Which is the True religion? There are 2 ways to prove the Bible is True and Super-natural.
The first way is Fulfilled prophecy. Only God can predict the Future, thousands of years in advance, predicting the rise and fall of many nations.
The second way is the super-natural Love found only in the Bible. God requires that we live in extreme, intense, Agape Love. God-like Love. The kind of Love that God has for us.
Jesus told us to: "Sell all that you have and give the money to the poor. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love the poor and your enemies". The Roman soldiers were right , when they said "No man has ever spoken like this Man!"
The Bible is the only religion which states the "Golden Rule" of Jesus. "Do unto others as you would want them to do unto you".
Some religions have the negative form of the Golden Rule, such as Wicca: "Don't harm anyone". But, that's not the extreme love of Christ. It does not require me to help the poor. Some religions say: "WISH good things for your neighbor as you WISH good things for yourself". But, that's not the Extreme love of Christ. Christ requires that we DO good things for our neighbor. And the motivation for obedience is: Heaven to gain, and Hell to avoid.
The Sermon on the Mount persents a moral/ethical/love standard that is impossibly high for me to attain, unless I am God. Jesus is God, and He preached a Sermon-fit-for-a-God. No other religion presents such an extreme, super-natural Love. No ordinary man would dare to preach such a Love-Sermon. We ordinary men flee from such high standards, yet, Jesus preached the Perfect way, which is the Super-natural Mark of His Divinity. When we feel drawn toward such high standards of Love, that's good evidence that we are "born from above (heaven)". A Spiritual Birth from God.

Why do Saints get such a LARGE REWARD (Jesus and heaven)? Why do sinners get such a LARGE PUNISHMENT (Satan and Fire)?
God is TESTING our faith (Genesis 22;1,12...amplified bible). We pass the TEST of our faith by obeying God's Word. The TEST is a VERY LARGE, GOD-SIZED TEST.
When we pass the TEST, we get a GOD-SIZED-REWARD (Jesus).
When we fail the TEST of our faith, we get a GOD-SIZED-PUNISHMENT (Fire).
In a sense, God is treating us as if we are gods.
Jesus said: "If you are faithful with little, you would also be faithful with much".

dennis
_________________
www.bible-codes.org
www.evangelicaloutreach.org
www.thebereancall.org

Go to www.evangelicaloutreach.org

Dan Corner's web-site

Read the Statement of Faith, doctrines, Belief

very interesting and helpful,,, concerning OSAS, Eternal Security.
Dan Corner preaches against OSAS.

dennis

If brothers agreed on everything God wouldn't be able to test their love...

Dennis,

1.) The first way is Fulfilled prophecy. Amen to this! If anyone has a website that lists them could you let me know please...(plus the ones left unfulfilled). (not much)

2.) I'm not sure how the technicalities play out here. Why does he distinguish the two.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart mind and strength and your neighbor as your self.....

Only the first could be agape? Am l right. I know people who don't like themselves at all and it reflects on how they treat others.
So could you say that technically for them it wouldn't be a sin or would the first command to Love God with your all, diminish the catch 22 in the second part?

actually there is not one big reward. there are several rewards and yes...we as saints can get them.

Many marriages and friendships are based in selfish love......for example........"I'll be nice and good to you, ...IF ... you'll be nice and good to me".

And when you stop loving me, I will stop loving you.


********
BUT!
that's not Godly (God-like) love (Agape Love).

Agape love is un-selfish love.

Christ loved the un-lovely.
Christ loved us when we were hating and murdering Him.
Christ did good to us, while we did evil to Him.

Christ has commanded us to love God and all our neighbors with Agape Love.
Christ commanded us to love our enemies. Which MUST be Agape love........(our enemies certainly don't deserve love, so.....we give them "better than they deserve")

Just like Christ (and many of my family and friends) gave me "better than I deserved". (which is Grace, un-deserved favor).

**********

And of course, no person (except Christ) has Perfectly obeyed the 2 Great Commandments. (love God and neighbors).
The least that we can do, is admit that Christ's Way is Right, and our way is wrong.
The most that we can do is "sell all that we have and give the money to the poor".
And most Christians are somewhere between these 2 extremes.

dennis

http://www.christiananswers.net/dictionary...prophecies.html



Toes are extremities and still a part of the body. Jesus washed the disciples feet for a reason.




Jam 1:27 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.

miki said:

I'm a little thick this morning...

you become saved when you accept Jesus Christ as your savior.
He is not a reward. You have the ability to earn rewards after you are saved.
you can enter heaven without earning rewards and/or lose rewards as you live.
i can display scripture on this but don't want to confuse the situation.

When we read the NT, we are shocked and scandalized by the Extreme Love, and High Standards that God has described.

We think, "No one can live up to God's Commandments. No one that I know has "sold all that he has, and given the money to the poor".

But, ...God was describing perfect Love. God-like Love.
We are shocked by His High Standards and Extreme Love, because we are so un-loving.
He is Normal, and we are NOT-normal.
We are so fallen, that His Love shocks us.
And , in a way, His love offends the sinner, because His love exposes our non-Love.

But, praise God,.......He has provided a Salvation. Wherein, all of us can be saved from our sins.
Even children, invalids, and raggamuffins will be accepted and welcomed, if we believe the Gospel.

