ok ok ok
i've got 9 minutes and 46 seconds to get a thought across.
total depravity.
as a Christian, i believe that everyone is born with a sinful nature.
this means that from birth we are slaves to sin. it is impossible for us not to sin. it is impossible for us to please God.
i also believe that because of that, everyone deserves punishment-- namely hell.
God, in justice, has the right to send everyone to eternal punishment.
including me.
also,
i believe that Jesus was perfect in every way, and didn't have a sinful nature.
He is the Son of God.
He died because of our sins, to take our punishment for us.
because of this, i am not going to hell.
i believe that in our sinful state, it is impossible to repent, and impossible to have faith in Christ.
i think that we can only become Christians if God enables us to.
we have free will-- we can do what we desire to do.
but as sinful creatures, we don't desire Christ, we don't desire holiness, we only desire sin.
we have the ability to do what we desire, but we don't desire Christ unless He gives that desire to us.
that is why i believe in predestination.
i still don't understand why God seems to give some people the desire to turn to Him and not all.
but i do know that He owes salvation to NO ONE.
we have no right to get angry at Him because He only chooses to enable some of us.
if He was obliged to give the whole world grace, then it wouldn't be grace.
i'm inexpressibly grateful that God has changed my heart.
i know that, in my natural form, i desire nothing except sin and to please myself.
i am in awe that He chose to transform me and save me.
because He has saved me-- i have faith in Him, and i follow Him.
maybe faith doesn't get us saved,
maybe we are saved by God, and then faith is the fruit of that. maybe we aren't saved because we repent, but we repent because we are saved.
fear of God,
and understanding my own depravity,
has finally helped me to get a glimpse of His grace.
so there you have it.
my most recent thoughts.
1 minutes and 35 seconds left.
i think i'm done.
3 comments:
Good thinking.
All I can do is lay
at the feet of Jesus
and say Please forgive me
and Thank you for saving me
from myself.
Nancy
How can anyone deserve eternal torment for things done or not done done during a finite lifetime? You say you believe in predestination, so you believe that God allowed people to be born that He knew would be cast into that eternal torment? I know you and your type of 'christian' will never understand, but that concept turns God into a being of absolute evil.
ehhh there are some hard questions to think about and frankly i've never met a salvationist who beieves in predestiation yet so i'm interested
i mean god gives us total free will once we're born to choose every decision we make i believe
but...
u made me think he knows what he's creating us to be like, to think like and knows before we're born certainly every choice we'll make he knows if one of his creations will be a murderer or priest
so...
the question is...
is it easier for me to believe or more appropriately what fits the nature of the GOD that deserves fit eternal praise...god who designs some to fail with genetic makeup or crap, without a prayer (lol) their whole life, or a god who gives everyone a shot and lets u make up ur one mind one way or another even if subconsciosly i think i'm going w/ # 2 i mean me and my dad fought about this once after i watched that end of the stick movie i asked him does that mean half the world in uncivilized yada yada countries With NO gospell never get a chance?
who do u believe ur god to be?
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