JosephThePoet's Blog

Are you declaring out loud in this blog that I am deceiving people?

So you believe that if someone walks down the isle and accepts Jesus as their Savior that they are guaranteed salvation? Is that not a work? What does Ephesians Chapter 2 say about works? "For by grace you are saved through faith, and it is the gift of God, not works should anyone boast".

Question for you; Say your own mother or father will not accept Christ. In your belief, they only have to accept Christ into their heart for eternal salvation. But they won't! Who has failed? You for you lack of effective evangelism to them or they themselves? Did you do your Christian duty with your own family or did you fail? What a burden that must be for you, don't you think?
(Just an illustration, I do not know you or your family, but have met some in this exact same situation).

The Bible clearly teaches that Christ paid the penalty for those he came to save on the cross. Those He knew from before the foundation of the world.
"Even as He elected us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will."

I am not a calvanist, or an Arminian, but the Bible does say:

John 6 v 44: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

But John 3:16 does say whosoever.

Contradiction? -NO

It is whosoever, but just not whensoever. You cannot get saved unless the Holy Spirit is drawing you and convicting you.

God is a gentelman, he will not force you to get saved.
Paul said it is hard to kick aginst the pricks, not impossible. King Agrippa wanted a more convient time, he was under conviction, but resisted. You can turn away from God if you want, but you can't come to God whenever you want.

...But I believe that God will turn you over to a reprobate mind if you keep refusing Him. Then you cannot get saved, even if you wanted to.

Yes we are predistined- by His forknowledge.


Salvation is not a work of our own-

BOOGEDY 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

Eph 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

You must repent of your sins, but repentance is not a work that saves you. Just a response to mercy and grace.

Hell is forever. Souls are not annhilated or destroyed.

How bad of punishment would it be if we did not know what was going on. -no pain or torment. There would be nothing to fear.

What did Jesus save us from then?- Nothing?

If you love me you will do as I command--
Jesus commanded many works to show that loving your neighbor as yourself is not a passive love but a command to action, dare I say works, through faith in His love.

Grandad1,

YOU: “Are you declaring out loud in this blog that I am deceiving people?”

ME: Read what I wrote, “Even the devil can deceive using only a select few words of the Bible, so be careful to keep everything in context so as to not practice deceptive teaching that causes people to go astray from God”. If you cannot even understand a simple caution statement, when even Jesus warns people to be careful with their words, than how can you believe you are capable of telling others what the words of the bible say and teach?

YOU: “So you believe that if someone walks down the isle and accepts Jesus as their Savior that they are guaranteed salvation? Is that not a work? What does Ephesians Chapter 2 say about works? "For by grace you are saved through faith, and it is the gift of God, not works should anyone boast".

ME: In my above blog I said, “He justified our being glorified to become His Children by the sacrifice of Jesus to atone for our sins.” In the God’s Plan blog I specifically said, “Through God’s grace everyone who ever lived will be offered the opportunity to receive God’s gift of eternal life with Him… Not even people claiming to be Christians can just cruise along and pretend we will be judged worthy of receiving eternal life simply because we say we believe Jesus died to wash away our sins”. So why are you pretending that I said something else?

YOU: “If you are honest with yourself you will admit that none of us truly follow God as He would desire! No one would, "There is none righteous, no not one, there is none who understands, there is none that seeks after God" Romans 3 v 10,11. Do you love God with all your heart and soul and mind, as he commands? I hope you do, I sure try my best but find myself often failing in this desire.”

ME: In the God’s Plan blog I said, “We cannot be perfect until God gives us our incorruptible bodies and makes us perfect so Christians will continue to sin, but that doesn’t excuse all our choices to sin”. Why do you insist on pretending I have said things I have not said even though you know that my words are available to them to see? Are you deliberately trying to deceive people? Is your reason because you are trying to eliminate a potential rival to your imagined position of Scriptural authority as your last post, which I am posting below, on God’s Plan may indicate?

YOU: “Any interest in Revelation Chapter 20? My specialty! And no gloom and doom there!”

Well Grandad1, I see from other writings you have posted here, during the time I was preparing my response to your previous posts, that you do believe you have a superior spiritual understanding and that you will tell us how to think. Your statement, “Now where is that Atheist writing about now? I hope to answer some of her questions” is one such indication that you are too presumptuous. And, I have already deleted one of your comments that treated someone as a simpliton who knows not even the slightest principle of Christianity. Be careful with your propaganda or I will delete you from participating because this is a Christian Debate forum not your personal ego board, or a place for you to promote your own private church creation under your control.

If you believe people wish your glorious instruction, then create a post of your own for them to receive your perfect instruction.

I must ask forgiveness here.

I thought you had deleted two entries here which I now found. My last comment above was out of context, and wrong. You stated that you deleted one of my comments and I assumed it was another.

But you did delete something. So, I will not respond to your blogs in the future because of that practice.

Again thank you for your time and I will pray not to offend you in the future as you have asserted here. Please accept my apology!

Joseph,

I believe that lost souls will go straight to hell (Luke 16)-for a time, then be judged.

End time theology-

rapture, 3 1/2 year tribulation, 3 1/2 great tribulation, armageddon, Christ reigns 1000 years, battle of Gog & Magog, God destroys everything, end of time. Then revelation 20 Great White Throne judgement. Death and hell are cast into the Lake of Fire.

Lost souls will come out of hell to be judged at the Great White Throne, then be cast into the Lake of Fire along with Satan and his angels (Jude tells of some angels that are locked away in hell right now.)

Hell was created for the devil and his angels, unfortunately thats where lost people go also.

Mk 9 Jesus said their worm dieth not. Peoples souls don't die.

Gotta go,
finish later

rightwinger,

When you choose to claim support to your words by referencing the scriptures please be more accurate by including the Book, chapter and verse. God gave me a mind to learn rules and apply them not a mind of just memorization, which is why I did well with mathematics and English in school but did so poorly in the memorization of the names, dates and places used so extensively in history and geography. I do not have the bible memorized so have to constantly search for the references I know are there when I need them to support my position. So please include all the information I need to find your reference quickly so I may also read the full paragraph it is found in to better grasp the context of the words you have supplied then spend the majority of my time in pursuit of the verses I know are in the bible to support my position. I have been working on these 2 replies for over 5 hours already so as to reduce the chances I will erringly mislead people with my words. I don’t like to confuse people, and Jesus has warned against teachers misleading or flat out deceiving and I take that warning very seriously when I offer my contribution.