Featured Do Christians Have an Inner Struggle with Sin or the Flesh?

These people were acting as unsaved because they were unsaved.

 

So Paul lied??

1 Corinthians 1:2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:

 

Paul never led. Never implied as such. Quit misrepresenting me.

Just disagree with you guys' theology saying believers can live worldly and still be saved. It's impossible. Yes we sin, but when we sin, we repent. Repentance is an ongoing process in the christian's life. So is sanctification.

 

But we don't live a sinless life. We do sin, and we sin as a result of not abiding in Christ; as a result of being pulled away by our own "carnal nature" which we still have.

Paul wrote to the saints in Christ, to the brethren, to those who were saved. It was a carnal church.
He wrote to those who were living in sin, though they were Christians. Let's consider the book in general.

He had received a letter from them detailing many of these problems:
1 Corinthians 7:1 Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: ...
--And thus he addresses them one by one.

In chapter one they were contentious and divided. It was a problem, not a sin that lasted for a moment or even a day. It was an on-going carnal problem that is now part of their lifestyle:
1 Corinthians 1:11 For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.
--They are carnal Christians.

They were being "continually" influenced by the "wisdom" of false teachers: (ch. 2)
1 Corinthians 2:5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. (See also 2:14)

In chapter 3 Paul calls them carnal because of their immaturity:
1 Corinthians 3:2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

In chapter 4, he calls their faithfulness into question for now he is in a position where he must defend his own apostleship to them.
1 Corinthians 4:2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
1 Corinthians 4:3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self.
--Again, they were being influenced by false teachers. This was an ongoing problem.

In Chapter 5, he addresses an ongoing problem of a believer living in immorality.
1 Corinthians 5:1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.

In chapter 6 he addresses the problem of many of them "habitually" taking one another to court.
1 Corinthians 6:1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?
--Note as the language suggests, Paul is appalled at this, just as you are. But never does he question their salvation as you do. The are still brothers in Christ.

In chapter 7, the chapter is full of marital problems of various sorts.
1 Corinthians 7:1 Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.
2 Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.

In chapter 8, idolatry, but specifically eating foods that were offered to idols is addressed. It was a problem more of offending others. It was a continuous problem. Paul answered it this way:
1 Corinthians 8:13 Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.

In chapter 9, again he feels led to give a thorough defense of his apostleship because of the influence of the false teachers which they listen to:
1 Corinthians 9:1 Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not ye my work in the Lord?

In chapter 10, he uses OT examples to rebuke some of their on-going sins which are basically sins of being offensive to others. It was a divisive church. They were offending each other. This arose out of selfishness. In conclusion he said here:
1 Corinthians 10:32 Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:
33 Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.

In chapter 11, he speaks of two important "ordinances", the head covering, and the Lord's Table. They had been so abusing the Lord's Table that God had brought severe judgment upon them.
1 Corinthians 11:29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
--It was a continual problem. They were all continual problems. They were carnal Christians.

From chapters 12 to 14 the problem revolves around the use or abuse of spiritual gifts.
1 Corinthians 12:1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.
--Speaking in tongues was the most significant problem addressed here.
Again this problem was a problem of the flesh. They were carnal. It was perpetuated by carnal Christians.

Finally in chapter 15 we have some that even denied the resurrection. Paul gives his great defense of the resurrection here. In this chapter, though the teaching is for the entire church, the stunning rebuke is for the false teachers among them.

In general the entire epistle is written to carnal Christians living a carnal lifestyles and have not yet repented of their sins. By the time he writes his second epistle, things have changed.

 

I would appreciate it if you use this forum for what its intended use and nothing else but--that is, debate.
It is not a sounding board for your bombastic accusatory and cowardly attacks against others.
It is a coward that sits behind his computer with anonymity and hurls insults at others without justification.
If that is your forte and how you get your jollies then please leave and go somewhere else.
This is a debate forum The rules are posted on every page for all to follow.

Neither Pickering nor I are a follower of Finney. Stop with the false accusations. I will request another moderator or administrator to start handing out infractions for this nonsense.

Dr. Pickering was a long-time president of Central Baptist Theological Seminary.
Their doctrinal statement on salvation is as follows:

We affirm that salvation is the work of God wholly and completely. Humans contribute nothing to the process and can only believe as they receive the grace of God to do so. Apart from that grace, humans cannot believe because they are thoroughly sinful. People are naturally at enmity with God and resist Him at every turn. Therefore God, for reasons completely of His own determination, chooses and draws those whom He saves.

Since God commands all people everywhere to repent, we all believe that the offer of the gospel should be extended to all. Some of us believe that Christ has provided the benefits of salvation for all people, while others believe these benefits may have been secured only for those whom God intends to save. Also, some of us believe that God selected individuals for salvation without condition in eternity past, while others understand God's choice as either corporate or conditioned on His eternal prescience. Each of these views admits a gracious working by God in those who ultimately respond to the gospel in faith. This gracious work is different in character than any work performed by God in the hearts of those who ultimately reject Christ.

We believe that regeneration establishes permanent membership in the family of God. Some of us believe that regeneration is also the work of God that makes human faith possible, while others of us (not denying that such a work must occur) affirm that regeneration is the result of saving faith. For the regenerate, ultimate denial of the faith is not possible. The regenerate, therefore, will maintain their profession of faith in Christ alone without exception and without end.
http://www.centralseminary.edu/abou...nts/statement-on-salvation-and-sanctification
I suggest you read it carefully.

 

How is the theology in this paragraph any different than the theology that I have been advocating for? Are you saying that the people to whom Paul was writing were Christians who were living a non-Christian lifestyle?

 

Not a lifestyle....
They were sinning in this one issue. ....
It was an act of sin
They needed to repent of this activity.

 

If sanctification is, in the lives of most Christians, an “ongoing process” (as I agree is the case), then as Christians become sanctified to an increasing extent, they become carnal to a decreasing extent. Carnality and spirituality are not absolute conditions—they are relative conditions. That is, as Christians mature, they become relatively less carnal and more spiritual.

I have been a Christian for some years, but I have not met very many Christians that I could honestly say were spiritual in an absolute sense. Let’s see—there was Gary B., a 14-year-old boy; Wesley B., a 17-year-old boy; Joyce B., their mother; Anthony G., the rector of a Roman Catholic Cathedral; Sten B., a Baptist Sunday school teacher; Cindy S., a very dear and close friend; Fred S., a 19-year-old sailor; Sister P., an elderly friend; and John C., a businessman who was a staunch Calvinist and a faithful friend for 37 years—and that is about it!

 

1 Cor. 11:11. For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you.
12. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.”

1 Cor. 5:1. It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife.
2. You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.

1 Cor. 6:1. Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints?
2. Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts?
3. Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life?
4. So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church?
5. I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren,
6. but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?
7. Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?
8. On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. You do this even to your brethren.

1 Cor. 6:18. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.
19. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

And throughout the remainder of the epistle, Paul instructs and admonishes the carnal Christians in Corinth on one point after another.


(All quotations from Scripture are from the NASB,1995)

 

Some have denied repentance then when they were discovered tried to cover it up as if they never denied it.lol