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As I've already mentioned, you are thinking of "elect" in a way that isn't correct. It doesn't refer to a special group who are "home free" with God from even before their births, but the word is used instead to refer to a "chosen" kind of human, a preferred kind, i.e. one who loves God, his...
All mankind was justified by the Cross, but we all still have lives to live. That's why the New Testament is full of verses explaining how to live our lives IN ORDER THAT WE MAY be found acceptable to God upon our deaths.
The verse in question clearly describes it as a possibility, not a certainty. And Paul (the author of that verse) would not have had to travel the Roman world bringing the Gospel of salvation to non-believers if they were already guaranteed to go to heaven.
The words in question are these: they...
This ^ means that Jesus's offering of his body was done once for all mankind. Humanity was reconciled to God be the sacrifice of the Cross.
But that doesn't mean everyone who has ever lived or will live is guaranteed to go to heaven!
Faith is the vehicle by which sins committed afterwards...
It sounds, from the description of the proposal, to be just one more element in Biden's war on America.
The plan cannot work, but it certainly can further drive up the cost of rents that other of the President's policies have produced. The longer-term objective might possibly be to make all...
No, but WHICH ceremonies count as sacraments is a matter of accretion.
Two observances are unmistakable in the New Testament, but over time some churches/denominations added others until we got to the famous "seven sacraments" that Catholics recognize.
The reason is that a sacrament isn't...
That's true, but it isn't what I addressed in my previous post. What I was saying wasn't that every reference to the subject has to include the word elect or else the concept you hold to about there being a predetermined group of people who are already saved isn't valid.
No. What I was saying...
I am not offended that you believe that or that you want to tell me that you do. However, that view flies in the face of innumerable New Testament verses saying the opposite, including those that convey to us what Jesus himself had to say about it.
The reference to an "elect" appears in various places in Scripture, but the problem for us is to understand what the term is referring to. Yes, there's an Elect, but who is being referred to?
The idea that it's some select, predetermined, cadre of people whom God has decided will be saved no...
Or,..you don't understand that the sanctifying death of Christ wasn't the issue there.
Had Christ not died in order to make all of mankind eligible for salvation, there wouldn't be any talk about the role of Faith at all. But because Christ DID pay for the sins of men, Faith (in Him) comes...
It's quite obvious, isn't it? The opponents of freedom of religion are determined to harass this man out of business, keeping him in court forever, costing him all sorts of money, and that they will continue to think up ways to make each alleged grievance of theirs be just enough different from...
There is nothing in that verse which indicates that the faith is reserved for only an Elect. What it says is that those who do come to faith will live.
Then, too, we have already been shown dozens of verses thar verify the belief that Christ died for all mankind, not just a select...
That's true. By the 2nd century there is a record of it happening, but because the Bible testifies to the practice, it has to have existed prior to that.
Of course, during this discussion we have already been made aware of evidence which dates from the 1st century, not the late 2nd.
Nope. There is no way around the Bible's teaching that the person has to be presented with the Gospel.
If he then is moved to believe, great...but Faith is necessary and it doesn't just come over you like a warm fuzzy feeling minus any information about Jesus Christ, his identity, and his...
Of course, but that amounts to the same thing, whether a missionary preaches the Gospel, you are given a copy of the Bible, or it comes on a parchment roll or You Tube video.
But what this verse does not support is the notion that Faith isn't needed--which is what we've heard from several...
Well, the idea persists among Catholics that theirs is the only true church of Christ, and there is a tendency to say "Catholic" when they are referring to what they consider to be "real Christianity," so you probably are right about that, at least as it describes some members of the church. I...
Hmm. How so? I've never found Catholics to be unwilling to admit that, say, a Baptist or an Episcopalian, are Christians. That they belong to a religious group that is heretical, yes, but not non-Christian.
That would be true, but we're also dealing with a moving target here. The issue was supposed to be whether or not certain doctrines or practices amounted to "accretions," i.e. innovations coming later in time than the Apostolic Age.
But when it's shown that some contenders--infant baptism for...