Frankie
DD, have you been a beleiver all your life or ever since you can remember?
Depends on what you mean by that. The bible presupposes belief in God. Simply believing that "God" exists doesn't save anyone. Jesus talked about that. So did Paul for that matter.
I'm talking about the object of your "belief". What good is a belief in any God if you need to save yourself by doing something. This leads to self-righteousness (which is not righteousness at all).
My faith (belief) is in the work Christ did on my behalf. This is why "who He is", is so important.
As humans we can't make a standard low enough to keep. Let alone one that pleases God. Adam proved that. Angels have no righteousness of their own, they were created to be slaves of the will of God. Much like Adam before the fall.
Only the Godman Jesus could have the kind of righteousness needed to please God. The whole book of Hebrews was written to teach this.
Joseph
I have and the answer is simple. They are like Adam and if things do not work out then they have someone else to blame.
So if things don't go right when you stand before God who are you going to blame? Will you stand there quoting the WT.
I will have no one, because I have rested in Christ, not some organization/church.
Chalam
I started to respond to you yesterday when we lost power in a thunderstorm. So now I'm trying to rewrite this.
...how do you reconcile that with a verse like this?
1Ti 2:1
First of all, then, I exhort that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, 2for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For God is one, and there is one Mediator of God and of men, the Man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. (MKJV)
In the context of the trials and persecution the church was enduring. Paul urges Timothy to pray on behalf of "all men" in verse 1 and goes on to list types of men, "kings and all who are in authority" in verse 2. So I would expect the same meaning of "all men" to be all types of men in verse 4 as well.
I don't believe Paul was urging Timothy to pray for every single person in the world. So verse 6 would be understood like this: who gave himself as a ransom for all types of men, to be testified in due time.
From Gills commentary: "... the will of God, the sovereign and unfrustrable will of God, has the governing sway and influence in the salvation of men; it rises from it, and is according to it; and all who are saved God wills they should be saved; nor are any saved, but whom he wills they should be saved: hence by all men, whom God would have saved, cannot be meant every individual of mankind, since it is not his will that all men, in this large sense, should be saved, unless there are two contrary wills in God; for there are some who were before ordained by him unto condemnation, and are vessels of wrath fitted for destruction; and it is his will concerning some, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned; nor is it fact that all are saved, as they would be, if it was his will they should; for who hath resisted his will? but there is a world of ungodly men that will be condemned, and who will go into everlasting punishment: rather therefore all sorts of men, agreeably to the use of the phrase in
1Ti_2:1 are here intended, kings and peasants, rich and poor, bond and free, male and female, young and old, greater and lesser sinners; and therefore all are to be prayed for, even all sorts of men, because God will have all men, or all sorts of men, saved; and particularly the Gentiles may be designed, who are sometimes called the world, the whole world, and every creature; whom God would have saved, as well as the Jews, and therefore Heathens, and Heathen magistrates, were to be prayed for as well as Jewish ones."
Sorry about formatting problems.
