Derek wrote:
Preacher, you said:
Likewise I am deeply offended at the casual way you take cheap shots at great and learned men of God, mightily used by the Lord to take the Church out of the evil clutches of Rome and to re-establish the truths of the Bible.
Why didn't Luther join the already existant church when he "left Rome"?
The church was already being persecuted by Rome, like the Lollards in Luther's day, and they would continue to be presecuted by the Reformed Catholics. I don't think they re-established the truths of the Bible - they constructed their own system.
Remember, it is the cults who have a central head for their system, and it is a man, not God. Every argument goes back to what "he" said or to what "he" wrote.
Be careful not to fall into their trap.

DJC49 wrote:
Faith
You are the very first person in my entire life whom I've ever heard say that ALL 4 SOILS (hearers) represented in the "Parable of the Sower" were saved by hearing the Word!

But no matter what, the Bible says what it says, that all four groups were saved, but only the fourth "endured to the end." The word was in their heart on the hard soil. The shallow soil received the word gladly, sprang up, but withered under persecution. The third example was at least starting to bear fruit. Yes, all four were saved. The parable of the sower was taught by Jesus to warn new believers/disciples not to listen to lies and heresies (first example), to wilt under persecution (second example), not to let the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches to choke out the Word so that you don't bear fruit. These are warnings to new believers, pitfalls to beware,lest we lose our soul.

DJC49 wrote:
The "Jew part of the Church?"
You Dispensationalists are obsessed!

Mike wrote:
1. The Bible does not teach that man has no will. It does teach that man is a slave to sin and has a fallen nature that loves darkness rather than light, and that no one seeks after God. Man's will therefore is in bondage to sin. Quite a difference from your point about "no will"

Mike wrote:
2. Ephesians 2 clearly teaches that believers were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

DJC49 wrote:
The Bible is very clear that God does not change, neither His mind, will, nor nature.
Because God is omniscient, He CANNOT learn something new that He did not already know.

Instead of making God fit your (il)logical presuppositions, which if true would turn God into the grand playwrite, puppeteer, sadistic bully god of the universe, why don't you take God for what He says He is as we read about Him in Scripture? It's obvious that he is not pulling everybody's strings, that God does have feelings, that it's just plain not the way the fatalists say it is.

DJC49 wrote:
This 1st soil (hearer) doesn't even understand the word [Mt 13:19];
and IMMEDIATELY after hearing the word, Satan comes and takes it away from them [Mk 4:15];
and Lk 8:12 adds that the devil takes away the word "LEST they should believe and be saved."

The hard soil had the word resting in their heart, even if only briefly, until lies and heresies from Satan stole it away. We see this happening all the time with Mormons and fatalists nabbing new Christians into their cults.

2nd example flatly says "received the word gladly" and "for a while BELIEVE, and in time of temptation FALL AWAY."

3rd example, you can't grow fruit, imperfect or otherwise, if you're not hooked into the vine.

Michael Hranek wrote:
"faith"
You've got me wondering about you. An earlier post gave the idea you weren't Roman Catholic and hear you are agreeing with one of the foremost Roman Catholic posters on SermonAudio.
What gives?

The truth speaks for itself. Taking one or two verses with unclear meanings and spinning them in a way that contradicts the rest of the Bible leads to ridiculous conclusions, such as those that I keep reading about people having no choices and no will and about being saved because of a one-time burst of faith or from being irresistibly chosen.

Why do you think the churches won't preach out of the gospels and why they denigrate them as "just historical?" Because the words of Jesus and his teachings blow their heresies clean away.

Eutychus wrote:
Faith: If God is not omnipotently in control of all things, then just toss the Bible why don't you?

Preacher wrote:
Faith - one of God's many attributes is His immutability. This means that He does not change; not His nature, His character or His mind. For if God changed, in any way, He would cease to be God.

Immutability doesn't mean God never changes His mind. It means He never changes from being good. We can always count on God to do the right thing, the just thing. God is slow to anger and full of mercy. A stone statue never changes its mind, nor does a tyrant, and God is neither.

The Bible is full of examples of God changing His mind. This doesn't make God weak or stupid. Otherwise, why bother to pray?

God is not an insecure bully who has to micromanage every single thing so that he never has to change his mind, and God doesn't think less of himself for changing his mind. God is good.

