Christian Living

Sanctification Is Not What You Think It Is

Christian Living, Doctrine / /

The Scriptural (KJV) doctrine of salvation in this Church Age is that the believer’s soul is made righteous at salvation and left to live righteously in a body still containing sin. Although it is soundly Scriptural, it is a minority view. The majority view, accepted as “orthodox” by almost all theologians, commentators, expositors, and teachers, is that salvation is mostly (or totally) positional so that the saved soul still has a sin nature.

I have set forth the Scriptural (KJV) doctrine of salvation in the slides Body, Soul, and Spirit. This view is supported in a brief commentary on Romans 6:1 to 8:18 in slides Living by Grace Not by Law, which discuss how the Christian is to fulfil the righteousness of the law by not living by laws. A brief commentary on Romans 5:12 to 5:21 in slides From Condemnation to Justification adds some background.

Opponents of the Scriptural view present various reasons, some of which are addressed in the Body, Soul, and Spirit slides. But one of the most insistent arguments against a cleansed soul is that it cannot line up with the orthodox doctrine of sanctification. I deal with that in these slides, Redemption and Sanctification. Redemption and sanctification are blessings listed in 1 Corinthians 1:30 for those in Christ Jesus.  Wisdom and righteousness, also listed there, I have commented on other slides, but I say a few words here about them as well.

It would be too large task for this set of slides to consider all verses that apply to sanctification for Church Age believers. So not only have I evaluated arguments for an orthodox view of sanctification, in these slides I have also looked at each of the verses a proponent of the orthodox view has listed in support of his view. And as we would expect, those verses fully support the Scriptural view of salvation.

The Apostle Paul has made it clear that the Christian will only be successful at continuing sanctification if his doctrine is correct concerning it. The slides Redemption and Sanctification discuss the correct doctrine for how a believer in this Church Age should practice sanctification in his life.

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In Consideration of Thought-provoking Questions by Atheists

Christian Living, Doctrine, Salvation / /

I saw these 15 Thought-Provoking Questions Atheists Often Ask The Religious on the internet. They are indeed thought-provoking questions that everyone ought to be able to answer. In writing out answers for them in my slides Consideration of Questions Atheists Often Ask, I have been stuck by how simple and how profound was of the answer Jesus gave to the Samaritan woman who wanted to talk about correct worship of God. He stated in His answer, “God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

The words “in truth” set apart true worship from all false worship and false ideas about God. God allows the devil to propagate lies for those who prefer lies to the truth.  Jesus said of the devil that “he abode not in the truth; because there is no truth in him…he is a liar and the father of it.” And of Himself Jesus said, “And if I say the truth, why do you not believe me? He that is of God heareth God’s words.”

The truth is in God’s words. A person needs God’s words to know about God and true (and false) worship. So, I will attempt to answer these questions from the truth, that is from the Bible. I accept the King James Authorized Version to be God’s words. I give my reasons in the slides Identifying the Words of God. Consider my Biblical arguments there, but do not take my word for it. Ask God to show you what to believe. He is most interested that every person know the truth and believe it.

Some will surely ask, What about those who do not have a Bible? I would say to get one and read it. To those who have no access to a Bible, ask God for it. Concerning those who are too unknowing to even ask, God confronts every person with some measure of truth. To each person who accepts that truth, God gives more. My answers to these thought-provoking questions expand upon these things.

Jesus said there are many that are on the broad way that leads to destruction; and few are on the narrow way to life. Since many on the broad way think they are on the way to life, everyone should consider carefully what way they are following. Consideration of these questions will surely be useful for that. I trust my discussion of these questions in the slides Consideration of Questions Atheists Often Ask will be beneficial for everyone’s consideration.

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Living by Grace Not Law

Christian Living, Doctrine / /

Living by grace is amazingly poorly understood, probably because what happens to a person at salvation is so poorly believed. If we do not understand the changes God makes within a person when He saves him, then we have poor doctrine to build on to understand how to live after salvation.

In Romans chapter 6 where Paul tells us how to live by grace, he says we need to know some things, reckon some things true, and yield to righteousness. If we do not believe the things we are to know, we can hardly reckon them so, and steps to follow are then quite beyond understanding. Although he states specifically that we are free from following the law; yet commentators still find ways to keep us trying to live by laws.

One of the methods to deny the Scripture is to define terms so they fit cherished (false) doctrines. For example, the word flesh is defined to not mean a part of the body. It can be defined conveniently as sinful nature, man’s carnality, a power sphere in which a person lives, human nature considered apart from divine influences, etc.  Other words are multiply defined are well.

