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J
Because Jesus Christ is "as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world" (I Peter 1:19-20) and when Abel offered the firstlings of his flocks, he did so "by faith" in the coming Messiah Whom such sacrifices foreshadowed. Similarly, when God killed an animal and used its skin to clothe both Adam and Eve, He once more foreshadowed "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).
If the new birth came through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ - How could the OT believers become born again? They believed God and it was imputed unto them for righteousness.
Out of my post the only thing you disagree with was: The OT believers were not BORN of the Spirit. Wasn't
"Christ IN you" kept a mystery [secret] and wasn't revealed until Jesus revealed it to Paul?
As I asked before - as believers in the body of Christ - each one of us deserve respect. I may not agree with you but that does not give me the right to degrade you or what you believe. If you are to say that I am unsound and unscriptual in my beliefs then could you please show me where anything I have said is unscriptual?
Out of my post the only thing you disagree with was: The OT believers were not BORN of the Spirit. Wasn't
"Christ IN you" kept a mystery [secret] and wasn't revealed until Jesus revealed it to Paul?
As I asked before - as believers in the body of Christ - each one of us deserve respect. I may not agree with you but that does not give me the right to degrade you or what you believe. If you are to say that I am unsound and unscriptual in my beliefs then could you please show me where anything I have said is unscriptual?
J
Yes, and...???
Do you think that by citing verses which state that the Holy Spirit "came upon" certain individuals in the Old Testament that you somehow negate THE FACT that people in the Old Testament also had the Holy Spirit IN THEM...even as I've already partially documented (Again, I didn't give you an exhaustive list) for you? If you do, then, I'm sorry, but you're very, very unwise.
Furthermore, you obviously have no idea whatsoever as to what John 7:38-39 is all about (and I'll prove as much in a moment) in that you're regularly contradicting yourself in this thread. I mean, on the one hand, you keep on insisting that "the Holy Ghost wasn't GIVEN until Jesus was glorified" while, on the other hand, you yourself admit that "the Holy Ghost WAS GIVEN" to Old Testament saints and to John the Baptist BEFORE "Jesus was glorified". Seriously, you're a "house divided AGAINST YOURSELF" and that's a very, very dangerous place to be.
Whether you've "used the term OSAS" or not, that's obviously what you believe. Also, although it's true that God doesn't go back on His promises, we can STOP BELIEVING and therefore fail to inherit the promises. Yes, we need to PATIENTLY ENDURE UNTO THE END in order to OBTAIN THE PROMISES:
"And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." (Hebrews 6:11-12)
Again:
"Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." (Hebrews 10:35-36)
Like it or not, we need to "show diligence to the full assurance of hope UNTO THE END" that "through faith and patience" we might "inherit the promises" and, like it or not, we can "cast away our confidence" thereby never "receiving the promises".
Also, you would be wise to study the word "pisteuō" which is translated as "believeth" in such places as John 3:16 (and a whole host of other places as well) in the original Greek. The Greek word used is a PRESENT TENSE VERB which denotes CONTINUAL OR CONTINUOUS BELIEVING. IOW, again, one can STOP BELIEVING...even as many scriptures teach. For example, we read:
Hebrews chapter 3
[1] Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;
[2] Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.
[3] For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.
[4] For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.
[5] And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;
[6] But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
[7] Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
[8] Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
[9] When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
[10] Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
[11] So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
[12] Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
[13] But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
[14] For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
[15] While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
[16] For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
[17] But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
[18] And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
[19] So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
These were CHRISTIANS who were being addressed here. Yes, they were "holy brethren", "partakers of the heavenly calling" and/or those of whom "Christ Jesus" was "the Apostle and High Priest of their profession" (Hebrews 3:1). These same CHRISTIANS were admonished to "exhort one another DAILY, WHILE IT IS CALLED TODAY, lest any of them be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin" (Hebrews 3:13) or "lest there be in any of them AN EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF IN DEPARTING FROM THE LIVING GOD" (Hebrews 3:12). Now, c'mon...is it even possible that YOU don't know what that means? Whether you or anybody else likes it or not, CHRISTIANS "are made partakers of Christ IF they hold fast the beginning of their confidence stedfast unto the end" (Hebrews 3:14) or "IF they hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end" (Hebrews 3:6). CHRIST HIMSELF taught the same when He said:
"And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved." (Matthew 10:22)
Again:
"And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." (Matthew 24:12-13)
Again, whether you or others like it or not, a CHRISTIAN'S "love (AGAPE) can wax or grow cold" thereby causing him/her to NOT "endure unto the end" or to NOT be saved. OSAS is a potentially damnable heresy in that it gives the believer in such a false sense of "eternal security" which could prove to be fatal in the end. Again, along these same lines, we read:
"And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;" (Colossians 1:21-23)
Again, you and others might not like the CONDITIONAL "IFS" in the Bible, but they're there for a reason and you'd be very, very unwise to ignore the same and the implications thereof.
