What Does It Mean That God Desires All People To Be Saved?

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.

Kroogz

Well-known member
Dec 5, 2023
772
302
63
But if OT saints aren't indwelt, you have 2 different ways of salvation, not 1.
I am not prepared to say that. There is only one way to be saved. Faith alone in Christ alone. How God preserved OT saints and NT saints is different.
 

Cameron143

Well-known member
Mar 1, 2022
19,219
6,610
113
62
You seem a little confused. The problem is that we are not woke from the dead, nor rescued into the afterlife. The first is a miracle, and the second wouldn't be a rescue.
I'm not confused. I'm experiencing eternal life. I've passed from death to life. I was born in the kingdom of darkness, and have been translated into the kingdom of light. Call it whatever you like. Doesn't really matter.
 

Cameron143

Well-known member
Mar 1, 2022
19,219
6,610
113
62
I am not prepared to say that. There is only one way to be saved. Faith alone in Christ alone. How God preserved OT saints and NT saints is different.
Really? Didn't Jesus say Abraham rejoiced to see His day, and that he saw it. What does that mean?
 
Dec 3, 2023
440
77
28
Obedience saves or faith?
Both.
Just like some people preach the gospel and only talk about miracles.
Some people only speak the word of God.
The correct way is to do it both at the same time.
 
Dec 3, 2023
440
77
28
My granddaughter has so much faith in her father, my son, that she'll scramble up to the highest step he'll allow her and, watching him the entire tire as much as his eyes are attending to her, she giggles as she leaps off knowing he is near and will catch her.
I think your idea of God's word is Moses Law, which He gave through Moses and appointed Aaron to preside over but, what then if He replaced Moses, the house, with the builder of the house, Jesus, and Aaron, the mortal priest, with His Son, the everlasting high priest and His Word is, "Trust Him as You Trust Me," but you refuse to obey it? That is if you don't trust the Son then you don't trust the Father and vice versa.

Although my son may tell my granddaughter, "Jump," there will come a point in time when my son tells my granddaughter to refrain from leaping off the stair at him, for good reason, and if she continues to jump... that is disobedience.
So God established marriage.You can learn something beyond the Bible study experience by educating your children.The correct process of educating children is to use different methods at different stages, but the purpose is the same. You need children to learn obedience.Because you know what is good for them, and they doesn't necessarily realize it.

I hope you won't regret your education for your children.;)
 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,474
455
83
Yes, I realize that, and many believe as you do, but I think that no verse stands alone and must
be harmonized with, and seen in the light of, other verses in order to come to a correct understanding (and as we are so directed by the Bible to do, given that is the way that God chose to write it). Besides our individual perceptions of who each pronoun represents, there is nothing in the verse itself (that I can see) except for the first "he", to actually make that determination. Especially since it was the "it" that was being reckoned "to him". That is why I included the other verses which seem (at least to me), to clearly demonstrate who the sources of true faith and righteousness were/are, and thereby, fill in the unknowns of the verse - not the least of which is Romans 4:9, where we see that "FAITH was RECKONED TO Abraham FOR righteousness", IOW, it was faith that was reckoned to Abraham. As a part of it was/is righteousness. So, that faith could only be Christ's faith because only Christ's faith has righteousness.
Also, I think had it been intended as you perceive it, then it would have instead been phrased as:
"And he believed in the LORD, and he accounted righteousness to him for his belief", and not in the reverse as it was phrased.

I won't belabor this further.
You can't take a verse out of its own context and, by cobbling it together with several other verses also wrested from their contexts, fabricate an artificial context that make the original verse fit your theory.

The context of Romans 4:3 shows clearly the Paul means us to understand that it is Abraham's faith the God reckons to Abraham as righteousness.

2For if Abraham were justified (i.e. made righteous) by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.
3For what saith the scripture?
Abraham believed God, and it was counted (i.e. that Abraham believed God was accounted/accredited) unto him (i.e. unto Abraham) for righteousness.
4Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt [to him that worketh]
5¶But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly (i.e. to him that worketh not but believeth on God: to Abraham), his faith (i.e. the faith of the one who worketh not but believeth on God: Abraham's faith) is accounted/accredited for righteousness.

According to vv 3 and 5, it is Abraham who is doing the believing, not God. So the "his faith" must be Abraham's faith, because he is the only one being spoken of in this context as "believing". And it iis therefore Abraham's faith that is accounted to Abraham as righteousness by God; not God's faith being accredited as righteousness to God by Abraham.

V.3 is not saying "3For what saith the scripture?
Abraham believed God, and it was counted (i.e. that Abraham believed God was accounted/accredited) unto God for righteousness.
 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,474
455
83
This is probably a reference to the Spirit as the promise of the Father given the day of Pentecost and not the indwelling Spirit of salvation.
Dispensationalism is running amok here.
 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,474
455
83
free will is not taught in the Bible! This does not preclude man's need and ability to make choices. However, the natural man is a slave to sin due to fear of death... and slaves are not free. It is a complex issue to be sure. Neither am I a Calvinist... I would love to discuss this more when I am not on my phone during my workplace lunch break...
Slaves have free will. They can desire whatever thry choose to desire, and their master cannot stopp rhem doing so. A slave can also run away from their master. Onesimus was a slave who desired to escape his master and succeeded in doing so. Philemon 1
 

selahsays

Well-known member
May 31, 2023
2,796
1,484
113
Here’s is a wonderful passage of scripture depicting free will:

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, "that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

- John 3:14-18
Thanks for the 👍,@PaulThomson — This is my favorite free will scripture. Every person must believe in the only begotten Son if indeed they want everlasting life.
 

