Featured Is Salvation Accepting Jesus Into My Heart?

The devil is the one who came up with "another gospel", or two, or a hundred, to deceive lost people into believing they have a hope of heaven and the devil is the supernaturally evil one who has his ministers, and/or ignorant Christians, that he uses to present and encourage lost people to, "Accept Jesus Into Your Heart", "Make a Decision for Jesus", and many other false gospels, as if to suggest doing anything like those kinds of things, could be beneficial to them in any way BECAUSE THEY ARE ACCURSED and God calls them "ACCURSED", once and then for confirmation, a second time.
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Yes, being called into the Ministry of Reconciliation, Calvies who have been gifted with a Spiritual understanding of How God Saves Souls, then are also able to decern "the wiles of the Devil" and his lies that he has devised in order to deceive lost souls and;

including,

 

so are you saying that people who believe in what you call decisional salvation are lost?

 

Are those who believe and preach "decisional salvation" ministers of the devil?

 

The reverse corollary of the presence in the world of the Devil's counterfeit "ministers of light" and ignorant Christians faithful to Satan and 'preach' and present his lies, is that God has raised up God-called ministers who are blessed to Spiritually discern what is written in the Bible about How God Saves Souls, beginning with their ability to learn that there is One Way of Salvation.

 

John 1:11-13. 'He came to His own [i.e. His own Jewish countrymen], and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name........'
It might seem as if the receiving comes before the giving of the right, but it is important to read this passage in the light of 1 Corinthians 2:14. 'But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' No one will see the kingdom of God who has not been born anew (John 3:3).

Now we move on to verse 13. '.......Who were born
Not of blood.....' One's ancestry cannot help; it does no good to be born a Jew, of of a famous Christian.
'......Nor of the will of the flesh.....' One's own fallen nature cannot help one. 'That which is born of the flesh is flesh.'
'......Nor of the will of [a] man.......' Nor can a second party help. Salvation is not found in the urgings of the preacher, the incantations of the priest, the ministrations of the social worker; none of these can give new birth.
'.........But of God.' Salvation is monergistic. It comes from God and from Him alone (Jonah 2:9; Revelation 7:10).

You also asked about the difference between 'accepting' and 'receiving.'
If I receive a letter in the post, the postman has put it through the door and I am entirely passive. If I accept a letter, it means that the postman has rung the doorbell and offered me the letter, and I can accept it or decline it at my own will.
But it is also the inference of the language. It smacks to me of a poor, lovelorn Jesus Christ hoping against hope that I will become His Facebook friend or something. Salvation is nothing at all like that.

I did not intend to become involved in a Calvinism vs Arminianism debate, of which I am thoroughly sick, but you asked me the question and I've answered it. If you, JoJ, want to ask anything else, I will happily respond, but not to anyone else.

 

There is One Way of Salvation and "another Gospel" is accursed by God Himself for that very reason.

By what asked, there are innumerable qualifiers you might like to add, but in that vacuum, you mentioned they "believe" and asking if they are lost.

So, when you look into their soul, what is it that you see that they have believed?

How about, when they search their on heart, what are they going to say it is that they believe?

God? God sees the condition of their soul after they have professed to have, "believed". What is there? What does God see in their soul?

Anything happening in there? I know that when God saves a soul, there is a Regeneration that has taken place in there. They have been Born Again, by the Holy Spirit of God.

There a lot of decisions that are being made every day, by people around the world, but they aren't allowed popping up like popcorn, with their soul having been saved.

Not only were some of those people lost to start with, but they remained lost after whatever decisions they made.

You say, wait a minute, but they weren't told about Jesus.

What about Him? If they are lost, they have no power or ability to 'decide' anything that has to do with the Realm of the Spirit. Lost souls are spiritually dead and God is Spirit. Those two realms in reality don't any means of connecting them, apart from the Activity of God.

How will they be Enabled by God to "hear", Spiritually?

How shall the believe, if they do not hear?

And how shall hear, if one is not sent?

Every lost soul that God will saves is first brought, by God, Who places their soul under the preaching of the Gospel. That is why God says the ones who hear had someone sent to them.

And what is told to them, by those who are sent, that the Holy Spirit uses to bare testimony inside a lost person's soul, when accompanied by the Holy Spirit in the New Birth?

The word. That they are sinners against a Thrice-Holy God that they have offended and that they are to Repent and Believe the Gospel.

