ChipKrenn
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Good point Jeremy. Context is king.
When reading the bible, it is very important to read it in context. You must understand who is talking, who is the audience, and what are the circumstances surrounding the scripture you are reading if you want to learn exactly what the author is saying. Many people get into trouble when they randomly open the bible and start reading a few verses.
Please read on….
The following explanation is eye opening as to why complete context is required to get proper meaning.
Consider the following sentence: “I didn’t say he beat his wife”.
Say you walked up to a situation where a man is talking to a police officer and says the following sentence, “I didn’t say he beat his wife”.
What would you get from that? What was the point of what this man said? Re-read that man’s comment to the police officer and then ponder on it for a few seconds.
Now read the following possible scenarios in different contexts. When reading these scenarios, place an emphasis on the word in [brackets]:
When the police officer began to question him, he said “[ I ] didn’t say he beat his wife!” and then he went on to say, “It was the man over, he was the one who said it.”
When the police officer began to question him, he said “I [ didn’t ] say he beat his wife!” and then he went on to say,”I have no idea what you are talking about. I never even saw what happened, so how could I have made such a claim?”
When the police officer began to question him, he said “I didn’t [ say ] he beat his wife!” and then he went on to say, “I wrote it on a cocktail napkin but I never actually said it.”
When the police officer began to question him, he said “I didn’t say [ he ] beat his wife!” and then he went on to say, “It was that man over there that beat his wife.”
When the police officer began to question him, he said “I didn’t say he [ beat ] his wife!” and then he went on to say, “He just pushed her, he didn’t beat her.”
When the police officer began to question him, he said “I didn’t say he beat [ his ] wife!” and then he went on to say, “But he did beat his brother’s wife.”
When the police officer began to question him, he said “I didn’t say he beat his [ wife ]!” and then he went on to say, “He beat that women over there, but she is not his wife.”
As you can see, sentences can have totally different meanings depending on what word or phrase is emphasized. The Bible is no different. In order to understand God’s word, you have to read it in context. You can’t just pick and choose verses, because if you do you will become misguided and confused.
People try to say the Bible contradicts itself, or they don’t read it because it is just too hard to understand. Neither of these two claims is true. If you take the time to study the bible rather than merely reading the bible, you will begin to unlock the treasures within its pages.
I have never been apart of a church hopping environment. But I feel a congregation needs a building to call home. I agree with you in that it brings a sort of accountability to the members.
I agree with some of this, especially the last paragraph. Eternal life is in God's hands. "Election", "the chosen" , "preselection" is a highly debatable and has good arguments on both sides.
There are two main arguments in Christian theology when it comes to obtaining eternal life:
1. God preselected those who will go to heaven before the world was even created.
or
2. God created man with the ability to chose or reject him and predestined, (before the world was created) , that all who believe and put their faith in Him will fall under the grace and salvation provided by Christ's atoning death and resurrection.Some say that the later is called works and therefore can not be.
But if you read the gospels, you will see that the pharisees are the prime example of works salvation. They basically thought they where "holier than thou" and in their ultimate wisdom thought their practices would award them heaven.
Salvation initiated by one's faith in Christ's saving grace is NOT works. Faith says that I know I can't save myself. Faith is acknowledging that ONLY Christ's shed blood is able to save.
I believe that God created man with the ability to choose. I believe God, being all knowing, always knew who would accept and who would reject, but I believe he created us with the ability to choose.
As you can see, there is a huge difference between the two thoughts. One requires personal accountability and the other does not. Why would there be a judgment day if there is nothing to be judged.
What, is God going to judge himself for NOT keeping certain people from habitually sinning, rejecting Him, and going against His will when He left that person with no other alternative? Is he going to judge people and send them to hell when they never had a chance of eternal salvation to begin with??
"Opening his mouth, Peter said: "I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him. (Act 10:34-35)"
The man that fears him and does what is right: That requires ultimate respect = full faith and trust. All those with full faith and trust, without partiality, are welcome to him.
In my opinion, it all comes down to this. If you feel God's pull in your life, you would be best served to heed it. Know matter which theology you subscribe to we can both agree that there are consequences to rejecting His calling. If not eternal than temporal or perhaps even both.
There are two groups of people that will ever live in this world, one is bound for heaven, and the other bound for hell.
If you are reading this comment, God' has put it before you for a reason. My advise .. seek God - seek truth
Peace.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life." (John 5:24)
If predestination is true, than how can Jesus say that once someone hears the Gospel and believes it, they have crossed from death unto eternal life. The result being they have passed out of death into life. How can someone pass from death if they were selected into life before they were even created? It seems to me that that person would have had to be selected for death until a transformation has occurred. It also seems to insinuate a transforming decision to believe after they hear.
This is how I interpret the this verse.
