XPost: alt.bible, alt.religion.christian.roman-catholic
From: nospam@nightbulb.net
On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 10:17:59 -0500
Just a guy wrote:
> > So even if the Kingdom could be inside a person, they are the last
> > persons who would have it.
Paul says that a man must examine himself to see the kingdom in his own
heart, and that only a reprobate cannot see this.
"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.
Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye
be reprobates? But I trust that ye shall know that we are not
reprobates." (2 Corinthians 13:5-6)
Paul makes it clear, that a man need only ask himself if Christ is
within, and if the man is not a reprobate he will know the answer is
yes. "Whether ye be in the faith" is in reference to the acceptance of
grace. It is not an analysis of one's deeds but of one's belief.
I have the kingdom of God and His Government in my heart burning like a
raging fire. I have an assurance of my own salvation that is so fervent
that it is sometimes agonizing to see others bereft of this gift. I
have the testimony that I never did any work to receive this gift of
life, but merely by hearing the good news of the sacrifice and
resurrection of Jesus, and being drawn by the Spirit to believe, this
gift became my inheritance. I did not earn it. I did not do the right
things or say the right words. Jesus did the right thing and his reward
is also a gift to me and all others who also have believed.
A saved believer could go out tomorrow and rob banks and throw stones at
old women crossing the street, curse and swear like a sailor, and behave
like a filthy sinner, and still have the assurance of eternal life. A
man's outward deeds have nothing to do with salvation. Saving faith is
the conviction of the inner man, the part of the mind and heart that
Paul tells us to examine. Those who hate the gospel are obsessed with
sin and "repenting of sin" because they are proud and want to make
their own way.
> I disagree with this as well. Why? You must search your own heart
> for this answer. Does Christ live in you? Does the love for all
> men live in you for the good of all living?
>
> If you have examined your own heart and found love living there
> then indeed, God lives within you.
Anyone who is not a reprobate knows how to answer this examination. He
has received the testimony of the spirit that salvation is by grace
through faith and is assured to those who simply believe on Jesus
Christ:
"And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And
they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,
and thy house." (Acts 16:30-31)
A reprobate has no answer and no assurance of it. Thus the reprobate
(Watchtower cult) is always seeking some works to perform to assuage
God's wrath. They see God's kingdom as a visible organization (it
isn't, for "the kingdom cometh not with observation".
The reprobate will preach a reprobate false gospel warning about God's
wrath upon those who don't join the right club or don't say the right
words or don't reform their ways. Conversely, the regenerate man
testifies of the free gift of the grace and love of God which he has
found inhabiting his own heart and mind.
I have never seen or heard a Watchtower cultist give this testimony of
salvation by God's grace, not once in over 40 years. There is always a
hook in their message. There is always something man must do to improve
upon the sacrifice of Jesus, thus they declare the blood of Jesus an
unclean thing in the way of Cain.
The only Jehovah's witnesses I have heard declare the gospel of grace
are former Jehovah's witnesses who have believed the true gospel and
left the Watchtower cult as a result of that belief.
"Who the Son sets free is free indeed."
The gospel is very simple. All men are judged guilty by the law, and
have earned the wages of sin, which is death. God prepared a sacrifice
for all the sin of the whole world, his own Son, Jesus Christ, who is
the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. God sacrificed his
own Son, and this sacrifice took away all sin forever. This is the
faith of Abraham and the righteousness of God. All who believe this,
that Jesus Christ took away their sin, shall be saved from the wages of
sin. All who believe this are accounted as righteous by faith. Any
attempt to add a requirement for works or discipleship or religion is a
false gospel and a rejection of the blood of the Lamb.
False preachers with their false gospel and their false Jesus cause
mental damage to their victims, depriving their victims of the
assurance of salvation by simple faith. They have terrorized hundreds
of millions of souls into believing that salvation is something that
must be earned, and there can not be any assurance in the mind of the
believer except by works. This lie from the pit of hell is a form of
spiritual and mental terrorism for which those false teachers will have
to answer to the Lord.
If you believe that Jesus took away sin and that you are saved by his
sacrifice and not by your own deeds, then you are saved. Ignore and
rebuke every liar who teaches a false discipleship gospel of works and
you will gain that assurance in your own soul, and you will be able to
look into your own heart and see the Kingdom of God in it:
"But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their
inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and
they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man
his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for
they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of
them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will
remember their sin no more." (Jeremiah 33:34)
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