Featured Dead Faith as taught by the Apostle James

That holds true for every person doesn't it?

It is a work.
Baptism is a work; prayer is a work; the study of your Bible is a work; going to church is a work. All of these are works. Jesus condemned such works as traditions when done by the Pharisees because of the heart attitude. When Catholics do these works, these works will not get them to heaven. They are simply works, sincere as they may be, they will lead them on the road to hell. They are works, filthy rags of righteousnesses.

That is not true. The Book of Ephesians does not deal with the OT law as such, and works are not referred to as such. Works are works are works. One does not get to heaven by works, of any kind. You are the one confused here.

And your explanation is your own mixed up philosophy. It is not the Word of God. It is your own idea, and it wrong.

Why don't you like the truth. Stephen called that being "stiffnecked, and resisting the Holy Spirit."

A work is a work is a work. The word, ergos, is "something you do." You pray, work, baptize, study, etc. These are all works. They prayed in the OT and they prayed in the NT. Why would OT prayer be a work and NT prayer not be a work?

No you cannot. It is the work that God considers filthy rags and will not accept.

God has never accepted anyone on the basis of good works or obedience. It is by grace through faith and not of works. Why don't you believe the Word of God?

Who is greater: Jesus or the Holy Spirit?
The disciples had Christ in the flesh and would only receive the Spirit once Christ had departed. That was his promise to them. Do you have Jesus in the flesh? No. But if you are saved then you have the Spirit dwelling in you. That is why.

"There is none good but one, and that is God."
God told Cornelius that he would send someone to show him how to be saved. If that was true then it was also true that he was not saved at that moment. God also appeared to unsaved men in the OT. He appeared to the Egyptian King and warned him not to take Sarah for his wife or he would be a dead man. He appeared to Nebuchadnezzar in a dream. That got Daniel out of jail, so Daniel was able to interpret it for him. God has both talked to and appeared to those that are unsaved. In fact God spoke to a man through a donkey. If he could use a donkey, I suppose he could use you if you submit to him.

The Bible says:
"There is none righteous no not one."
Since when did that become the words of a Calvinist and not the Word of God. You are a confused man.

 

Yes it is. It doesn't matter if a person is a Catholic, pagan or atheist. No good work will save them. There is nothing good that any one of them can do before God.

Emotions are not works. They are sometimes the result of works, or the cause of works. A man kills out of anger, an emotion. But the killing is the work. A man does his work joyfully. The joy is a result of the work or perhaps in some cases his relationship with God. It is not a work but a result of the work.

It doesn't matter how you felt. Feelings can't save. Only faith in Christ can save.

I would hate to see you in child evangelism. Do you think you need to teach a ten year old girl all about circumcision and animal sacrifices before she is able to be saved. But she can know the teaching of Eph.2:8,9 quite clearly.

An unsaved searches for God as a thief searches for a policeman. They do not search for God.

Then you don't know what prayer is.
First the heat works involuntarily. What if you had to think to make your heart beat every second, just like you have to think to close your hand into a fist. That is voluntary. But you don't have to think about your heart working; it works on its own, and that is good for you. You would be dead as soon as you fell asleep. So that is the work of God keeping you alive, not your work.

Men and women of God ought to "travail in prayer." "Travail" means to labor hard. It is the word used when women go into "labor." After Jesus had a long day, late into the night of healing people and being pressed upon by the crowd, a great while before down he went up into a mountain and there alone he prayed. That took discipline, work. John Hyde, known as praying Hyde, went to India in the mid-1800's. He would sometimes fast and pray for up to 26 days before he would preach. That is work. David Brainerd, who worked among the North American native peoples was often found praying fervently for the people God had given him. Often he would be out in a snowbank on his face praying. That is work. Have you ever spent a time praying through the night? It takes work, discipline. Have you fasted and prayed for more than three days and nights. Jesus did it for forty days and nights, as did Moses and Elijah. It is work. Travail in prayer. It is a command.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
It takes work. Therefore it is a work.

The Scriptures don't say that anywhere. It is a heresy. One is saved by faith and faith alone; not of works.

We obey Jesus not of necessity, but because we are saved. You talk like a Roman Catholic praying the rosary. "We have to do works."

If you do works in order to be saved then you deny the sufficiency of the blood of Christ. You insult him and say that his atonement wasn't good enough for you.

Works after salvation are a natural result of a Christian. Are they absolutely necessary. For the thief on the cross they weren't.

 

If Jesus wanted to say "all goodness comes from God" he could have said that and would have said that but that is not what he said and you are guilty of changing what he said to what YOU WANT him to say.

