So many people say that they are a Christian or are accused of being one, which raises the question. Jesus started one way of serving him. In fact the first century Christians called it "The Way". What happened in the years that followed?
The narrow way .. Jesus said it..
“””Matthew 7:
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the Way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”””
There is only one Way to be saved and that is to believe Jesus and trust that Jesus will save you.. Many people because of pride or their carnal thinking think the way is not that narrow but it is wide
“””Matthew 7:
13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and BROAD is the Way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:”””
In the years that followed and today many have added their works of religious observance to the Way to make it Broader. Like keeping/ observing “”Holy Days””. Taking part in church services, taking part in ceremonies.. Abstaining for eating certain things.. Some have made the Way broader by their efforts at being sinless ( of course these ones always fail).. Others have made their Way broader by attempting to earn salvation by doing good works like giving to charity or helping others in other ways. They think they will earn eternity by their many Works.. Jesus has something to say about this also:::
Matthew 7:
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
That "day" Jesus is talking about is the day of Judgment...
A lot of religious minded people just cannot get it that all their best efforts at righteousness are as filthy rags to God::
Isaiah 64:
6 ¶But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness’s are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Gods pass mark is 100% perfection.. And no human Being ever obtains that level of perfection, no matter how hard they strive to be good.. And that’s why the Way of salvation is so narrow because the Only Way to salvation is by placing oneself in the position where one can be justifiably forgiven by God for all their imperfections and failings.. But as i said before.. Deep down a lot of people WANT to be justified by their own efforts. Pride needs to achieve a pass mark.. Pride needs to Make the grade.. Pride desires deeply to win Gods admiration. Pride needs to make it about God's Work + their own Work, adding up to salvation.. Pride simply cannot place itself 100% at the mercy of God..
We still have to try to do what Jesus said and try to refrain from sin. Some seem to think they don't need to try to refrain from sin. We are supposed to have works in Christ rather than works of the Mosaic Law.
(Matthew 7:21-23) “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of the heavens, but only the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will. 22 Many will say to me in that day: ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them: ‘I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!’
(Ephesians 2:10) We are God’s handiwork and were created in union with Christ Jesus for good works, which God determined in advance for us to walk in them.
(James 2:24) You see that a man is to be declared righteous by works and not by faith alone.
(Acts 10:42) Also, he ordered us to preach to the people and to give a thorough witness that this is the one decreed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.
(Jude 4) My reason is that certain men have slipped in among you who were long ago appointed to this judgment by the Scriptures; they are ungodly men who turn the undeserved kindness of our God into an excuse for brazen conduct and who prove false to our only owner and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Ahh but we are Not SAVED by doing those Works..
We should do works and strive to do works and it is good to avoid sin and give charity. It is good to pray. BUT.. We are NOT SAVED by all these things.. Only the Atonement of the LORD Jesus Saves us.. Nothing that we do.. And this is where people fall down.. Because they think as humans.. And humans know that to win over other people.. to gain admiration approval and human love they have to Do Do Do for others to receive something in return.. Look at how many woman fret over their physical appearance , How they have to strive to look good because they believe deep down that they will not be loved if they are ugly if they cannot offer a man beauty / good looks.. They cannot believe that someone would simply Love them simply; because they love them. And of course most men have the same thinking about how to attract woman by doing, doing and doing. But that is Not Love of God, His Agape Love. God loves us all while we are the worst of people.. For God causes his blessings to rain down upon both the evil and the good.
Matthew 5:
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
God does not think like us humans do tex.. His ways a higher then our ways, there is a way that seems right to human beings but it is the way that leads to death..
Isaiah 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
Proverbs 16:25 There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
You just walk into a church and say "Jesus save me." Then they dunk you in water at some point and you're done. Some more effort may be required if you want to join a more established sect such as Catholocism. They seem to like a lot of long boring classes to give you the right to go to long boring masses.
Definitely not saved by works. We have nothing without the sacrifice of Jesus. We still gotta do what he said though.
(Luke 6:46) “Why, then, do you call me ‘Lord! Lord!’ but do not do the things I say?
(1 Timothy 4:15, 16) Ponder over these things; be absorbed in them, so that your advancement may be plainly seen by all people. 16 Pay constant attention to yourself and to your teaching. Persevere in these things, for by doing this you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.
(2 Timothy 4:2) Preach the word; be at it urgently in favorable times and difficult times; reprove, reprimand, exhort, with all patience and art of teaching.
(1 Corinthians 11:1) Become imitators of me, just as I am of Christ.
http://answermug.com/forum/topics/were-jesus-early-disciples-fishers-of-men-or-keepers-of-the
And don't forget all the essential sacraments you would need to be a true catholic.. Works of religion a plenty.. Baptism, confirmation, the weekly mass, the holy days of obligation like ash Wednesday and Christmas day and Lent and of course going into the little confessional box next to a priest to confess your sins regularly and doing your penance and praying ten decads of the rosary every week and getting married only in a catholic church and only to a catholic spouse and... Well you get the picture i am sure..
"""""Definitely not saved by works. We have nothing without the sacrifice of Jesus. We still gotta do what he said though.""""
