Featured Creating Your Own God

Though infants in the Lord, they are regenerate. 1 Cor. 3:1 is not addressing the unregenerate. The unregenerate cannot be in Christ. It is an impossibility.

The regenerate, whether at the infant stage or the meat stage have the Holy Spirit indwelling them.

That cannot be said of the unregenerate.

The regenerate have the Holy Spirit. They are in Christ.

No one outside of Christ is regenerate.

Do not wrest the Scriptures to further your ends Van.

 

I'm leaving off the basis of your post (although I agree with what you are saying about the methods used by Christians who may be wrong about what they believe a scripture to be saying).

What I wanted to say is: Thanks. I've just seen a link in the above part of what you said in your post, to John 3:19:

18 He who believes on Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light, because their deeds were evil.

So they choose to remain in sin. I believe it's like the ark: While Noah was building it, the door was open for anyone to enter for the entire time until God shut the door:120 years before the flood, God judged the world, and the world was found guilty:

Genesis 6:3
"And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, in his erring; he is flesh. Yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years."

Genesis 6:5-7
"And the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD repented that He had made man on the earth, and He was angry to His heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created, from the face of the earth, both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air. For I repent that I have made them."

The ark of salvation:

Genesis 6:13-14a
"And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. And, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make an ark of Cyprus timbers. You shall make rooms in the ark..."

The world, in the days of Noah, was not judged on the day the floods came. The flood was just the carrying out of the decreed sentence which had already been passed when the world was judged 120 years earlier. God had already judged the world, and the world had already been found guilty. The sentence had been decreed, but not carried out yet. There was still a chance to get into the ark, and many were no doubt called into the ark, but few (8 souls) were chosen.

The ark is a picture of Christ:

John 12:31-32
"Now is the judgement of this world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all to Myself."

Revelation 12:9-11
"And the great dragon was cast out, the old serpent called Devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a great voice saying in Heaven,

Now has come the salvation and power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ. For the accuser of our brothers is cast down, who accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony. And they did not love their soul to the death."

John 3:17
"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes on Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God."

18 He who believes on Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light, because their deeds were evil.

Sorry for changing the main subject of your post (which I understand and agree with regarding the methods used by some Christians who want to oppress any view or understanding of any scripture that is contrary to their own).

 

Deuternonomy 4
29 But if you shall seek the LORD your God from there, you shall find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Jeremiah 29
13 And you shall seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

Deternonomy 13
3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Deuteronomy 30
6 And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.

They had not even been regenerated yet when the above things were said to them.

Jesus said,

John 6
44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who has sent Me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

So I believe that the Holy Spirit calls all those who Christ died for,and they are:

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.

But

John 6
36 But I said to you that you also have seen Me and do not believe.
37 All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will in no way cast out.
38 For I came down from Heaven, not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.
39 And this is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all which He has given Me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day.
40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes on Him should have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the last day.

Because

John 3
18 He who believes on Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light, because their deeds were evil.

I don't believe the scriptures teach us that only some were predestined unto salvation, because:

1 Corinthians 15
21 For since death is through man, the resurrection of the dead also is through a Man.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all will be made alive.

I believe the scriptures teach us that Adam (mankind) was predestined for salvation in Christ, but only those who hear, believe, repent and submit are found in the ark. So walking through the door of the Ark of our salvation into the Ark of our salvation = responding to the witness of the Holy Spirit with hearing, believing, repenting and submitting. But many humans choose not to, because they "loved darkness rather than the Light, because their deeds were evil."

 

Natural persons, lost sinners, cannot receive the things of God!

 

Could you 'flesh' that out (pun intended)?

Your sentence doesn't make any sense. Reword it so that it is understandable.

 

Then you will have to agree that those spoken of in 1 Cor. 2:14 are indeed unregenerate. They are not 'in Christ.'

 

Dead wrong Van. Those spoken of in 1 Cor. 3:1 are in Christ. Being in Christ means, among other things --that they are regenerate.

 

Paul stated there that lost sinners cannot receive in and by themselves any spiritual truth!

 

No way Jose. The people referenced in that passage cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. They regard those spiritual things as foolishness. These folks are perishing. See 1 Cor. 1:18 for your understanding.

 

Apparently you still hold to what you stated on May 3, 2012:
"The fiery torment in the afterlife lasts for a limited duration followed by annihilation, providing perfect justice."