Originally posted by @rajk999
Did you read this:
1Jn_5:5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
Read it again.
[b]1Jn_5:5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
You believe that Jesus is God.[/b]
Your example of
First John 5:5 is not enough to cover ALL passages on overcoming.
"For everything that has been begotten of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith.
And who is he who overcomes the world except him who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"
Yes, the Christian overcomes the world by moving from unbelief to belief in Christ. Faith itself is the victory that overcomes the world in that sense.
But in the seven letters to the seven churches in Asia that audience is those in the churches who HAVE believed in Christ. The call to overcome is to those who have faith.
Now if ALL the saints in ALL those churches were overcomers in every sense, then there would be no need for Christ to promise a reward to those who overcome. For all would automatically be overcomers.
So this proves that there is an overcoming in relation to the unbelief of the world in general, but there is also an overcoming in relation to rising above the situation of degradation among Christians.
In each of the epistles, the epistles
to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, to Laodicea there is a promise to those who overcome some aspect of surrounding degradation.
Now these are CHRISTIANS ... ALL.
If ALL were automatically overcomers in every sense then there would be no need for the Lord to speak of
"He who overcomes." signalling that this overcoming is not AUTOMATIC
( Rev. 2:7,10,17,26,3:5,12,21) Just by virtue that they are constituents of the church they automatically would be overcomers in every sense.
Furthermore, Christians could overcome unbelief, trust in Christ as Lord for salvation, and still be defeated (not overcoming) in some aspect of their Christian walk.
This is proved by Paul speaking to the Corinthians, who were Christian brothers all in the church there. And he said that for some of them to be taking each other to secular law court was a defeat for them.
" But brother goes to court with brother, and this before unbelievers.
Already then it is altogether a DEFEAT to you that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?
But you wrong and defraud, and this your brother." (1 Cor. 6:6-8)
Christian BROTHERS who overcame the unbelief in Christ of the world were nonetheless DEFEATED rather than overcoming in the matter of dragging each other before unbelievers in secular law courts.
This proves that merely being a believer in Christ is overcoming in some sense, but not in EVERY sense.
Now you admitted that you do believe in the millennial kingdom. And I have on many occasions tried to show you that immature saints cannot be immature indefinitely. After the one thousand year reign of Christ ALL of those who have ever been saved will have been matured.
That is why, AFTER the millennium God says that the overcomers will inherit all the blessings of eternity.
This utterances concerns not the millennium but the eternal age following it:
"And He who sits on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said, Write, for these words are faithful and true.
And He said to me. They have come to pass. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give to him who thirsts from the spring of the water of life freely.
HE WHO OVERCOMES will inherit these things, and I will be God to him, and he will be a son to Me." (Rev. 21:5-7)
The mouth in fellowship with God
05 Apr '18 07:16
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