And Such Were You

Another turn in our discussion.
I am sure there are many out there who are reading this blog series and are fascinated  by the many turns and subjects this whole blog has traveled since the start.
Bible study methods- church beliefs both true and false religions, church offices, general subjects. Popes, Roman Catholicism, and so on.
Seems the Bible study methods were the best read. I would conclude that there are a few out there who are interested in that topic. Great. Keep it up.
Here is the new avenue we will travel down for a while.
True conversion.. The requirement that Jesus gave to Nicodemus as recorded in John the third chapter. And yes, I will be using scripture in the Jewish/Christian Bible.
So let me start:
I have been a Christian now for-- let's see, 1968 to 2020, 52 years. I think that is enough time to have somehow accumulated some knowledge.
No. If you have read my  postings of many years ago you knw what I am talking about.
I also posted a post on can God be known. Click and go to that one.
Back in 1968 I was at Taft College, journalism major. I got a phone call from home which was down the coast at Brentwood, California. My brother, Todd, had been killed in the Viet Nam war. He was a medic. The date was around March 13 when I received this call. I went home and went through the funeral. I found myself asking just where Todd, in death, was, heaven or the other place. Ie remember thinking of that passage in Job, "The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away." Okay. New Testament says that for a person to see heaven he must believe in Jesus. What does that mean? The Bible says that we are all sinners. "There is none righteous, no not one."
I had been brought up in the Roman Catholic system, so I was somewhat used to the Bible. Never read it up to this point. The priest read it. the nuns taught it in school. Mostly Matthew and the first pope being Peter passage and the authority given to Peter to retain and forgive sins  ( don't bother looking, there is none. That is one of the proof texts the Catholic system points to to try to prove something the Bible does not teach)
Anyway. Jesus claimed to be the way to God and God was in heaven. If I was to be in heaven and with God when I died I had to come through Jesus. "I am the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me." He said. It is recorded in the Bible (And the Bible is Bod's communication to man) Also the Bible tells me that all who come to the Father must believe (receive) Jesus. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved."
Enough for one posting. There will be more in the future.

The Dividing Line

I  have discussed in an earlier posting "Why There Can be No Union With Roman Catholics" why I feel evangelicals and Catholics are not combatable.
I would like to further discuss that topic.
It is not that today if you were to look around you would find belief wise in the life of the individual evangelical and the Catholic that much of what they would call different. In fact,, the ones that the protestant churches are losing to the Catholics seem to feel  the need for more liturgy. This they seem to be able to find in the Catholic belief system.
But the evangelical has the practice of Bible study and discussion groups.
Well, the Catholics since Vatican 2 have been allowed to read the Bible for themselves. They better not try to interpret it on their own. They can read and discuss and use the authorized Catholic material  provided. And when they have a question they , if they are good Catholics, need to go to their priest who will look up what the traditions of the church have determined want the passage is saying.
The evangelical is allowed to discuss and prove all things using the Bible as the authority of what the meaning is. they don't have to have tradition of the church determine what the passage means or says. Sometimes they are wrong, They are allowed to be. Yet that is why they have commentaries and a pastor.
And they also seek charismatic manifestation in worship.. that is both the evangelical and the Catholic  The charismatic movement may be one reason for the confusion.
Let's cut to the core problem.
 It is the statement 'saved by grace alone through faith alone.'
That is saying God does the work. Grace is a gift. Faith is a gift.
Not of works so no one may boast.
Catholics add works. Grace plus works. And the works are the individuals.
To add more heat to the fire.. it all goes back to a council. A council called Trent. It was here that the pronouncement was made by the Bishop of Rome, The Pope at that time, and the council who states that if anyone believed you were saved by faith alone  without works and taught such was put under an anathema and consigned to hell. And on top of that the council was deemed infallible and irrevocable.
So the Roman Church still holds that to be true. No sola scriptura. No sola gratia. No sola fide.
Sorry, guys. They don't mix and stick together as a whole. I am referring to the evangelical and the Catholic.

Further Help In Bible Study

I know some of you out there are doing a  research once again in  my posts on bible study methods. I notice 3 have  done a recent read  of the ABCD Method of Bible Study again. For further suggestions I would refer you back to an earlier one I posted in 2017 on Chapter study. This may help you do more intensive study. The only way we are going to dig deep in our study is to use different methods so our study doesn't become mundane.
I am happy to see that people are reading and interacting with this blog, for Your Information. Keep up the good work.

