One more thing Jason.
Quote:
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What I find interesting is that OPs will hang on the water/spirit doctrine based on this (perhaps faulty) interpretation of John 3:5 and totally ignore that the entire theme both of the gospel of John, and the Epistles of John is BELIEVE.
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Yes this
IS the biggest difference between us. Evangelicals look at faith as a one time event. On one certain day they believed. On
THAT basis they feel they are not
REQUIRED to do anything else.
They call this the "finished work" or the doctrine of being saved by "Christ alone".
We or I as the case may be see faith as the initial contact between God and man also. However we see faith as the vehicle that takes us into and through an actual walk or journey with Christ which
INCLUDES ALL OF HIS TEACHINGS CONCERNING EVERYTHING.
So we can say yes we are saved by faith in the sense that its faith that brings us to be baptized into the name of Jesus. It is by faith we receive the Holy Ghost. It is by faith we set apart our lives to loving him and keeping his commandments.
EVERYTHING WE DO IS BY FAITH!
Thats what our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ meant by believing in him. It means believing in
THE THINGS HE SAID......not just seeing that the body of a Jewish man hung on the cross so we could be saved.
If one does not believe
HIS WORDS they are not believing
IN HIM. Amen?
The other part of the great divide between "us" and Evangelicals is we accept Jesus teaching that one is not "finally" saved until he has endured and overcome to the end.
Peter and Paul echoed this teaching from Christ did they not?
38Now the just shall
live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
39But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them
that believe to the saving of the soul. Heb. 10:38-39
See how this vindicates the truth of salvation
BY FAITH? The Christian lives and walks
BY FAITH. Faith that
LEADS TO the salvation of the soul.
Peter taught the same.
To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5Who are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in
the last time. 1 Peter 1:4-5
And again the same teaching.
8Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not,
yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
9Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
So stage 1 of our salvation is where we are walking it out
BY FAITH.
Stage 2 is when he comes and we are given immortality or eternal life.