Hi issachar92,
I'm very well aware of the NT's use of the OT. The wicked are condemned already (John 3:18). Cornelius was a devout man but not inChrist, but as to concerning the Jewish faith of that time ..remember the next part ' a God fearer'! When God called Cornelius He was effectively calling Him as he was sending Peter to Him to hear the good news about Jesus Christ. That is the means by which God uses His 'word'. What Cornelious knew of the old things that where passing away (the Mosaic Law), where not going to save Him.
The whole narrative concerning Cornelius is about the Mosaic Law becoming obsolete in redemptive His-story. So I am afraid your argument does not hold concerning your use of Cornelious. For it shows there is now something better than following the law for Salvation..Christ Jesus!
Romans 3:10 starts with 'as it is written'. We know what the following OT verses are quoted from from and Paul's writes with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and along with Romans Ch 1,2,3 shows no one is 'good', Interestingly I am sure you are aware of what he writes in the same discussion in ch3?
Im aware of romans 3, but again, he says "works of the law", these would be tassels, dietary laws, and all the ceremonial dealings. These never justified man, the law was added 430 years afterwards.
Abraham had no law of moses to obey, nor did noah, they were righteous by faith.
The only way anyone has ever been saved is by faith working by love, purifying the heart.
Where me and mainstream churches differ is that when i read ephesians 2:8-9 i think acts 15:1, works of the law, the big controversy. Whereas the mainstream churches think ANY deeds, including baptism, obedience to the commandments of Christ, everything is merely "optional" since you are already saved. This is why James was called an epistle of straw, because James says its not by just mere acknowledgement and belief that man is saved, because faith without works is dead.
In romans 1 and 2 he does not say no one is righteous, he says the opposite. He says gentiles who dont got the law are a law unto themselves by obeying their conscience. Even in Romans 3:10 as yall erroneously claim, Paul aint saying every individual is living like the devil, PAUL HIMSELF SAYS HE KEPT THE LAW BLAMELESS! (and luke 1:6) What he did to christians was in ignorance. Romans 3:9 explaisn who is spoken of, "What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;" and after this he says it is written no one is righteous no not one. He is talking about groups of people. Yall make the same mistake in Romans 9, thinking its about individuals, all you gotta do is go read whats quoted, Esau became Edomites, Jacob became Israelites, its national. There were some edomites who JOINED Israel, so it wasnt every individual edomite who was gonna be wicked.
Paul says closely to what Jesus said in John 5:28-29 in
Romans 2:6-8
Who will render to every man according to his deeds:
To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
You will never find any of this unsystematic theology from lets say, Mark. Its always Paul's writings, which Peter specifically warned us about that folks would twist em. There is no reason to make Paul contradict all of the rest of the bible.
And the reason why I keep bringing up disobedience is not to say you personally havent repented but because as we can CLEARLY see from the churches today, aint many coming outta their sins, its just picnicks and music festivals. And I believe a big part of why repentance is dead is because of the preaching of inability to obey, the original sin. Even some holiness preachers do it. I like tim conway, hes a calvinist and he has great sermons about repentance, but then he has to shoot that arrow of death to his message at the end where he coats it all with the calvinist garbage of nobody can actually do anything, God has to do it for you, even tho He commanded us to do it, we're all gonna slip up.
Another problem is: If you tell people God gotta give them repentance (even tho he tells us to do it... makes no sense...) and then people still mess up all the time, isnt that making God look really bad? Like He aint doing His job properly when people never succeed in anything? If God really did grant us everything He asked of us, free of charge, we would never sin, not even once. And thats a fact. We would all be like Jesus after conversion if God had His way, we'd all follow Him perfectly. So to say God grants repentance to folks and they still contiunously FAIL is just to pin it on God.
Its like theres something in the flesh you can see with a microscope like OH YEAH THATS IT, thats the sin, thats why i cant do nothing.
I just really wonder, how come all them saints in the bible obeyed so well in comparison to us today?
And yup, you are right im just ranting and raving like a madman on this forum. Its of no use i realize, dont know why i bother, maybe im predestined to just type on here while knowing its a waste?
