Scripture Concerning Eternal Life/Salvation

Gekko, the thing is you can't just look for the words saved, salvation, faith, grace, believe etc. and then assign the meaning you have for those works. You have to let the context tell you what the meaning is.

The context of eternal salvation is that it comes through faith only by the grace of God, based on the finished and complete works of Jesus Christ and none other.

If the picture that is painted contains anything else it's not speaking of eternal salvation.

 

Yes gekko, I am confident you are correct. You can't be a follower of Jesus, entering into Kingdom life with Him, without bearing fruit. The fruit will be a transformation of character (from the inside flowing outward into actions) and productivity in ministry.

 

The problem is that not all Christians bare fruit. So if entering the kingdom life is based upon fruit-bearing (which it is) then not all Christians will enter the kingdom.

The only place you need to look to see this is the parable of the soils. This parable is dealing with fruit-bearing and only one type of Christians bears fruit. The other three fall away for whatever reason.

That's just the way the Bible lays it out there. We can accept it and teach people the Truth and spread Light or we can continue to make excuses and lead people into the darkness.

 

But nowhere in Scripture does it say that God forces His will on someone that does not want to walk where He wants them to walk. The view is just not supported by the Bible, and that is the ONLY thing that can determine Truth.

And again you are saying that there are unsaved among the soil parable, which is an impossibility. The whole parable is about fruit-bearing. Only saved individuals are even capable of bearing fruit.

However the parable tells us that there are three groups of Christians that will not produce fruit in regard to the kingdom. It has nothing to do with eternal salvation.

Again the Bible just does not support your view. Now you can continue to hold it, because that's your right, but it's just not there.

 

Gekko you keep backing yourself down into corners that you aren't able to get out of if you accept the teaching of Scripture.

You are making distinctions that the Bible doesn't make you are saying a "true" Christian as if there was something else. There isn't. Either you are saved or you are not.

If you are saved then you have a responsibility to grow in the Lord. You say that true Christians will grow in the Lord, but that is just not supported by Scripture.

We must cooperate with the Holy Spirit to allow this growth to take place. The plain Truth of the matter is that some saved people will and some saved people won't.

As much as people want that teaching of only faithful Christians to be true it's just plainly not there. And if you have found it please share it so we can have a look at it.

 

I agree. There are Christians and non-believers. Nothing in between. But Christians will bear fruit. That is clear from the NT.

 

Please show us where that is guaranteed. And then show us how that meshes with the parable of the soils, which shows that not all Christians will bear fruit.