, Christ's pathway will again be made straight. Christ will then immediately appear to them and the Day of the Lord will commence. During this judgment, Christ will remove and destroy the spirit of anti-Christ and the person's marred spirit which has made them carnally minded and sinful. In Christ's spiritual language, mankind's marred and sinful spirit is commonly called a harlot or a Great Harlot.
Here is a scripture that shows this judgment:
Mat 24:37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 40 Then shall two be in the field (contained in one person); the one shall be taken (the spirit of anti-Christ/man of sin), and the other left (Holy Spirit/child of God). 41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill (contained in one person); the one shall be taken (the Great Harlot/marred spirit), and the other left (new spirit with a divine nature).
After this judgment is complete, the individual will be converted and saved.
Joe