Walk the Talk!
Don’t agree!
We not only have the Great Commission to be the Light (Talk) of the world, but we also have the Kingdom-Now mandate to be the Salt (Walk) of the earth.
So let your Light (Talk/Gospel) so shine before men that they see your Good-deeds (Walk) and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
In other words, we must WALK THE TALK!
Agape TiE is all about that. To give love where love is due and respect where respect is due and thus lift up a testimony which the whole world will behold, believe and be saved (John 17:23; John 3:14-15).
Faith is a gift that we must muster!
John MacArthur says:
“We are kept until that hour and we are kept by an enduring faith sustained by the intercessory work of Jesus Christ who prays that we will be protected from anything that would assault that faith, whether it be the flesh or the world or Satan himself.”
Simply NOT true!
Read the context of 1 Thess 5:23. We are first asked not to quench (put out) the Holy Spirit by despising prophetic utterances. This would happen when we grieve the Holy Spirit to the point when the conscience becomes “seared as with a hot iron.” It is dead and unable to respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. It is then we have reached the point of no return.
Secondly, he talks about the gift of faith, which indeed it is (Romans 12:3). However everything we have is a gift. It is only when we bring it at the disposal of the Lord that it becomes useful for the Master’s use. The faith he has given must be given back to Him; that is, it must be mustered! Otherwise Jesus would have no reason to say to His disciples, “O ye of little faith.” They sowed only a little.
Thirdly, many are called but few are chosen. They are chosen only after God sees entire sanctification potential in them and then are kept [in Christ] until the Day of the Lord Jesus Christ! (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
Notice that the Lord’s prayer is that God sanctify us by His WORD (John 17:17) and not by some sort of a supernatural power!
Jesus, through the Holy Spirit/Word, on His part is able but on our part we have to yield to His promptings as well. “For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but those who obey the Law who will be declared righteous” (Romans 2:13). “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on a rock” (Matthew 7:24). “…Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22).
Even the demons hear, believe and shudder. In other words, the only qualification one can get by merely believing, is a Demonship. The concept is further illustrated with a man who walked a tight rope across the Niagara falls. All were clapping their hands. There was one man in the front who was clapping all the more. The walker asked that man, “do you think i can take another person with me on my shoulders across?” The man said, “Yes, Yes, Yes!” When the walker asked him to join him across, he was dismayed and ran away. That is the difference between trust and belief.
God is able to take you across but you have to trust Him with your life!
More on this subject @ http://Skyfeast.org or for a shorter read: http://calebmotupalli.me/2010/01/13/calvinism-debunked/
This calls for an amendment of or rather the scrapping of the Westminister Confession of Faith.
The Doctrine of the Devils!
Charles Stanley says on Eternal Security: “You Can Be Sure” (Part 2, Tape #4, RH190):
“When you are born again by the grace of Almighty God,…It doesn’t make any difference how wicked and how vile you act.”
Charles Stanley in his audio tape #3, MH190:
“You can sin like the devil down here and… you won’t lose your salvation.”
Here’s his position in his own words:
Covered by Grace: Free to Sin?
By Charles F. StanleyThe gospel of God’s grace–His full provision for man’s sin–is frequently perverted and attacked by nonbelievers. Most false religions deny the free gift of salvation and embrace good works instead.
Another attack on the doctrine of grace comes from within the body of Christ. Some caution that such good news can lead to a lifestyle of sin. They think grace leads people to say, “I am saved no matter what, so why does it matter how I live?”
The apostle Paul anticipates this when he asks, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?” (Rom. 6:1).
The answer is no. Paul responds to the question in the very next verse: “May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” (Rom. 6:2). The implication is that it is unthinkable for a Christian to be comfortable continuing in sin. Sin does not stay dormant. It grows. It enslaves. For those in Christ, sin cannot destroy relationship with God, but it will surely damage their testimony and fellowship with Him.
In Romans 6:1, the prefix of the Greek word translated “increase” means super. So the verse really says, “As sin comes, grace comes in a greater way.” In other words, sin may overflow a bit, but grace is like a flood–it is always more than enough, no matter how great the transgression. Sin reached the top of Mt. Sinai, but grace reaches to heavens.
But we do not have license to sin. Abundant grace spurs us to obedience.
(Source: StudyLight Forums)
If you read Romans 6:2 more closely however, you will notice that Paul was not saying here that grace will be so great that it will snuff out any sin, as Dr. Stanley sees it. Rather, Paul sees this (repeated sinning) as an abuse of grace and is startled at the very thought of it. He sees such willful sin as something that must be “rejected with the greatest abhorrence” (Matthew Henry). We must respond to such temptation of Satan like how Jesus responded. “Go Satan!” said Jesus (Matthew 4:10). The reason being: Abused grace/mercy will beget the greatest wrath.
Of course for some, abundant grace spurs them to obedience and encourages them to be more careful hereafter. If man is asked to forgive 490 times then God will forgive us even more number of times. But there is a catch here. As God keeps forgiving us, if we begin to take his grace and discipline “lightly” or despise prophetic utterances or counsel, then that is the end of us. Our conscience begins to get “seared as with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:2) and we will no longer hear the promptings of the Holy Spirit. We will not only grieve (Ephesians 4:30) the Holy Spirit but also quench Him (1 Thessalonians 5:19). And it is written, “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him” (Romans 8:9). They may have a name that they are alive, but they are dead (Revelation 3:1).
So those of you who are singing the Devil’s lullaby: “Thou shalt surely not die.” Stop it right now! Heel!
Dead in Trespasses?
John Piper quotes John Newton as saying:
If I were not a Calvinist, I think I should have no more hope in preaching to men, than to horses or cows.
Ian Bowler explains the above quote as:
I believe he means that without the efficacious call of God, man could no more respond to the Gospel than a horse or a cow. As a Calvinist, Newton believed that salvation was by the power of God and not reliant in any way on a man’s ability to, of his own accord, acquire saving faith (saving faith being a gift from God – the result of his efficacious call). Newton’s confidence was in God alone and was a result of his understanding of God’s sovereignty. If he had held a different view of God’s sovereignty, he felt that he would lack the same confidence.
Was man dead on arrival? As i explain Ephesians 2:1 in the article, “Entering and Remaining in the Kingdom of God”, Paul was merely alluding to John 3:18 (paraphrased) where our Lord Jesus says:
“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged (or condemned to death) already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
In other words, he is on the broad road on the way to hell, but surely not dead spiritually. He is not totally depraved. There maybe some goodness in him, namely humility of trusting in a good person, which when exercised will lead to life. But that is not to discount the fact that we will die out of despair after beholding our depraved sin condition in the face of a holy God who will not tolerate sin in His presence. We will then have to be resuscitated to life by the Word/Spirit of God, which tells us of one Savior.
This aspect of dying is not for God to execute but we need to die ourselves. In other words we need to become so humble or so small by our own self will that it is like becoming a nothing…a zero…dead. See “Be Born Again!” No doubt this can happen only after the Good News is presented to us by the minister of the Spirit–Word of God.
We will then get a hope of a tomorrow (life), but the burial as well as the resuscitation itself is carried out in the Waters of Baptism, which is administered by a duly appointed member of a church characterized by agape love. It is only then that we get the assurance of salvation (moksha).