His standards are beyond our ability, but He has provided a Bridge between our in-adequacies and His Excellencies.

dennis

Man cannot do this by himself.
So God put man to death:
"You have been crucified with Christ and no longer live...."
And God replaced man with Christ:
"....but Christ now lives in me....."
So that Christ can now do in man, what man could not do himself.

This is only true for those who believe it.
We cannot please God without faith........
love C

Even Paul, as great as he was, trembled before God's High Standards.

Paul said "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling".
and
"I am afraid that, after preaching to others, I myself might become a castaway" (1 Cor 9;27).
and
"some have been led astray, and have wandered from the faith" (1 Tim 6;10)
and
some have "disowned the faith and is worse than an un-believer" (1 Tim 5;8).

I, like Paul, tremble before God.

We have a Glorious Hope (1 Thess 5;8......titus 1;2......titus 2;13........titus 3;7.....hebrews 11;1.......1 Peter 1;3.....1 Peter 1;21......1 peter 3;15.........1 John 3;3)

Why do we never hear any-one mention this Hope? Is it not part of the Bible?
Does it offend the OSAS people?

How did Paul obtain the "crown of righteousness"? 2 Tim 4;7,8
He "kept the faith. He finished the race. He fought the good fight."
Did Jesus "Keep the faith" for Paul? No, I don't think so. Paul said that Paul kept the faith.

I'm sure that Jesus has helped us , in many ways, to believe the Gospel. Thank God!
But.
Salvation is by God's Grace, "through our faith". It's not God's job to believe. He told "us" to believe.
At any given moment,....... if we believe, then, we're saved (at this moment).
We have "assurance of salvation" when we are believing.
Hallelujah!

"Believing" includes repentance, obedience, joy, wisdom, fellowship, understanding, discernment, love, patience, and hope.

(amplified bible)

dennis

Amen Dennis, and we must believe the Word: That Jesus has done it all...that it is finished...that God has finished all His work before the foundation of the earth.
We must believe the Word when it tells us that we have been saved, have been healed, have been set free from sin, have been delivered, have perfection......not through works of our own, but its the gift that we have received.

Why do we have it? Because we no longer live...we were crucified with Christ, and Christ now lives in us....and all the promises are "yes" in Christ.
We share His resurrection and life...Praise God.

We must believe Jesus when He said : "It is finished"

First we must believe and after faith (faith must be tested first)....we will see the manifestation of what we have believed.First we call things which are not.....as if they were (that is faith)...then God honours that faith, by manifesting it for us.

blessings
in Christ
C

Feb 8 , 2007

If we commit ONLY one little tiny sin, God does not allow us within His Presence.
God woos us by His Spirit for years, day after day,……to persuade us to love Him. He gives us many opportunities to get saved from our sins.
God requires that we love our enemies.
God (Jesus) told us to “sell all that we have and give the money to the poor”.
God practices what He preaches. He is truly “the friend of sinners”.
If we believe God and confess, ask for forgiveness, and repent,….He forgives ALL the crimes on our record. And He gives us a Wedding with His Son, on the Streets of Gold.
Not only does He forgive us, but,……He changes (transforms) us to be like God (Jesus).

God’s Love, Joy, Mercy, Grace, Holiness, Forgiveness, Justice, Punishment, Judgements, Wrath, Patience, Long-sufferings, Helpfulness, Peace, Wisdom, etc.,……… are in the Extreme (or so it seems to us).
From His point of view, He is normal, and we are abnormal.
We are so fallen, and our standards are so low, …..we see God as Extreme. But, He’s not extreme………we are judging Him by our standards.

God's Love is so un-selfish , that we can't imagine living His Way.

He is so self-sacrificing, that we can't imagine His Way.

He is good to the sinner.
He is Merciful to the wicked, if they will repent.
He forgives all, if we will surrender.
He gives us many, many opportunities to repent and be saved from our sins and crimes.
He works hard to help the poor.
He is zealous to do good works.

It is a great crime, when we fail to live in Intense Love (God-like Love).

Praise Him.

Anything less than living in Perfect Love is punishable by Death.........that's how high God's Standards of Love and Justice are.

Living in less-than-perfect-love is a great crime.

This might seem harsh to our fallen sensibilities,.........But!.........there's reason to rejoice!...... God will bring us up to His Level of Perfect Love and Righteousness and Wisdom.
He will not leave us in a less-than-perfect-condition.
Which is far better than we deserve!
Praise His Holy Name!
Praise Him for His Extreme generosity.

And God has offered to forgive all our sins, if we believe, repent, and live for Him.
He is Extremely Generous.

The Church is the Bride of Christ, and we will be a Perfect Bride, for Him!
He will change us to be Perfect.
Wow!

Do we want to be left in a condition of less-than-perfect-love and righteousness? No!
Do we want to be Perfect like God? Yes!
Is a little sin in our lives OK? No!
Do we yearn earnestly for Perfection? Yes!

All sin hurts people. And we don't want to hurt any-one. We want to help people.


One problem is:
When we preach (or live) the Gospel, it is so un-selfish and Loving, ...that people can't believe that anything can be so Selfless and Wonderful and Loving ............people assume that God is selfish , just like us..........it's difficult for people to believe that God is Perfectly Loving, and perfectly self-sacrificing....... Perfectly generous............It's other-worldly...........It's heavenly, and people can't imagine it.
People can't imagine that it could be True.