Preacher wrote:
If you leave the faith you do not lose your salvation, you were never saved to begin with.

Preacher wrote:
To you Christianity is a hotel where you can check in or out any time you like.

Preacher wrote:
You are quick to condemn Augustine,... I suggest look at the relevant Scripture references before laying charges against former men of God.

Preacher wrote:
The Bible is God's revelation about Himself, and he is most jealous of His Name for it represents who He is.

Lance Eccles wrote:
TT, I tend to agree with what you say, except that you make it sounds as though God forces us to do good works, and that we have no choice.

Walt wrote:
Dear faith,
You seem to be applying a lot of human dimensions to God...are you aware of what the Scripture teaches about God? It almost sounds like you think God is human?

We're are made in God's image.God walked and talked with Adam and Eve in the Garden. David was a man after God's own heart. God was proud of his man Job. Likewise, before the flood God looked down at men killing and fighting, wished he'd never created man at all.

God's man Abraham made a deal with him, would he spare Sodom and Gomorrah if there were so many righteous men within the city.

We're being sifted and tested to see who's fit to spend eternity with Him. God made the way for 'whosoever will' to be saved and to walk in the Spirit that we would not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

God has feelings, made himself vulnerable to us. That's what love is. Love means caring and being hurt and disappointed, but also receiving love freely given, to laugh and enjoy each other's company.

Preacher wrote:
And when you study theology systematically, your basic foundational laws and principles must be the study of God, His nature, His attributes, His character etc.
So don't ask is once saved always saved, or is there a covenant of grace etc. If you know the God of the Bible as He has revealed Himself, you will already know the answer. He has one eternal plan, encompassing the end from the beginning. He has foreordained all things, even the free choices of men. That is the God of the Bible. Anything less than that, anything that detracts from that, portrays a different God.

Preacher wrote:
"Then the person falls away.They become unsanctified and unjustified; are put back into the kingdom of darkness; their heart of stone is put back; they lose their spiritual eyes and ears and go back to being dead in sin.

Preacher wrote:
Are some so desperate to cling to their free-will theology that they would even contemplate such heresy as this?

Preacher wrote:
He is the Creator, the Eternal Son of the Living God, and the Judge of the living and the dead.

Preacher wrote:
These pathetic arguments do nothing but try to bring Him down to our level.

Preacher wrote:
How many of you know that this discussion began when Augustine published a prayer? Pelagius took offence because the prayer indicated that man could not obey God without God's grace.

Preacher wrote:
Begin with God - and lay down His attributes and characteristics as an unmoveable foundation for everything else.

Preacher wrote:
We always ask the wrong questions, as did Jesus' disciples. We always seek to explain away what we do not like or understand. But we do injury to the image of God as He has revealed Himself.

Michael Hranek wrote:
Faith
You are correct in noting a faith that has no works really isn't faith at all.

Michael Hranek wrote:
obeying is not the basis of our justification but our believing in Him

Michael Hranek wrote:
To say we believe in Him and than willfully continue unrepentantly in the very sins He died for is utter wicked hypocrisy.

Michael Hranek wrote:
supernatural work of God to bring a person to godly sorrow unto repentance not to be repented of, such a person will cry out to God for Mercy!!!

Michael Hranek wrote:
It is indeed a heartbreaking thing that many who profess to have faith have no obedience.

Coexist? Meaning both are not true? Both do not support each other? Both do not harmonize?

Not so. Jesus said: Not one jot or tittle shall pass away...and he had not come to abolish the law but to "fulfil the law."

Most of the Jews today, especially the ones running Israel and the United States and England and Italy, also the Vatican, are not true Jews, but Kazars who converted to the most virulent form of Babylonian Talmudic Judaism. They have not a drop of Semitic blood and they are behind 9/11, the New World Order, and the eugenicist plan to "cull" 80 percent of the world population and enslave the remainder.

WhyHate wrote:
Why do all of you protect Republicans anyways? You don't know what kind of mishcheif they are up to either. We are here to worship the ONE TRUE GOD not any politician republican nor democrate.

Michael Hranek wrote:
Lance, believing in Him as God has revealed Him in Scripture will change your life, trying to merit His shed blood will leave you so short of knowing Him and His grace.