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What specifically does the "through Faith" portion mean in todays church?
Faith is just trusting the Lord, it seems to me. It applies to all aspects of our lives.What specifically does the "through Faith" portion mean in todays church?
Such a situation is saying God was not leading the man there, he did it on his own, and the man hoped God would comply with his plan.Faith is just trusting the Lord, it seems to me. It applies to all aspects of our lives.
The church must use judgment - it musn't presume the Lord approves of all its whims. If Pastor John Doe wants to build a gold temple on the top of a mountain, and proposes the church goes deep into debt to pay for the temple, one can't presume the Lord will provide the money to pay back the loan.
Churches are not perfect. They make mistakes.Such a situation is saying God was not leading the man there, he did it on his own, and the man hoped God would comply with his plan.
the man's faith was totally misplaced contrary to God's will for the situation. If the man is boasting about this or that thing, James says such a thing the man did is evil.
If God is not in it, it wont be successful. Jesus tells us without Him we can do nothing.
James has the right attitude, as does Moses about 'following' the Lord, Israel in the wilderness literally did that.
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
Numbers 9
15 Now on the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the Testimony; from evening until morning it was above the tabernacle like the appearance of fire. 16 So it was always: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. 17 Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, after that the children of Israel would journey; and in the place where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel would pitch their tents. 18 At the command of the Lord the children of Israel would journey, and at the command of the Lord they would camp; as long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle they remained encamped. 19 Even when the cloud continued long, many days above the tabernacle, the children of Israel kept the charge of the Lord and did not journey
Faith is just trusting the Lord, it seems to me. It applies to all aspects of our lives.
The church must use judgment - it musn't presume the Lord approves of all its whims. If Pastor John Doe wants to build a gold temple on the top of a mountain, and proposes the church goes deep into debt to pay for the temple, one can't presume the Lord will provide the money to pay back the loan.
What specifically does the "through Faith" portion mean in todays church?
"Grace through faith" means both God and man have a role in man being saved....man's role is having faith which come by hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17) and God's role is providing grace. It also means God has made receiving His grace conditional upon man having faith. And since man's faith will not be perfectly sinless, then grace is necessary to bridge the gap that sin can create between God and man. Though grace is a free gift therefore cannot be earned, it does come with conditions as belief, repentance, confession and baptism and obeying in meeting these preconditions does not, cannot in anyway earn the free gift. If grace were completely UNconditional then all men universally would receive grace and be saved, (Titus 2:11) but that is not the case (Matthew 7:13).
Lastly, Ephesians 2:8 says "faith", it does NOT say 'faith only' nor does it say "grace only". 'Faith' and 'faith only' are NOT the same thing...faith justifies (Romans 5:1) but faith only does not justify (James 2:24). If faith and faith only were the same thing then both would justify or neither one would justify. The difference is faith includes obeying God's will while faith only is void of obeying God's will. No one ever UNconditionally received grace as long as they continue, remain in disobedience, defiance of obeying God's will. One must FIRST CONDITIONALLY have an obedient faith THEN one receives grace. And since faith is what gives access to grace (Romans 5:2) one must conditionally keep faith for life for if one casts away his faith (Hebrews 3:12; 1 Timothy 5:12) he no longer will have access to grace.....no such thing as having UNconditional access to grace. (Paul refutes "grace only" in Romans 6)
For me, "trust" and "faith" are the same thing.Trust is a part of Faith but taken as a whole for salvation would be error.
The Greek has the noun Pistis where we get our English word Faith. The Greek also has a corresponding verb to noun pistis, pisteuo. Pisteuo is a verb an action word. The English language didnt have a corresponding verb to our noun Faith like the Greek does. The words that should have been available are faithe, faither, and faithing. Wycliffe chose to use the words believe, believer, and believing to translate pisteuo.
Pisteuo is defined in the Vines Greek dictionary as, "A personal surrender to Him, and a life inspired by such surrender
The Strongs gives the disclaimer, "Pisteuo means not just to believe."
The A, B, C's of Faith are action, based upon a belief, sustained by confidense. The act, a continually surrendered life. Based upon a belief, that God will accept the surrendered life. sustained by confidense, That all the many little daily decisions we make support the fact our lives are not ours anymore but His now. Trust would be a product of this process.
For the most part i agree with your understanding.
But i don't think our relationship with Christ is a partnership of sorts. We surrender daily, live life making decisions that support such surrender, We don't bring any terms to the table. we surrender to be a slave to the one we surrender to.
The relationship gets into the deeper truths of God which are paradoxes, a discussion for another time.
I agree that Grace cannot be earned, but salvation is conditional to a correct response to the Fathers call. That correct response is Pisteuo, A personal surrender to Him, and a life inspired by such surrender. This response begins the journey through the acceptance, the testing ground or parable of the sower, the grafting process, and then receiving the Spirit of Christ. Once the Spirit of Christ is sealed in us, the obedience comes from the Spirit inside. Just as Paul said in Rom 7:14-21, its not me doing it but sin dwelling in me doing it. Well it's the same on the other side, if he does something he wants to do, it's not him doing it but the Spirit of Christ in him doing it.
Hmm. Faither, There's an implication in your question that "today's church" and the early church might be at odds with each other where Biblical doctrine is concerned. No matter since sound doctrine is still available in some churches today.What specifically does the "through Faith" portion mean in todays church?
Trust is a part of Faith but taken as a whole for salvation would be error.
The Greek has the noun Pistis where we get our English word Faith. The Greek also has a corresponding verb to noun pistis, pisteuo. Pisteuo is a verb an action word. The English language didnt have a corresponding verb to our noun Faith like the Greek does. The words that should have been available are faithe, faither, and faithing. Wycliffe chose to use the words believe, believer, and believing to translate pisteuo.
Pisteuo is defined in the Vines Greek dictionary as, "A personal surrender to Him, and a life inspired by such surrender
The Strongs gives the disclaimer, "Pisteuo means not just to believe."
The A, B, C's of Faith are action, based upon a belief, sustained by confidense. The act, a continually surrendered life. Based upon a belief, that God will accept the surrendered life. sustained by confidense, That all the many little daily decisions we make support the fact our lives are not ours anymore but His now. Trust would be a product of this process.
There is a synergy that takes place where BOTH God and man have a role in man's salvation...no monergism. If man has no role in his own salvation then how will it be determined who will or will not be saved? Monergism makes God culable for the faithless/lost making God a respecter of person of whom He chooses to save or not save when He isn't (Acts of the Apostles 10:34-35). Therefore it is incumbent upon man, a responsibility given to man to believe (pisteuo) thereby meeting a condition God has placed upon reception of His grace. So the unbeliever (apisteou) can rightly, justly be condemned by God for choosing to not believe.
Wasn't he the guy who had a bunch of hot nude chicks riding around on horses, lol? (Not kidding.)Nice to know I am not the only Gene Scott fan out here.....He was an extremely gifted Teacher of God's Word...