What must I do to be saved

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MarkWilliams

Active member
Jun 13, 2018
408
174
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#1
What must one do to be saved.

I believe God decides who will be saved and who won't.

There are many scriptures which support the view that we don't decide to believe in Christ, but faith in Christ is a gift that God gives only to His elect.

Most folks don't agree with the doctrine of predestination/election, because many other scriptures say things like you must obey and remain faithful to the end etc...

These two opposing views have been debated for centuries, so today we have the benefit of many good good books on the subject but have we arrived at a consensus in the Church.

I would love to see the Church unite and resolve this dividing issue. But I fear that it will continue to be an enigma for the Church. Why can't we let the Bible be the final authority and accept what it really says and unite in the truth.
 

Latour

Active member
Jun 11, 2018
437
255
43
#6
To be saved one must obey the commandments....which is to love others as yourself. This is the law and the prophets.
 
Jan 6, 2018
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#7
Yes there is, most so called Christians hold to his false doctrine. It's nothing less than the doctrine of Demons
No, there is not. Arminius' works are responses to Calvin's Institutes. You need to get yourself educated on this issue if you are really interested in discussion otherwise you are just preaching.
 
Mar 23, 2016
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#8
First you state:

"... today we have the benefit of many good good books on the subject ... "

Then you state:

"Why can't we let the Bible be the final authority and accept what it really says ..."

So what do you want?

Your "good good books on the subject"?

Or "let the Bible be the final authority and accept what it really says"?
 

MarkWilliams

Active member
Jun 13, 2018
408
174
43
#9
First you state:

"... today we have the benefit of many good good books on the subject ... "

Then you state:

"Why can't we let the Bible be the final authority and accept what it really says ..."

So what do you want?

Your "good good books on the subject"?

Or "let the Bible be the final authority and accept what it really says"?
We have the benefit of hindsight, where many gifted Bible theologians have left us their works. We can benefit from their faithful diligent studies and findings. They explained the difficult Bible Doctrines to us ordinary believers.
 

MarkWilliams

Active member
Jun 13, 2018
408
174
43
#10
No, there is not. Arminius' works are responses to Calvin's Institutes. You need to get yourself educated on this issue if you are really interested in discussion otherwise you are just preaching.
Didn't Arminius teach that a fallen sinner can work out his own salvation, without God's help. Calvin disagreed with this heresy.
 

OstrichSmiling

Well-known member
Jun 17, 2018
1,027
418
83
#11
Please, peace be still. Please!
This discussion began by asking what one must do to be saved. Should it turn into a conflict zone in answer? :(

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. —Romans 10:9-10
 

carl11

Senior Member
Oct 20, 2017
277
31
28
#12
No, there is not. Arminius' works are responses to Calvin's Institutes. You need to get yourself educated on this issue if you are really interested in discussion otherwise you are just preaching.
They both go hand and hand both are a response to each other’s works grace gospel. Albeit one is more outright to say one has to do something while the other one says one can do nothing but it’s a play on words because they to believe that somehow one still can do something.
 

MarkWilliams

Active member
Jun 13, 2018
408
174
43
#13
Please, peace be still. Please!
This discussion began by asking what one must do to be saved. Should it turn into a conflict zone in answer? :(

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. —Romans 10:9-10
Thank you for moderating, blessed are the peace makers for they shall inherit the earth. But we must never make peace with those who deliberately teach heretical lies. We must strive to correct them and bring them under true Gospel light.
 
Feb 28, 2016
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#14
when you are called, elected, chosen, always have a heart to honour Him first -
and keep in-step with The Saviour and His Words/Ways, and walk that lone-some-highway
never letting-go of His hand...
 
Jan 6, 2018
1,796
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#15
Didn't Arminius teach that a fallen sinner can work out his own salvation, without God's help. Calvin disagreed with this heresy.
No. You are ignorant on the matter. Don't take a position against what you have no idea for what you are talking about.
 

Budman

Senior Member
Mar 9, 2014
4,153
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#16
I believe God decides who will be saved and who won't.
God certainly did.

He said: " For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. " (John 3:16)

God predetermined to save "whosoever" in the whole world who will come.
 

