Not really. Are you forgetting that Christ identifies Himself fully with His people? So Me = Us for all practical purposes.(It is so easy to twist His words just a little, and give them a different meaning than He did.)
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Not really. Are you forgetting that Christ identifies Himself fully with His people? So Me = Us for all practical purposes.(It is so easy to twist His words just a little, and give them a different meaning than He did.)
You are missing the point. Revelation 20 is a critical portion of Bible prophecy, and within the first seven verses, the Holy Spirit repeats "one (a) thousand years" six times, and gives us all the signification events associated with the Millennium (as an overview). Therefore it cannot be dismissed as metaphorical. Furthermore, there is absolutely no good reason to call that thousand years anything else. Unbelief does not qualify as a good reason.Should we build doctrine around those passages?
Friend , God's authoritative word which is all the 66 books of the Bible does not need reconstructing, it needs a hearing with a humble heart.So true. I doubt anything has begged for reconstructing as badly as the mess we have made of modern-day "Religion". We have mixed so much of humanism into it that you can hardly find God's laws in it anymore.
You are right, God's word needs nothing done to it. It is the mess we have turned "religion" into that sorely needs reconstructing.Friend , God's authoritative word which is all the 66 books of the Bible does not need reconstructing, it needs a hearing with a humble heart.
Too bad you don't believe what the Bible testifies of itself that EVERY word is chosen by God. It is the authoritive , inerrant Word of God. Do you not believe God is omnipotent to oversee the writing of His Word?The Bible also says that scribes will corrupt it, so maybe a different definition of Bible, which we obviously do not read in the original, or without human help somewhere along the way iow.
A few weeks ago, I posted a link to a book entitled "75 Questions Your Instructors Pray You will Never Ask," Mostly, the whole thing was dismissed as beneath the dignity of a "true Christian" to bother to respond to. (I also felt this way...… UNTIL I actually tried to answer some of them.)
I am posting just the questions (none of the book's answers) here to see if any of you run across the same dilemmas I did in trying to HONESTLY defend many of my doctrinal positions in replying to these questions.
1. Didn't God Hate the Unborn Infant Esau?
2. Could Pharaoh Have Repented?
3. Does God's Absolute Predestination Make Him Unfair?
4. If We Can't Work Our Way INTO Salvation, How Can We Work Our Way OUT?
5. How Can God GUARANTEE Good for His People Without PREDESTINATING Good?
6. How Can We Escape the Love of God?
7. If We Can "Fall From Grace," Isn't Christ's Intercession Ineffective?
8. Are We LESS Than Conquerors?
9. Doesn't God Make "Vessels Fitted for Destruction"?
10. When Did God Decide to Give Us Eternal Life?
11. Isn't Our Heavenly Inheritance Fully Guaranteed?
12. Aren't Our Good Works Predestined?
13. Didn't Jesus Deliberately Hide His Message so People Wouldn't Repent?
14. Could Judas Have Refused to Betray Jesus?
15. Don't Evil Men Also Glorify God?
16. Can Satan Repent and be Saved?
17. Aren't Men Ordained in Advance to Eternal Life?
18. Doesn't God Compel Men to Believe in Jesus?
19. Didn't God Choose Us Long Before We Accepted Him?
20. How Can an Unregenerate Man Accept Christ?
21. Could the Authorities Have Acted Righteously and Released Jesus?
22. Isn't God's Grace Irresistible?
23. Isn't the Will of God Absolutely Sovereign?
24. Isn't Faith in Christ the Gift of God?
25. Did Christ Die for All Men?
26. Isn't it Immoral for People to Have Sex with Animals?
27. How Can We Love God But Ignore God's Law?
28. Is Profession of Faith Enough, or Do Our Acts Also Count?
29. If Men Won't Obey God's Law, Are They Saved?
30. Are We "Once Saved, Always Saved"?
(to be continued)
And Jesus said Joh 5:26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;What kind of life would this be then...immortal or eternal life that Jesus received as a gift of His Father, and able to confer upon others?God is the Immortal dave, have a nice day ok
Thank you very much. I'm sure I will enjoy these.Willie,
Since I spend a lot of my ministry as an apologist, I've come across these kinds of objections to Christianity or the Bible many times. On my homepage, Truth Challenge, I've written a few articles addressing some of these topics:
1. “Jacob I loved, Esau I hated". What is the meaning?
2. The injustice of the God of Calvinism
3. Was Judas saved and then lost?
4. Sent to hell by God: Calvinism in action?
That should be enough to get us discussing.
Many of the topics you raised I have searched the Scriptures to discover God's answers. Some are what I call 'hot potato' subjects that some pastors and church leaders don't want to discuss.
Oz
It really is ineffective to try and create Strawmen from our own notions that were never expressed by another poster.Too bad you don't believe what the Bible testifies of itself that EVERY word is chosen by God. It is the authoritive , inerrant Word of God. Do you not believe God is omnipotent to oversee the writing of His Word?
