Person A
Jesus repeatedly told us that we are saved not by works but by faith. He meant that we could never do enough good deeds in order to enter His Kingdom. I could never give enough away to charity, or be nice to people or pray enough for Him. My character did not determine entry to the Kingdom. Instead, all He asked was that we believe. So easy yet so hard to do. The murderer on the cross beside him entered the Kingdom at the 11th hour by believing. Most of us would probably have shut the door to a guy like that. People often forget that there are no levels of sin. One sin is not worse than the other. Lying, stealing and murder are al sins, and none of us can ever claim to be sinless, despite how good we are. Although the church aspires to be Godlike, it falls short, limited by its sinful flock, us. Our priests and leaders are sinful, just like anyone else. So although the church tries to impose values and determine who enters and who needs to change before coming in, Jesus did no. He became very upset with the tax collectors in the temple and chased them out. They were limiting access to God instead of facilitating people’s faith. Jesus recruited people full of sin and took them into his arms and the Kingdom of God. So, I will enter the Kingdom by faith, despite who I am and in spite of whom I will become
Person A
Jesus repeatedly told us that we are saved not by works but by faith. He meant that we could never do enough good deeds in order to enter His Kingdom. I could never give enough away to charity, or be nice to people or pray enough for Him. My character did not determine entry to the Kingdom. Instead, all He asked was that we believe.
Are you in error given the verses below?
Biblical Jesus
Matthew 25:
…44″Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’
45″Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’
46″These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
= = =
At least two things to remember:
John 3:16 was written/published after Rome, with great difficulty, put down the Jewish Revolt.
Matthew, Luke, and John were written after the end of the Jewish Revolt.
The authentic letters of “Paul” were written by a man who threw himself on the mercy of the court of Rome/Caesar.
The New Testament is Roman propaganda to keep Ancient Jews from being so militant. During the Jewish Revolt, the “Father” and the “Son” (Vespasian and Titus) converted Jewish cities to repent and be saved them from Roman destruction.
Just believe is a call to believe Roman propaganda, its message of peace, and you will be saved from militant messianism and Roman destruction.
Just believe is Paul’s way to get you to run to Caesar as he did. It is not supposed to be applied to spirituality after the three Jewish-Roman Wars, once you take a deep dive into Christianity and see what’s what.
Stephen said
It would be kind of funny if it wasn’t so creepy.Now he’s replying to his own posts as if it’s someone else…..
Greg and Stephen, I’m glad that neither of you has personal experience of a loved one living a Sylvia Plath’s “Bell Jar” existence because of an illness and so desperate for connection that it’s obvious to outsiders something is not normal. Truly I am glad for you but also I feel sad for your lack of empathy. Those of us fortunate enough to have full lives can have no idea what such people closed off to normal contact with others must endure.
But instead of putting up with it, perhaps Steven Ray could provide a delete button for irritating posts. (I would probably get deleted, too, after this one 🙂 Do you know if there is indeed a way to exclude certain unwanted posts? Otherwise, why don’t we just ignore what is not of interest?
Almost from the very beginning we’ve had the ability to ignore certain users and not see their posts. Look in the technical forum for directions. Steefen has me and Stephen both on his ignore list so he can’t see what we’re saying. I used to have Steefen listed as the second person I ignored, but I took him off restriction.
** you do not have permission to see this link ** never says that we are saved by faith alone and that the phrase “faith alone” occurs only once in James where it says that we are not saved by faith alone. If this is so, then why do the Protestants say that we are justified by faith alone and not by works? Because the Bible teaches that we are justified by faith alone–and not by works.
The following is a list of verses about being saved by faith. Please take note that faith and works are contrasted. In other words, we are saved by faith “not by works” and “apart from works,” etc. The point is that there are only two options. We are saved by faith alone, or we are not. Since we have faith and works (both conceptually and in practice), then we are either saved by faith alone or by faith and works. There is no other option.
If we see that the Scriptures exclude works in any form as a means of our salvation, then logically we are saved by faith alone. Let’s take a look at what the Bible says about faith and works. Then, afterwards, we will tackle James’ statement about “faith alone.”
- ** you do not have permission to see this link **, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. 29Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.”
- ** you do not have permission to see this link **, “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.”
- ** you do not have permission to see this link **, “therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
- ** you do not have permission to see this link **, “What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith.“
- ** you do not have permission to see this link **, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
- ** you do not have permission to see this link **, “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.”
- ** you do not have permission to see this link **, “nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified.”
- ** you do not have permission to see this link **, “I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”
- ** you do not have permission to see this link **, “Does He then, who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? 6Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.”
- ** you do not have permission to see this link **, “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith.”
- ** you do not have permission to see this link **, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. 9Not by works, lest any man should boast.”
- ** you do not have permission to see this link **, “and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.”
Again, works/** you do not have permission to see this link ** is contrasted with faith repeatedly, and we are told that we are not justified by works in any way. Therefore, we are made right with God by faith–not by faith and our works, hence, faith alone.
** you do not have permission to see this link **
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The above shows no verses from the Gospels but verses from Pauline Christianity.
As in the original post, Jesus does speak of good works. He speaks of good works not done leading to eternal damnation.
Biblical Jesus
Matthew 25:
…44″Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’
45″Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’
46″These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Steefen said
Judith, I am adding you to my adversary list so I do not have to see your comments which do not engage the topic.
Sorry Judith you’ve been the victim of a drive-by censure.
Would one of you few left who haven’t been designated Adversary yet tell the dope that Judith was defending him?
Stephen said
Sorry Judith you’ve been the victim of a drive-by censure.
Would one of you few left who haven’t been designated Adversary yet tell the dope that Judith was defending him?
ROTFL!!!
And, Judith, Way to go or as a great philosopher once observed
The Shareef don’t like it, Rock the Casbah
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
evgendob
Robert