Featured General Reconciliation

Reconciliation is preached to everyone.
No one, who is dead in sins, has any faith to be credited.
Having faith is not a prerequisite that God demands before He reconciles a human being.
The biblical truth is when we, in our dead in trespasses state are made alive, by God, and saved by grace. God then gives us faith to believe and in believing we see our sin and repent.

Van, you make salvation a willful choice by man to pick God.
I make salvation a willful choice by God to pick man (without any faith being necessary at the point of God's choice).
We fundamentally disagree and it seems that God will need to correct one of us...or perhaps both of us.

 

Your understanding misses the reason God created. It is not about people. It is about his glory. And as Paul indicates, the damnation of many and the salvation of others glorifies his wrath and mercy. If he followed your agenda, we could not know him by his attributes.

 

I like/love your last sentence. And I might add, Me also.

 

Your understanding misses the reason God created. It is not about people. It is about his glory.

Your posting that made me think of my thread in C&A John 3:16 pt 2 which no one has commented upon.

God created for the, "In Hope," by which the glory to God comes.

Read in the context of what you posted above.

 

Please share the verse that says "we are chosen for salvation based upon the faith we display."

I have never read any verse in the Bible that says such a thing or even implies such a thing. Therefore, unless you can clearly produce that verse, I call your teaching false.
Your turn to prove your teaching isn't false, Van.
Where does the Bible say, "we are chosen for salvation based upon the faith we display."???

 

Van,
In the light of what is quoted above, I'd like to suggest that if you're going to judge someone for doing something, that you do your level best not to be guilty of it yourself ( Matthew 7:1-2 ).
Wouldn't you agree?

After all, we as believers all have the same problem with a flesh in which dwells no good thing ( Romans 7:14-25 ), so it behooves us to be mindful of how we come across to others, doesn't it?
I also know that I have my own troubles in this area, but by God's grace He is changing that.


May He bless you with many good gifts in the coming days.

 

The passage, in context, Jesus is clearly speaking of a call to salvation. Jesus says of those He calls, they will follow him, He will lose none and raise them up. He is clearly speaking of a call to salvation.

To call it “poppycock” and “nonsense” is missing the clear understanding of the text.

Thanks for not calling me names.

peace to you

 

I guess the difference is that the good shepherd in Jesus’ illustration didn’t know all his sheep’s names before the sheep existed. He only calls his sheep by name that exist and have been given a name. And he (the shepherd) is the one that gives them names, after they are born. How many shepherds give names to sheep that don’t exist yet?

 

All the dead will be raised up in the last day. And it must be Jesus that raises them up, as He is the resurrection and the life. Are you saying all are saved?

 

Nope.
(Boy, that was an easy question.)

 

The Lord does:

Psalms 139.
Jeremiah 1:5.
Acts of the Apostles 15:18.
Romans 8:29-30.

He also gives them new names:

Isaiah 62:2.
Revelation 2:17.
Revelation 3:12.

On a side note, I really like this passage:

" [Even] every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him." ( Isaiah 43:7 ).



Good evening to you, and I wish you well.

 

[1Ch 22:8-10 NASB] 8 "But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 'You have shed much blood and have waged great wars; you shall not build a house to My name, because you have shed [so] much blood on the earth before Me. 9 'Behold, a son will be born to you, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. 10 'He shall build a house for My name, and he shall be My son and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.'

Only one ... God!
(This is fun.)

 

@atpollard :

Ooooo....I didn't see that one coming.
How about this one:

" But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.
14 And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.
15 For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb." ( Luke 1:13-15 ).

 

This was disappointing, Dave.

None of these verses give examples of God calling a sheep's name before the sheep existed, much less before the beginning of the world.

Kudos to @atpollard, who found this one:

You're right! only one--God--could do such a thing. And so Jesus' illustration of a good shepherd, which all of his listeners would have understood in the context of a pastoral society, would not have made sense to them regarding someone calling sheep's names before they existed, nor calling someone who was not yet one of his sheep away from a different (not so good) shepherd, since that was strictly forbidden in the law, which Jesus wouldn't break even in a parable. Yet that's what you are suggesting.

The Solomon quote is a good one. Yet that last line (and all the others, really) is pretty obviously talking about Jesus, who would be called the "Prince of Peace". So while some of the words apply to Solomon, Solomon was not wholeheartedly committed to God, and the throne of his kingdom--you know, the one God said would be established forever over "Israel"--was splintered the very next generation, with "Israel" rebelling and walking away.

Kudos back to you for this one, Dave. Samson also was filled with the Holy Ghost, and was not to drink wine nor strong drink (but he did). And King Saul, who ended his own life after being rejected by God.

I was surprised that neither of you mentioned Cyrus. Cyrus was named over a hundred years before his birth. [Isa 45:1, 4 KJV] 1 Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; ... 4 For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.

or Josiah:
[1Ki 13:2 KJV] 2 And he cried against the altar in the word of the LORD, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the LORD; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee.

But Cyrus wasn't a sheep: [Isa 44:28 KJV] 28 That saith of Cyrus, [He is] my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.

Neither was Josiah. He also was a shepherd, as all kings are supposed to be.

Jesus was making a point about sheep that are already His, and they know whose they are. It's an established relationship. So it can't be equated with the effectual gospel call to a dead person or someone else's sheep.

 

Well, your answer was easy, I suppose. The question, not so much. If Jesus raises all at the last day, and He is the resurrection, how can you say that those people aren't saved from death?

 

which is an earnest of our inheritance, to the redemption of the acquired possession, to the praise of His glory. Eph 1:14
the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, for your knowing what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, Eph 1:18

It appears to me, that our inheritance, the redemption of our body, becomes the inherited glory of God.

 

You are stealing God's glory when you repent without giving him thanks or credit. Bristling instead with self-righteousness. God glories when he grants repentance to you and gives you a repentant heart. There's nothing worse than stealing God's glory. Herod tried it and was eaten of worms.