Originally posted by Frogman:
Even those with faith will be judged, but not unto condemnation.
The Lake of Fire is an eternal torment where unbelievers will suffer the second death. Where does the Bible say the Lake of Fire will pass away?
When Christ returns he will rule in righteousness and when he delivers the kingdom up to the Father this rule of Christ will be submitted to the Father for God shall become all and all and He who has put all things under his feet is not put under his feet. Then there will be dwelling in righteousness for all the elect. This number is the same number who possess faith in God through Jesus Christ receiving the promise that He is able to raise them from the dead even as Abraham received in a picture.
God Bless
Bro. Dallas
Frogman,
One night I couldn’t sleep and I went outside and starting looking up at the stars. Marveling at their beauty and multitude of them. The promise that God gave to Abraham came to mind - He said that He would make his seed as the stars in the sky and the sands of the seashore. Just the thought of the numbers boggles my mind. What do you figure the number is? I couldn’t even begin to guess.
God had called Abram out of pagan worship and sacrifice to idols to a new country. God made a covenant with him, a completely ONE-SIDED covenant, btw. Back in the old days, a blood covenant was when two parties of the covenant, as they walked between the pieces of animals were to say something to the effect, "If either of us break this covenant, may what happened to these animals, happen to the one who breaks the covenant. In other words, this kind of covenant was a life-long covenant unto death. The life of each partner in the covenant was to be at the disposal of the other party should the need ever arise. God made a blood covenant with Abraham in Gen. 15:17,18. But Abraham slept through it. The
flesh man, Abram, was unable to meet his part of the requirement of this covenant. I see this as that the covenant was between the "Seed" which would come forth from Abraham and God. This covenant was a covenant between God the
Father and His Son Jesus Christ in which Abraham and all his descendents would be blessed. All the families of the earth that ever lived would be blessed through this covenant, God said.
"It came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram…" (Gen. 15:17,18)
But Abraham fell asleep. Isn’t that like our nature? We are not capable of keeping covenants with God. When Jesus was about to spill His blood to bring in the New Covenant, He asked His disciples to pray with Him. What did they do?
They fell asleep. Paul spent a lot of time in his letters explaining the difference between grace and law, promise and law, man’s efforts versus God’s power. So then the New Covenant was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham.
"And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham." (Gal. 3:8,9)
As we have seen through the ages..man has been incapable of reflecting the perfection and Holiness of his creator..this creation was given laws they couldn't keep so that God could redeem them through his savior and give his holiness and righteousness to them...he did this through a member of the Godhead...thereby creating an
everlasting covenant that can never be broken by any man. Another one-sided covenant (like the one He made with Abraham) through Jesus Christ.
Grace is unmerited favor. There has never been any human that has met God's requirements of perfection (there is no one righteous, no not one)...except Jesus. Therefore all of creation is included in his Grace. No human has ever
deserved Grace...have they? So in his Grace (his plan all along) He sent a sacrifical Lamb to take away the sin of the world and redeem all. No matter what any person believes or does..it is still God's Grace that redeems them..isn't
it. Jesus has done all that was needed and saved man from ever having sin held against him. The issue of sin was finished at the cross of Christ and God then imputed righteousness in place of sin thereby reconciling his creation to
himself. It is God's grace and his Grace alone that has done all this...certainly not our works or even our good intentions. If men are saved by
works, is salvation of grace? So no man can boast.