You say you are not worried about being excluded from the Millennial Kingdom. But the way I am reading your statements, your confidence does not lie in the fact that Jesus Christ made a full and sufficient sacrifice once and for all for your sins. That gets you into Heaven, you say.
You are counting on being in the "Millennial Kingdom" because you are good enough. Especially compared to some other "Christians" who are in unrepentant sin. What that sin is or how frequently it occurs you do not wish to define, yet I suspect you are not claiming sinless perfection. So you are sinning, yet you don't think you are sinning enough to be excluded.
So ultimately you seem to be basing your confidence on a subjective view of how well you are living the Christian life.
Karen thanks for your post. With all due respect you do not have a clear understanding of what we have been saying or you haven't followed any of the other threads dealing with this subject.
So with that in mind let me address some areas where you have mis-spoke albeit unintentionally I believe.
your confidence does not lie in the fact that Jesus Christ made a full and sufficient sacrifice once and for all for your sins.
That's the ONLY confidence I have. If Christ's blood does not cover my sins there is NO hope for me or anyone else for that matter. Christ's blood is the ONLY thing that can take care of sin.
What I don't believe is that ALL sin was taken care of when I was saved. If that is the case there would no reason for me to continue to confess my sins as per I John 1:9, becuase if my sins were already forgiven then I would just be recalling to God's memory sins which He said He was going to remember no more and remove as far as the east is from the west.
Christ told us that we have to be washed from time to time because we get dirty. We don't need a full cleansing, but a periodic washing of the dirty parts. There is TONS more detail in that, but we'll just leave it at that.
So if I am told to confess my sin and to be washed from time to time as needed because I am dirty there is no way that ALL my sins were forgiven at the the moment of salvation.
But the ONLY way that my sins can be dealt with is by Christ's blood and that comes through confession and repentance.
That gets you into Heaven, you say.
I think we have to stop thinking and teaching eternal salvation as "getting into heaven." That is not exactly what the Bible teaches, but that's probably for another thread.
You are counting on being in the "Millennial Kingdom" because you are good enough.
Only if and because God considers me good enough, not because I consider myself good enough. What I think of me has NO bearing on the coming kingdom.
Obviously there were some that thought pretty highly of themselves as Christ told them He never knew them. So as long as God thinks I'm okay then I'm okay.
What that sin is or how frequently it occurs you do not wish to define, yet I suspect you are not claiming sinless perfection.
Of course I'm not sinless. John tells us you are lying and the Truth is not in you if you say you do not sin. I think the Bible does define the sin...murder, envy, strife, drunkenness, etc. And no it is not based on a number of times, but a lifestyle. If you are one of those things because that is your lifestyle then you will not inherit the kingdom.
But if you mess up in one of those areas and are repentant then you are not one of those things, but you just made a mistake. We can see many examples of that in Scripture.
It's not based on quantity, but quality and endurance. This has been said many many times, but people are still wanting to know how many times can I do something before I'm toast.
And I'm saying you shouldn't be worried about that. The Bible tells us not to focus on what will put us in outer darkness, but rather shows us how to keep from getting kicked out. And if we focus on what the Bible tells us we should be doing then the "number" of offenses doesn't matter.
It's a matter of being obedient, faithful and overcoming until Christ comes to get us or God takes us out. That doesn't mean perfection, that means dealing with sin as it comes up the way the Bible says to do so.
If one does that they will be blameless as they stand before the Judge. If they don't do that then there will be blame to be held to their account.
So you are sinning, yet you don't think you are sinning enough to be excluded.
Again the amount is meaningless. The issue is am I confessing my sin and allowing Christ to cleanse me of that sin. If I am doing the same sin over and over and over and over again then I think it's safe to say that I'm not repenting and confessing and I'm actually living a life of rebellion.
So ultimately you seem to be basing your confidence on a subjective view of how well you are living the Christian life
Couldn't be further from the truth. What I believe about how I am living my life makes NO difference at all. It's only what God thinks of my life that counts for ANYTHING. But God has given me enough instructions to know whether or not I'm okay.
John writes in his gospel and in his first epistle that we can know that we have life for the coming age, and he wants us to know that and believe that.
Hope that helps clarify.