Another problem is that Bible scholars are determined to assign everyone the same salvation whatever dispensation they live in. Trying to mash together things that are different only leads to confusion for everyone. Or some just mash together some select dispensations, like trying to say the New Testament Church is under the New Covenant for Israel.

Then with essentially one complete Pauline Epistle dedicated to arguing that the Christian who has been justified by faith without works cannot then be sanctified by works of the law, commentators go right on arguing that a person must be sanctified by works after salvation. Essentially all good works are fulfilling the righteousness of the law. Good works do not sanctify anyone in this age.

Scripture says we are to reckon ourselves resurrected in Jesus Christ so that we are new men created in righteousness and true holiness. Commentators evade such truth to argue that we are to try to improve what God has already made fully righteous. And/or they argue we should try to improve a body that will only be changed by physical resurrection.

Another way to undermine the truth of what Paul tells us is by assigning Paul’s description of his Christian life to the time before he was saved. Then the argument is that what bought failure in Paul’s life, we can now overcome because we are saved. This leads to lives of frustration.

This set of slides Living by Grace Not Law presents a Scriptural view to straighten out these mistaken views.  The discussion will consider all verses from Romans 6:1 to 8:17 and various other pertinent verses. The word “flesh” will be consistently defined as part of the human body.

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Why is there Unbelief?

Christian Living, Doctrine / /

God, who by His very nature cannot lie, has written to us words of truth. Those who believe His words get great blessings from God, while those who do not believe, not only miss out on those blessings, but suffer God’s wrath. So why is there unbelief at all? Why wouldn’t people believe the truth for the blessings involved. Why is unbelief so very prevalent?

Actually the very Bible that many find hard to believe has much to say about unbelief. Without a doubt, the main reason people do not believe God’s truth is that they choose not to believe. For various reasons many would rather believe what is false. Then are many who partially believe God’s words. But failure to believe parts of it is still a manifestation of unbelief.

Those who do not believe the Bible are unlikely to admit the reason for their unbelief is that they simply choose not to believe. They are much more likely to give a ”logical” reason to justify their unbelief. The Scripture calls such reasons “stumbling blocks”. A stumbling block is minor hindrance to the appropriate path. One could get around it or over if he really wanted to. The person who does not really wish to go down the path of truth will claim a stumbling block as an excuse not to proceed.

God allows these stumbling blocks for people who want them. God allows the devil and his minions to promote strong deceptions–such strong deceptions that people willingly become completely blinded to truth by them. Because there are people who find advantages for themselves in deceiving others, unbelief through such deceptions is greatly multiplied.

The result is https://theologypoints.org/theology-slides-page-2/#unbeliefthat altogether there are surely more unbelievers than believers. Although there are strong warnings against unbelief and against being deceived into not believing, there are multitudes caught up in deceptions without even being aware that what they believe will bring upon themselves the God’s wrath instead of God’s blessings that they hope for. Furthermore, the constant deceptive pressures promote and establish a multitude of doubts about the truth of God’s words in those who otherwise have chosen to believe God.  

These PowerPoint slides on Unbelief emphasize God’s warning against unbelief and help people get past stumbling blocks that hinder belief.

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How to Get Wisdom

Christian Living, Doctrine / /

When God asked Solomon what He should give to him if he could have anything he wished, God was very pleased that Solomon asked for an understanding heart that he might judge God’s people. God then promised him a wise and understanding heart and gave Solomon “wisdom and understanding exceeding much” –more even than anyone else on earth.

Solomon said he wrote the book of Proverbs for the reader “To know wisdom….” In Chapter 4 he said: “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom…” So the topic of how to get wisdom is surely a highly important topic. But is also seems hardly necessary after such a wise man as Solomon has already written about it so extensively. It is evident from Scripture that God gave Solomon a wise and understanding heart so he could learn wisdom by much study. Church Age saints, having the mind of Christ by salvation, have the capacity to get wisdom by the same steps through which God gave wisdom to Solomon. So why are we so lacking?

I have undertaken the challenge of commenting on the conditions for gaining wisdom that Solomon outlined in the early verses of Proverbs chapter 2 and of enhancing them by references to some other verses throughout the Bible. It will be evident that wisdom comes from God through His words. There is no way around that. We must believe God’s words above all other words. For us to do that it is necessary that we have God’s infallible, authoritative words available to us. Indeed, God has promised to make those words available to us. So we surely have them. For wisdom we must apply our hearts to identify the words to be believed, completely believe them, and then live them. See the slides on Identifying the Words of God and slides on How to Get Wisdom through those words.

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