OstrichSmiling

Well-known member
Jun 17, 2018
1,027
418
83
#18
Thank you for moderating, blessed are the peace makers for they shall inherit the earth. But we must never make peace with those who deliberately teach heretical lies. We must strive to correct them and bring them under true Gospel light.
Jesus was both a radical and a peacemaker. Lest we forget. However, how he approached his purpose on earth was largely through peace.
Remember the Apostle Paul's wisdom in his epistle to the church in Ephesus? Teaching the purpose of Jesus ministry. Salvation by God's grace through our faith in him.
Expanded Bible Version] Ephesians 2:15 He did this by ·ending [setting aside; nullifying] the law of commands and rules ·by giving his own body [L in his flesh; C this phrase may go with the previous sentence]. His purpose was to make the two groups of people become one new ·people [humanity; person; man] in him and in this way make peace.

Do we lead people to truth by abandoning our own peace to do so? Rebuke does not necessitate losing gentleness in the process. Anger or its companions does not demonstrate truth and security in truth. It demonstrates insecurity and fear. Not all people will read God's words as you do. Not all people who are in Christ are in the same relationship that you are. And it is a relationship.
The doctrines of men, those denominational fences that often divide, will without intention, not to say that was not so at their birth, can lead us to ignite our passion for being right. Not righteous.
We are still human and are prone to those characteristics we grew into before being renewed in Christ. We have this tendency wherein we believe if others do not share our belief system our system is made weak. That is impossible in matters pertaining to God's plan of Salvation. None the less, there is that tickle in our personal identity that sees that which does not believe as we do as an attack on what we do believe. Because what we believe and in any belief system and especially in our faith as a Christian, is the center of who we believe we are. The thought system centers on what we believe we are. When someone doesn't think as we do we take it personally.
That's the old self, the self-centered , operating. We take offense and then we become offensive as a defense of our rightness in our personal belief.

But we are all equals in the body of Christ. The I in our world view is now blended with the great I Am.

Realizing some sisters and brothers we encounter have been raised with a particular denominational instruction that tells them precisely what it means to be saved. How that happens. What they need to do to stay that way. And sometimes there are attached all sorts of rules that make it a process to remain in grace. Remembering that deep in our psyche we can believe also that precision is paramount for the sake of eternity and the future of our soul.

It isn't easy to let go of what someone has been led to believe through the teachings of men using God's word as the fulcrum for installing a particular denominational lever. The more we cling to how Jesus told us to bring peace, the easier we will find we can live peace. Peace motivates change. Jesus was the highest example of that as Messiah and Rabbi.
When in history he was the powerful God who brought his wrath on wrong doing and strict discipline against sin.

Be the peace you want to see alive in your life. Try and imagine how you'd feel if someone spoke to you concerning your beliefs in the same manner you feel sparked to speak to them in defending your beliefs. Take a breath. Jesus brought the universal absolute truth to the world in one small area of it. In the midst of pagan people who ruled the known world, in the midst of those his Jewish heritage saw as other, or outcasts. He was never abrasive save when he took to the money changers.

Remember in the book of Matthew? Jesus taught a Samaritan woman he met at Jacob's well. In those times the Jews and Samaritan's were separated by divisions wherein Samaritans were thought to be lesser. But the king of king's knew better. And the woman's faith in Jesus there saved her.

It is so easy for me to be so in love with the teachings and truth of Christ. It takes patience, practice, and faith, that I am able to be Christ-like , as Christian implies, when I get into situations where my pride, or my beliefs, my identity as Christian, meet with those who don't think as I do. But hey, isn't that how it is suppose to be? The teachings Jesus brought to us through the centuries on paper in our Bibles lay the groundwork for becoming. It is a life long journey to live the teachings to that point where we don't have to think to do the right thing. To breathe and say the right thing in peace. We don't graduate from that lesson plan until we're dead. And then we're scholars!


May God's peace and breath always whisper to your heart and mind.

God knows that post right there is reallll preachy. I apologize for the wall of text. I was inspired I guess.
 
Mar 23, 2016
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#19
We have the benefit of hindsight, where many gifted Bible theologians have left us their works. We can benefit from their faithful diligent studies and findings. They explained the difficult Bible Doctrines to us ordinary believers.
It is incumbent upon us to learn to feed upon God's Word and read the writings of others through the lens of the Truth of Scripture.
 
Mar 23, 2016
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#20
God certainly did.

He said: " For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. " (John 3:16)

God predetermined to save "whosoever" in the whole world who will come.
Right. And how about these verses:

Ezekiel 18:23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?

Ezekiel 18:32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.

Ezekiel 33:11 As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live

John 3:17 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

1 Timothy 2:4 Who
[God – vs 3] will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

1 John 4:14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.