Again, I'm sorry, but, in reality, you "know" no such thing. For starters, the word "given" doesn't even appear in the original Greek (check it for yourself, please). No, it was added by the translators and for this reason it appears as an italicized word:
"In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified)." (John 7:37-39)
Also, that the Holy Ghost WAS ALREADY GIVEN, in certain aspects, is quite obvious in that people in the Old Testament either had the Holy Spirit IN THEM or UPON THEM or both...even as we've both cited verses which prove the same. With such a reality before us, what was Jesus actually saying here in John 7:37-39? Well, when He said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink", this immediately conjures up images of what transpired with the children of Israel during their wilderness journeys when they "thirsted". You may recall the following:
Exodus chapter 17
[1] And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.
[2] Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?
[3] And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?
[4] And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.
[5] And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.
[6] Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
[7] And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?
In his first epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul tells us that this "Rock which followed them was CHRIST":
I Corinthians chapter 10
[1] Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
[2] And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
[3] And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
[4] And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
Yes, when God instructed Moses to "smite the rock and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink", in type, this was Christ being "smitten" and the water was representative of the outpouring of the Spirit. Jesus more than likely was alluding to this very event when He told His hearers:
"In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified)." (John 7:37-39)
IOW, in the same manner in which the outpouring of the Spirit (which was typified by the water) didn't come until AFTER the rock was smitten, so, too, there wouldn't be the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost until AFTER Christ, the "Rock", had been similarly "smitten". IOW, Jesus was specifically talking about the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost and He was NOT saying that "the Spirit hadn't been GIVEN" in any manner until or prior to this specific point in time. Again, we have ample examples of believers in the Old Testament who either had the Spirit IN THEM or UPON THEM.
Seriously?
You HONESTLY believe that Peter was referring to New Testament prophets?
Let's try this again:
I Peter chapter 1
[9] Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
[10] Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
[11] Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
[12] Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.
What is it about "who PROPHESIED OF THE GRACE THAT SHOULD COME TO YOU" (IOW, they foretold of the same BEFORE it came), "testified BEFOREHAND the sufferings of Christ" (or prophesied of the same BEFORE IT HAPPENED) and "NOT UNTO THEMSELVES, BUT UNTO US" that you don't understand?
Like it or not, the Old Testament prophets had the Spirit of Christ IN THEM. Period.
I'll get to some more of your egregious error later as this post in long enough already. In the interim, you really ought to humble yourself before the Lord because you're way off base on a whole host of things and it's not the Spirit of Christ that's leading you in that manner. I'm sorry to have to be so blunt, but I'm not just going to sit here as you spread your error all over the place. IOW, I'm trying to help both you and those who might be misled by the same.
Do you think that by citing verses which state that the Holy Spirit "came upon" certain individuals in the Old Testament that you somehow negate THE FACT that people in the Old Testament also had the Holy Spirit IN THEM...even as I've already partially documented (Again, I didn't give you an exhaustive list) for you? If you do, then, I'm sorry, but you're very, very unwise.
Furthermore, you obviously have no idea whatsoever as to what John 7:38-39 is all about (and I'll prove as much in a moment) in that you're regularly contradicting yourself in this thread. I mean, on the one hand, you keep on insisting that "the Holy Ghost wasn't GIVEN until Jesus was glorified" while, on the other hand, you yourself admit that "the Holy Ghost WAS GIVEN" to Old Testament saints and to John the Baptist BEFORE "Jesus was glorified". Seriously, you're a "house divided AGAINST YOURSELF" and that's a very, very dangerous place to be.
