Quote:
Originally Posted by tandy1650
"When you try to divorce repentance from sin you are rejecting scripture. The problem with the Church of Christ is they reverse the God given order of repentance and faith and make salvation a process. They teach:
1. Believe
2. Repent
3. Confess
4. Be baptized
In other words just believe and then start working your way to heaven.
Baptists have always taught that repentance comes before faith. Repentance will bring about a change of heart and attitude toward their sin. They will see themselves guilty before God and in need of salvation. There will be a desire to forsake the sin and turn to God.
Romans 10:10 clearly states that "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
Walking down to an altar and praying a prayer after someone will not hack it. I had a head belief for several years but was nothing but a self righteous and lost church member ."
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Aloha Tandy 1650,
Let's start over - shall we? First off, as brother Luke has said, we know nothing about you. I'm not even sure whether you are a man or a woman. It would be nice to know a little bit about the person we are speaking with.
If you are a woman, I can understand your reluctance to give out much information about yourself, considering how perverse the "net" is, but I think it would be appropriate for you to give at least a little information about yourself rather than just arrive here and jump into a controversy.
I also understand your concern about what some call - "
easy believism", however, just because we have a "concern" about the shallow way that salvation is presented in some circles, we cannot (must not) "change" what God has written concerning salvation in order to insure that no "abuse" occurs concerning it.
The basic
prerequisite to receiving God's gift of eternal salvation is we must:
. . . . "
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," .... [
Acts 16:31]
Belief is the "KEY" that makes it possible to become a son of God:
John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that
believe on his name:
We have to be careful that we don't
add "repentance" to the Gospel:
1 Corinthians 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
I "think" that you and I are not very far apart in our "
belief" (I too believe that
belief is a sole operation and function of the heart), I just think you you must be extremely careful in regards to the
requirement that there must
always be "repentance" BEFORE salvation. When a child of 8, or 9, or 10, or 11
believes "on the Lord Jesus Christ", what sins do they have to "repent" of?
There are a lot of Threads & Posts dealing with this subject on this Forum. I would suggest you use the "SEARCH" function on the Forum and check out some of the Posts. In addition I have a 250 page study on the heart of man on my web page - you might want to check it out, to see if we are in agreement or not.
We are a pretty friendly bunch here, EXCEPT when it comes to Bible correctors, deniers, or heretics (and modern "Christianity" is full of them).
Why don't we start over - introduce yourself and relax: We don't bite, although occasionally I have been known to BARK!
