Originally posted by MikeinGhana:
Ed, just because the terms really believe or truly believe are not in the Bible, does not mean that they are not legitimate terms to use in our discussion. You seem to be an intelligent man and can think clearly. When I say a man truly believes I mean that he is a believer truly! As you know there are men that profess to be believers but are not, Judas professed to be a believer and turned out to be an unbeliever. The disciples were fooled. The rest of the world was fooled too. He was not a believer. That is the truth. How many ways do I need to say it so that you accept my statement as being valid?
Follow me on this one. The problem is not with what you are saying, here. I do understand that. The prolem comes when the advocates of LS use this as a construct to oppose a straw man, that 'they' have made. Your post showed this succinctly, BTW, where you answered 'whatever' when he asked the question of:
"How much disobedience can we get away with and still be a believer?"
You replied with:
"All of it! But watch out for the chastening hand of God. You will not be glad you disobeyed! We are kept by the power of God, not our obedience. A believer that continues in sin and disobedience does not lose his or her salvation, period."
You may recall I gave a strong "AMEN" to your post. I'm not completely sure, everyone here agrees with you, John and me, to name some, here on this.
The problem arises when those who are advocating 'Lordship Salvation' - gang, the issue is not the 'Lordship' of Christ, for "He is Lord!", but that one has to do something more than "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." Or in other words, it's not enough to "just believe". In fact, James tells us that it is not enough to even "believe in one God". And Scripture is clear and specific on this. I might suggest that one read Genesis 15:6 and Rom. 4:3 with James 2:23. The Bible does NOT say that Abraham believed in God, here.
Read these verses carefully to see exactly what it DOES say.
In fact, Abraham had already called on the name of Yahweh many years before this. He has even already recognized Him as 'El Elyon', or Most High God. Not good enough, yet. He even addresses him as Lord GOD, 'Adonai Yahweh', with the force of Master in Gen. 15:2. In other words, he has even attempted to "make Him Lord", already. But he is not yet a believer, he has not yet achieved righteousness, even though he has tried to achieve that level. (For the record, my hero, Lot was 'righteous' BEFORE Abraham!) This only happens when he believes, and that will be seen to happen shortly. He becomes a believer in Gen. 15:6. Here and only here is when he was 'saved', in the sense of receiving everlasting life. And this is when God imputed to him for righteousness. This is when he was justified before God.
Some thirty years later, he will be said and shown to be justified before men. And thus James tells us that the Scripture was here 'fulfilled', not that here it occurred. This is consistent with "God looks, not as man looks...".
The 'error' of Arminianism is in actuality, no different from the 'error' of Calvinism, and both are no different in actuality from that of 'Lordship Salvation', as to observation. All atempt to decide, for themselves, on whether or not one is saved according to 'how I see it'. And all 'demand' that they be allowed to "define the terms" with their own meanings.
One is saved according to 'how God sees it'. And He gets to 'define the terms' of this, as well as "define the terms" as to the meanings.
That is why I suggested what I did, as well as how I suggested this.
God bless you; Grow in grace!
In His grace,
Ed