[Jo S]

Originally Posted by Evangelical

In your first paragraph you said "do proper exegesis rather than isolating a verse and making an entire argument from it " and then you proceeded to do the same with a single verse Luke 6:45 and then make it a general rule.

Using the whole of scripture to validate an interpretation is exegesis. What you do is use one verse and then proceed your own interpretation without having another verse to support that view. I used Luke along with the one you gave to validate my position. Not the same thing.

So I will do exegesis on a number of passages that relate to each other. Here,
Romans 10:10 says:

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

See how the salvation is made conditional upon the confession following the belief? So the belief only and in and of itself is not the salvation.

Further, verses 13 and 14:

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

So the order of steps in salvation from these verses is

1)preaching, 2) hearing, 3) belief, 4)calling(confession) and 5) salvation.

Verse 13 makes this even clearer as it puts the emphasis on calling for salvation, not belief.

Your view seems to contradict this as you are saying the salvation comes after belief and before confession/calling.

You're equating a repeated mantric practice of chanting the Lord's name five times in unison to an initial confession of Jesus' lordship. Two totally different things. Neither of which are required for salvation. To make the point, how then would the mute be saved if a literal vocal confession has to be made as a precursor to salvation?

Pharisees weren't saved because they did not believe in Christ for salvation. So they stopped at step 3) of the previous "salvation steps" I listed.

Paul was using this rhetoric to make a specific point and that was the need to spread the gospel. He was not laying out a linear "5 steps to salvation" list because it simply cannot apply to every person. For example, how would the deaf complete step two?

How does Romans 8:18 help interpret Phil 3:8-9 ?

It shows Paul is looking forward to a tangible event and not an inner subjective experience.

As I mentioned before, salvation is not only a one time belief but a life-long process of sanctification or "complete salvation".

Yes, sanctification is a life-long process done through faith.

"That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me." Acts 26:18.

If Judas was not His friend then the Psalm which says he was, would be a lie, and God's Word cannot lie. Jesus must have called Judas His friend because he was. If Scripture called Judas Jesus's friend then it would be a lie if he wasn't truly.

It's quite possible for Judas to love, believe in and follow Christ and still not be saved. This is not an example of "loss of eternal salvation" because remember this is before the Spirit was given, so none of the disciples were 'born again' at this stage, and while Judas was the only one to betray Christ, people forget that some of the other disciples were following Him as disciples in unbelief. They were all friends of Christ who stayed with Him for 3 years, some believed, others didn't, one in particular would eventually betray Him.

I have no issue with Christ regarding Judas as a friend, but that is not evidence that Judas trusted and had faith in Christ. The end result of his choices actually show otherwise.