The word must be used where the Holy Spirit can Convict them their soul of their own personal sin, for them to be granted a God-wrought Repentance, to then be Spiritually Empowered to turn from themselves and their condemning sins, and to also turn to God by Faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as part of the Gift of Eternal Life they are granted by the Holy Spirit.

And, although the definition of 'decisional salvation' wasn't spelled out, in your reply, what is missing from it that always defines it, specifically, that is what I just wrote?

Regeneration. And the Repentance toward God that is God-wrought that comes with it.

"Repent and believe", is the message of the Bible and if ether of them are not mentioned, or what exactly to Repent and believe, they are always implied.

Anybody can agree, mentally, that they are a sinner and to give them up, and even to superficially accent in their mind, and even 'believe' with their flesh, which profits nothing, and to 'trust' using their deceitful and desperately wicked heart, and do what? Make a carnal decision in their sin-cursed head, that they agree with what all they've been told and are willing to commit, determine, resolve, pronounce, and profess Jesus, to be saved.

Are they?

Not if they made that decision, without Regeneration.

The false Gospel of telling a lost soul to "decide', can be done, but what if that lost soul actually genuinely, in their heart and soul, has only done what they were told?

Making a decision is not the way of salvation and just the activity of a Spiritually blind, Spiritually dead, Spiritually helpless sinner DOES NOT PRODUCE THE SALVATION OF THEIR SOUL. and they remain lost and more deceived than they were to start with.

"You has He Quickened (by His Spirit, in conjunction with the Word of God), who were dead, in trespasses and sins".

God must bring New Life by His Quickening and New Life by the Quickening Spirit of God can never be brought about into the reality of a lost soul by the arm of the flesh and the superduper 'life decision' a sinner makes in their head.

Using the instrumentality of the Word.

The instrumentality of the Word in regeneration is taught by John 3:5; Eph. 5:26; Jas. 1:18; 1 Pet 1:23.

It is evident from I Pet. 1: 25 that the word in these passages is the written or preached Word rather than the incarnate Word (which is Christ).

In I Pet. 1:23 the Word is characterized as that "which liveth and abideth forever." Then in verse 24 the perishable nature of other things is referred to.

And in verse 25 the endurance of the Word is again referred to, and it is plainly specified that the Word referred to is "the word of good tidings which was preached unto you" (correct translation).

However it needs to be understood (as we have before implied) that in the first phrase of regeneration (quickening) the Spirit operates on the soul independent of the Word.

The spiritually dead soul must be given life before it can see and act upon the truth. It is by quickening that one is enabled to come to Christ (John 6:65).

It is thus that God gives men over into possession of Christ (John 6:37).

 

I was cleaning out a drawer and came across a tract written in 1952 by Robert Boyd Munger (Inter- Varsity Press, 36th printing, 1972) called,
MY HEART— CHRIST’S HOME

It begins…

IN PAUL’S EPISTLE to the Ephesians, we find these words: “That [God] would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man: that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” (Ephesians 3:16).
​

Rob

 

are you saying that those who believe in “decisional salvation” are lost?

 

I agree, not all that profess faith in Christ Jesus actually do trust in Him. But those that truly do will be saved. God will as you say accept all that trust in Christ Jesus for their salvation.

Act 10:43 "Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins."

Rom 3:26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Rom 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Rom 5:2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

Gal 3:26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

So as you can see from scripture those that trust in Christ need have no fear that God will reject them. @Martin Marprelate I hope this will relieve you of any doubt that you may have had.

 

Seems like you think some people have and elevated knowledge that the rest of us poor souls can only hope for. That sounds a lot like Gnostic thinking there @Alan Gross

 

Agreed. John 6:37.

 

All true.

But I would add, "But of God through the Gospel." Prayer is also at work (praying for the lost), and the Word of God has power in salvation. And the actual regeneration is through the power of the Holy Spirit. So I emphasize to my students that they need those three powers of God for evangelism: the Gospel, the Word, and the Spirit. Otherwise the evangelism is human and unsuccessful.

Pretty good explanation. I was thinking of receiving as being more general than that. You can receive a wound in combat, a letter, a popsicle, etc. But as you say, "accept" is an act of the human will.

Yeah, I stay out of the Cal/Arm debates. My best friend from college (50 years ago!), a Calvinist, recently wrote to me reiterating how we don't argue, but just enjoy each other's friendship in the Lord.

And thank you for the kind thought about responding to my posts.

 

Thank you, @John of Japan.
If I could have given a 'like' and an 'agree' rating as well as 'friendly,' I would have done so.

