Parable of the Talents

Your application of Israel/Church really breaks down here, because we are talking about someone that has been with His slaves and is going away and returning to reckon with his slaves based on their performance.

God didn't send Jesus to judge or condemn, but to save. This parable is a picture of judgment.

 

You are talking about two different subjects here and trying to make them be the same subject.

Eternal salvation and works are never in the same picture. They can't be or that would violate/contradict Scripture and God would be a liar. He is not a liar, but He is Truth! On that I'm sure we agree.

Eternal salvation is not the picture in the parable of the talents, works are the picture. He didn't receive a harsh rebuke because he didnt't trust in his master, he received a rebuke because he didn't do the work he was expected to do.

Works are the context, which means eternal salvation is not.

So Jesus will never deny anyone in regard to eternal salvation, because that is already a done deal. However He can say and in fact will say on judgment day that He does not know the unfaithful Christian, who lived a life of disobedience.

He is denying them on the basis of their works. Works are the only thing that ever comes under judgment. Salvation is settled in this life time.

When the Master comes back to reckon with His servants eternal salvation will be a non-issue.

Exactly! That's why eternal salvation is not the issue here. The issue is this wicked servant didn't do what he was expected to do.

Unsaved people are not expected to do anything, but be saved, not do work that shows a profit. They can't be expected to do that, because they are incapable.

I agree COMPLETELY. That's why this particular subject is not in view here! Eternity is not what hangs in the balance in this parable!

 

Someone that is eternally saved will not spend eternity separated from God, but an eternally saved person could be separated from Christ/God during the 1,000-year reign of Christ for living a life of disobedience and unfaithfulness.

I will ask you this, because you seem to be of those that think Christ will marry the entire church. For that to be true either all Christians are faithful (which that is EXTREMELY difficult to prove Scripturally or experientially) or Jesus is going to wed Himself to unfaithful, disobedient and non-overcoming Christians and faithful, obedient and overcoming Christians.

Why would Jesus choose to wed Himself to a disobedient, unfaithful, non-overcoming Christian, when we as humans wouldn't even wed ourselves to someone that we new was unfaithful.

 

No. But that's the second time I've been asked. There will be faithful, obedient, overcoming Christians of all flavors not just Baptist. And the same is true of non-faithful, disobedient, non-overcomers.

Although I would say from what I've heard historically the Baptist have had the best handle on the Word of the Kingdom Truths. But I don't know that to be fact or not.

Great questions! Most people think when viewing this that we are demanding perfection from people and that we are saying the Bible demands perfection from people. And that's not what I am saying, nor what the Bible says.

Paul says as to the law I was blameless. Job was said to be blameless. Elizabeth and Zacharias were blameless.

Does that mean they were perfect and didn't sin? Of course not. They sinned just like everyone else, but the did whatever the law required to make amends, so they were blameless.

God knows that we are not going to be perfect, that's why Jesus is acting as our Advocate before the Father. He is our High Priest. I John 1:9 tells us that if we confess our sins He is faithful to forgive us our sins.

It's a matter of a continual believing that Jesus is the Christ and that He was raised from the dead and that He is going to return and set up His kingdom. That means if we are walking by the Spirit and confessing our sins as needed then we are being faithful.

It's not about a number of sins, but a matter of lifestyle.

We can stop believing and lose this hope. We can deny Christ in our lifestyle and He will deny us.

But as long as we are living faithfully and obediently to what He commands of us and what we are called to do then we can know we have aionios life (age-lasting life - life for the coming kingdom age).

This is not a simple message and that's why you have 27 books in the NT. Very little is said about eternal salvation because it's message is so simple. Even little kids can understand the simple good news that they are sinners and Christ died and shed His blood on their behalf.

But there is much to learn about growing up in Christ, just as it takes a great many years to train our children to be adults.

 

Well I said I was going to start another thread and I didn't get that done. May apology. Let's just deal with this hear, because it is relevant.

First of all you give only the evidence of all Jews being unsaved as they rejected the Messiah. Rejecting the Messiah has nothing to do with eternal salvation. The Messiah is Christ as King.

They rejected Him as their King.

Now most people will agree that Jews after Exodus were saved because God said He would look at them through the blood of the pascal sacrifices.

