People often find themselves debating and standing for things they later come to regret. It is so easy to become entrenched, but God’s grace is greater as this account reveals…
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Faith? Works? I love the simplicity of the gospel!
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The silly “faith v. works” argument put to rest in the beautiful letter of James (Jesus’ half-brother):
James 2:17-26
2:17 Even so FAITH, if it hath not WORKS, is DEAD, being alone.
2:18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will SHOW thee my faith BY my works.
2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils (liars) also believe, and tremble.
2:20 But wilt thou know, O vain (worthless) man, that FAITH WITHOUT WORKS is DEAD?
2:21 Was not our father justified by WORKS, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar (and God made him your example - Sura 16:123; 60:4)?
2:22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and BY WORKS was faith (trust in God) MADE PERFECT?
2:23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed ONLY God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.
2:24 Ye see then how that by WORKS a man is justified, and NOT by faith only.
2:25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by WORKS, when she had received the messengers, and had sent [them] out another way?
2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD also.
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People would like to believe in the fantasy that they can live an entire human lifetime filled with selfish, evil thoughts, words and deeds/actions, and that all they have to do is confess on their death bed that they were wrong, and that somehow translates into an instant trip to heaven.
That’s not how it works, as everyone intuitively should know. No one has ever gone to heaven on the basis of their death-bed confession (John 3:13).
Everyone MUST turn away from their selfish, evil ways, and start DOING Father’s (God’s) Will, and never look back.
Doing Father’s Will BEGINS with keeping His Law. There is no other way to love one another (Rom. 13:8-10), which is the Second Great Commandment (Mark 12:29-31).
Every moment of our lives is an opportunity to show our heavenly Father and God that we are genuinely sorry for our past sins/crimes. And the way to do that is by striving for perfection (Matt. 5:48).
Thank you, as a PERFECT atheist, that is one that simply states that there is no way to tell anything about the supernatural from the immanent, I am not necessarily lacking FAITH. Faith implies lack of knowledge. If you know you do not believe, you know. So faith and atheism/theism and faith and science are not dualities. They are independent concepts.
I still have to define myself atheist (the correct word is agnostic but this barbarian language has definitions all f.ed up) because I reject the idea of “reasonable” proof from either theists and imperfect atheists. There is an almost zero chance that the universe emerged with this laws by chance? Indeed it is ridiculously low, but it is not zero. So indeed we might be living in the infinite iteration of a caothic mess that for all infinity minus one times resulted in chaos. I don’t believe it for one sec, but I cannot tell this possibility does not exist because it is going against the truth.
As for the reasons to be religious which is, even before salvation, the act of living in harmony with the truth, I posit that the perfect atheist that by not believing has to create his own system of values, will have in the end to behave in the exact same way of a religious person for all religions that consider Life as a single process of which we are instances. In this regard I prefer Christianity as it does not discriminate between your fellow believers and the infidel and because I was born in it (culture matters) Hope to have made myself clear.
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Hi @AFreeman …
I think the discussion of the relationship between faith and works has run and run, and it is easy to observe the simplifications often made contrasting slurs of “Pharisees” (keepers of laws) and “libertines” (believers in grace).
I don’t think either represent a Biblical perspective. One of the things that came over to me has been the comparison of the true gospel to light. Having something of a scientific background, the fact that light behaves as both a particle and a wave intrigued me. Light is a particle at transmission and reception (akin to faith the size of a mustard seed) yet behaves as a wave in transit.
In an analogous way, saving faith is real and perhaps happens in a moment, yet that faith, lived out leads to observable works. Hope this helps?
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Thank-you. While people often mistakenly claim the “pharisees” (politicians, who were also the priests) kept The Law, in actual fact they very obviously did NOT. They instead worshipped and kept their Babylonian Talmud, which is a capital crime under The Law (Deut. 4:2; Deut. 17:11-13).
Due process is a fundamental tenet in God’s Law (Deut. 19:15) and murder is a capital crime (Exod. 20:13). When the scribes and pharisees saw to it that Jesus was railroaded and crucified, it should have left no reasonable doubt in the minds of anyone that the scribes/attorneys and pharisees/politicians did NOT keep The Law, even if Jesus hadn’t already told us that (which, of course, Jesus did).
Matthew 23:1-4
23:1 Then spoke Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
23:2 Saying, The scribes/lawyers and the pharisees/politicians sit in Moses’ Law seat:
23:3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe of God’s Law, [that] observe and do; but do NOT ye after their example: for they say, and do not (and make up their own laws against God’s Orders - Deut. 4:2).
23:4 For they bind heavy burdens (the Talmud) and grievous to be borne, and lay [them] on men’s shoulders; but they [themselves] will not lift one of their fingers to remove them.
What’s shocking to me is that Christ-Jesus made it crystal clear that The Law (God’s Law, NOT man-made legislation, which is prohibited by God’s Law under pain of death) will NEVER go away, and that it will be used to judge all of us on Judgement Day.
Matthew 5:17-20
5:17 Think NOT that I am come to destroy The Law, or the Prophets: I am NOT come to destroy, but to fulfill [fully preach The Law (The Torah) and fulfill the prophecies about the first coming of the Messiah].
5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no way pass from The Law, till ALL be fulfilled.
5:19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least COMMANDments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least (the lowest of the low) in The Kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach [them], the same shall be called great in The Kingdom of heaven.
5:20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall EXCEED [the righteousness] of the scribes/lawyers and pharisees/politicians, ye shall in no case enter into The Kingdom of heaven.
Luke 16:17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of The Law and Prophecy to fail.
That should be the final word for anyone who claims to genuinely follow Christ and His True Teachings, which make it crystal clear that anyone who isn’t keeping God’s Law today has no hope of salvation.