Whether you've "used the term OSAS" or not, that's obviously what you believe. Also, although it's true that God doesn't go back on His promises, we can STOP BELIEVING and therefore fail to inherit the promises. Yes, we need to PATIENTLY ENDURE UNTO THE END in order to OBTAIN THE PROMISES:
"And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." (Hebrews 6:11-12)
Again:
"Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." (Hebrews 10:35-36)
Like it or not, we need to "show diligence to the full assurance of hope UNTO THE END" that "through faith and patience" we might "inherit the promises" and, like it or not, we can "cast away our confidence" thereby never "receiving the promises".
Also, you would be wise to study the word "pisteuō" which is translated as "believeth" in such places as John 3:16 (and a whole host of other places as well) in the original Greek. The Greek word used is a PRESENT TENSE VERB which denotes CONTINUAL OR CONTINUOUS BELIEVING. IOW, again, one can STOP BELIEVING...even as many scriptures teach. For example, we read:
Hebrews chapter 3
[1] Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;
[2] Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.
[3] For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.
[4] For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.
[5] And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;
[6] But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
[7] Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
[8] Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
[9] When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
[10] Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
[11] So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
[12] Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
[13] But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
[14] For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
[15] While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
[16] For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
[17] But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
[18] And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
[19] So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
These were CHRISTIANS who were being addressed here. Yes, they were "holy brethren", "partakers of the heavenly calling" and/or those of whom "Christ Jesus" was "the Apostle and High Priest of their profession" (Hebrews 3:1). These same CHRISTIANS were admonished to "exhort one another DAILY, WHILE IT IS CALLED TODAY, lest any of them be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin" (Hebrews 3:13) or "lest there be in any of them AN EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF IN DEPARTING FROM THE LIVING GOD" (Hebrews 3:12). Now, c'mon...is it even possible that YOU don't know what that means? Whether you or anybody else likes it or not, CHRISTIANS "are made partakers of Christ IF they hold fast the beginning of their confidence stedfast unto the end" (Hebrews 3:14) or "IF they hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end" (Hebrews 3:6). CHRIST HIMSELF taught the same when He said:
"And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved." (Matthew 10:22)
Again:
"And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." (Matthew 24:12-13)
Again, whether you or others like it or not, a CHRISTIAN'S "love (AGAPE) can wax or grow cold" thereby causing him/her to NOT "endure unto the end" or to NOT be saved. OSAS is a potentially damnable heresy in that it gives the believer in such a false sense of "eternal security" which could prove to be fatal in the end. Again, along these same lines, we read:
"And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;" (Colossians 1:21-23)
Again, you and others might not like the CONDITIONAL "IFS" in the Bible, but they're there for a reason and you'd be very, very unwise to ignore the same and the implications thereof.
Again, I'm sorry, but, in reality, you "know" no such thing. For starters, the word "given" doesn't even appear in the original Greek (check it for yourself, please). No, it was added by the translators and for this reason it appears as an italicized word:
"In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified)." (John 7:37-39)
Also, that the Holy Ghost WAS ALREADY GIVEN, in certain aspects, is quite obvious in that people in the Old Testament either had the Holy Spirit IN THEM or UPON THEM or both...even as we've both cited verses which prove the same. With such a reality before us, what was Jesus actually saying here in John 7:37-39? Well, when He said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink", this immediately conjures up images of what transpired with the children of Israel during their wilderness journeys when they "thirsted". You may recall the following:
Exodus chapter 17
[1] And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.
[2] Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?
[3] And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?
[4] And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.
[5] And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.
[6] Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
[7] And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?
In his first epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul tells us that this "Rock which followed them was CHRIST":
I Corinthians chapter 10
[1] Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
[2] And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
[3] And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
[4] And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
Yes, when God instructed Moses to "smite the rock and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink", in type, this was Christ being "smitten" and the water was representative of the outpouring of the Spirit. Jesus more than likely was alluding to this very event when He told His hearers:
"In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified)." (John 7:37-39)
IOW, in the same manner in which the outpouring of the Spirit (which was typified by the water) didn't come until AFTER the rock was smitten, so, too, there wouldn't be the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost until AFTER Christ, the "Rock", had been similarly "smitten". IOW, Jesus was specifically talking about the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost and He was NOT saying that "the Spirit hadn't been GIVEN" in any manner until or prior to this specific point in time. Again, we have ample examples of believers in the Old Testament who either had the Spirit IN THEM or UPON THEM.