 

"Are you calling anyone here "accursed"...

No mention by me, or the Lord, of the word "accursed", has reference to anything to do with Salvation, so any assumption of me, or the Lord, using it to call into question someone's Salvation, is irrelevant.

Being under the "curse" of the law has caused all lost souls to be condemned already and that is to Hell, however, the word used in connection with those who preach another Gospel, refers to the protection God has instituted as a part of the pattern and design He used to structure His church organization.

In order for His religious assemblies to maintain a regenerate membership that can rationally be the ones who bring Him Glory, when gathered together, any procedure by which lost people would be encouraged, or invited, to come and join on in and be recognized as members is strongly prohibited by God.

The proponents of a false Gospel, called another Gospel to engender false professions of Faith by lost souls, who actually remain lost are vehemently censored by the Lord in His word.

God's intention for these proponents of false "gospels", such as, "if you care to decide and go to Heaven, instead of Hell", of "Jesus will save anyone that'll just accept the fact", is to not have them associated with Him and for them to not be trying to fill His worship assemblies, with lost people they deceive.

I agree with Gill where he says,
"let him be accursed, or "anathema"; "...the sense be this, let him be ejected from the ministry of the word, degraded from his office, and cast out of the church; let him be no more a minister, nor a member of it; and let him be abhorred of men,..."

"Verse 9. As we have said before, so say I now again,.... Either when he first preached the Gospel among them; or rather referring to what he had just now said, which he repeats with some little alteration; as if any, men, or angels, be they of what name, figure, rank, or office whatever,

"preach any other Gospel unto you, than that ye have received;..."
"let him be accursed; which he repeats, for the more solemn asseveration and confirmation of it; and to show that this did not drop from his lips hastily and inadvertently; nor did it proceed from any irregular passions, or was spoken by him in heat, and in an angry mood, his mind being ruffled, disturbed, and discomposed; but was said by him in the most serious and solemn manner, upon the most thoughtful and mature consideration of the affair."

Are you calling anyone here... a "deceiver".

Since, I didn't mention anything, or call anyone here, "a deceiver", as far as your wanting to know, "exactly what you are saying about people here", I have to bow out on any extra inflammatory personal connotation that may appear or introduce by changing "deceive" into a noun, that could then be assumed to be labeling any "people here", as being, "a deceiver".

What I am saying, about a "to deceive", I am saying about the god of this world.

"In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." 2 Corinthians 4:4.

 

And, although there have also been more inflammatory connotations introduced by suggestive questioning, in an attempt to designate the contents of my postings to be, "teetering on breaking the rule of questioning the salvation of others", for the purpose of potentially having BB consequences exacted, by tripping me up, tricking me, or causing me to be ensnared in that trap, might better be directed toward someone 18 years old.

"Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." Ephesians 6:11.

Anywhere the subject of "Salvation" is mentioned, it brings with it the topic of the potential recipients of "Salvation", regarding the condition of their soul, from God's perspective.

God either sees a potential recipient of Salvation as being in a condition in which their soul is dependant on God to initiate their Salvation, or whether that individual's soul is in a state or condition before God, from which a person may initiate their Salvation, apart from the Activity of God having Arrived on the scene, in the first place

The question of whether a lost soul is in a position to make the decision to go to God's Heaven, instead of them going to Hell, operates at times under the guise of being a 'debate', between opposing Theological schools of thought.

However, IMHO, the only 'debate' there is would be in the answer to that one question of whether a lost soul is in a position to make the decision to go to God's Heaven, instead of them going to Hell.

Let the controversy begin or end right there.

Instead of our creating any implication that could be gained by any "debate" of CvA that could make an impression on someone that both of them are on equal footing and that either of them could possibly be true, is at once a denial of Total Depravity taught throughout the Bible and a confirmation of it.

Everything about one is dependent on Total Depravity being true, while the other 'side', is dependent on Total Depravity being false, which is the evidence that Totally Depravity is true.

 

Actually total depravity is not in question but you have attempted to conflate total depravity and total inability. While the first is true the second is just a philosophical construct of Calvinism.

 

Well I have not tried to trick anyone. My questions were direct and based on specific statements. It appears that some try to make statements denouncing the salvation of all others with whom one disagrees with without being specific so as to get away with it. If you are going to use words like evil and false gospel in description of others salvation views then there is no other interpretation. It seems one is being tripped up by their own words and not the questions they are being asked in response to their own words. The juvinallity and sophomoric nature falls on you.

 

5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Eph 1