Matthew 16:27 For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his WORKS.
Revelation 20:12-15
20:12 And I saw the “Dead”, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another Book was opened, which is [the Book] of Life: and the “Dead” were judged out of those things which were written in the Books, according to their works.
20:13 And the “sea” gave up the “Dead” which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their WORKS.
20:14 And death and hell were cast into the “Lake of Fire”. This is the second death.
20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the “Lake of Fire”.
We have graciously been given a 2000 year grace period to learn to STOP SINNING/BREAKING THE LAW, which makes a mockery of Christ’s Sacrifice, and most are still breaking The Law. Why? Anyone who continues to do evil is going to burn for it (Mal. 4; Rev. 21:8).
We call each other “sinners”, but a sinner is nothing more than a CRIMINAL, i.e someone who breaks The Law.
1 John 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also The Law: for sin is the transgression of The Law.
Anyone who mistakenly believes we will be rewarded for being unrepentant criminals is delusional. We are to love one another, NOT commit crimes against one another.
Romans 13:10 Love worketh NO ill to his neighbour: therefore love [is] the fulfilling of The Law.
The TRUE Gospel message is simple: REPENT, i.e. STOP SINNING/BREAKING THE LAW/COMMITTING CRIMES AGAINST ONE ANOTHER.
And the ONLY Way to do that is to DO God’s Will, which begins with keep The Law. There is no other way for one to show their faith.
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@Sojourner 
May you enjoy listening to the following, or any other good for that matter:
Youtube Caption of the above video
What if the greatest battle you’ll ever fight is the one happening inside you? In this profound lecture, we delve into the Islamic spiritual map of the human soul, exploring the three powerful forces within us: the animalistic desires (Nafs), the courageous spirit (Qalb), and the divine intellect ('Aql).
Discover how to identify these forces in your daily life, understand their constant struggle, and learn the practical steps to bring them into harmony. This journey is about transforming your base impulses into a higher consciousness, moving from being a slave to your desires to a servant of the Divine.
In this video, you will learn:
The Islamic concept of the “Microcosm” – how the entire universe is reflected within you.
A deep understanding of the Tripartite Soul: the Appetitive (Desire), Irascible (Anger/Emotion), and Rational (Intellect) souls.
The critical difference between immediate sensual pleasures and lasting intellectual and spiritual joys.
Practical guidance from the Quran and Sunnah on how to discipline the self (Jihad al-Nafs).
How to answer the fundamental questions: “Why did God create me?” and “How can I truly know myself?”
Books of Shaykh Hamza Yusuf:
Purification of the Heart, Link: https://amzn.to/43pMAmB
The Content of Character, Link: https://amzn.to/43vBRr0
Caesarean Moon Births: Calculations, Moon Sighting, and the Prophetic Way Link: https://amzn.to/4dWR6y5
Matthew 15:13-14
15:13 But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath NOT planted, shall be rooted up.
15:14 Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch (or Pit).
Sura 2:6-7
2:6. As to those who reject Faith, it is the same to them whether thou warn them or do not warn them; they will not believe.
2:7. The “I AM” hath set a seal on their hearts and on their hearing, and on their eyes is a veil (the spiritually blind); great is the penalty they (incur).
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Did @ddeperfectatheist see this movie already?
All of you are making the Gospel so much more complicated than it is or needs to be. The Bible is clear. Romans 10:9-10 says:
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.”
According to that verse, all you need to do is believe in Christ’s sacrifice and confess your faith. Romans 10:13 explains further:
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
If you put your trust in Christ and call upon his name to save you, you will be saved! No good works at all are required in order to be saved or to “prove” that you’re saved. Romans 4:4-5 refutes that:
“Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted righteousness.”
This passage explicitly distinguishes works-based salvation (him that worketh) and salvation by faith alone (him that worketh not). It proves that when we try to justify ourselves before God by our own works, we are actually just taking on more debt and condemning ourselves. Whereas, when we simply put our faith in Christ, we are counted as righteous before God without works.
I will conclude with one final verse, Titus 3:5.
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;”
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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.
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I only watch movies made before 1990, they are on another class in terms of acting direction and story. Is there something about the story of PI that should be of interest?
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I simply invited you to watch it because it might cause you to change your username, maybe.
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“How do you know” is a very interesting question - agnostics are often honest about the limitations of their knowledge. It’s one thing to say “I don’t know” but quite another to insist that it is impossible to know…
The implications that certain things may really be true are far reaching.
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YouTube Caption says:
Jack Napier (Jack Nicholson), driven insane by his hideous appearance, begins calling himself “the Joker”. After he kills Grissom, the Joker massacres Grissom’s associates, and takes over his operations.
“Can somebody tell me what kind of a world we live in, where a world dressed up as a bat gets all of my press?.. This town needs an enema”
About Batman (Theatrical Release - June 23, 1989):
Tim Burton directs; Michael Keaton stars as Batman; and Jack Nicholson stars as his arch foe, The Joker. As the Dark Knight, defender of law and order in Gotham City, Batman treads the shadow zone between right and wrong, fighting with only his skill in martial arts and his keenly honed mind to defend the innocent and to purge the memory of his parents’ brutal murder–always keeping his true identity as millionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne a closely guarded secret. Based upon Batman characters created by Bob Kane and published by DC Comics.
We’re travelling at 600 mph as the earth rotates, plus 67,000 mph as the earth orbits the sun, yet amazingly all that careering through space doesn’t bother Mother Earth one bit and doesn’t even raise a ripple on a calm water’s surface, it’s almost as if the earth is giving us all a lesson on how to stay cool and calm in this crazy world..
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