Daily Devotional, Year 3 – April 13 (Free-will? What Free-will? Part 5: “Salvation By Good Works?”)
By admin On February 13th, 2021.
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Daily Devotional, Year 3 – April 13
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Free-will? What Free-will?
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Part 5:
“Salvation By Good Works?”
To read Part 1, click here…March 9th (“Free-will? What free-will!?”)
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“Then said they unto Him (Jesus),
‘What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?”
Jesus answered and said unto them,
This is the work of God,
that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.”
John 6:28, 29
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The so-called Second Great Awakening which took place in America during the early 1800’s, might possibly be re-named the “Not-So-Great Awakening” because of the various abominations which were brought into Christendom through such men as Charles Finney, John Nelson Darby, and others.
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John Nelson Darby – Wikipedia – US Public Domain
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THE FREE-WILL GOSPEL
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Perhaps the greatest abomination which appeared during that movement was the idea that a man chooses God instead of the other way around.
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Yes, this idea borne out of incomplete and careless Bible study, took such verses as…“choose you this day whom ye will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15
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Now just about everyone believes that God is the one that chooses Christians.
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And yet, this so-called “Free-Will” gospel believes that because God is omnipotent, He foreknew just who would choose Him and who would not.
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Charles G. Finney – Wikipedia – Public Domain
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HUMAN WORKS WORTHLESS TO SAVE
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And so, this whole notion that it is the human who first chooses to serve God is based on Salvation by Grace + Good-Works.
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After all, choosing God is a good work, much like Little Jack Horner here, pulling out a plum and saying, “What a good boy am I!”.
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It presumes that some humans have an innate inward goodness that causes them to turn to God while others refuse Salvation.
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Little Jack Horner – WW Denslow – Project Gutenberg
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SOME HAVE INNATE GOODNESS?
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An
d with just a quick look around the Christian landscape this idea that some men have the desire to serve God while others do not, often manifests itself in the belief that by merely saying “The Sinner’s Prayer”, or by water-baptism, or by church-attendance, or by accepting certain church-doctrines, paying tithes, partaking of the Lord’s Supper, maintaining some degree of morality, or any combination of these aforementioned good works, man thereby secures his own Salvation.
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Little Jack Horner – WW Denslow – Project Gutenberg
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WE CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT?
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One very popular man-made analogy often used is that God writes the check of Salvation, and the sinner has the choice of cashing it or not.
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Another popular man-made analogy is that God puts a gift in your hands, but it is your decision to accept that gift and open it, or not.
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bank check scheme – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license
Gift – Wikipedia – Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
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“YOU HAVE NOT CHOSEN ME”
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Now while these human analogies may seem to possess much common sense, the Bible says just the opposite.
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Listen to the Bible…“Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit,” John 15:16
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What could be clearer than this above statement?
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Christ calling His Disciples by Edward Armitage – 1869 – courtesy Wikigallery.com – Public Domain
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CAPTIVES OF SATAN
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Yes, what could be clearer than this above statement…“Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you”?
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It is not man that first chooses God.
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After all, the Bible clearly teaches that…
“In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves;
if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil,
who are taken captive by him at his will.”
2nd Timothy 2:25, 26
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As this above passage clarifies, the human race is captive to the Devil. And as such, they do not have free-will.
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And as this passage reveals, only God can give those captives any true repentance.
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SPIRITUALLY BLINDED BY SATAN
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Now listen to this next passage…
“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
2nd Corinthians 4:3, 4
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Here again is a passage which reveals the hopeless condition of Mankind; a condition which began way back in the Garden, and continues on to this very day! Mankind has been blinded to the Gospel.
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Satan has blinded Mankind. They cannot choose God, nor do they want to!
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Satan presiding at the Infernal Council – Wikipedia – US Public Domain
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So then, why does God tell us such things as the following statement from Acts 2:21, “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved.”???
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Question book magnify svg – Wikimedia – GNU license
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STRONG DELUSION
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We must understand that God presents many truths in such a way that they can easily be misinterpreted.
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And He does this purposely to bring “strong delusion” to those who are of a “different spirit”…
“And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion,
that they should believe a lie:
That they all might be damned who believed not the truth,
but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
2nd Thessalonians 2:11, 12
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ABOVE PICTURE: Satan, The False Prophet who offers a world-loving gospel – www.signsofheaven.org
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ALL SCRIPTURE TO BE HARMONIZED
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On the other hand, those who have received the love of the truth will not take such verse out of context, but instead will combine them with other verses, such as this…
“For by grace are ye saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
Galatians 2:8-10
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USMC – Prayer before Bible study – Wikimedia – Public Domain
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BEWARE OF OLD COVENANT VERSES
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God has written the Bible in such a way, that the Old Covenant appears in many passages.
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Sometimes God presents truth in such a way that He puts the proverbial “cart before the horse”.
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For example, even the New Testament has verses such as…“And we are His witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey Him.” Acts 5:32
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Now from a quick reading, it is very easy to get the idea that God gives His Spirit to those who obey God by their own supposed goodness.
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But nothing could be further from the truth! This verse should actually be understood that the Holy Spirit is given to CAUSE them to obey God.
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And so, the Bible can be a very difficult Book, since God tests His people with such verses as this.
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TO READ PART 6, CLICK HERE…
JULY 20 (Free-will? What Free-will? Part 6: That One Unanswerable Question!)
Question Mark – Wikimedia – Public Domain
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TODAY’S PRAYER…
“Dear Lord, Let my life do all the talking for me. Do a work on my heart to cleanse and purify every unchristlike behavior from my life…
Praying Hands – Otto Greiner – Wikimedia – .bassenge.com – Cropped image – Public Domain
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READ MORE…
To explore deeper into this subject, please read...FEBRUARY 8 (Free-will? What Free-will? Part 2: Little Jack Horner Christianity), or you can also read…FEBRUARY 9 (Free-will? What Free-will? Part 3: Little Jack Horner Christianity, Continued)
Question book magnify svg – Wikimedia – GNU license
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THE END
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TODAY’S FEATURED HEAVENLY SIGN
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REVELATION 12 WOMAN ON ALTAR AND FLOWER OF HEAVEN
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This constellation almost appears as a vine, as it projects out from the Altar/Ark Constellation . This constellation appears in mid-winter through late-spring. As you can see in this sketch, theAltar/Ark
Constellation is also known as Leo Major , and the stem or vine of the flower is made of stars of the Virgo Constellation, and the flower itself is made of the Corvus Constellation.
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READ MORE…
To explore deeper into this subject, please read… “The Flower of Heaven Constellation”
Question book magnify svg – Wikimedia – GNU license
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TOMORROW…
April 14 (Taking Back This Nation For God, Part 7: “How To Solve The World’s Problems In 5 Minutes Or Less!”)
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90-MINUTE OPEN FORUM
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ALL‘NOBLE BEREANS’ (open-minded seekers of Bible truth) ARE ENCOURAGED TO LISTEN TO THIS 90-MINUTE OPEN FORUM
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(448) The Open Forum Harold Camping December 13, 2002 – YouTube
above picture: Prophet Jeremiah – www.christianimagesource.org – Public Domain