He said that "There IS NONE good" and that is precisely what He means so don't change his words. He stated a UNIVERSAL rule and gave only ONE exception to that rule "but God."

Paul declared the same thing "There IS NONE good, no, NOT ONE" and the context refers to all who are "UNDER SIN" - Rom. 3:9 and there is none born into this world who are not born "UNDER SIN" because even the infant is SUBJECT TO DEATH and death is due to be UNDER Sin's wages.

I will say this again, IF this same young ruler came to you and said, "Good Moriah, what good thing can I do to inherit eternal life?" YOU WOULD NEVER RESPOND with the words Jesus responded "Why callest thou me good" and YOU WOULD NEVER assert "THERE IS NONE GOOD BUT ONE AND THAT IS GOD"!

You would never respond with THOSE EXACT WORDS because you do not believe those EXACT WORDS and you know it! You can't even use those EXACT WORDS in your response but you are FORCED TO CHANGE THOSE WORDS to other words when even talking about them.

 

Why are you avoiding my question? Jesus DID NOT say "all goodness is of God"! He said, "THERE IS NONE GOOD but one and that is God." Why are you changing the words of Christ?

Again, If someone came running up to you and said, "Good Moriah, what good thing CAN I DO to inherit eternal life?" Would you use the EXACT WORDS Christ used in response???? Would you respond, "WHY CALLEST THOU ME GOOD?" Would you respond that way? Furthermore, would YOU respond "THERE IS NONE GOOD, but one and that is God."

You know you would not respond to that particular question with those particular words so why LIE and why keep changing Christ's words to mean something he never said? He never said "goodness comes only from God" because what does that have to do with "Why callesth thou me good?" Your intepretation is absolute nonsense! Yes, all goodness does come from God. That is why we must first be created in Christ Jesus by God "UNTO good works" - Eph. 2:10 - because all our righteouenssess are as filthy rages until we receive from God the ability to do goodness and that is by the creative work of God - Eph. 2:10. That is very true but he never said that! I thought you loved God's Word so why do you CHANGE HIS WORDS?

Now, be honest and answer my question. If a person came running up to you and said, "Good Moriah, what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?" would you respond with these precise words?

1. "Why callest thou me good"?

2. "There is NONE GOOD but one and that is God"

He did not say "goodness comes from God alone" but he said "THERE IS NONE GOOD" that is a universal rule with only one except to the rule. Why do you keep changing his words and ignoring my direct questions? I will tell you why because you would NEVER respond with those exact words to that exact question and you know it because you don't believe what Jesus said and that is why you change his words to suit your own theology.

Paul said the same thing - "THERE IS NONE GOOD, no, NOT ONE" and he said that not in a context that goodness comes only from God but in a context of those "UNDER SIN" and every human being is born "UNDER SIN" (Rom. 3:9) because they come into this world "condemned already" because they come into this world in unbelief (Jn. 3:17-18) and they come into this world SUBJECT TO DEATH because they come into this world "UNDER SIN" or else it would be impossible for infants to die!

So why are you being totally dishonest with Christ's words? Why are you changing his words? Why can't you answer my questions?

Again, if Jesus or Paul wanted to say, "Goodness comes only from God" they could have easily said it just as I have easily said it but that is not the words they chose to use. So why are you changing Christ's Words?

Furthermore, if a man came running up to you and asked you "Good Moriah, what good thing can I do that I might inherit eternal life?" Why would you respond "WHY CALLEST THOU ME GOOD"? You would never respond to a person that way asking that question and you know it! So why lie?

Furthermore, if a man came running up to you and asked you "Good Moriah, what good thing can do that I might inherit eternal life?" Why would you respond to that specific question, "Only goodness comes from God." What does that kind of response have to do with his question?? You would NEVER respond that way to such a question either and YOU KNOW IT!

You are a dishonest person because you change the Lord's words to make him say what he never said - you don't love God's Word because those who love God's Word honor the words that are used by God and don't change them and you are changing them to mean something that does not even make sense in response to that precise question.

 

Readers,

Moriah will not directly answer my questions but will continue to respond the way he is responding because he is practicing his old Roman Catholic habits which are here stated in his own words:

The steps from the Catholics are usually to dodge the question, then deny it, then actually fight against the Word of God.

They dodge the question by trying not to think of it and do not even answer the question; then when pressed, they deny it saying no one can obey it; and then finally, they go against Jesus and say he did not mean it. - Moriah

1. He dodges the question

2. He then denies it thus actually fighting against the words of Christ

3. He does not even answer the question

4. He says that Christ did not even mean "there is none good but one"

 

Here, James is making a simple analogy; faith is made analogous to the body and works are made analogous to the spirit. As the body and spirit are both necessary for life (if we lose our spirit we lose our life), for this analogy to hold, faith and works are BOTH necessary for life. Faith without works is dead, just as the body without the spirit is dead. Thus, just as in physical life one needs the body and the spirit, for eternal life one needs faith AND works. Pretty simple actually.

