ok
I guess no one will be saved then.
See you in Hell. Since that is where we all will be headed
Oh and God is a liar. when He says whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. Whoever hears the word. and entrusts their life to him will be sealed. and how he gives those who believe in him the power to become children of God, and stop being unsaved sinners.
I read someone here post a screed that looked to be about a foot and a half long. Didn't use a measure to find out the precise length of their screed because it wasn't worth my time. The whole point of their mouthing off, after they claimed to be a martyr for doing so do to some cutting they'd had previously on their eyes, but evidently it wasn't so uncomfortable that they could sit in front of a monitor and hope to lead members here to kick the dust off their feet and ignore someone who has posted they're seeking to understand what in the scriptures doesn't seem to line up as a consistent teaching, or doesn't appear to not be contradictory.
The image they give of their style of believer is to call people to turn against people who look to understand what appears to be contradictory. Imagine if Jesus was that lame. No one would bear his name today or follow his words.
I've said it before and shall one last time. I'm not here to bring people to anger or upset. I'm not here to make people think I'm not genuine in my observations. I was a Christian for many a year. And then it suddenly dawned on me as I was reading the new testament that i just couldn't ignore what was being attributed God as his words to me.
That's why when I say, in a different way now, that I find it odd that in both the old testament and the new we're told God doesn't listen to sinners. And the only way people communicate to God as we know is through prayer, as far as giving him something to listen to.
Therefore the natural next question is, when God says more than once that he doesn't listen to sinners, but only to those who are godly and do his will, it becomes a curious issue as to how then can sinners ever hope to get God to hear them ask for forgiveness.
But then what arises is all those scriptures that precede the one's about God not listening to sinners, and those scriptures in between, that tell us everything, absolutely everything, is predestined by God because God is sovereign.
If we accept what Sovereign means, and we accept what God says, if we first accept that the bible is God's word to the world, then we have to wonder when we're told God predestines all things that happen due to his zeal for his own glory, if it is true after all. That God saves people. Chooses people whom he will save and did so before there was any sin to be saved from. Knowing our name before the world came to be. Knowing the name of those whom he'd save before the world full of people needing to be saved came to be.
All those scriptures that seem to form one message from the sovereign God that inspired it to be delivered to the world. God predetermined everything that happens here. God predetermined whom he'd save when it came about that people would need to be saved and even knew them by their name so as to write it down in a book of life. That would be opened at their judgment in heaven so their works would determine their reward there.
And that no one who's name is not there is going to enter heaven. And that God doesn't hear the prayers of sinners would necessarily communicate the message coupled with the predetermination of the individuals salvation, that people are by sovereign authority born to die condemned if they're name is not already in that book of life. And there is nothing that they can do to alter that because God doesn't hear their prayers when they are those sinners.
And the passages shared that tells us all we need do is believe and be saved are presupposed to be referring to those who are referred to in other passages when God tells them that no one can come to belief unless God makes it so.
That entire collection of God's words to the world sends one specific message that should call people to wonder if they're one of those chosen by God? Or if they're simply deluded thinking so.
And then there are those people who claim to be saved, and how can they know, who tell other people looking for clarification that faith is not a feeling! That feeling in the security of Christ and his salvation isn't the issue. Isn't important. Or doesn't exist. Holding faith is what should be priority.
But given what I've just described in brief about what God himself tells us, how does one enter their faith and know for sure they're one God predetermined he would save?
And how can they find out if it happens they're not? When that would mean they're that sinner God won't pay attention to if they pray and ask him!
And how do I arrive at all that? Because the Christian who reads the bible needs to think! THINK! Because God gave you a brain for just that. Don't just read the bible and say, I believe and that's it. Think about what it is telling you to believe. Because at the end of it all, your living your faith, even those who are killed holding to it, cannot truly ignore what they don't like to read that is there in God's own words. Namely, you are not saved of yourselves! Your salvation is a gift from God.
What's that translate to say but that you don't chose to be saved! God grants you that gift himself. And there are plenty of passages that tell you this. You don't choose me (Jesus) I choose you! Boy is that direct.
And of coarse that part in scripture where Jesus says, not everyone who cries out Lord, Lord, is known by him! But isn't praying for salvation crying out to the Lord to save you? If you're already saved because you think you choose to follow Christ, why are you then to be judged after you're dead?
Because it is only then that you find out if you were chosen by God to be saved. He tells you this. Why do people not read the bible and realize what is there?
Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord....
And people who claim you don't work for your salvation? When there are passages in the bible that tell you to work out your salvation? What is that but misleading people by telling them salvation isn't something related to work or works?
Luke 13:24 "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. "
That's my point. To make people think about what they're being asked to accept in scripture they typically read without thinking about the import behind the message. And to ask why is it anyone needs to "find" faith when God tells you already that YOU don't choose him, so you don't choose to have faith, he chooses you. Which would mean, he holds you in the faith he chooses you to enter. You have nothing to do with any of it.
And why would that be a surprise? When you're told to accept two characteristics in particular about God. He's sovereign, for all that means! And he predestined everything , EVERYTHING, according to HIS WILL and due to his zeal for his own glory.
Some who die and go before the judgment thinking they're bound for heaven will be cast out into outer darkness. Remember the parable of the wedding feast? You have to be invited! You don't just crash it.