Making Him recite a prayer of repentance. Just because you tell him that Jesus died and He should ask Him to come in to his life ,if he doesn't he will go to hell. I tell you a man can recite it all day long and be no closer to God than before you told him. The greatest man I have had the pleasure to meet in my life taught me many things, the two greatest things were 1. God says what He means and He means what He says. and the second was "Sister, if you came here looking for a word from God, I have one for you"..and he smiled at me and raised his Bible. He told me if I wanted to find God, to seek Him, if I wanted God to hear me cry out to Him, if I wanted God to speak to me, listen. The Bible said if you knock and the man of the house doesn't answer, keep knocking He will get up and answer if for no other reason but to get rid of you. You can't get to God on someone elses testimony or word or prayer. You must touch God yourself. Just like the woman with the issue of blood you must fight thru the crowd, crawl on the ground and reach with all your strenght. It is a christians duty to encourage his brother to seek God, not to tell him, do what I say and your meaningless words of repentance will sufice. I thank God for that one preacher who stepped to the side and pointed me in Gods direction. Paul was not saved simply by hearing the story of Jesus, only God knows what a man needs for his journey and men should be encouraged to go to God for those needs. If I can ever spark a hope or a curiosity that causes someone to question God, or perhaps cry out to Him to see if He responds than I have done well. God can handle a mans salvation with out my input. I couldn't even save myself, how am I gonna save anyone else. I said this for those here who seem to forget that God can touch a mans heart just fine, and He may well appreciate it if we didn't put a sour taste in peoples mouths about what He is and how He works. So how about getting out of the salvation bussiness and back in to the light of hope and encouragement work that He asked us to do.
Why not? *Originally posted by Taken Paul was not saved simply by hearing the story of Jesus* No, he needed to be knocked down to the ground and blinded for three days.. *So how about getting out of the salvation bussiness and back in to the light of hope and encouragement work that He asked us to do. * Salvation IS our business. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. (1 Timothy 4:16, KJV). If people listen to the preaching, they won't get knocked down like Paul. Paul got a chance to get up, but a lot of people have blown their chances to get up.
Oh, really, my Bible says it is harder to save a good man than a sinfull one. What you are preaching, (Hell fire and Damnation) is for those who know the truth and turn from it and we are held accountable for what we know. You can not choke that down the throat of someone who has never truely known or expierienced God and expect it to do anything but push them away. Before I stepped foot in that Pentacostal church I had been raised to believe God was a silent entity, who didn't bother with man much. Even haveing the people in that Pentacostal church tell me differently and seeing them speak in tongues and lay on hands was not ENOUGH. I NEVER knew God untill I touched Him myself. Had those people condemned me for not takeing their word on it, I would have been defeated and lost still. But they didn't, they told me the truth, that God loved me, just the way I was, He already sent His son to die for me with out my ever doing a thing, and if I wanted to know Him than I had to seek Him myself, and then He would clean me up and mould my heart and spirit for His service.
What need of God's love do you have if you aren't aware of your sin? Christ talked about hell more than anyone. But he coupled it with the gospel. Just preaching the gospel is meaningless to those who think they are good enough. Ben
Conviction of sin is the job of the Holy Spirit. You don't need to tell a lost soul it is lost, or a sinner they have sinned. You are convicting them of their wrong instead of offering them the grace that God willingly offered you. We have ALL sinned, and I invite Tony or you to tell me you have been 100% free of sin since you got saved. We fall even then, but our hope is rested in Gods grace and we know salvation at that point. So who is guiltier us who are saved but fail, or one who has never known the love or mercy of God who fails. If they are curiouse enough to ask, or are willing to give you a few moments of their time to listen to your testimony, for goodness sakes the Holy Ghost has probably already done His job, and are we to waste that precouse time redoing it or condeming them to hell? The lost are seeking light, the desperate are seeking hope, the guilty are seaking mercy and you give them wrath?
Part of the law is the punishment which is hell. If people don't know or deny what the law is then they have no need for the gospel. Once they are convinced of the law and it's punishment can they recognize their need for God by recognizing how badly they failed at keeping the law. If you refuse to preach the law then there's no reason to preach the gospel either. Ben
Gal 5:3 And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. 165 Gal 5:14 For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." 166 Gal 5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. 167 Gal 5:23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 168 Gal 6:2 Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. 169 Gal 6:13 For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh. not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 2 Thess 2:8 Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; 1 Tim 1:7 wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. Titus 3:9 But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law, for they are unprofitable and worthless Heb 7:11 Now if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the Law), what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron? 185 Heb 7:12 For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also. 186 Heb 7:16 who has become such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life. 187 Heb 7:19 (for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. 188 Heb 7:28 For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever. Heb 10:28 Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 198 James 1:25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. 199 James 2:8 If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF," you are doing well. James 4:12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor? Rom 7:22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 122 Rom 7:23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 123 Rom 7:25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. 124 Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 125 Rom 8:3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 126 Rom 8:4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 127 Rom 8:7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 128 Rom 9:4 who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, 129 Rom 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. 130 Rom 10:5 For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness. 131 Rom 13:8 Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. 132 Rom 13:10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. OK, now argue the Law....
*Originally posted by Taken ...condeming them to hell?* Do you have even the foggiest idea of what hell is? I mean besides the cartoon Catholic version that even unbelievers believe. *The lost are seeking light, the desperate are seeking hope, the guilty are seaking mercy and you give them wrath? * What wrath? How many people reject God because they think that he tortures people for ever? It's good news to find out that won't happen. It's just ashes. But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away. (Psalms 37:20, KJV). *Originally posted by KalvinB Part of the law is the punishment which is hell.* What law is that? There isn't any law in the Bible which punishes anything by hell.
"What law is that?" "There isn't any law in the Bible which punishes anything by hell." "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." "For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." Death is the punishment. Hell I suppose should be considered the alternate cure. Ben
*Originally posted by KalvinB "What law is that?" "There isn't any law in the Bible which punishes anything by hell." "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." "For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." Death is the punishment. Hell I suppose should be considered the alternate cure.* By the verses you quoted, one would be led to think that hell is where the corpses get thrown. Even from your verses, it looks like death is the punishment, as you say. Or does death have a new definition which means still alive?