Search For Helpful Aids

Why There Can Be No Union With Roman Catholics

This must be addressed by someone, and I have yet to see it.
It is important because there are quite a lot of young promising Christian people, both male and female, who are drifting into the Roman Catholic Church feeling that the Roman Church is the  "better way' to do Christianity.
It is my contention it is not.
Of course, I am assuming something primarily. That is that you are a Christian.
Define terms.
I was taught to define terms so that the one you are discussing things with is understanding what is being said.
Christian. The way I define it is a person who has a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
An Evangelical would say --a person who has been born again as Jesus explained to Nicodemus as recorded in John chapter 3.  By grace through faith.
On the other hand, a Catholic would say one is saved by grace plus works.
Define grace.
Sola gratia , which the evangelicals who are saved, means by grace alone. Without works. And then grace is not something we have. It is a gift from God.
Let us look at that word Evangelical.
It is a word the Protestants use because the term Protestant started to get a bad name..  Protestant is a name the Roman Church gave a group of people who didn't agree with them.
But that is off the subject.
A Catholic believes that the church is the authority to believe when it comes to proper study and understanding of what the Bible says. Since they believe, without any scriptural proof, just some idea the Pope came up with, that they were given the authority to determine what is and is not 'Bible".
Let us use the term Christian for the other group, the one that consists of people who have a relationship with God through the finished work of Jesus Christ.
The Christian says the Bible is complete and does not need to have a group of people decide what is or is not 'Bible'.
Sola scriptura.
And let us look at this question:. Is there salvation in the Catholic church? Not if you adhere to their teachings which are not able to be located in scripture. They base their understanding on scripture plus tradition as taught by the priest who is stating what tradition, or the church, has determined it means. They are lost, not able to guide the blind since they are one themselves.
Enough for now. That is enough for a person to chew on. Be sure to leave a comment which I can see and respond to, if you desire to. If not, well, don't.

Research The Question

Creation In Time

Created

in the beginning- Creation had a beginning. At a point of time, which was created at the same time as creation, the world came into being.
The Bible informs us that it took six days to create all that is here. If the days were actual 24 hour periods of duration or periods of time, I am not going to discuss that here.
Time is a product of creation. Before creation there was no time. Just eternity. eternity does not need time to measure it.  It is outside of that restraint.
God exists in eternity but also is not part of eternity.
But that is for a further discussion in another post.
And you may ask, if God is existing in eternity, why does He need to create in His  creation of time?
I think that HE wanted to share His Love. God is love. Love must have something to love.
Sure, God exists in a trinity. Three in one. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
He wants to share His love with others. He wanted to share outside the Godhead. That is why He created angels. That is why He created man. These creations were in time.
He wanted to share His love with those things He created.
So he created with time. Both together. It takes time for true love to work out.
Keep those messages coming. I enjoy posting these posts and would like to know how you are enjoying them. If no response after a period of time, like say, three weeks, I will move on to other subjects to post under For Your Information.

God Has Decreed

The Bible Says

This is a subject that not many preachers preach on, but it is in the Bible.
This doctrine is found mainly in the Reformed Theology books and the Presbyterians hold to a form of it.
As I understand it, God has decreed certain things. God decreed to create. He decreed to give man free will with which he, man, can choose to obey or disobey.
In His decreeing it is not the same as the action. If God decreed and there was no free will, man would only be a puppet. God would pull the strings and man would jump.
There is the decree to save those who come to God through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
Jesus said, I am the door. I am the way. No one comes to God but through Me.
God allowed sin to come into the world. I don't see him as someone cruel  enough to decree sin and then walk away.. He is not responsible for man's disobedience. Man must pay the penalty for his disobedience. And that penalty is recorded in Romans 6:23- which is death, or separation from God.
The decreed is not the act. Let me keep saying that.
He has decreed that all who come to God are saints. Not perfect but forgiven sinners who will spend eternity in heaven.
Please, respond to me. I promise to answer as soon as I can.

In Six Days

The Bible tells us it took God only six days to bring the earth, as we know it with plants, animals, fish, trees, man, into existence. Some hold to a big bang theory.
Without God,there is n o way it could have happened. It just couldn't have. Even a false idea of a big bang is hard to believe if there wasn't a first cause. It had to be a cause for which there is no cause.
The first people were Adam and Eve. Of course the Hebrew words Ish and Isha  may only infer male and female and Adam only refers to man and Eve is the mother of all born, But come on now, allow the Bible to say what it says.
Since it is God breathed, that is, God spoke it, it is truth. I don't see anything like a mistranslation.
Itsays six days. Evening and morning were the first day. note- the day is counted from night and day not day and night. This is he Hebrwew way of day,. Night coming before day.
Were these days like 24 hours each or a mass period of time?  The reference to night and day seem to suggest they were a specific period of time and not long eras.
Were these real people? Yes.
Did it really happen? Yes.
Keep up your Bible study and feel free to comment to me. I would like to hear from you.