@djeggnog wrote:
This is not really so, now is it? Do you really have faith? Are you the sort that has faith "to the preserving alive of the soul"? Or, are you the kind of person that has just "[shrunk] back to destruction? (Hebrews 10:39) If the former were true, this would be a good thing, but I have judged that the latter is true about you, which is not a good thing.
@The Finger wrote:
If I have faith in [Christ's] ransom sacrifice then I have life. A lack of faith is what destroys the soul and you are not my judge.
Have you really deluded yourself into believing that you will have life, just based on your assertion that you have faith in Jesus' ransom sacrifice? That's rich! You have one that judges you, and you are absolutely correct that I am not that judge. When I said "I have judged that the latter is true about you," you thought you would make sure to tell me that I am not your judge, but you're very mistaken, sir; I am judging you right now. You do know that the holy ones" -- the anointed -- will judge the world, right? But in this world, who do you think is judging you in all things, even "very trivial matters"? Do you not know that men have been appointed as overseers over the flock in the congregations of God, and that I am qualified to judge you? Or do you really think that whenever a Judicial Committee is formed to address wrongdoing of some sort, or maybe to investigate a bad report of some kind, that the elders are at that time sitting as judges? (1 Corinthians 6:2)
No, you may not be actively attending the local Kingdom Hall where I attend, but you are my brother, a dedicated followers of Christ Jesus, and as such you are within my jurisdiction, for if you were to do something objectionable here in Los Angeles, but move to Detroit, to Houston, to London or, say, Munich, your record from Los Angeles will follow you because you have to remember that Jesus is now reigning as king, ruling in the midst of his enemies, but ruling nonetheless over the entire association of brothers in the world. But the truth is that there are those among us -- active brothers and sisters -- that do not discern what they are, caught up, as it were, in the affairs of this world and not viewing the trust seriously. But in order that they do not become condemned with the world, we judge them, for it is in this way that Jehovah disciples His people. (1 Corinthians 11:31, 32)
Contrary to what you just said to me in your post, I'm going to tell you sternly that just as necessity if laid upon me to preach the good news of the kingdom of God, it is also laid upon every dedicated brother and sister in Christ to be declaring the good news fully, not just the parts of it that may be convenient for you, but I mean that you are charged by God as His steward to whom His word has been entrusted with declaring all of it, all of the counsel of God." Even if you should do so against your will, a stewardship has been entrusted to you just the same, for woe to you, @The Finger, if you should not now be declaring the good news. (Acts 20:27; 1 Corinthians 9:16-18)
You know that Jehovah sent his son Jesus from heaven down to the earth in order to give you, me, everyone on the board right now and those not actively using it at the moment, even the politicians and the murderers and the thieves and fornicators of this world, a release by ransom, through the merit of Jesus' shed blood (Matthew 20:28), but just your having mere head knowledge of some of the profound truths found in the Bible that are associated with the good news cannot, and will not, save anyone.
You don't really think that you can bluff your way into God's new order through the mere utterance of the mantra, "I have faith in Christ's ransom sacrifice," do you? Do you really think words alone can qualify anyone to become a beneficiary of this everlasting release by ransom that can only be received by our exercising faith in the merit of this ransom? Please tell me that you haven't totally deluded yourself into believing that you qualify as a beneficiary of it because of your faith. For you, what does this even mean???
For one thing, Jesus preached the need for folks to repent of their sins, and some that heard him preach these things did repent while others essentially told Jesus to go fly a kite, right? However, it is those that stuck with Jesus during his many trials that were promised a seat in the heavenly kingdom of God. (Luke 22:28-30) But as Jesus pointed out regarding his "other sheep" at John 10:16, 27, 28, it only those sheep that both listened to his voice and followed him that he was going to be giving everlasting life, for everyone else, he indicated, would be destroyed. (John 10:16, 27, 28) Surely you did read this statement from Jesus in your own copy of the Bible, didn't you? It's definitely in mine!
In the first century AD, those religious leaders that claimed to love and worship the true God, as I'm supposing is your claim as well, did nothing but only evil in God's sight, even if in man's sight, they thought that they looked the part of being righteous before God when in reality, they only appeared righteous before men. (Matthew 23:27, 28) They couldn't fool Jehovah; they couldn't fool Jesus either with their pretense of righteousness, and Jesus went on to indicate "the judgment of Gehenna" is what awaited them, for many would say to Jesus in that day of judgment, didn't we prophesy in your name?
