{"id":635,"date":"2016-04-20T14:07:38","date_gmt":"2016-04-20T18:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/?p=635"},"modified":"2016-04-20T14:07:50","modified_gmt":"2016-04-20T18:07:50","slug":"land-mines-of-confusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/2016\/04\/land-mines-of-confusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Avoiding the Land mines of confusion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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God is not the author of confusion. Yet today it seems Christianity in general cannot even agree on what the gospel is and how do men get saved. Without even looking to the cults, some teach baptism saves, some teach a prayer saves, some teach you need to repent of every sin, some teach you must simply believe and if any repentance etc is mixed in you committed a work of righteousness (and your believing gets voided), some teach you have to work to keep it, some say you never lose it even if there is not a hint of fruit whatsoever after.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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There is confusion, but one thing I try to do is see where someone is coming from and i try to carefully search the bible in context, instead of picking verses out of context. I try and teach that you cannot pull a verse out of context PAST where it contradicts another verse. What I mean is this. — Take Romans 10;13 — “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” \u00a0 You can take the bible literally but you can’t take a verse literally isolated from the rest of the bible. \u00a0 Literally this verse means, “Lord save me!” and the person is 100% eternally saved regardless if they meant it, believed it, had any fruits of repentance, or simply repeated a prayer. \u00a0These folks literally cried, “Lord, Lord”!<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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You have to take the verse in context, because in Matthew 7, it says the opposite, “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.” \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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The churches today reconcile that in some interesting ways. \u00a0Many will teach, “yes a prayer doesn’t save” but then in the next breath they will say “with every eye closed, every head bowed, no one looking around, if you just raised your hand, repeat the following prayer I pray — but know that a prayer doesn’t save — but if you really believe it then you are saved but just know that the prayer didn’t save you. \u00a0But make sure you believe what you just prayed.”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I address some of these issues in great debt in earlier blog posts such as “Jesus is not a flu shot” and “Don’t recruit with the fatted calf.” I tried to define biblical repentance on a tract called “Fish oil salesmen” on the front pate.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Bottom line, salvation is not to be taken lightly. My conviction, and many old time preachers over the past 100 years (AW Tozer, etc) believed that most of the church today is lost and doesn’t know it. I write this not with arrogance or pride, but it is a passion of mine to get to the bottom of this, and to me the greatest tragedy is for someone to spend their whole life in church and at the end, hear not well done, but “depart from me”. \u00a0I can’t even fathom the shock. \u00a0The horrors when the life long church member cries out and pleads, “open the book again,” \u00a0‘There name does not appear Lord’. \u00a0DEPART FROM ME.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Revelation 20:15 says And whosoever was not found written in the book of<\/b> life was cast\u00a0<\/b>into the lake<\/b> of<\/b> fire<\/b>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I don’t have it all figured out, but here are some thoughts on salvation. First, I have doubted mine at times. I mostly doubt because I don’t understand how a holy, perfect God living inside of me lives there when I continue to have such a rotten attitude at times. \u00a0Or to be so fruitless at times or weak or to fall yet again. \u00a0The problem is I get my eyes off of HIM and get focused on me or others. \u00a0That will confuse things.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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It is funny that I never doubted my salvation when I was lost. \u00a0The devil blinds the lost to think they are saved. \u00a0And hounds the saved to think they are lost.<\/div>\n
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The bible says to examine your salvation. \u00a02nd Corinthians 13:5 says\u00a0Examine<\/b> yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?<\/div>\n
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Is your faith dead or alive?<\/div>\n
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I think saving faith is this. \u00a0If a saved person reads that verse, they will honestly look at a few things. \u00a0And be willing to look. \u00a0it is pride that keeps us from examining and while the saved can be prideful, see if you are at least willing to honestly evaluate yourself by the bible.<\/div>\n
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The bible says the saved will show fruits of repentance.<\/div>\n
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Our ultimate trust is in Christ. \u00a0He is who we look to, to be saved. \u00a0He is the only reason we stay saved. \u00a0He will be the one that motivates our hearts to change to bring fruits that prove to the world and ourselves that we are saved.<\/div>\n
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Yet, we can look at a few things that differentiate saved or lost.<\/div>\n
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As stated above, a big clue is the lost do not ever doubt their salvations. \u00a0 They think they are good and they think God is unreasonable to put anyone in hell. \u00a0If they read about the book of life and the lake of fire, they think that will never happen. \u00a0They don’t have a fear of God because they made up a god in their own mind to suit their sins. \u00a0 That is an idol, and that god cannot create a place called hell because their god doesn’t exist. \u00a0Except in their imaginations.<\/div>\n
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A saved person will say, “I am so scared that my name is not in the book of life. \u00a0Oh, Lord, did I do something wrong? \u00a0i am so carnal and wicked at times, and I don’t care about souls. \u00a0I don’t deserve to have my name in the book of life! Please change me so i can see proof you are in me. \u00a0Please make yourself real!” \u00a0 Faith is not by sight, and if God simply opened the channels of hell for a second, even the hardest atheist would beg for salvation. \u00a0Yet God usually only reveals after we make a leap of faith. \u00a0However, when we make the leap and meet God, after that, we can get discouraged more changes don’t happen faster.<\/div>\n
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As someone said, “I’m not where i want to be, but praise God i am not where i used to be.”<\/div>\n
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A challenge is our old nature never gets to the point where it naturally wants the things of God. \u00a0Lost people have one nature with a conscious and a fear of going to jail keeping them somewhat straight. \u00a0Religion will keep people honest to some extent, but it comes with the price of thinking you are better than other people. \u00a0And it comes with the more expensive price tag of not realizing that the wages of sin is death. \u00a0So they think because they are better than the Jones, they think they are right with God and that God is impressed.<\/div>\n
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However, if you watched Hitler help an old lady cross the street you will not be impressed but disgusted. \u00a0Hitler is wicked compared to you, hopefully. \u00a0But we are far far more depraved and wicked compared to perfection. \u00a0Compared to God himself.<\/div>\n
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When we get saved, God’s nature moves in, but our old natures don’t just vanish. \u00a0God’s nature is more real when we first get saved and yet just like in the garden God will leave some of our sinful desires behind so we still have free will to live for him or live for ourselves. \u00a0We can bounce at times between 2 competing totally opposite pulls, and we often over time learn to choose God, often because we get sick of the consequences choosing our own way. \u00a0But God gently and patiently leads us to the paths of righteousness and we slowly learn to lean on Him.<\/div>\n
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Yet in those moments of wandering, we can panic and get discouraged and wonder how we could be saved. \u00a0We panic and hope we are not secretly lost. \u00a0We fear we messed up for the final time. \u00a0And slowly we see God pull us out of it and we are all the better.<\/div>\n
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We didn’t lose our salvation, but in our wondering and weakness we lost site of the shepherd for a moment. \u00a0And God pulled us out. \u00a0We see nothing in us deserved us being saved, and nothing in us really can keep us saved. \u00a0But we learn we can trust Him and he isn’t going anywhere.<\/div>\n
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The love of God. \u00a0It is what will sort out our confusion and show us we belong to Him. \u00a0Have you experienced the love of God in your life yet? \u00a0You need to to experience eternal life.<\/div>\n
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Jesus loves me, this i know. \u00a0 But it took me a long long time to accept that love.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

God is not the author of confusion. Yet today it seems Christianity in general cannot even agree on what the gospel is and how do men get saved. Without even looking to the cults, some teach baptism saves, some teach … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":637,"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635\/revisions\/637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}