Ask Me Anything About Christianity

[debrakay]

On 9/13/2022 at 6:00 AM, Dennis1209 said:

Here comes the question: In our soul, how much is enough faith, belief, and trust to qualify for saving faith and not going to Hell? To quantify saving faith, is it a kernel of faith, trust, and confidence, 100% of all you have all the time or something between the two?

'The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. ' - Luke 17:5-6

Faith the size of a mustard seed is enough to qualify and save as I discern it.

[Dennis1209]

29 minutes ago, Starise said:

I sort of gathered it, but my brain has trouble with the syntax lol.

Maybe another question about those groups of people could be addressed specifically since it seems many are looking at different dealing with different groups.

We have-

Those who died before Christ was born

Those before the flood

Those during the millennium

Others?

I STILL don't see men getting a second chance after death if the rejected God when they were alive.

Perhaps I am mistaken; correct me if I’m wrong. It seems the standard below applies to all ages and people that have never heard the Good News.

Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

So, without the excuse of what?

[OneLight]

2 minutes ago, Starise said:

I sort of gathered it, but my brain has trouble with the syntax lol.

Maybe another question about those groups of people could be addressed specifically since it seems many are looking at different dealing with different groups.

We have-

Those who died before Christ was born

Those before the flood

Those during the millennium

Others?

I STILL don't see men getting a second chance after death if the rejected God when they were alive.

Well, may I ask what you see in these verses?

Romans 2:12-16

For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them)  in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.

Nobody knows how Jesus will judge people.  All we can really do is wait and see.  It's much easier to guess about those who have heard about and rejected salvation than it is for those who never heard.

[NCAP]

In speaking of second chances, we need not limit God to our limited human understanding of things, nor even try to place ourselves as the judge who decides who gets a second chance.

 

[OneLight]

42 minutes ago, Dan Knight said:

No.

I see.  You must like confusion then. 

[Starise]

11 minutes ago, Dennis1209 said:

Perhaps I am mistaken; correct me if I’m wrong. It seems the standard below applies to all ages and people that have never heard the Good News.

Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

So, without the excuse of what?

Hi Dennis,

The first verse gives an action that provides a solution, while the second verse was mainly directed at scoffers and those who mock God. Those who have willingly been blinded because they chose to like the darkness rather than the light, so I see one verse as the answer and the other as the problem.

"All ages and people that have never heard the good news" If your main question ties to this idea, then maybe a difference in ability of persons to grasp and understand is implied based on historic time periods ? If men realized there was a God no matter when it was, then I believe they could be saved if they seek or knock. Otherwise concessions had to be made in order to accommodate groups left out, and maybe what Deigh Ann was getting at.

How would a person do that without the gospel? I can see many men saying, I know there is a God, where are you? Or How do I get to know this God ?...and God surely sent help based on His promises to all of those people. How He sent the answers I can't be entirely sure it was the same for everyone. The "invisible things" are those things we see that are apparent and we can't see where they came from. We know they had a source. "Being understood by the things that are made"

Those who see the same things and reject the source. Those who have no desire to seek or knock won't find the answers and are therefore condemned already unless they have a change of heart....at least that's how I see it. Now I'm going to run before the spears start flying.

 

[Starise]

24 minutes ago, OneLight said:

Well, may I ask what you see in these verses?

Romans 2:12-16

For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them)  in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.

Nobody knows how Jesus will judge people.  All we can really do is wait and see.  It's much easier to guess about those who have heard about and rejected salvation than it is for those who never heard.

"Sinned without the law" had no desire to do what was right in God's eyes or to know the laws.

"Sinned in the law" Those who knew the law but still chose not to follow it.

The Gentiles didn't have the Jewish law are justified because they followed their sense of the law in their hearts which was correct.

The only ones justified are the doers of the law, which in this text, points to the Gentiles. Possibly another reference to a parting from the Jews to go out to the Gentiles with God's grace. 

 

 

[OneLight]

3 minutes ago, Starise said:

38 minutes ago, OneLight said:

Well, may I ask what you see in these verses?

Romans 2:12-16

For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them)  in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.

Nobody knows how Jesus will judge people.  All we can really do is wait and see.  It's much easier to guess about those who have heard about and rejected salvation than it is for those who never heard.

"Sinned without the law" had no desire to do what was right in God's eyes or to know the laws.

"Sinned in the law" Those who knew the law but still chose not to follow it.

The Gentiles didn't have the Jewish law are justified because they followed their sense of the law in their hearts which was correct.

The only ones justified are the doers of the law, which in this text, points to the Gentiles. Possibly another reference to a parting from the Jews to go out to the Gentiles with God's grace.

I see this part: "who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them)  in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel." telling me that those who never had the law, or even heard about salvation, will be judged by Jesus by what was in their hearts, better said as the secrets of men. 

[Dan Knight]

50 minutes ago, Starise said:

A very good example of it, because God had told them the exact opposite about the tree.

 

They did wrong and followed up with an impure attempt at repentance. 

 

Genesis 3:12  And the man said, “The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”

¹³ And the Lord God said unto the woman, “What is this that thou hast done?” And the woman said, “The serpent beguiled me, and I ate.”

although they expressed wrong doing in their actions, namely hiding from God, their carefully planned verbal responses lack the elements consistent with true repentance as required by God.  The woman said the devil made her do it and the man said the woman You gave me made me do it.

Excuses, whether factual or not, don't constitute repentance.

I believe that God has given us an insight into what He considers the very beginning of true repentance when He asked Adam if he had eaten of the forbidden tree.  Its not what Adam said, but what he didn't say.  "Yes I did".

And we are shown the reason Adam sought to share blame with the woman and God in his hiding from God. He was afraid. Fear is the great wall between God and man.

 

[Dennis1209]

1 hour ago, debrakay said:

'The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. ' - Luke 17:5-6

Faith the size of a mustard seed is enough to qualify and save as I discern it.

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: [emphasis added]

From unearned, unmerited, and undeserved “grace” through “faith,” we are saved. It is not difficult to understand the meaning of Grace IMO. Faith, on the other hand, seems to be more complex. In the Bible, faith seems measurable, c.f. all those “ye of little faith.”

Everyone has varying degrees of trust, faith, and belief. Would you agree? Some have varying amounts of doubt now and then throughout their lives (do I possess saving faith), and some do not. The following is a good explanation of “saving faith, though not quantified.

Faith: Temporary faith is that state of mind which is awakened in men (e.g., Felix) by the exhibition of the truth and by the influence of religious sympathy, or by what is sometimes styled the common operation of the Holy Spirit.

Saving faith is so called because it has eternal life inseparably connected with it. It cannot be better defined than in the words of the Assembly’s Shorter Catechism: “Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel.”

The object of saving faith is the whole revealed Word of God. Faith accepts and believes it as the very truth most sure. But the special act of faith which unites to Christ has as its object the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 7:38; Acts 16:31). This is the specific act of faith by which a sinner is justified before God (Rom. 3:22, 25; Gal. 2:16; Phil. 3:9; John 3:16–36; Acts 10:43; 16:31). In this act of faith the believer appropriates and rests on Christ alone as Mediator in all his offices.^[1]

Thus, my question was, how much faith quantifies “saving faith?” I think your answer is on the right track.

 

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^[1] Easton, M. G. Illustrated Bible Dictionary and Treasury of Biblical History, Biography, Geography, Doctrine, and Literature 1893: 250. Print.