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djrakowski
Guest
I pray that all here will forgive Craig in all his arrogance and determination to lead us out of our supposed error. We could make the same accusation of you, but you won’t admit it - claim some scriptures and gloss over the rest, particularly those that speak of the thinsg we need to do in order to be granted salvation. There’s no need repeating them ad nauseum as you have with your favorites, because it will get us nowhere.
Craig, time and time again, we have given explanation to your cherry-picked verses, but as you accuse us, you don’t like our explanations.
As for the verse upon which your entire theology seems to hang (and how peculiar that your theology hangs on words not even spoken by Jesus):
1 John 5:4 (NKJV) - For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
Craig, have you overcome the world? Are you sinless, and are you in the most perfect state you’ll ever be? If you haven’t, then what does it mean to overcome? Thus far, your rendering of your penultimate scripture verse doesn’t impress, nor does it convince, particularly in the face of those you choose to ignore or force-fit into your theology of “once-saved-always-saved,” like John 15 and Revelation 3. You also ignore verses in which it it said that people will be judged for their actions, like Revelation 20.
Matthew 5:48 (NKVJ) - Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Are you perfect? What does it mean to overcome in 1 John 5:4 if it does not mean being perfected?
Revelation 21:27 (NIV) - Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
If you were to die today, would you be confident that you have not done anything shameful or deceitful (such as giving a false impression of yourself in an Internet forum to troll for Catholics so you can witness to them)? Have you given up all attachment to worldliness? Do you sin, even in the smallest way? In Matthew 15:18, Jesus says “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.” I hope, after the moment you consider yourself to have been ‘saved,’ that you’ve never uttered a cross word to a loved one, or let something slip that you will later regret, because such things defile you, and in Revelation, it says that such impurities disqualify you from heaven. What does it mean to overcome if you’re still left with impurities that could disqualify you from entering heaven?
Why are we not convinced, Craig? Because your entire premise is based upon a flawed hermeneutic that shoves every verse of scripture related to salvation through the exceptionally narrow filter of 1 John 5:4.
Take a look at other scriptures in which overcoming is mentioned, and you’ll notice something rather interesting - most often, it is in the context of something active being done. You don’t overcome passively, and if you think you do, then you’re ignoring the plain sense of the word.
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Again, you are just reading your theology into this text. You are ASSUMING that John means by the word “believe” what you do. You are ASSUMING that this is a “one-time event,” and not something that requires “perseverance.” You are also ASSUMING that this is just an intellectual assent and that belief does not need to be accompanied by action, and thus cannot be a one-time event. This verse says none of these things. You read them into your exegesis, which is actually called eisogesis. The Catholic agrees with this verse completely. This verse states that those who believe in Christ will have eternal life. What the Scripture, and John, define as “Believe” is not outlined here, but elsewhere (most notably in James 2:14-26 which you have flopped on explaining).
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