Not By Works

If you do not do ... insert whatever work you like .... you will not inherit Eternal Life

Ben , have you not realized YET , that eternal life is not granted based on what we do ??

This song fits this thread

I was talking about VCO and decon, 2 very powerful and opinionated people. I was not talking about you. If you love your church that is wonderful, and stay with it. I did not give you unsolicited advice to change your church. I said that VCO would not accept decon as his pastor, nor would decon accept VCO as his pastor.

What I did not say is Magenta, you too are obviously disturbed with your church and I would suggest you leave it so you can find a church that is closer to what you believe in. This I did not say, which somehow you have got in your mind.

I am concerned with love and unity, so if you find love and unity in your church, by all means stay and be happy. If you disagree with what I say, you have the right to disagree, but do it in a way that will offend me the least, lest through your words I decide Christianity is not for me, and you get to account for my blood.

BTW, I enjoy your designs and your nice words too. Thank you.

I hear what you are saying, but we do have to believe. That is something we must do or you will not have EL.
We must trust the Lord, or we will not have EL
We must have the baptism of the spirit or we will not have EL.
In my mind, we must be baptized by full immersion or we will not have EL.
We must have faith in the Lord, or we will not have EL.

When a person believes and is baptized of the spirit, and becomes a new person, then the HG brings out the best in that person and they start serving the Lord in ways they never would otherwise (doing good works). They do the works that the Lord has prepared for them to do. These good works for the Lord and his kingdom, are a sign that this person really believe, was baptized of the spirit and is a new person in Jesus Christ.

So there are a lot of things we must do in order to have EL, you must have just forgotten.

Only 1 thing ben

Believe the Gospel , and Trust Christ for salvation

Hi bro.

Thanks for responding.

Hopefully I can clarify what I was trying to say.

What I was trying to say is that genuine believers can and do add works to keep their salvation or ensure it happens on the day of judgement.

They do so not of pride but out of insecurity.

They have been fed false doctrine and have started to build on the foundation of Jesus finished work.

Hence my quote "What a pitiful life"
Such people like I was starts quantifying and qualifying works needed in order to be saved.

And the truth is for such people who do not fully understand who they are in Jesus and what he has done and that he loves them so much, they can never do enough, walk around waiting for the 3 strikes and your out.

So what I was trying to say their works are not one of pride but one of insecurity.

Which is totally different from those because of their pride.
They exalt themselves above others and dare I say it above Jesus.
They look down on others, boast in their own works.
They consider themselves saved by works, when you ask them to quantify, qualify they can't. They only qualify the biggies but neglect the heart.
Such people build on the foundation of Jesus, and espouse that.
If you do this, don't do that then you will be saved.
By your fruits you will know them.
That fruit is their doctrine.
Sheep in wolves clothing, that is their fruit.

So I was trying to convey that those who genuinely love Jesus but add works as a caveat are not doing it out of pride but insecurity.

Does that make sense now?

If not let me know.

Bill

And you can sit there and look in the mirror and say you do not teach one must earn their salvation by works?

Your only foolin gyourself my friend.

Jesus did tell us that there is one work we must do to be saved . . . it is unavoidable - it is there.

"Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent" (John 6:28-29).

However, note the nuance of verse 28. The men wanted to know about the 'works' - Jesus corrected them by the use of 'work' . . . and what was it? - BELIEVE

Thing is Ben.

Per your 2nd paragraph I do see what you are trying to get at.
Love unity and so on.

With regards to "Our religions" I have no idea what you mean.
It's plural and not singular.
There is only one single church and that is the Church Jesus established, through his death, burial and resurrection.
Faith saves when we confess that, and want to walk in it.
That's the foundation on which nothing can be built on.

Now what I find interesting is doctrine within churches as you say.
That's building on foundation of salvation as a result of faith given by grace.

Yet you have doctrine in your life that you are happy to promote, then if they disagree they are not saved and others who disagree with you say the same.

I don't play that game.
I leave that up to Jesus.
He will judge.
He sees the heart

Does everybody here what benher is saying;
we can disagree with him but if our words "offend" him and he decides, quote; "that Christianity is not for him", then you and I will give account for his blood.

Listen to that; if we "offend" benhur by what we say we are accountable for his blood, if he leaves Christianity; can you say "blackmale."

Benur wants the Church to heal our country of all its social ill's and that is what is called a "social gospel", a counterfeit gospel. Benhur is a "bleeding heart liberal", and does not understand what the "True Gospel" is.

And Jesus say's; For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. Matthew26:11

Benhur, repent and believe the "True Gospel" or you will die in your sin's; I will say again,

What Church are you affiliated with? Maybe the answer is NONE.

I went after VCO and decon for being so negative towards each other. Let us all get along even with our differences is what I am saying.

Yes, I do have a favorite verse:
John 17:21 King James Version (KJV)
21 That they (all believers) may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

*I added the parenthesis.

benhur will go wherever he chooses to go . . . and God is powerless to intervene one way or the other. He has given us free will, anything less would be we are nothing more than puppets.

I have an opinion about what it takes to be saved, and I will tell people that opinion. If they decide it is true, great, and about 1/2 of the Christian people agree with me. The other half do not, but I will take communion with them any time, because we all believe in Jesus and you are right, Jesus knows our hearts. So I can be a friend of decon or TT. But I do not think they would be my friends, ask them.

ignore this post. Mistake

And the other half who do not?
To be honest I would take communion with someone who places genuine faith in Jesus.

Communion is not to be taken lightly.

With regards to DC & TT you ask them

Oops too late

When you speak of unity, God know's who true believers are and who the pretenders are. There is a movement called, "The Ecumenical Movement" read about it; Its goal is to have all Churches under the leadership of the Catholic Church. What do you think about that benher is that what you call unity, is this a good idea to you?

If there is false doctrine being taught there is no unity

We are disagreeing not "smashing people."

Benhur, why won"t you tell us what Church you are affiliated with. You are calling for us to come together as one body or the unity of Christianity. How on earth can we be one Church body if you will not even begin by telling us what Church you are affiliated with? Do you think we are fools?

First tell us; "What Church are you affiliated with." then we can talk being one body and not until.

No he has not. SAD:

Romans 11:6 (HCSB)
6 Now if by grace, then it is not by works; otherwise grace ceases to be grace.

Romans 4:4-5 (HCSB)
4 Now to the one who works, pay is not considered as a gift, but as something owed.
5 But to the one who does not work, but believes on Him who declares the ungodly to be righteous, his faith is credited for righteousness.

Titus 3:5-8 (HCSB)
5 He saved us— not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
6 He poured out this ⌊Spirit⌋ on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
7 so that having been justified by His grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life.
8 This saying is trustworthy. I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed God might be careful to devote themselves to good works. These are good and profitable for everyone.


No matter how many times I have posted those Scriptures to him, he turns a blind eye, and goes down the wrong road.