Not all of God's people, who are called by His name will be saved, but only those who do the Will of the Father.
John 6:40 - For
my Father’s will is that
everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. You were saying?
God called His people out of Egypt, yet out of 600,000+ only 2 made it to the promised land. In Revelation you'll see that only 144,000 (not 600,000) were saved from the old testament- and that taken from a number much greater than 600,000- because for one, that does not include women and children, nor all the Israelites who existed outside of the exodus situation. The number of total old testament Israelites is humongous, yet only a few on average were actually saved, why. Because God says many are called, but only few are chosen.
Moses did not make it into the promised land. (Mounters 20:1-12) Does that mean Moses was not saved? In Jude 1:5, we read that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later
destroyed those who did not believe. It's true that many will not be saved and only few will be saved by comparison, yet Jesus made it clear that only
believers will be saved (John 3:15,16,18). Those who trust in works for salvation are not believers (Romans 3:22-28; 4:5-6; 1 Corinthians 1:18-21).
You need to do more than believe and wear God's name, you must also obey.
Must or else, huh? Obedience is not forced or legalistic for genuine believers. So according to your argument, how much obedience does it take? Where do you draw the line in the sand and say that you were "obedient enough" so now the Lord will be able to save you? Is that salvation through faith or salvation by works?
If someone gave me a ticket to enter Disney land free of charge, I still must redeem it. If I go there without the ticket they will not let me through the gate- even if I say I had my ticket but i lost it. The bible shows the cobtrast- both "Well done good and faithful servant." and "Throw that lazy servant outside where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
If someone offers me a free gift I still must receive it. Salvation is a free gift but we must receive it through faith. We do not work for a free gift, otherwise it's not a free gift. (Ephesians 2:8,9)
We have
access by faith into grace.. (Romans 5:2) And
if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace.. (Romans 11:6) You cannot seem to grasp that. You also must not confuse descriptive passages of scripture with prescriptive passages of scripture. Who does the good and faithful servant represent? - believers. Who does the wicked, lazy servant represent? - unbelievers.
The parable does not identify the wicked, lazy servant as a Christian.
"Buried his money in the ground, wicked, slothful, unprofitable servant who is cast into out darkness" is NOT descriptive of a Christian. You and I had this conversation before in a different thread and you asked and answered the questions -
"Were the israélites God's people? Yes. Were all of His people saved? No." I said BINGO! The
Israelites were referred to by God as
"My servant whom I have chosen" (Isaiah 43:10) even though not all of the Israelites were saved.
Salvation is for those who try with all their might to do what's right- to those will be granted forgiveness for the times that they failed. So yes it is a gift, but it is only given to the elite.
So who defines "tried with all their might to do what's right" and "the elite?"
Christ saves us through faith based on the merit of His finished work of redemption alone (Romans 3:24-28)
and not based on the merits of our performance/works. It's obvious what you are trusting in for salvation.
Not everyone who is called to be a christian will receive it, the few who are chosen to receive it are those who run the race in such a way as to win, because only one out of many receives it.
So only those who win the gold medal in an Olympic race will not be disqualified for the prize YET
everyone else will be disqualified from the race? -- according to your logic. So if salvation is a prize that we must work hard for and earn and not a gift according to your implied logic, how do you explain the varying degrees of rewards for believers at the judgment seat of Christ? -- who will receive rewards and suffer loss of reward in various degrees, yet will
still be saved. (1 Corinthians 3:13-15)
We have our ticket, but we must not lose it till the end.
Like a set of car keys?
Salvation is not definite until you remain faithful till the very end.
Remaining faithful till the very end is descriptive of genuine believers. In Romans 8:30, we read - Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and
whom He justified, these He also glorified. *ALL of them. *Notice how Paul uses the past tense for a future event to stress it's certainty.
Saul, first King of Israel had the Holy Spirit, but because of his disobedience to God, God took His Spirit from him. It is not enough to get it and have it, you must keep it in order to enter the pearly gates.
In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came upon such people as Joshua, David and even Saul. The Holy Spirit came upon these individuals for
specific tasks. Once the task was completed, the Spirit presumably departed from that person. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit only indwells
believers and that indwelling is
permanent (Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:30). In
contrast to this work in the New Testament, the indwelling in the Old Testament was
selective and temporary.
What bondage you must be under to bear the weight of eternity on the merits of your performance and have no assurance!