Billy

 

Dead Faith is merely Faith or Believing that is not the product of the New Birth. The devils can never have that type of Faith or believing, because its brought about by New Birth, James had wrote earlier James 1:17-18

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

The seed of the word is implanted or engrafted in every born again person in order that the Gospel can bring forth Faith James 1:21

21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

Ingrafted means:

inborn, implanted by nature, implanted by others instruction

This is speaking of the New Nature of New Birth !

Any Faith apart from this is dead and alienated from the Life of God, no matter how religious !

 

First James is defining death. Physical death is separation. When the body is separated from the spirit that is death. The spirit goes on to be with Lord. The body is separated from the spirit. Death is always separation in the Bible.
When James speaks of faith he speaks of a faith that produces works. One can say he has faith but if the faith does not produce works, then is it faith at all? James said "Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works." That is the key passage in that chapter.
In Eph.2:1 Paul said, "And you hath he made alive who were once dead in trespasses in sin. They were not lifeless, dead corpses. They were separated from God. They needed to be reconciled to God which is the work of the Holy Spirit. Death is separation. Here is the mistake of the Calvinist--his definition of death. Death means separation. Sin separates. Man is separated from God. God has given the believer the ministry of reconciliation. The unsaved man must be reconciled to God. He is not lifeless; rather he is not reconciled.

As body is separated from the spirit is dead, so if faith produces no works it also is dead. But it still is faith. The spirit will still live on. Faith is still present. It is simply not doing what God wants it to do. The context is Christian living. Christians don't lose their salvation. They don't lose their faith. Their faith doesn't become lifeless in the sense that they don't have any. That is not what James is talking about. There may be times in a person's life where a person's faith does not produce the work it ought to: feeding the poor, and hungry, etc.
"If a brother or sister come to you... and you say unto them depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled...what does it profit."
That is dead faith. When the faith of the Christian doesn't produce the intended result. It has nothing to do with salvation.

 

Billy did you miss the verse before? He is not talking about "SPIRITUAL" life but he is talking about EVIDENTIAL justification (judicial life) in the daily life of the professor.

Hence, the proper and contextual analogy would be "As the body and the spirit are both necessary for physical life (if we lose our spirit we lose our physical life), for this analogy to hold, faith and works are BOTH necessary for EVIDENTIAL JUSTIFICIATION in the daily life of the professor or as James himself says it so eloquently in the introduction:

James 2:18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

Pretty simple actually! Where there is a consistent daily life WITHOUT WORKS there is only a dead professing faith. Evidential justification must include both PROFESSION of faith and WORKS or there really is no evidence for JUDICIAL LIFE at all.

 

Salvation is by faith alone. Faith (or believing) is not a work. If you say it is you believe the same way as our resident hyper-Calvinist, SBM, who also defines faith as a work. If you put faith in the category of works you teach salvation by works, a heresy.
Sola fide. Salvation is by faith and by faith alone.
There is not one good thing man can do to merit heaven, but believe in God. (and that believing is not a work)
That is why Jesus said:

John 6:28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

There is only one "work" (which is not a work), and that is too believe on Christ. Jesus was using a play on words. If other "good works": prayer, study the word, walking with Christ, etc. were necessary for salvation, he would have mentioned them. But the other things were works, were not necessary salvation. And faith is not a work.

Then don't hate! Hatred is not a natural spontaneous emotion. It is deliberate.

It is called fruit.
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

You are putting words in my mouth. That is deceit, and God will see that.
I said feelings don't matter, for feelings cannot save. Where in the Bible does it teach that feelings save? Only Christ can save.

I would not have to tell the ten year old girl that she doesn't have to be circumcised would I? But you seem to think that is necessary.

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

I can still tell her that her works don't save her, without telling her anything about circumcision, because that is not what verse 9 is speaking about. But you would be duty bound to tell this poor ten year old girl about circumcision because you think that salvation is "not of works" which means "not of circumcision." Ridiculous!
I would explain Eph.2:8,9 again, more carefully.
I would explain John 3:16; 1John 5:13; John 5:24; Rom.10:9,10 and a host of other Scriptures until she is satisfied that she has an assurance of salvation. But, unlike you, I would not bring up circumcision and the works of the law.

The unsaved person never seeks for God. He can't. He doesn't know how. He is bound in chains of darkness, a prisoner of Satan. How can a prisoner of Satan search for God?

