PB'S- Does the Holy Spirit use "means"

Ray, you are not only blind, you, I am starting to believe, may be at that age when senility is setting in.

Is the United Nations the United States ?

Mr. Camping, for your information, talks the same way you do. He thinks God has his elect, but that elect must hear the gospel or the election may never take effect, therefore, each believer is an ambassador for Christ. I am not a fan or follower of Mr. Camping, although between the two of you, notwithstanding his Calvinism and his 'latter rain theology', he appears to have a better grasp of who he is before God than you do.

There you go again, taking one scripture and basing your whole theology on it. Context, please. Who were sent out ? The twelve apostles . Ministry. Who were they to seek out ? The lost sheep of the house of Israel , not the Gentiles, not the whole humankind.

Who will bind them and deliver them up to be killed ? The lost sheep ? Or the citizens of the enemy kingdom.

 

pinobaptist,

If any person has not invited Jesus into their heart/life they are not a Christian. It is impossible to please or know the Lord without faith. [Hebrews 11:6]

The sinner's pray is in order and well received by our Lord. Anyone who has not prayed the prayer of the publican, might merely be a Pharisee who thinks he knows God.

'God be merciful to me 'the' {tow} Greek meaning 'the' sinner.' Here was a prayer of repentance toward the Lord. This tax-collector identified himself as being sinful. I don't recall that the Lord said, "My brother come over here; I have autocratically made you one of the elect."

The prayer is found in St. Luke.

Berrian, Th.D.

 

pinobaptist,

As you say not everyone can be a teaching Elder, [Matt. 28:19-20] but every Christian can tell someone (a sinner) how they came to find/know the Lord. This is our responsibility. [Mark 16:16-17] Every born of the Spirit Christian it to be a ' . . . witness to Him . . . ' [Acts 1:8]

The rest of your post is merely argumentative; believe whatever you desire.

Regards,
Ray

 

What you call the sinner's prayer is simply an illustration being made by the Lord Jesus between the unregenerate heart's prayer, and the regenerate heart's prayer.

The Pharisee thought all his good works are being gazed at admiringly by God, and goes as far as point to the other guy, in an "see the difference between him and me" attitude.

While the regenerate person could only place himself prostrate at his God's feet and beg for mercy, seeing as there is nothing he can hope to do to merit that mercy being a despicable sinner.

Such a prayer is heard only because the petitioner is already a child of God. Such a prayer does not make one a child of God. Neither does it guarantee faith.

You ought to know that better than anyone else.

I was 26 years in the Arminian side. You have no clue whatsover on what I have done thinking that that service is for the Lord and the benefit of His children. I have experienced getting up at 3 in the morning on Sundays in a country where we worked from Monday to Saturday, to go fetch a blind couple from the mountain villages where I had to hike up 4 miles to get them and the same distance to bring them home.

I have seen visitors in church being nudged by those who invited them to go forward during the invitation, I have seen people raise their hands and come forward to the altar because that preacher up there had been persistently issuing his altar call for 30 minutes !

I've seen people come forward in tears, some in something like a daze, and yet many of these same people will not come back, or if they do, they are still the same ones who raise their hands and say the 'sinner's prayer all over again.

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying all who go that route were never really children of God. Some are. But most, when you come right down to it, are convinced the reason they are saved is because they repented, because they decided in Christ's favor, because they had faith.

And it's not helped any by further false teaching like they're ambassadors for Christ.