Search results

You seem to be saying it would be wrong for a Christian to obey the Ten Commandments. Or have I misunderstood you here?

Who gets to decide which laws "apply" and which ones don't? Am I allowed to decide for myself which laws apply to me and which ones I'm going to disregard? Is everybody free to choose? Also, please bear in mind that the Apostolic Council (Acts 15) wasn't about theology. It wasn't saying what...

When you use the expression “the Law,” what do you mean, exactly? It’s one thing if you mean the Ten Commandments, but it’s something else altogether if you mean the whole of the Mosaic law, including circumcision, the dietary laws, and keeping the Sabbath (Saturday). Remember James the Just’s...

TMA, DR

Quote: “Christians are supposed to abandon the flesh in favor of the Spirit.” What does “are supposed to” mean? That wording suggests to me that Christians have a duty to obey a certain command ― in other words, to be obedient, to show obedience.

This thread is now three years old and is up to over 3,000 posts. Obviously, newcomer that I am, I can’t claim to have read them all. I imagine that Philippians 2:12, “Work out your own salvation,” must have been mentioned more than once. How have posters on the “faith alone” side of the debate...

Once again, sooner or later it can only lead to TMA, DR

Quote: "I personally like GBAKYASHFUYAGYHP! myself." Mem, have I got it right? Good Bye, Acronyms! Keep Your Abbreviations Safely Hidden From Us! Your Acronyms Get You Hated Personally!

In other words, a sad case of TMA, DR

Quote: “There is no good reason for acronymaphobia.” I strongly disagree. There is a very good reason for it. The tiresome superabundance of your joky little word puzzles slows down reading and repeatedly interrupts the flow of meaning from your keyboard to my brain. Obviously none of your...

No, @Anchorite got it right in his post #62. For me, and I suspect for most people here, your overelaborate private code is definitely a turnoff.

Thank you for pointing that out, David. I was once looking for an answer to the same question, “Is there any mention in the NT of any one specific ‘grace,’ as opposed to grace in general?”, but I never noticed John 1:16 in that context. The two verses that I did wonder about are 2 Cor 1:15...

It’s perfectly true that Jesus doesn’t use the word “salvation” in these verses. In fact the Greek word for “salvation,” σωτηρία (sótéria), doesn’t appear in Matthew at all. It’s a word that occurs frequently in Acts and the Epistles but hardly at all in the Gospels. What Jesus says is that the...

They are requirements for salvation. What else can Jesus be saying, if not that? The passage you quote from Ephesians is telling us where the gift came from that has given us the ability to perform works of mercy. Jesus is telling us that, now we have been given that ability, we are required to...

You say it’s contrary to Eph 2:8-9, but I disagree. I don’t see any conflict between the two passages. In Matt 25:31~46 Jesus is giving his answer to one question. The author of Ephesians is giving an answer to a different question.

Do you find that a difficult verse? Perhaps this may help: 5Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? 6Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? 7Who serves as a soldier...

If you think Jesus has made a mistake, he's the one you need to talk to about it. Not me.

Quote: "Once going to Jerusalem the Temple calendar rules applied. "When in Rome......" Yes, this is the point I’m focusing on here. In the city of Jerusalem, and in particular in any context involving the priesthood and the Temple authorities, there obviously can only have been one single...

Thank you, @biblestudent78. Yes, it was careless of me to write “their lambs.” I didn’t mean to imply that they had brought their lambs with them all the way from Galilee, just that the lambs were their property, even if they’d bought them from one of the many traders just five minutes before...

Thank you, @rewriter. Hegesippus doesn’t use the word archiereus (the title of the High Priest in the Greek NT) but he clearly states, “He alone was allowed to enter into the sanctuary” (in the Loeb translation, first link below), which amounts to the same thing. It’s a pity that Paul Maier...