" and as many as had been appointed to eternal life, believed. "
Acts 13:48
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while the Bible declares the " believing " is God's work,
( Joh. 6:28,29 ) yet many say it is their work of believing which
earned them eternal life.
this is completely contrary to Scripture since in plain terms it is
said that the will of man does not " make decisions for Christ " nor
does the will of man " accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior "
Joh. 1:12,13
if it did, then man is saved by works.
he is saved by works because he did at least one good thing in his
life and so doing earned him the grace of God... God owed him
salvation for his righteous work.
man's heart is " deceitful above all things and desperately wicked "
( Jer. 17:9 ) and by no means wants anything to do with the Lord
Jesus Christ in his unregenerate state of being in Adam. Joh. 8:44
he does not muster up some sort of good in his wicked heart and
become a true believer in Christ because he wants to... that would be
salvation by works... man is dead in sin ( Eph. 2:1-3 ) and wants to
do the desires of his father the devil, ( Joh. 8:44 ) as he finds the
things of God, ridiculous. 1 Cor. 2:14
it is Jesus Christ, Eternal Son of God who came " to seek and
to save " since the will of man has nothing to do with regenerating
himself by some decision and/or act of his will. Joh. 1:12,13
to suppose one saved himself by some act of his will... to say
believing is something man does is to bear false witness against
Christ... to say Christ was so appealing to me in my state of being in
eternal death my dead spirit chose Him, is to lie.
man's free will quickly chose Satan over God in the Garden. all men
are found in Adam since we all came from an evil tree wholly incapable
to bear good fruit. unless God grants salvation and instills
believing in our hearts will we all perish... the glory for the doing
goes to God in Christ.
will worshipers have a gospel by which they can control the
conditions which they say saves man. they desire to control the grace
of God when they offer a salvation based on man's free will.
such bloated ego's say " I led so and so to Christ. "
such it is today in will worship congregations, taking credit for
invoking the grace of God in Christ by acts of their will.
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