Seriously?
You HONESTLY believe that Peter was referring to New Testament prophets?
Let's try this again:
I Peter chapter 1
[9] Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
[10] Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
[11] Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
[12] Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.
What is it about "who PROPHESIED OF THE GRACE THAT SHOULD COME TO YOU" (IOW, they foretold of the same BEFORE it came), "testified BEFOREHAND the sufferings of Christ" (or prophesied of the same BEFORE IT HAPPENED) and "NOT UNTO THEMSELVES, BUT UNTO US" that you don't understand?
Like it or not, the Old Testament prophets had the Spirit of Christ IN THEM. Period.
I'll get to some more of your egregious error later as this post in long enough already. In the interim, you really ought to humble yourself before the Lord because you're way off base on a whole host of things and it's not the Spirit of Christ that's leading you in that manner. I'm sorry to have to be so blunt, but I'm not just going to sit here as you spread your error all over the place. IOW, I'm trying to help both you and those who might be misled by the same.
JesusistheChrist...
there are 7 Spirits of God.. The Holy Ghost wasn't given until Jesus was glorified.. The word given not there in Greek makes no difference, the purpose of the scripture remains the same..
And the spirit of YAHWEH shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of YAHWEH;
there are 7 Spirits of God.. The Holy Ghost wasn't given until Jesus was glorified.. The word given not there in Greek makes no difference, the purpose of the scripture remains the same..
And the spirit of YAHWEH shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of YAHWEH;
C
Paul compared holy spirit to a seal when he stated: “He who guarantees that you and we belong to Christ and he who has anointed us is God. He has also put his seal upon us and has given us the token of what is to come, that is, the spirit, in our hearts.” (2 Corinthians 1:21, 22) Hence, God anoints these Christians with his holy spirit to indicate that they are his possession.
However, there are two phases in the sealing of anointed ones. The initial sealing differs from the final sealing (1) in purpose and (2) in time. The sealing in an initial sense serves to select a new member who is added to the number of anointed Christians. The sealing in a final sense serves to confirm that this chosen and sealed individual has fully demonstrated his loyalty. Only then, at the final sealing, will the seal be permanently placed ‘in the forehead’ of the anointed one, identifying him conclusively as a tried and faithful ‘slave of our God.
Moreover, Jesus said to a congregation of anointed Christians: “Prove yourself faithful even to death, and I will give you the crown of life.”—Revelation 2:10; 17:14. The Christian life is a disciplined, careful walk that follows the pattern of Christ. Pity the fool who thinks otherwise!
However, there are two phases in the sealing of anointed ones. The initial sealing differs from the final sealing (1) in purpose and (2) in time. The sealing in an initial sense serves to select a new member who is added to the number of anointed Christians. The sealing in a final sense serves to confirm that this chosen and sealed individual has fully demonstrated his loyalty. Only then, at the final sealing, will the seal be permanently placed ‘in the forehead’ of the anointed one, identifying him conclusively as a tried and faithful ‘slave of our God.
Moreover, Jesus said to a congregation of anointed Christians: “Prove yourself faithful even to death, and I will give you the crown of life.”—Revelation 2:10; 17:14. The Christian life is a disciplined, careful walk that follows the pattern of Christ. Pity the fool who thinks otherwise!
J
You people are scary.
You've been presented with verse after verse after verse after verse after verse which plainly states that Old Testament saints either had the Spirit of God IN THEM or UPON THEM (or both) and you still stubbornly and willfully close your eyes and hearts to the same.
Shame on you.
You've been presented with verse after verse after verse after verse after verse which plainly states that Old Testament saints either had the Spirit of God IN THEM or UPON THEM (or both) and you still stubbornly and willfully close your eyes and hearts to the same.
Shame on you.