But what I don't understand is they don't have a problem seeing the Jews as saved because God told them to believe this until we flip over to Matthew and then suddenly for some strange reason they are all unsaved now.

So what happened in the meantime? Did God say during that 400-year span that He no longer accepted the animal blood? No. He was silent. So everything continued on just the same.

Israel was saved because they continued to slay the pascal lambs each year, and God continued to look at them through the death and blood of the animals, because it pointed to the eventual blood of Christ.

Christ was sent as King to set up a kingdom not as an Eternal Savior.

The other reason we know that Israel was saved is because the offer of the kingdom was the offer of a spiritual message. Spiritually dead people can not comprehend the spiritual message of the kingdom.

That is the whole reason why Gentiles and Jews today must come through the blood of Christ. When we are saved the Holy Spirit breathes life into our dead spirit and makes us alive spiritually.

Then and only then can we entertain the same offer that Israel rejected.

That's the problem with the modern day church. They think the only message that people are to hear is the good news of Christ's death and shed blood.

But Christ's death and shed blood is the message that you have to hear and accept so that the message of His resurrection and return can be brought to you. And if you want to have a part in the kingdom that He is going to establish then there are some ground rules. The NT are the ground rules that we must play by if we want to play a part in the coming kingdom.

This is another traditional teaching of the church that is leading people astray. It's not about going to heaven. You are not going to spend eternity in heaven anyway, because God is not going to spend eternity in heaven.

Now a better question is do you believe that all saved people spend eternity with God. And the answer to that question is a resounding YES! Absolutely!!!

However what peolpe fail to understand is that there is an age of time that we will go through before we step into eternity. And that is the coming age of the kingdom of Christ, which will last 1,000 years.

And there is the possibility that an eternally saved person will be separated from Christ/God during that time.

The Bible talks about rewards and discipline. Some treat discipline as punishment, but discipline is for the good of the believer. If you reject discipline in this age, you will receive it in the age to come.

Most people fail to understand that the judgment seat of Christ is not just about rewards and loss of rewards, but it is about wages. You will receive wages for what you do whether good or bad. You will be paid. If you are faithful your payment will be wonderful. If you are unfaithful you will still be paid, but it's not something you are going to want!

See this is my point. This is what the vast majority of Christendom believes. But what motivation is there to live a righteous life if all I'm going to do is have a smaller piece of paradise. Big whoopie do it's still paradise. I can party with the best of them now and still get my piece of paradise in your view. I don't have to fear God at all, because you may take a crown or two, but He's still going to give me my one-room shack in the corner and in paradise that's all I need. It's paradise for crying out loud.

See the disturbing logic to that view?

Well you are going to have a real hard time proving the Jews were not saved by Scripture. And if you can't prove the first then you are going to have an equally hard time proving the second by Scripture.

Outer darkness means they are not in the light of the wedding feast. They are missing out on what all that pertains to and that means they are missing out on the kingdom.

Now I can't give you exact details as to what that looks like, because God doesn't give them to us. However, He does give us enough information to know that it's not going to be pleasant and that should motivate us to live faithful, obedient, overcoming lives by walking in the Spirit. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. That was written to believers.

Why would it be fearful if we all get our patch of heaven?

That's a great question. If we deny Jesus, He will deny us before His Father. Why would Jesus say that? Because the Father is the one that appoints rulers and brings them down.

If you are denied to the Father then He's not going to appoint you as a ruler. So we are denied to the Father.

Hope that helps.

 

We're dealing with them. Parable of the virgins and parable of the talents. There is the parable of the wedding feast, the parable of the pounds. You can see it in the OT in the story of Abraham and Lot.

It's all over the place.

 

I somewhat agree with DPT on this one. Now that the offer that Israel rejected is open to Christians then the gospels apply to us.

We're dealing with some of it right here in this parable. You just don't like the interpretation and so you say it is wrong. But that doesn't make it wrong. The Bible clearly states when comparing Scripture with Scripture that eternal salvation is secure, which means your view of this parable is false.

I can only point out things as the Spirit shows them to me. I can't make you believe that's not my calling. My calling is to share the Light and then He has to flip the switch for you.