Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
I think that is wonderful, but bearbear needs to know if have you repented, been baptized, had a complete change in thinking, and been faithful unto death, otherwise you may be a deceived free-gracer.
How can you know for sure that you will not end up in the lake of fire, outer darkness, gnashing your teeth, or with the tormenters?
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Isn't that what repentance means? Metanoia means a change of mind. I've also never said anywhere in this forum or even on my website that baptism is required. But I'm not the first to insist on the mindset that we're expected to do God's word and not just hear it, which I think Witness Lee was a genius at training his followers to go against. Because he seemed to master the art of hearing and speaking God's word but doing little of it. Sadly few in the LCs had a godly example to follow so it seems that many struggle to have faith that it's possible to overcome our flesh and live according to the Spirit. It's very important that all of us find a healthy church that has leaders who can set such an example.
James 1:22
But don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.
Romans 2:13
For merely listening to the law doesn't make us right with God. It is obeying the law that makes us right in his sight
Matthew 7:21
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
Am I crazy for believing that our faith has to endure until the end, when you have verses like these below in the word of God? How do you guys read the bible? Do you just mentally blot out these verses... Not pointing fingers cause that's what I used to do
How come we're so willing to believe in the good promises of the bible but so quick to overlook the warnings or read them haphazardly?
Matthew 10:33
but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 24:13
But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
Hebrews 3:14
For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
Ezekiel 18:24
But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die.
2 Peter 2:20-22
For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
Hebrews 6:4-8
For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.
And it's not really fair to represent my beliefs like that because I am open to the idea of sovereign grace and perseverance of the saints. I acknowledge that there are many verses in the bible which support the idea that God will preserve his chosen ones with his grace and make sure they persevere until the end, beginning with the born again experience by which he gives us a new heart and new spirit.
Jude 1:24
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,
Psalm 37:24
Though they stumble,
they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.