Majority in Heaven?

No one here has said that anyone gets the credit for salvation other than God.

But, your statement that it doesn't matter what response we are required by God to have? Why would he give us that requirment if it doesn't matter?

But, what you have required for salvation - working through the strait gate - is works.

That's not what God requires to be saved.

Let me ask you a question about John 1:12: Those who are believing (it's a present, active, participle) has this right. What if they quit believing?

 

And the death of Jesus.

And the shed blood of Jesus.

And the resurrection of Jesus.

All essential, but different aspects.

 

Acts 16:31 tells us, "Believe (aorist) in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved (indicative; it will happen.)"

If you quit believing in the present tense, you've still believed in the aorist tense.

Truly saved. Really and truly saved. (That was said tongue-in-cheek because those terms, which are often bandied about, aren't found in the Bible. But, not tongue-in-cheek in the sense that if you quit believing, you're still saved.)

They were born, not by descent, not by mere desire, nor by human power, but by God.

They can't be unborn.

But, they can quit believing. There are warnings given about that throughout the Bible.

 

So, if we live for eternity on earth == won't the earth be
overcrowded?

 

Well, Ed, to make a simple statement, about 12% of the people who have ever lived on the Earth are alive right now at this moment in time. (The difference between the secular evolutionist estimate and an estimate based on biblical references is pretty close in number, BTW.)

So, if you assume that 10% of the people are saved, then there would be fewer people than we currently have.

Now, I don't know how many people are saved, and I have no way of knowing, and the 10% number is based entirely on anecdotal evidence, of which I have seen several polls done that ask the question, "Are you a Christian?" and about half (or more) of the respondents said "yes", but only about 15-20% of those who said "yes" could say why. Most were along the lines of "because I'm an American" or "because I go to the Catholic church" or "because my parents were".

 

Can you back any of this up with Scripture?

If so, does it go beyond "making sense"?

By that, I mean, does it require more than what Scriptures state to make it say that.

If it does, then Acts 16:31 is quite deceitful. As is Ephesians 2:8-9. As are other passages, such as James 2.

 

I cannot discount what you have not made a case for but only said as a statement of fact without any scritpual backing.

Do not try to equate what goes on here on a discussion board wth what goes on in church. And you make statements without any shred of scriptual support as you did in your last post. So again their is nothing toi refute.

Another hypocriticle statement as you fail to make your won case.

The disciples did not have a problem with unbelief but with a clear understanding. And that doesnt have any bearing on whether or not Christs message was about eternity. Again you have given no scriptual support for your position.

 

This makes no sense to me. How can a person who never believed (not truly saved) quit believing in something they never believed in in the first place?

 

Are you sure you are not a politician? If not you should consider it!

I didn't equate anything. I asked you a question. I asked you if you treated folks in your church the same way you have treated me. It amazes me the number of people that think they have the truth on their side but the only thing they can say is no you are wrong because I say you are wrong. And for some reason I'm just supposed to say okay I believe you because you are a good guy or something.

I was just curious if that's the way you operated with your congregation. If this doctrine is so wrong why are you so unwilling to pony up with the truth instead of just making opinion statements?

That is probably a true statement especially the closer that they got to the actual time of Christ's death. However you are saying that a person can be saved by not even understanding what it is they believe in. That's not possible.

The simple matter of Scriptural Truth is that Christ was on the earth preaching the gospel of the kingdom. That's what He told us. He wasn't preaching the gospel of grace through faith.

Now you can argue that all you want to, but it doesn't change the facts. That's what Scripture says, so we can either believe it or dance around it. I choose to believe it.

Sure it does. Again you are saying that someone can be saved for all eternity without understanding what they believe in. I'm not sure there are many people that are going to go along with you on that, but I might be surprised

Matthew 4:23 - Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.
Matthew 9:35 - Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

I'm sure that won't be good enough

 

DING...DING...DING...we have a winner. Good job Amy. You are going to catch all kinds of flack for your seeing that warnings are to believers, but stand firm to the Truth.

 

No. The number of humans alive today equal under half of all humans who have ever existed. Added to that, there was a study done that if you were to take every single person on the planet and stand them exactly 3 feet apart from each other...the entire population of earth will fit in Kissimmee Florida. If those alive today account for roughly half of all humans who ever existed, I'm thinking every human being who ever existed...giving the above measurements...could fit in South Beach (a little cramped, maybe )

This doesn't take into consideration the millions of aborted babies, or million of miscarried children either. You might have to add Tampa into the mix

This is also the entire population who have ever existed. Since universalism is false...you get the idea...

 

Sorry for jumping in without reading the whole thread, but there are many fakes, or false believers. The following verse is in a context about anti-christs that make them all seem malignant, but I can't help but wonder if some of them are just self-deluded. Regardless, they abandon a faith they never really had. They were never really of the Body of Christ.

 

The path is narrow

Very few will make it into heaven. There will be many who call themselves Christians who will not enter. There will be many who attend Baptist churches who will not enter into heaven. For not everyone who proclaims the name of Christ will be saved.

God sees and knows all things.

The law can not bring you salvation. But so many Christians are focussed on the law rather than Christ. They do not know Him.

To know Christ is to be changed inside out, to be a new person. You seperate yourself from this world, but you are still here to love the lost and bring them to Christ. We are called to embrace the stranger, the suffering, and the poor. To show hospitality. By serving them, we serve Christ. And if we neglect them, we will be seperated from Christ because we are not His. The sheep or the goat. Who are you?

 

I keep asking this, but how can one abandon a faith they never had?

That's like saying I abandoned my family, but I never had a family to begin with.
You must have something in order to abandon it.

If they were never really in the body of Christ, then they never really believed. How do you abandon a belief that you never had?

 

The number of people alive today on the earth is 6,000 Million
which is about 1/6th of all the total born 33AD to 1990AD.
So I doubt the "½ the people ever are alive today" data.

The data above I've checked elsewhere and it is probably
closer to correct than "½ the people ever are alive today".

 

Does scripture say that the new earth will be the same size as this old one?

Maybe it will be a million times bigger! Maybe we'll be smaller.

I think God's probably got it all figured out. :laugh:

 

When you profess faith but don't really have it. Surely you know people like that. I do.