There are no contradictions to the gospel (good news) message of the forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ. Only misinterpretations of those Scriptures. Error begets error.Converted to what?I do believe ALL of Scripture, beginning with the message:Acts 10:43 "Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins."Those apparent “contradictions” all go away when you begin with the simple proclamation of forgiveness of sins through belief in Christ. It’s true, though, if you don’t begin there then it seems the whole Bible is one great big contradiction. It’s like building on a foundation, if the foundation isn’t right then you struggle all the way up as you build upon it, and you never really get it right. A correct foundation is extremely important for the rest of the building to fall in place. That’s the way it is when reading and interpreting the Scriptures also.
You are correct that error begets error and you are erroniously and shamefully trying to create a tower of babel out of God’s Word that “bends the faith your way”. Don’t think for a moment you can plan to commit a sin under the preconceived notion that you are automatically forgiven before the deed is even finished without even confessing those sins. God is not mocked.
God is beyond time and space. Therefor salvation is simultaneously a past, present, and future phenomena.
Example of past tense:
Ephesians 2:8–9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith.”
Example of present tense:
Philippians 2:12, Paul exhorted us to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”
Example of future tense:
Romans 13:11 “our salvation is nearer than when we first believed” (also see 1 Cor. 3:15; 5:5).
To be saved you must be saved in the past, in the “now” and in the future or you are simply “not saved”.
But God never forces His grace and Love on anyone. It is offered to all but a person may choose to reject at any time that grace. God does not bully us onto His eternity through forced Love.
Christ tells the apostles at the Last Supper to remain in his love. He adds that if we keep his commandments we will remain in his love. But he who does not remain in his love is* “cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned” (John 15:6). *
Do you not believe Jesus at His Word?
Judas elected to remove himself from Jesus’ Love.
Jesus told his disciples to remain in his love because just as we enter freely into a relationship with Christ, we are free to leave him. There are many examples of this in scripture.
- Romans 11:22, Paul says, “Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you,** provided you continue in his kindness**; otherwise you too will be cut off.”
- In Galatians 5:4, Paul says, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” This verse implies that they were united with Christ and in grace before they fell.
- In 1 Corinthians 9:27, Paul again warns the Christians against being overconfident: “I pummel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” This is not the language of “once saved always saved.”
Note, The New Covenant is not a system of “works righteousness” whereby a person can please God and earn heaven by doing a number of good deeds. But that is not to say that salvation gives a license to sin as means to proclaim one’s faith either!
After baptism, if we choose sin (deliberately or by carlessness), and do not repent and confess each and every of our sims each and every time then we renounce Christ. In 1
Corinthians 15:1–2, Paul says, “Now I would remind you, brethren, in what terms I preached to you the gospel, which you received, in which you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold it fast—unless you believed in vain.” So, you could believe, but fail to hold fast to the gospel, and not be saved (cf. 2 Pet. 2:20).
This is why Paul spoke in the book of Romans about the “obedience of faith” (Rom. 1:5, 16:26).
It is not enough that one call Jesus Lord, for, as he said, “*Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21; cf. Matt. 10:33, 18:35). *If we are disobedient, God will “take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city” (Rev 22:19).
No apostle EVER taught Once Saved Always Saved. The first person to espouse the idea of “once saved, always saved” was John Calvin in the mid-sixteenth century. Even Martin Luther didn’t subscribe to the theory in the way it was then and now. Prior to Calvin, the unanimous consent of the early Christians was that a person is capable of losing his salvation by committing mortal sin, as John spoke about in 1 John 5:16–17.
Be advised those that preach a different gospel than what the apostles taught fall under the same apostolic curse that Paul uttered. First of all please note that
you do not have the apostolic authority to even preach God’s Word and second **you **preach a completely different gospel than what the Apostles taught. In fact
you are preaching what the heretic John Calvin taught. Note the word “received” in the following scripture verse. No apostle nor any apostolic succession ordained Bishop ever gave you this teaching. So who did you receive this fasle teaching from?
Galatians 1:9
As we have said before, so I say again now,
if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!
James
) conferred to Priests (as well as other Authorities in the Church) by God.
