Featured Intellectual Faith

19 Thou believest that God is one; thou doest well: the demons also believe, and shudder. Ja 2

 

No. We've been through this before, you and I. You have totally, completely misinterpreted this portion of scripture.

Poor Icon, he obsesses over false believers. They're everywhere! They're everywhere!

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"I know you've a really big emphasis on false professors, but I think you've totally missed Paul's intent here.

Compare 1 Cor 15:2:

by which also ye are saved, if ye hold fast the word which I preached unto you, except ye believed in vain.

With 1 Cor 15:16-17

For if the dead are not raised, neither hath Christ been raised:
and if Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

I think the New Living Translation gets Paul's intent right:

It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you--unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place."

 

gnostics back in the day.

Many Catholics modernly. As a boy i was only required to memorize the correct answers to my catechism book to be ready to receive Confirmation.

 

I thought trusting Christ alone for salvation was enough. Didn’t know I had to repent of my sins first. I’m still sinning so......And how much fruit is enough to have assurance of salvation cause some days I’m a total failure at this.

All I know is Jesus died, was buried and rose again. I have put my trust in that alone to stand forgiven before God. Not a prayer, good works, repentance of my sins. Trust in the Lord is all I got man.

 

There are no works to do in order to be saved. Salvation is complete a free gift. All that is required is to believe God about His Christ having died in our place so that one's sins are completely forgiven and the testamony Christ really did this is God rised Him from the dead because sins were fully paid once and for all. And so Christ fully intercedes for us. This forgiveness is so complete one's sins will not in any way be remembered against us. Hebrews 10:17; Jeremiah 31:31-34. 1 John 5:9-13. Titus 1:2.

Whiie it is true dead faith saves no one. Those that are saved have works as a result of God, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 2:10. Now the works of the saved that result in zero reward do not cause one to become lost, `1 Corinthians 3:11-15.

Now the problem with many that argue,

There exists a failure among some to understand Abraham was fully justified without works, Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:1-5, some 50 years before he was also justifed by a work, Genesis 22:12.

The works that follow faith in Christ in which God gives us full forgiveness are the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5:22-23; 2 Corinthians 5:17. Our own works can all fail, 1 Corinthians 3:11-15.

 

After faith in Christ. Ephesians 2:8; Acts of the Apostles 16:31, "shalt be saved." God does the saving and does the keeping. All we can do is to trust God in His promise to save by believing in His Christ. God makes it easy. The religious and lost trust in their works, Matthew 7:21-23. God's will is for use to recieve salvation solely as a gift.

 

2 Corinthians 4:3-4, ". . . But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: . . ."

2 John 1:9, ". . . Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. . . ."

 

Where does scripture say there are more than one kind of faith?
MB

 

It sounds like we agree, but I must explain. Abraham is credited as righteous because of his faith. That faith led Abraham to do things. By faith Abraham offered up Isaac for instance (Hebrews 11:17). Faith was the cause, acts of obedience the effect. We aren't sinless as believers, but we are different and growing to be like Jesus Christ in thoughts, words, and deeds.

I hope that explained my position, which sounds like yours at base.

 

First of all A measure of faith is given to every man. The rest of your statement here is completely false such as claiming election for your self. There is not one gentile in scripture ever called elect. No where in scripture does it ever say that God has elected the Gentiles. Scripture does say that the Jews are elect.

Gentiles have been granted repentance;
Act 11:18 When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.

Yet Paul had to speak to some of them as natural feeding them milk which all natural men can understand. No one learns the what the advanced student knows until they begin at the beginning.

This is speaking of the deep things of God 1st Cor 2;10

This was true of the twelve disciples but After the death and ressurection of Christ. Jesus Him self does the drawing.
Joh_12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

This was addressed to the Jews not the Gentiles. According to the Bible they did not obey the Law's and ordinances. We are not under the Law.

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All this was addressed to the Jews under to old covenant. No one but the Jews were under the old covenant. I see you apply these to your self. Are you Jewish?
MB

 

Per James, the answer would be nope!

 

Orthodox intellectual belief is not the faith by which we are justified, the faith by which we receive the righteousness of Christ for our righteousness before God.

 

the faith that is real is the gift from God Himself to us....

 

All this was addressed to the Jews under to old covenant. No one but the Jews were under the old covenant. I see you apply these to your self. Are you Jewish?
MB[/QUOTE]

It is the divinely given interpretation that the new covenant spoken of in

All this was addressed to the Jews under to old covenant. No one but the Jews were under the old covenant. I see you apply these to your self. Are you Jewish?
MB[/QUOTE]

It is the divinely given interpretation of Jeremiah 31:31-34 that the new covenant it refers to is the new covenant that is in Christ’s blood. (see Hebrews 8:7-13, 10:1-18)

 

Intellectual faith?... Now that's one I haven't heard before!... No intellect of mine on my part... Sovereign Grace says its 100% The Faith Of Jesus Christ, now where is man's intellectual faith in that?... Brother Glen

 

I am not saying salvation is by works. I am not saying we are justified by our own righteousness. I am not saying any of our own good works, holiness of heart, or piety makes up any part of our righteousness before God. What I am saying is that the faith by which we are justified is not a faith that is devoid of repentance. I do not understand repenting of sin to be the same thing as works. One could make it into works. He could trust in his repentance as his righteousness, but making repentance a condition of salvation is not works righteousness. What I am saying is not that we must repent of everyone of our individual sins to be saved. That would be works. “Who can discern his errors? Clear thou me from hidden faults.” (Psalm 19:12 ASV) A wrong understanding of the nature of repentance can lead to trusting in works and one’s own goodness. By intellectual faith I mean a faith that believes certain divine truths concerning God and the way of salvation by Christ, but does not really repent of sin and trust in Christ for salvation.

 

I must issue some caution from my own story. I became a Christian in 2004 at an SBC church as an adult. Within a year I was dabbling in Eastern religious ideas and Charismatic Christianity. A few years in my life was a train wreck. I went on to become a mooch and added being a liberal Evangelical Christian to my sins. I earnestly believed I was a Christian and read the bible through a few times.

Finally I started to turn my life around and after reading about the resurrection, I was sure I would wind up in hell. I put faith in Jesus Christ and committed myself to obey Him, and my life has never been the same.

We must challenge the complacency of fool's and the waywardness of the simple. Because a lot of dedicated Christians are tares that need to come to Jesus in a way that actions follow faith to be wheat.

 

I also lost a lot of friends who were raised Christian to neopaganism, secularism, and wanton lives of sin with an empty confession.

I do not think intellectual faith is what you mean. I think it is a faith built on a hollow confession to others that never touched the heart their whole lives. Romans 10:9-10 tells me faith that saves is in the heart, by translation a faith that is guiding our will, emotions, and reason. When this faith is combined with confession of it unto death, we have found someone indwelled by the Spirit and growing in obedience to Jesus Christ.

 

Did you just call me a fool and simple? LOL