Why wouldn't you seek for God? As I noted in another post, you don't seem to know what prayer is. Take some lessons from some great men of God in the Bible:

Psalms 63:1 [SIZE=-1]A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.[/SIZE] O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;

Isaiah 26:9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
--David sought the Lord; Isaiah sought the Lord.
Perhaps it is time you should take up this practice as well.

So this is what you think of great men of God when they pray? I feel sorry for you. It is a real shame. I gave you examples:
Praying Hyde who fasted and prayed for as much as 26 days before he preached.
David Brainerd who often fasted and prayed.
Then I gave you the examples of Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, all of whom fasted and prayed for 40 days and 40 nights.

I then encouraged you to do some of the same--maybe for 3 days or so, demonstrating to you that prayer is work. We travail in prayer. It is not easy. It is hard work. It was difficult enough for Jesus that an angel came to sustain him after he spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness.

And you flippantly respond that Jesus, Moses, Elijah and others were just praying meaningless repetitious words as the heathen do!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is blasphemous!

Let's take your one statement and examine it in the light of Scripture:

"To eat is maybe a work, but not to eat is a work to you too? Who cares?

Jesus cares. Here is what he said:
Matthew 6:16 Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;
18 That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

When you fast, Jesus said. He compared the work of fasting that the disciples did to the work of fasting that the Pharisees did, and told them not to be like the Pharisees in their work of fasting. Fasting was something they DID, a work. And Jesus cared greatly about.
But you don't care about the commands of Jesus, nor do you care about the words of Jesus.

"Do what God says to do" you say.
God says to fast. Do you fast?

To the unsaved the only thing they can do to be saved is to believe on Christ. All else is but filthy rags.

Jesus said he was the only way in John 14:6
He said in John 5:24 that it was faith in him that saves.
It seems that your doctrine is not biblical.
BTW, there is no such thing as Acts 55:32

God has no relationship with the unsaved.
The unsaved can do no good thing; cannot obey God.
In order to have that relationship they must believe on Christ and what Christ did. That is the only way that Christ "will know them," or a relationship can be established. Before that time all "obedience" and good works are fruitless and are counted as filthy rags.

Are you God? Do you know the heart? The saved person usually obeys God out of a thankful heart.

Was it a necessity to the thief on the cross?

Then, according to your reason, the thief on the cross, once he was saved was lost again for he had no opportunity to do good works.

 

It is a teaching from demons to think that "obeying Jesus" is going to get you to heaven. Only faith in Christ can do that.

There is nothing a person can do. You cannot save yourself. It is Christ that saves. Do you think you can work your way to heaven?

Believing and trusting are the same thing. Being humble may be a work. There are many humble Buddhists. Will their humility get them to heaven?
Thirst is a need. Quenching the thirst is a work. The work will not get you to heaven.
Calling on the name of the Lord is another synonym for faith, for you cannot call on his name except you have faith.

In the context of Mat.5:6 they are works. They are the works of a Christian.

Salvation is by faith and faith alone. Trusting is the same as having faith. It is a synonym. Why are you playing word games, or don't you understand the English language?

Do you belong to the Church of Christ?

Trust = Believe.

The thief believed, was saved, and then died. What good works did he do? None.

 

That is precisely what I said! The context is EVIDENTIAL JUSTIFICATION by works as verse 18 clearly states. Where there is a profession of faith that is not evidenced by works it is a "dead" faith and therefore a FALSE PROFESSION and false professions do not save.

 

He is talking to Christians, including you. So is this your admission that you are not going to heaven when you die? Your spirit is dead and separated from God for all eternity. Death is separation. Is your spirit separated from God for all eternity? Or will it go and be with the Lord?

James simply used death in the sense of the physical, not the spiritual.
Faith is faith. Every person has faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. James is speaking to Christians. What Christian has not heard the Word of God? As a Christian do you separate your faith from your works, or does your faith produce your works. That is the question? If your faith is separated from your works then your faith is dead. It doesn't mean you have no faith. He is teaching that your faith must produce works, as in feeding the poor and hungry, the very example that he used.

James is speaking to Christians not the unsaved.
A Christian's faith results in doing God's will.

Once born into God's family, always a child of God; one can never be "unborn." But a person can stop from doing good works for a season. Maybe he becomes discouraged, and his faith weak. In that case the Bible says: "You that are strong in the faith help the weak." But the weak in faith will no doubt have little if any good works. But they will have faith.

No Christian is dead, but the fruit of your last remark, Moriah, sometimes makes me wonder about you. Was it really necessary. Is that the fruit of the faith that James is talking about? Or is it dead faith producing dead fruit?

DEAD