Sipsey

Well-known member
Sep 27, 2018
1,481
695
113
I am not prepared to say that. There is only one way to be saved. Faith alone in Christ alone. How God preserved OT saints and NT saints is different.
Could it not be that OT Saints “believed” that God would send His promised Savior, and the we NT Saints, simply believe He did?
 

Cameron143

Well-known member
Mar 1, 2022
19,219
6,610
113
62
Both.
Just like some people preach the gospel and only talk about miracles.
Some people only speak the word of God.
The correct way is to do it both at the same time.
So how does someone actually get saved?
 

rogerg

Well-known member
Jul 13, 2021
3,674
571
113
Abraham believed God, and it was counted (i.e. that Abraham believed God was accounted/accredited) unto him (i.e. unto Abraham) for righteousness.
Read this verse- that Abraham's faith was reckoned to him by God - that "faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness"?

[Rom 4:9 KJV] 9 [Cometh] this blessedness then upon the circumcision [only], or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.


5¶But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly (i.e. to him that worketh not but believeth on God: to Abraham), his faith (i.e. the faith of the one who worketh not but believeth on God: Abraham's faith) is accounted/accredited for righteousness.
The "his faith" is Christ's faith which is accounted for righteousness, as Rom 4:9 so inform us, because if reckoned, it couldn't have been Abraham's faith. Only Christ's faith is righteous/has righteousness. That is why I included the verses I did - to demonstrate that fact. Here I post again:

[Rom 3:22 KJV]
22 Even the righteousness of God [which is] by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

[Rom 10:3 KJV]
3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

[Rev 2:13 KJV]
13 I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, [even] where Satan's seat [is]: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas [was] my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.

[Phl
3:9 KJV] 9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Could it have been made any clearer by God than that? That righteousness only comes through the faith of Christ imputed to man by God, and that man cannot produce that of himself? To have the one, you have to also must have the other. There simply is no other possibility.

According to vv 3 and 5, it is Abraham who is doing the believing, not God. So the "his faith" must be Abraham's faith, because he is the only one being spoken of in this context as "believing". And it iis therefore Abraham's faith that is accounted to Abraham as righteousness by God; not God's faith being accredited as righteousness to God by Abraham.
I didn't say that God does the believing. I said that Abrahm's belief came from Christ's imputed faith and Abraham realized that was where his belief came from, as all of the saved realize. It became Abraham's because God gave it to him through His grace. It was Christ's faith being accredited to Abrham that gave Abraham Christ's righteousness. Christ was the only one truly faithful, and that faith alone, not man's, pleased the Father. That is why/how righteousness was accounted to Abraham, and that is how/why Christ is the Saviour and man is not.

[Rom 1:16-17 KJV]
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

[Heb 3:1-2 KJV]
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.


BTW after pondering John 6, I continue to disagree with your assessment of it. I believe that it is saying it is the work of God
that one believes.
 

Mem

Senior Member
Sep 23, 2014
7,159
2,174
113
God said, "I will" and I believed it. Did my belief come from God? He said it, I heard it, and believed it so, yea, He gave me something to believe in. Whereas before He told me, I had no idea no way or another. If I made it up, that would be another god.
 

Cameron143

Well-known member
Mar 1, 2022
19,219
6,610
113
62
Believe Jesus is our Savior.faith
Obedience to the teaching of Christ.
How long does one have to obey? How much obedience is necessary? If I sin, do I lose salvation? What happens to a person when they are saved? Can a person be unborn again?
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
60,175
29,478
113
Slaves have free will. They can desire whatever they choose to desire, and their master cannot stopp rhem doing so. A slave can also run away from their master. Onesimus was a slave who desired to escape his master and succeeded in doing so. Philemon 1
Perhaps free will should be defined in these discussions to do with whether man has the ability to choose God without God's help. Sure I can will myself to stand from sitting, or to sit from standing, just as a slave can, but that is not really what is under consideration in these types of exchanges on a Christian chat site. Also, man's will is constrained by many factors... too many for me to consider it to be truly free. Nobody can will themselves to fly. They may desire it, and I consider desire to be a function of the will, but neither desiring nor willing to fly will do anything for a man to accomplish fight. Please do not introduce airplanes into the convo LOL. The natural man does not choose God, nor is his will free to do so, being hostile in his mind toward God - God's enemy, a child of wrath.
 

rogerg

Well-known member
Jul 13, 2021
3,674
571
113
So, is Galatians 5;3 then saying that until someone is set free by Christ, they have no freedom? And without freedom can there be choice?