1. Person does not know God
2. Person is in a spiritually dead state lacking eternal life
3. Person hears the Gospel
4. Person acknowledges and believes the need for eternal salvation that only Christ can bring them
5. The person turns from faith in the world unto faith in God and accepts God's gift of eternal salvation
6. The person then crosses from a spiritually dead state without hope of eternal salvation to spiritual living state with eternal salvation secured
Just askin....because I can't seem to interpret this any other way.
I believe many convince themselves they are called but are not. Hence the mess Christianity is in!
I am sorry, but we are going to have to agree to disagree. Preselection requires one to ignore to many vital verses in the bible. Many of which nobody cares to explain.
FYI .... /"Your belief in him and your conviction that you are a sinner before God is all the evidence you need that heaven will be your home."/
According to this author, in previous articles he has written, you have nothing to do with whether this will ever occur in your life. He believes that God has predestined some to heaven and others to hell. Read your own bible. Don't take everything that this man says as gospel truth. Although I do agree that once saved always saved. Once you have placed your trust in Christ, no one will ever be able to pluck you out of his hand! Once you are saved, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day that of redemption. But to be sealed, you must make a personal decision to turn your life to Christ an be willing to trust him with your eternity. This does not just happen automatically for anyone. Salvation is a choice! You must choose to accept it. God does not force it on anyone.
i quit smoking 5 years ago. Even though I wish everyone would quit, i do not agree with taxing smoking out of existance. The supposed directing of tax money for special purposes is a game played by politicians. They use the money to start other programs instead and once these programs come into existance, they rarely ever get killed. If politicians believe so strongly about smoking, just outlaw it. But they chooseto capitalize on it instead.
I love you all here, but again, i do believe the teachings of predestination, that is, God choosing who wins and who looses is heretical.Here is my official reply to this article: http://chipsjournal.com/is-repentance-required-for-salvation/
I don't understand why some want to make eternal salvation such a complicated thing? God is clear in this matter. Eternal Salvation / The Gospel is a very simple concept! Put your trust in Jesus Christ for your eternal salvation. You must make a conscious decision to put your trust in Jesus Christ. It is a dangerous thing to teach that one is not required to make any decision to accept Jesus Christ as Lord. I don't mean to offend anyone here but it seems that Satan himself would love to convince people that they have to do absolutely nothing to get to heaven????? I will admit I am NOT a bible scholar, but I do study my bible regularly and from what I read in this article, I can only say that many of the verses used to make the authors point are taken totally out of context.
@choffer Perhaps we have something here. Think progressive Jeremy. For today, just demand the Livingroom only. Once you get the livingroom, then push for one bedroom. and so on ...... Before Mrs. Sarber knows it, she will wake up with Waylon sleeping on the foot of the bed. :)Just remember patience and persistence. But make sure you convert that patience into dog years.Here is a chart to convert your dog's years to human years so you can come up with a time line for your pal's freedom:
Age of Dog - Age of human
5 months=10 years
8 months=13 years
10 months=14 years
1 year=15 years
2 years = 24 years
3 years = 28 years
4 years = 32 years
5 years = 36 years
6 years = 40 years
7 years = 44 years
8 years = 48 years
9 years = 52 years
10 years = 56 years
11 years = 60 years
12 years = 64 years
13 years = 68 years
14 years = 72 years
15 years = 76 years
16 years = 80 years
PS: Tell her also to remember that dog is God spelled backwards, and we all now she wouldn't confine God to the kitchen!
If it comes down to the dog or her, just remember, the dog never talks back! LOL.... Just kidding Mrs. Sarber. Let him free. Just make sure Jeremy vacuums and sweeps everyday.
@jeremysarber Pulled the Plug. Bought a Iconia Tab A500 today on Ebay. This Unit has has a full size USB port and will use any wired or wireless keyboard and mouse combo. Now I will be able to blog anywhere when tethered to my Android phone!
Nice. I've been looking at the android tablets for the same purpose. My android phone serves as a wifi hotspot. And soon I will be upgrading to the HTC Vivid with the LTE blazing speeds. The bluetooth keyboard may be exactly what I need to complete my Ideal blogging toolkit for the year. I hate being tied to my desktop and frankly laptops just don't feel right to me.
When you think about it, the only thing we need the federal government for is to provide for the common defense of our nation, promote peace between it's citizenry, and to maintain a fair justice system. The role of local government is to build, regulate, and maintain basic infrastructure such as water services, electricity, roads, fire control, and community policing. I am sure there are a few things I am missing here, but I think you get the just of it. I can't help but to keep going back to the point, "what did people do before our government got so far out of control?"We don't need welfare, we don't need public schools, we don't need national healthcare, we don't need the FED, we don't need government manipulating our currency, we don't need thousands upon thousands of government agencies, we don't need the EPA, we should go back to the gold standard, I could go on and on.I agree Jeremy, what you said was short but to the point. Take the power back from the Federal Government and give it back to the families and the communities in which they reside. They know what is best for their communities.
Good perspectives. You are good at stimulating the brain function :)
Yes, that's how liberty dies.
Jeremy Sarber You to. Time to go drink that beer now.... Just kidding.