bmerr here. I'd say that there are two sides to forgiveness. While a Christian who is offended can (and must) be willing to forgive, he can't force it on anyone. The offender would have to repent in order to receive the forgiveness offered by the offended, would he not?
Can you provide one passage of scripture that states a Christian must be
willing to forgive?
Forgiveness has nothing to do with the offender asking for it even though that can be part of the process in human cases. Many times my wife or kids ask me to forgive them and 9 times out of 10 I am able to tell them I already have. Forgiveness is an act triggered not from an outside act of another but from the compassion in one's own heart, regardless whether or not the offender asked for it or deserves it.
While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The entire world. All sin will be forgiven mankind except for blasphemy of the Holy Ghost. The only requirement for salvation is faith in Jesus Christ and His work alone! The only thing a person in hell will remember is that they refused to believe, not that they shouldn't have sinned so much.
Again, please know that it's hard for me to say the things I'm about to say, because I think highly of you, and I don't want to make you angry, but I, as a Christian, have the obligation to speak the whole council of God.
Rest assured brother that your response has not hurt my feelings nor made me angry. You have demonstrated exactly what the Pharisees were doing. They preached the letter of the law but totally missed the spirit of the law.
Your response has only weakened your position. You place obedience over God's sovereignty to give grace and mercy apart from any works of righteousness from our part. Works of righteousness would be God granting salvation because of what we precieve to be obedience to His commands. I say precieve because most people think they are being obedient when in reallity they are as guilty as everyone else almost hourly of sin. When one begins to believe that their obedience is part of their salvation then salvation becomes nothing more than a religion and the cross of Christ is no longer the center focus, self becomes the center. I must, I must, I must, rather than You alone Lord are my salvation.
Something I think is being overlooked is the fact that repentance from sin is a part of the gospel, and without repentance, there is no forgiveness, or remission of sins (Acts 2:38; 17:30).
You misuse the scriptures in many post. Repent means turn or change your mind. In the case of salvation we are told to repent from unbelief. You add your own qualifiers by saying repentance "from sin". It doesn't say from sin, you had to add that. Just like you added "willing" to forgive. It does not say "willing" anywhere. It says "from your heart forgive".
As far as my questions about David and Moses, you had no answer. David, Abraham and most all of God's servants had concubines throughout their lives and you want to assume that they somehow repented of them before they died even though the scriptures give no inclination of any such thing. This is fairytale reasoning. David died with multiple wives and concubines. According to your wisdom about marriage you must conclude that Abraham and David are in hell. It is very clear that your counsel is in grave error.
As far as my situation goes, if your were right and I must destroy my wife and children in exchange for salvation, then I must choose the well being of my family over myself, because I am not going to tear them apart. I guess Jesus will have to send me to hell for not being willing to harm two of His children.
I had a friend once, haven't seen him in probably ten years now, he had a preacher who preached like you do. Boy did that preacher mess up his life. He had a nervess breakdown and was just torn apart inside over this marriage business. He spent several months in a mental hospital. I know that someone looking in from the outside would want nothing to do with Jesus Christ if He was that unmerciful to His own children. It was sad indeed.
I knew my questions would result in one of two things. Either you would see the error in your teaching and repent or you would post as you did declaring our Lord to be unmerciful and salvation something to be earned rather than a gift of grace. I hoped for repentance but your answers has shown others just what it means to be a faith plus works preacher/teacher. It was a win/win debate from my position and this is why I presented it. I hope others will see the error of your presentation and i pray you will as well brother.
God Bless!