If You don't want to believe that the Bible is what it says it is, that is a major stumbling block to knowing the Truth of God & having a personal relationship with Jesus with a believing faith in HIM.
Also it is not helpful or accurate to pull random scripture out of context and misapply it, it needs to be read & understood within the Context which it is written. The not believing the Bible is the word of God leads to the mishandling of it.
I'm still not sure what your religion or spiritual belief is , if you cannot know that the Bible is God's Word and Is reliable you have not found your way & if you do find it , you can easily lose it again.
Glibly speaking this is true, but we ought to understand that the whole of scripture must be taken into account and not just the texts that favour our opinion. The unbelieving spectator to these discussions would imagine the Bible contradicts itself all over the place, but we ought to understand, and act accordingly, that every doctrinal truth is in harmony with all of scripture...the trick is searching deep enough and extensively enough to find it. Most only search far enough to confirm their preconceived ideas, not willing to dig deeper for fear of dismantling their own self-imposed status quo.And the CR's can, just as directly as Dispensationalists do, point to Scriptures that hold their doctrine just as well. As I have said on here many times before, the Bible seems to be written so that people reading it will find the particular, and specific, God they are looking for. Preconceived expectations produce our anticipated results.
All the while, each one is screaming at the other, "There is only ONE Truth... and I have found it!...… NOT YOU!... or THEM, or anyone else!"
I knew, and believed, I was forgiven, loved, and accepted by God years before I had even the remotest understanding of what the gospel is. And I would suggest that there are many on this very forum today who are saved, yet do not fully comprehend what the gospel means and how far reaching its power.How do you know if you are one of the elect? Answer; you believe the gospel when you hear it.
Your experience sounds a lot like mine. Saved apart from church or preaching. But I knew it was Jesus and when I later read the gospel in scripture I believed. I think Cornelius was born again bearing the fruits long before he heard Peter preach. But believing the gospel when heard always reveals the new birth.Glibly speaking this is true, but we ought to understand that the whole of scripture must be taken into account and not just the texts that favour our opinion. The unbelieving spectator to these discussions would imagine the Bible contradicts itself all over the place, but we ought to understand, and act accordingly, that every doctrinal truth is in harmony with all of scripture...the trick is searching deep enough and extensively enough to find it. Most only search far enough to confirm their preconceived ideas, not willing to dig deeper for fear of dismantling their own self-imposed status quo.
I knew, and believed, I was forgiven, loved, and accepted by God years before I had even the remotest understanding of what the gospel is. And I would suggest that there are many on this very forum today who are saved, yet do not fully comprehend what the gospel means and how far reaching its power.
How did I know I was forgiven, loved, and accepted by God? Because Jesus entered my bedroom one evening and told me. He stayed with me literally for several hours before I fell asleep with tears soaking my pillow...I woke the next morning a born again believer in Christ having the holy Spirit already motivating me to good works...even though I had no idea as to the theological and Biblical explanation for any of it. But I had met my Saviour...and that was good enough for me....and Him...and the rule book of religious formulas on the "how to get saved" was for me, and still is, irrelevant.
1 First of all, then, I urge that entreaties [and] prayers, petitions [and] thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men,I think they missed one - and an important one:
God wills the salvation of ALL people and that ALL come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:3-4).
I often say the bible is a Rorschach Test where people see how they believe instead of learning from it. We drag our unwashed carnal mind into it and see what the flesh wants to see. In time God uproots these pagan concepts and begins washing our minds with the water of the word.As I have oft repeated here, I believe the Bible is very definitely written so that anyone can find the god they are looking for. If you truly want, in your heart, to find a god with certain attributes — be it fire & fury, or love and compassion — God is going to let you find what you with your preconceived notions want to find. Thus, "Yes" contradictions will appear to many people who resist looking for deeper answers.
Also from eternity to eternity, guess one would run into some dissonance there tooty, I'll stick with "age-long, an age, a space of time"
There is only One Immortal
Lord Jesus said:Then how is it that the Spirit has not revealed to you what is PLAINLY stated in Scripture -- that God desires the salvation of all mankind, therefore there cannot be any predestination unto salvation.
Every time the word predestined occurs in the New Testament, it is always about the perfection of the saints, never about the salvation of sinners.
well so you say, but imo the concept is developed pretty easily, "For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes," "Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?" even Peter's admonition about reading Paul.You won't find that in the Bible.
the difference imo being that Christ demonstrated His ability to read unpointed Hebrew and Aramaic, the original languages, whereas we cannot. So imo we are mostly agreeing in raised voices here, as I would agree that reading from an inter linear or even a lexicon you would at least remove the guy who could substitute "Easter" right.But the proof that the Old Testament was totally reliable, and faithfully transmitted, are in the words of Christ Himself (who is God):
And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses [Torah], and in the prophets [Neviim], and in the psalms [Ketuvim], concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures [the Tanakh]... (Luke 24:44,45)
If Christ had had any concerns about the corruption of the OT, he could never have said what He did above. So forget about what you stated there, since it is more nonsense from the enemies of Christ and Christianity.