Rajk999, Good you came by. It will help me deal with passages which heretics sometimes used to teach an antichrist teaching.
My replies will insist on being geared toward the subject of the thread.
Christ and the Apostles preached the following :
1. Faith in Jesus Christ is the start of your life in Christ
Where did I say that this was not so ? Nowhere.
Better still faith in Jesus Christ is the start of Christ's eternal life within the believer. Faith in Christ brings the living available Jesus Christ into the believer.
This is why Paul told the believers in Corinth to test themselves to be assured that Jesus Christ as in them.
"Test yourselves whether you are in the faith: prove yourselves. Or do you not realize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are disapproved?" (2 Cor. 13:5)
To be
"in the faith" therefore is to have the resurrected, living and available Jesus Christ within you." [/b]
He can come into the believe forever because He became a life giving Spirit -
"the last Adam became a life giving Spirit" (1 Cor. 15:45)
2. Faith must be demonstrated with humility by a life of love, good works and charity
Where did I write that faith should not do so?
"By grace you HAVE BEEN SAVED through faith ..." simply says that.
Your second point does not contradict
Ephesians 2:8. It only shows that God has priorities beyond simply saving the man.
"By faith you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; Not of works that no one should boast."
Nothing here says that God does not care about the way you live or the works you do after being saved. You are forcing a contradiction where there is none. It simply says it was not of works that the man was saved.
It does not say that God cares nothing for works. It merely says that the Christians are not saved through these works as to eternal redemption. In fact the very next sentence emphasizes that the reason the person was SAVED was for good works of walking in Christ.
For we are His masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before hand in order that we should walk in them." (v.10)
1.) NOT saved through works.
2.) Created in Christ Jesus for good works.
3. Those enduring to the END will be saved - enduring means following Christ commandments.
This is good point to speak of Salvation - FUTURE. You are alluding of course to
Matthew 24:13.
In elaborating to the His disciples about the intense troubles and persecutions of the last days Jesus says -
"But he who has endured to the end, this one will be saved." (24:13)
The passage should be compared to
Matthew 10:22 which is like it:
"And you will be hated by all because of My name. But he who endured to the end, this one will be saved."
This aspect of future being saved is not the same as mentioned in
Ephesians 2:8 above. Here, to be saved may mean to be saved from those who hate us [the Christians] into the coming millennial kingdom age. The
kingdom of the heavens in Matthew definitely has its future aspect as a reward to those already eternally redeemed. Ie. those already saved through grace through faith and not of works, will (especially but not only) pass through persecutions. If they endure they will be rewarded with the millennial kingdom of 1,000 years whic immediately follows the great tribulation.
This usage of saved is definitely future -
" ... will be saved" and it does not contradict
Ephesians 2:8 at all.
4. Those who follow Christ are his disciples and not just those who profess to know Christ with their mouth which is condemned by Christ.
The shortest way to answer this objection is perhaps with
Second Timothy 2:19.
"However the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, The Lord knows those who are his, and Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness." (2 Tim. 2:19)
This seal of God and firm foundation of Christian truth has two parts:
1.) The Lord KNOWS those who are His.
2.) Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.
Firstly, according to the divine life God knows who are the human beings who have received His life. He knows who is born of God. He knows who has the eternal life. We may not always know. But the begetting Divine Father always knows.
Secondly, there is an exhortation. Everyone who names the name of the Lord as his Lord is exhorted to depart from unrighteousness.
1.) The begetting Lord knows those who are His children even if we do not always know.
2.) Everyone professing the Lord Jesus Christ should depart from unrighteousness.
5. There are many professing faith, who will fall away and they will not be saved in the end.
This is not the difference between one eternally saved and one not. This is the difference between an overcoming Christian and a defeated Christian.
An overcoming Christian will be rewarded in the millennial kingdom of 1,000 years with co-reigning with Christ. The defeated Christian will miss this reward
but will still be saved yet so as through fire.
"If anyone's work which he has built upon the foundation [Jesus Christ]
, he will receive a reward;
If anyone's work is consumed, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire." (1 Cor. 3:14,15)
The overcoming Christian is normal, not above the standard, but just at what is expected of him. He will receive a reward.
The defeated Christian will
"suffer loss". What is the
"loss" he will suffer ? It is not the loss of eternal redemption. It is not the loss of eternal life. It is the loss of reward during the millennial kingdom.
The irrefutable reason we know that this defeated believer will not lose eternal salvation is as plain as the nose on your face. It says so -
" ... he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved ..."
You have no case, no argument, no reasoning which can defeat these plain words.
Some believers will suffer loss. But it is NOT the loss of eternal salvation because they will be saved
"yet so as through fire".
6. Sin and worldliness means that you are living in the flesh and not living in the spirit.
Nowhere did I really say ANYTHING to contradict this statement. The New Testament is clear that the believer can be carnal, immature, fleshy, or fleshly. He is saved eternally but he has not been saved in his daily walk. Though he is born of the Spirit he has not learned to walk in the Spirit.
Of course to walk in the Spirit is a priority with God. And no emphasizing of
Ephesians 2:8 means that God does not CARE about
Romans 8 about walking in the Spirit.
A good verse to clarify this is
Galatians 5:25 -
"If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." (Gal. 5:25)
The Christians was given new life by the Holy Spirit. He was regenerated. He was born again. He was born of the Spirit to possess as new life.
If we Christians were so given this new life, let us also walk by the new life we were given. Let us not be defeated, continuing to walk by the old nature. Let us grow, mature, develop as ANY new life should normally do.
"If we LIVE by the Spirit, let us ALSO walk by the Spirit."
Another passage like this is
Colossians 2:6
"As therefore you have received Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him." (Col. 2:6)
As to the PAST the believer has RECEIVED Christ already. He is eternally redeemed. He is eternally born of God.
Having received Him, let the Christian go on to
walk in Him . That is step by step, in the practical daily life live out the indwelling Christ whom he has received. It attitude, speech, actions, reactions, we learn to
"walk in Him".
Your doctrine encourages sin, worldiness, evil works and boasting that "I AM SAVED" .."IM A SINNER' ... what foolishness !!
This is not just my doctrine. It is what I have lived and am learning to live. It is a life long process of maturity. And the way we teach does NOT encouage sin, worldliness, and evil works at all.
Rather it encourages growing, maturing, learning to walk in Christ, learning to live in Christ, looking to the millennial kingdom reward, and thanking God that you have been saved so that you can live and express Christ.
Christ said that his disciples must be a LIGHT TO THE WORLD and be the SALT OF THE EARTH.
Nothing I wrote contradicts that Christ exhorted His disciples that they are the light of the world and the salt of the earth.
He goes on to say that the one who has lost saltiness is not fit for two things:
Luke 14:34,35 - "Therefore salt is good; but if even the salt becomes tasteless, with what will its saltiness be restored? It is fit neither for the land nor for the manure pile; they throw it out. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear."
1.) The
manure pile is the eternal damnation. The defeated Christian who has lost his saltiness is not good for eternal damnation (the unclean place of eternity).
2.) The
land signifies the church. They are not fit for the church because the church is God's land upon which He grows Christ in people
(1 Cor. 3:9).
Being not fit for eternal unclean place such as hell on one hand, and also being not fit for the proper New Testament church life, they will lose the reward when Christ returns. They will suffer the loss of being cast out.
They will be thrown out of the coming millennial kingdom, but they are still saved yet.....