core beliefs - repentance, faith, works, purity

[PeterJens]

The bible teaches the core beliefs of following Jesus. It appears some false teachers
want to preach another gospel which denies these things.

Look at the points made, look up scripture, put it in your life and be saved, Amen

Salvation - repentance, faith, works - founded on purity

Lose any part of the three and ones salvation goes.

Repentance - to abide in wilfull rebellion and sin. Heb 10:26-27
faith - to cease to trust God saves you and the cross forgives you. Hebrews 11:6
works - cease to exercise love flowing through ones life. James 2:26

Repentance
If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,
but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Heb 10:26-27
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? ......you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Faith
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Heb 11:6
We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. Heb 3:14

Works
As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead James 2:26
Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. 1 Peter 3:9

Eternity is pure, without sin, holy, without blemish. What we call blemish and what God calls
blemish is different. We pick at the smallest details, the right way to be polite or show someone
we are together, or not be condemning, or not appreciating enough, or upsetting someone by
being too firm and not recognise our sinful allegiance to wealth, power, sexual desire, selfish
indulgences, holidays we just cannot go without, recognition of our achievements, what we
deserve.

We are happy to be violent within, a raging inferno, lusting after any opportunity that comes along,
wanting that bigger house, car, position, yet outside we want to be seen as being religious, following
Jesus, getting close to others and helping them, in their poor state of spiritual distress.

Little wonder purity is rejected or intimacy and closeness, it would result in a explosion with many injuries.

But this is what Jesus saw in the pharisees. He saw much that was good, but without taming the heart
and being gentle within, there is no real hope of showing true love without.

 

[PeterJens]

I put this forward on another forum and was told I was being heretical.
Not about what, just heresy.
Now I realise in the current teaching atmosphere in the evangelical church none of these beliefs
is now certain or defined. It is all a soup of free choice, except Jesus in the heart is real, and walking
with Him in love for me is the foundation of life itself.

So I am just seeing if the light can shine, because purity is not a nice to have extra, it is the basis of
our calling and impurity is the seat of sinful behaviour.

We now live in a world of fantasy, with marvel comics heros being the films people watch, or science fiction
like Lord of the Rings, or imaginary worlds like Harry Potter, or Star Wars, or Game of thrones.

Our lives are becoming very different with very different moral pointers.
Even sexual identity, male and female roles are being questioned and abandoned in a mixture of nihilism and
desire to find oneself defined on how one feels.

And as I have discovered until you ask, one does not know what the response actually is.

 

[PeterJens]

Holiness and purity

There is a sense in coming to Christ we know He is very different to us.
3 years with Him and the disciples still did not understand His will or methods even though
they were in the midst of them.

When believers compromise with sin, they are playing with fire.
The fire they play with is not reading Gods law, His heart, His words because they feel condemned
just the promises, and then only rarely, but singing praise songs and listening to sermons is ok.

Everything flows from the heart, if the stream is pure so will the life be also.

For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.
1 Thessalonians 4:7

But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.
Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
Jude 1:20-21

Now these words are challenging, but they are also true.
Some strainers after gnats will claim it is impossible to live like this,
because in truth the sins they refuse to give up they need to find any excuse to leave alone.

And the testimony in their lives this is true is thorns and thistles, the tearing of others who
get too close.

Now purity and holiness is a long walk of transformation with much effort and perseverance.
When people preach rest, acceptability of sinful behaviour and attitudes they are just preaching
the world and being friends with the world, and faith will die.

James describes our walk like this

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
James 1:2-4

If your walk costs you nothing, then your walk is not with Christ.

 

[PeterJens]

We are called to be like children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven

A child knows about saying sorry. A child knows about trusting in a parent, or teacher
to look after them. A child knows how to give gifts to express the love they have
from one person to another, because it matters to them.
And a child knows when someone is so hurt and upset they lash out and hurt their
friends, because life has got too difficult.

So my friends, can you come to this place of being a child, and knowing innocense,
This is what Jesus is offering us, a place of cleansing and true resolution.

This place of simplicity and beauty.

 

[GodsGrace]

How could this be heretical?
The other forum must be heretical !
I don't know what to add to this.

It would be a good study for Foundation of Faith.
Theology is also good,,,the study of God.

All these things were preached by Jesus.
Repentence, Faith, Works, Purity.
Blessed are the pure in spirit,
The Beatitudes.

I'd like to take some time and work on this tomorrow...
Please reply for bump.
Thanks.

 

[for_his_glory]

Repentance brings us into the righteousness of God as we are made righteous by His grace through faith and that we continue in the good works Christ has already started as the purity in our heart is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that we walk in the Spirit so that we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

James 1:19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: 20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. 21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. 26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. 27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Romans 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Galatians 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

 

[LovethroughDove]

I'm going to boil it down to how the Spirit is working in me.
My Faith has given me the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit urges me to repent. This Repentance is not superficial, but something that changes me to the core. My Works are actually my Faith being walked out in my everyday life and it shows that I am following in his footsteps. Purity is the cleansing of my old man and putting on Christ instead of my old self. I want to look like him more and more each day.

 

[PeterJens]

How could this be heretical?
The other forum must be heretical !
I don't know what to add to this.

It would be a good study for Foundation of Faith.
Theology is also good,,,the study of God.

All these things were preached by Jesus.
Repentence, Faith, Works, Purity.
Blessed are the pure in spirit,
The Beatitudes.

I'd like to take some time and work on this tomorrow...
Please reply for bump.
Thanks.

Unfortunately this was my conclusion as well.
Any Christian forum that rejects these foundational principles is no longer Christian.

It might sound extreme, but if a believer claimed to have faith, yet mocked and tried to
disown believers who followed repentance, faith and works, I would ban them from the forum.

For me it is fine if people challenge theology, but to this degree it is becoming an enemy of Christ.
It is also why I do not intend to return to the forum which supports such people.

The group which are called free gracers, are not being challenged enough about who they are and
what they believe, as if discipleship and righteousness are not foundational to being part of the body
of Christ. But this is the fruit of simple blind brain-washing and singular exaguration of one or two
sentences without constraints or limitations put in place.

In their world Peter when he denied Christ, would still have been a disciple if he had not come back
to Jesus. Jesus most definitely said, Peter needed to keep faith in Him, and then he would be ok,
otherwise satan would have taken over his life.

 

[PeterJens]

I'm going to boil it down to how the Spirit is working in me.
My Faith has given me the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit urges me to repent. This Repentance is not superficial, but something that changes me to the core. My Works are actually my Faith being walked out in my everyday life and it shows that I am following in his footsteps. Purity is the cleansing of my old man and putting on Christ instead of my old self. I want to look like him more and more each day.

 

[GodsGrace]

I'm going to boil it down to how the Spirit is working in me.
My Faith has given me the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit urges me to repent. This Repentance is not superficial, but something that changes me to the core. My Works are actually my Faith being walked out in my everyday life and it shows that I am following in his footsteps. Purity is the cleansing of my old man and putting on Christ instead of my old self. I want to look like him more and more each day.

Simple, Short and Beautiful !