tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3418825914680132383.post170766068201552929..comments2024-02-20T10:05:48.189-06:00Comments on Startled Disbelief: "Are You Saved? Do You Know?"Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01226088146391183228noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3418825914680132383.post-15992456416581431622011-05-20T08:05:12.247-05:002011-05-20T08:05:12.247-05:00And Captain Kirk said, "What does God need wi...And Captain Kirk said, "What does God need with a starship?"<br /><br />You're treating these citations from an ancient religious text as though they should be authoritative in some way, Michael. I see no reason to believe that they are any more accurate in their depiction of a deity than <i>Star Trek V: The Final Frontier</i>—and that film was a travesty.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01226088146391183228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3418825914680132383.post-70243460186461846832011-05-20T00:43:48.963-05:002011-05-20T00:43:48.963-05:00Are You Saved?
"For it is not the man who co...<b>Are You Saved?</b><br /><br /><i>"For it is not the man who commends himself that is accepted, but the man whom the Lord commends." </i>2Corinthians 10:18 <br /><br />Some non-Catholics teach that all you have to do to achieve salvation is to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savoir, and your salvation is assured in this life. You only have to make a once in a lifetime commitment and no matter what you do for the rest of your life, you can be certain that you will go to Heaven when you die. <br /><br />Once you do this, it is impossibility that you will ever lose your salvation. That train of thought, however, is not Biblical, and in reality it is a <b>sin of presumption.</b> Jesus did not die just so we could sin.<br /><br />Let us examine Holy Scripture and see what it has to say. <br /><br /><i>"For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord, and believe in your heart that GOD has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved." </i>Romans 10:9<br /><br /><i>"For whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."</i> Romans 10:13<br /><br />This is what St. Paul said. Some non-Catholics use these two verses, taken completely out of context, to try to provide justification for their false, man made, "Once saved, always saved" belief. <br /><br />A text without a <b>context</b> is only a <b>pretext.</b> If they would only read further on in the same chapter they would clearly see the context of Romans 10:9 and 13, and the fallacy of this false belief:<br /><br />Romans 10:14 <i>"But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?"</i><br /><br />In this verse we see that in order to properly hear the word of GOD so that they may believe, there is a condition attached. <br /><br />They cannot <i>"believe in Him"</i> unless they have heard it, and have heard it from a preacher. <br /><br />Does that verse mean any preacher, even a false one (2Cor 11:12-15)?<br /><br />No, definitely not, for Holy Scripture teaches that it could not be just any preacher, but only a preacher who is sent by GOD.<br /><br />The word for <i>"sent",</i> as used in the Greek language of which the book of Romans was written, is <i>apostello.</i><br /><br />Doesn't that sound like another Biblical word for which we are all familiar?<br /><br /><i>Apostello</i> means to send out <i>properly</i> on a mission. From <i>apostello</i> we get the Greek word <i>"apostolos"</i>, <i>meaning</i> "Apostle". The Greek word <i>"Apostolos"</i> means "he who is <i>sent"</i>.<br /><br />So who are the "they" who are those <i>sent,</i> and by whom are "they" <i>sent?</i> the same Greek word, <i>apostello</i>, is used by Jesus Christ when He spoke to His <i>"Apostolos"</i> in John 20:21:<br /><br />Jesus said to them again, "<i><b>Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.</b></i>"<br /><br />It is obvious that those who are <i>sent</i> (<i>apostello</i>) by GOD are also given authority by Jesus Christ who is GOD.<br /><br />That authority was delegated to the Apostles alone by Jesus Christ.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07940745178193985942noreply@blogger.com