For Christians only

[A1-humor]

A few – versus – the many

People use a few popular salvation verses in the NT to try to prove their eternal salvation.
But, these verses are taken out of context … because they just do NOT line up (agree) with
MANY other verses in the new Testament.

These few popular salvation verses apply to people when they first truly believe (in their hearts)
in the precious gospel (good news) about Jesus Christ.
At this point, yes, the righteousness of Jesus Christ is applied to them, and His precious blood
washes away all of their past sins and these sins are forgotten by God.
This may be viewed as Part Two of God’s grace (Part One is that any human at all might be forgiven).
However, this does NOT apply to a person’s future sins.
I.E. a person cannot just go on merrily committing more sins without sincere repentance,
which is to say: the doctrine of OSAS is not true.

There are several NT verses which say: doing the will of God is necessary for salvation.
And there are several NT verses which say: obedience is part of doing God’s will.
And the most important obedience ... is to continually repent (run) from your sins.
The whole entire Bible continually says that God hates sin with a great passion!
And the NT continually says that habitual unrepentant sinners will not enter heaven.
Yes, there are about 100 Scripture verses which warn that believers can lose their salvation.

Please don't be confused … there are requirements for one’s INITIAL salvation,
and there are also requirements for CONTINUING one’s salvation.
Salvation is not a one-time thing ... it is a lifelong process.
There is Positional (set apart) Sanctification, and there is Progressive Sanctification.
A true believer is set apart for the Holy Spirit to work on (fully sanctify) him/her.
However, the person is NOT forced to co-operate with this sanctification process.
This is where a person’s free will is involved … God purposely did not create human robots.

A simple example of a condemnation passage … Revelation 21:7-8 applies to everyone!
“He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.
But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and
all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Two popular gospels: one for church members and one for the clergy

The previous section comes against the obvious popular doctrine of “Once Saved Always Saved”.
Another obvious popular doctrine (of only the last 100 years or so) is the pre-tribulation rapture,
however there is nowhere near enough space here to present all of the condemning verses against it.
But, now we will explain the most historically-popular (and disastrous) false doctrine of the clergy:

Jesus and His disciples evangelized with signs, wonders, and miracles, which confirm
the Truth of the gospel message. And so did Peter and Paul and all of the other apostles.
God always intended that His New Testament church be the model for all future churches!
The gospel plus confirming miracles is called “the full gospel”.
Paul said in Romans 15:19, “in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God
… I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.”

Paul made it clear in Ephesians 4:11 that God chose and called certain men to lead the church
with the 5 ministry offices of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher. Not only that,
but He gave to each of them one or more of the 9 spiritual power gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12.
These were not only valuable in the spreading of the gospel, but they were also used in the healing
of multitudes of people of their many physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual problems.

Now after the original apostles died off, BIG problems arose in the church!
Some men who were NOT chosen and called by God wanted to be in control of the churches,
but these men did NOT have the spiritual gifts mentioned above … so they found some
reasons and excuses to eliminate the importance of these gifts in the church!
These men of influence who wanted to control the churches could NOT allow themselves to appear
to be spiritually inferior to some church members who had these gifts. Their power, prestige, influence,
and even their jobs, depended on their continuing with the “cessationism” doctrine which is:
“Since the Bible was written, God ceased from performing miracles.”
Satan actually deceived these men, and/or they just simply chose to go in this direction!

Sadly, most of today’s church organizations stand against the use of the spiritual power gifts
for the reasons/excuses given above. IF God’s chosen evangelization method had NOT been
rejected by the church, the world would have been evangelized long long ago.
But, despite the church’s long-held doctrine of cessationism, God still performs miracles amongst
those who believe in them, or where there is little unbelief in them (such as in some foreign countries).
Hopefully, you are now more open to accept that today God still performs signs, wonders, and miracles.

[A1-humor]

Jesus taught Paul tremendous tact

When Jesus spoke to the world (and had His words recorded for posterity),
many of His words were later described as “the hard sayings of Jesus”,
as He instructed people how God expected them to live.

Paul spent 17 years (Galatians 1:18, 2:1) in the desert regions
being taught by the Lord … before he really began his ministry.
So, I’m assuming that God taught him how to teach the churches in
the particular tactful style that he demonstrated. And this was to mix
his warnings in with copious amounts of edifications and exhortations!

Romans 6 is my favorite example of Paul’s super-tactful style.
In an 8-verse span (16, 21, 23), he warns 3 times that sin results in eternal death.

So you can participate in this, here’s a question for you …

In these 2 verses,
v.18 “And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness”
v.19 “so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness”

What is Paul’s meaning here?
1) Since they were now slaves of righteousness,
they should continue presenting themselves as slaves of righteousness.
or …
2) Since they were NOT now really living as slaves of righteousness,
they should choose to start presenting themselves as slaves of righteousness.

To help in your decision …
please do not forget that Paul has been constantly harping on this problem:

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (Romans 6:1-2)

“What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?
Certainly not!” (Romans 6:15)

[Able]

Jesus Saves!!!!!! But Walmart saves you more.