Featured Reformed Pastor Shares Emotional Hug with the Pope

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Kind of like an unforced recant?
most
Considering the Council of Trent and Vatican II are in effect, along with many of the others, those who reject the holy catholic church in Rome are still anathema.
This could be is an interesting adventure in church history--with an open mind.

The bottom line is: Mt. 16 and who got the keys. If the bishopric of Peter as vicar of The Church is vested in the Vatican, everyone should be Roman Catholic. Rome has not delegated such authority to anyone. If Rome is a usurper of authority, she is unauthorized along with her daughters. This cannot be all of the above.

Jesus is vicar of His Church. He still abides with Her and protects Her, as promised.

Now what?

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Bro. James

 

The command of God is quite CLEAR. Love God and Love neighbor.

None of the commandments state to prioritize salvation OVER God.


Bro. James you and me have differ priorities. Your eye is on salvation, Mine is on Jesus Christ.


You literally look at good works, Love God and Love neighbor and count them worthless because they don't grant salvation.


I'm saying they are the only thing of worth......I rather be damned doing what God wanted me to do then ignore him on account his command doesn't pay anything.



1 Corinthians 13

2If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

Only God can give gift of prophecy and you have to be in grace to get it, You can have a complete faith a faith so powerful you can move mountains. You can have all knowledge, know all scriptures, understand all mysteries.

But if you don't have THE GOOD WORK LOVE. You can forget it, NOTHING.



The BE ALL AND END ALL is LOVE. (agape)

 

Love is a gift of having been saved to the uttermost through the unmerited favor which God gives to those who believe. Love goes with Faith and Hope. These three abide. They are really inseparable. One is null and void without the other two.

The key is still in John 3: Jesus told Nicodemus he must be born again to see the kingdom of God.

These are eternal questions which must be answered before our last heart beat.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Bro. James

 

I love my father. Never need to ponder if he loves me or not. And when he asks for me to mow the lawn........I don't hand him a bill for salvation.


I just gave the holy scriptures. 1 Corinthians 13, James 2, shows Faith, Hope and Love are separable.

That's the point of this verse:

1 Corinthians 13

2If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

You can have faith that moves mountains, No love and it is nothing.

James 2

19You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.

The Devil believes in Jesus. That doesn't justify the devil.


If all you have is LOVE (agape) that is perfection.

God is love and doesn't require faith or hope.

Galatians 5
14For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”



John 3

36“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

If you look even at the ancient Greek "believe" its opposite is tied to THE GOOD WORK of obedience.

Again my point remains Jesus gives you facts concerning "SALVATION" your FALSE IDOL of worship.

Jesus also says older wine is better then newer that doesn't mean I'm required to be an alcoholic.

You have placed your IDOL worship of SALVATION above God this is a SIN.

Show me the commandment that says seek salvation above service to God.


1 Corinthians 13

13But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

You don't believe the holy scriptures. That's why you don't mention the greatest is love.

 

Saved by Grace alone, thru faith alone, correct?

 

You can't have 2 ALONEs else its not ALONE.

Love is GOD ALONE. To take love out of the picture is to take God out of it.

Scripture says GOD IS LOVE, Never says God is faith or hope.

Love is essential, the absolute center of Christianity. Without love anything is evil. Without love, faith is trash.



There is no commandment that says "Thou shalt have faith".

Love God , Love neighbor are commandments.


John 13

34“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

The command is LOVE.


If you have faith to move mountains that is more faith then anyone here, and don't have love, it is trash it is nothing.

1 Corinthians 13

2If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

 

Context is very important when interpreting the bible, Bro James. Catholics and Baptists both believe that 'ye must be born again' for regeneration. The difference, of course, is that we don't agree about what "born by water and Spirit means". You believe that justification comes from 'faith alone' which is found nowhere in scripture. Ephesians doesn't say 'faith alone' saves you. It says salvation is not OF works. Works ALONE will not save you. And, the context of Jesus’ statements in John 3 makes it clear that he was referring to water baptism. Shortly before Jesus teaches Nicodemus about the necessity and regenerating effect of baptism, he himself was baptized by John the Baptist, and the circumstances are striking: Jesus goes down into the water, and as he is baptized, the heavens open, the Holy Spirit descends upon him in the form of a dove, and the voice of God the Father speaks from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son" (Matt. 3:13–17; Mark 1:9–11; Luke 3:21–22; John 1:30–34). This scene gives us a graphic depiction of what happens at baptism: We are baptized with water, symbolizing our dying with Christ (Rom. 6:3) and our rising with Christ to the newness of life (Rom. 6:4–5); we receive the gift of sanctifying grace and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27); and we are adopted as God’s sons (Rom. 8:15–17).

After our Lord’s teaching that it is necessary for salvation to be born from above by water and the Spirit (John 3:1–21), "Jesus and his disciples went into the land of Judea; there he remained with them and baptized" (John 3:22).

Then we have the witness of the Early Church that John 3:5 refers to baptismal regeneration. This was universally recognized by the early Christians. The Church Fathers were unanimous in teaching this. There is no historical evidence, not one shred, that ANYONE in the Early Church interpreted John 3 as you do.

As has been mentioned before, James 3: 14-26 "What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, "go in peace, keep warm, and eat well," but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works is dead. indeed someone might say, "You have faith and I have works, demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works. You believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe that and tremble. Do you want proof, you ignoramus, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works. Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called "The friend of God." See how a person is Justified by works and faith alone. And in the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also Justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by a different route? For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead." Wow this passage is unmistakable!

 

Yes, the key is still John 3. Born again of water (Baptism) and the spirit (a new life in God), a complete change of the inner person - turning over a new leaf in our lives from that point on.

 

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The problem is: all of our righteousness is as filthy rags. The leaf is just as rotten on the other side.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Bro. James

 

Peter would deny that understanding on water baptism, so even the first "Pope" disagees !

 

For someone who swears election was not their own choice but God's, There is no better example of that manifested then a infant baptism where the child has NO CHOICE on receiving the holy spirit.

Consenting to baptism is a contradiction to monergistic system.





1 peter 3

17For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong. 18For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 19in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, 20who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. 21Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,


God rather a person do what is right and suffer then do what is wrong and not suffer.

Our Calvinist buddies would make MORE sense if raise the claim that NOAH and his ark did not save the eight persons it was GOD ALONE.

In other words GOD's prerogative and manner by which he does anything is constricted and limited to a total control sovereignty. IE. God is too DUMB and affraid to make free will, deal with free will ect.


Peter says quite clearly "baptism now saves you"

Calvinist peter would never have said this , YOU can't even say this phrase. You got to ask a buddy if you can say "Baptism now saves you".

Tell us baptism now saves us. (leaning to listen)

 

What it represents saves us, as the water points us towards Jesus, our ark, as the water does NOTHING to cleanse us from sns, but his blood only does!

 

All through the Bible it says that faith in Jesus saves. This is certainly undeniable. But nowhere does it say that faith alone saves. The Bible in fact, explicitly states that faith alone does not save. The second Chapter of James says:
Faith without works is dead Faith without works is useless Faith must be active Faith is completed by works A person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
James even says that those who believe that faith without works is of any value is an "Ignoramus." No wonder Luther hated the book of James and called it 'an epistle of straw!'

The Bible uses the phrase "Faith alone" exactly once, in James 2 and it says that a person is NOT justified by faith alone.

Please explain Matthew 7:21 in the context of Faith alone
Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

 

Jesus stated that the ONLY work God requires us to do is to put faith in Him to be saved!