Jesus would tell them to get away from him, because he had never knew them as being one of his followers, but that he only knew them as "workers of lawlessness." (Matthew 7:22, 23) Indeed, "if one knows how to do what is right and yet does not do it, it is a sin for him" ( James 4:17), so if you've not been making public declaration for salvation, which is the right thing for you to have been doing and to be doing even now, then how can you, a dedicated brother, possibly expect to become a beneficiary of the ransom provision of the Christ?
Those that actually become recipients of Jesus' ransom are those that made a transformation, making over their mind, and not just hearing the word, but exercising faith in what we heard by our actively supporting God's arrangement for the establishment of the new earth, which can only be done through preaching the word and fully accomplishing our ministry. (Romans 12:2; 2 Timothy 4:15) Jehovah is saving others by the commandment that Christ has given to us: By means of their acceptance of "the word about the Christ," for faith is what follows the thing heard. (Romans 10:17) It is only by one's Christian works of faith that folks are going obtain everlasting life, but anyone that disobeys the Son won't see life at all, for God's wrath remains upon such a one. (John 3:36) If we do not preach the word about Jesus, then how will they hear? If they have not been given the opportunity to hear about Jesus, how will they ever come to put faith in him.?
If you, a dedicated servant of God, are not out there regularly preaching the message of the kingdom of God as a proof of your faith, but are keeping what things you learned both before and after your baptism about the Christ, his ransom and God's kingdom, then how on earth will others know that you even have faith or that your faith is a real, a genuine faith? How will Jesus know? How will Jehovah know?
In your post, you wrote: "If I have faith in [Christ's] ransom sacrifice then I have life," but where exactly is your faith anyway? Did you lose it or did someone take it away from you? If the latter, how could you have allowed something like that to have occurred? Truly, if one is not a doer of the word, but just a hearer of it (and it sounds to me that you aren't even that!), then James says at James 1:22 that you are what? He said that you would be "deceiving your self with false reasoning," didn't he?
You also said in your post that a lack of faith is what destroys the soul. What "soul" do you mean? Do you mean that lack of faith can destroys one personally or did you mean something else altogether when you wrote this? Do you believe your being sent out by Jesus to "make disciples ... teaching them" (Matthew 28:19, 20), and your deliberate refusal to obey Jesus in "making disciples ... teaching them" is somewhat akin to exercising faith or what? What do you think? The apostle Peter wrote that "the righteous man is being saved with difficulty," so where exactly will you make a showing, someone that is ungodly and deliberately sinning against God by knowing what things you ought to be doing and yet not doing these things? (1 Peter 4:18)
Really, then, it's clear that neither the ungodly person nor the deliberate sinner will be saved, none of such persons will not become a beneficiary of the release by ransom. And considering that a Christian should be doing things that would vindicate Jehovah's name that the ungodly and deliberate sinners are reproaching -- that would be people just like you, right? -- that the Devil might be proven to be the liar he is in his claiming that the servants of God will be lacking in integrity and would even curse God by word and in deed when "the going gets rough." How can you expect the receive the benefit of the ransom when your wilfully conducting yourself in opposition to God's will renders you an opponent of truth, an opponent of God's righteousness, an agent of God's adversary, Satan the Devil? (1 Peter 5:8)
At John 3:16, Jesus stated that God loved the world, but was it the entire world of mankind that God loved so much, or was it the world of redeemable human beings exercising faith in Jesus' ransom? Jesus said at John 3:18, that he that exercises faith in him is not to be judged, but he that does not exercise faith in him "has been judged already, because he has not exercised faith in the name of the only-begotten Son of God." Now if you were to die tomorrow, would you be saved in Jesus ransom by your not doing the things that you're not doing? What do you think?
Don't be lulled into a false sense of security believing (as you apparently do!) that the ransom provision of Christ will, in fact, be applied in your behalf whether you live tomorrow or you should die tomorrow. I'm telling you, @The Finger, that it won't. It's delusional thinking for you to be thinking otherwise; I'm telling you the truth. The release by ransom is a gift that only those that are not willfully sinning after having received an accurate knowledge of the truth, for the only thing that awaits you, and folks that are just like you here, is judgment because you are presently exercising your will in opposition to Jehovah. (Hebrews 10:26, 27; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9) Or are you so far out there in "la la land" with your "theology" as to your having faith in the ransom without exercise of any of the requisite faith, and all of that, that you just don't care any more? Is that it, @The Finger? Wait! I'm in "La La Land," aren't I?
@djeggnog