I am amazed you cannot see the inconsistency within that statement.. We are not saved by doing things BUT!!!!!! we ":""GOTTA do"""" things..... Soooo the logical outcome is if you fail to do the things you GOTTA do then you lose your salvation RIGHT??? and if thats so then we are NOT saved by Believing Jesus and trusting in his Atonement Alone... Because you GOTTA do do do and if you don't do do do the things you GOTTA do then you do not receive Gods reward of eternal life... That's the Religion of Man.. the thinking of men.. what men think is right..
Jesus sacrifice saves us but we have to do what he said. Muslims do all kinds of works but don't have faith in Jesus sacrifice. Do you not accept the whole Bible? Do you not accept the book of James? The words of Jesus, Paul, Peter, etc?
(1 Peter 4:17) For it is the appointed time for the judgment to start with the house of God. Now if it starts first with us, what will the outcome be for those who are not obedient to the good news of God?
(James 1:22) However, become doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves with false reasoning.
(Luke 6:46) “Why, then, do you call me ‘Lord! Lord!’ but do not do the things I say?
(1 Timothy 4:15, 16) Ponder over these things; be absorbed in them, so that your advancement may be plainly seen by all people. 16 Pay constant attention to yourself and to your teaching. Persevere in these things, for by doing this you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.
(Matthew 7:21-23) “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of the heavens, but only the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will. 22 Many will say to me in that day: ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them: ‘I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!’
(Ephesians 2:10) We are God’s handiwork and were created in union with Christ Jesus for good works, which God determined in advance for us to walk in them.
accept Christ as your savior. That step alone makes you a Christian, that easy.
These days, what passes for a Christian usually requires a lobotomy. Then you have only that part of your brain left that allows you to copy/paste Bible passage after Bible passage and believe anyone is reading them.
HOLY HOLY HOLY
Make sure after you spout your usual nonsense, you also add a ton of extra space after it to hog as much area as possible. Very Christian of you.
If you can't say anything nice or don't have something to add, why don't you just go away. You sometimes exhibit troll like behavior.
Yes djam-rona is nothing but a hate mongering troll. This is one thing we can both agree on tex lol
1- If being a Christian means being Christlike then obviously the crucial step that one needs to take to become a Christian is to find out what the Christ was like. If you consider the Gospels to be the best source of information for what the Christ was like and not the church or Christianity then be prepared for a surprise, for according to the Gospels Jesus warned "And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." Matthew 10:38.
2- Jesus was a Jew by race and remained a Jew by religion throughout his earthly life and never taught anyone to leave Judaism. He taught in synagogues [John 18:20] and his scriptures, as well as that of all his disciples, were the Jewish scriptures. He never heard of the New Testament nor of Christianity. He very clearly said that he had been sent ONLY to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and told his disciples too to restrict themselves accordingly [Matthew 10:5 and 15:24].
3- Like most Jews are to this day, Jesus was a very strict monotheist seeing God as one person only. He taught that the Lord our god is one Lord [Deuteronomy 6:4 Mark 12:29] and that the heavenly father is "the only true god" [John 17:3]. He put his face down on the ground in humility when praying to God.
4- Jesus almost always called himself son of man and saw himself as a prophet as we can see from Mark 6:4. He was given the Biblical title “son of God“ and if, as stated in Romans 8:14, "as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" then it may be argued that of all those carrying that title in the Bible none is more deserving of it than Jesus.
5- Jesus was circumcised because in Genesis 17:10-14 God Himself says that circumcision is “an EVERLASTING covenant.” Jesus observed dietary laws which include not eating pig. He said that his food was to do the will of God [faithfully do what God had commanded him to do] and taught his followers that they too should do God's will, keep his commandments. “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:50). He observed the Mosaic law and in Matthew 5:19 “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven” Jesus did not say "accept me as your personal saviour" and you’ll have salvation but “if thou wilt enter into life (eternal life, that is salvation), keep the commandments”[Matthew 19:17]
6- In Matthew 7:21-23 warned the lawless, those who considered the law abolished, that when they realised their error and come running to him for intercession “then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness!’”
7- In his parable of the prodigal son Jesus taught that no matter how deeply immersed in sin a person is, if he just returns to God in sincerity God will happily forgive him. This confirmed God’s promise in Ezekiel 18:21-22
8- Jesus never taught that humans, including new born babies, carry the so called original sin. As a Jew he would have taught about God’s promise in Ezekiel 18:20 that everyone will be accountable for their own sins only and not for those of their fathers. Thus all babies are sinless worthy of paradise carrying neither the sin of Adam nor anyone else. Matthew 19:14 "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven"
9- Jesus never taught that god is so holy he can't accept sinners in his presence. He taught that God was more pleased to see a repenting sinner than someone who had hardly sinned [Luke 15:11-24] Genesis tells us that God Himself made clothes for Adam after Adam had eaten from the forbidden tree.
10- Jesus never taught that God refused to forgive sins, or that God was held to ransom or was incapable of forgiving sins, unless mankind sacrificed a sinless human being, an act associated more with Pagan religions. He never taught that sin had entered the world through Adam and would leave through him, Jesus. He never told anyone that he had come to die for their sins but in Luke 11:4 taught his followers how to pray to God directly for the forgiveness of their sins. According to John 17:3,4 BEFORE his crucifixion, he said to God “I have FINISHED the work which thou gavest me to do.”
