Did Jesus give the people spoken of in Matthew 7:22 the power to cast out devils? The ones Jesus said he "never" knew?[/ QUOTE]
This should be as plain as the beard on your face.....Jesus said I NEVER KNEW YOU
Again, the Bible said these people will say "HAVE WE NOT CAST OUT DEMONS IN THY NAME?"
I've seen Benny (chicken) Hinn cast out a lot of demons. Let me rephrase that I have heard him say he has healed the sick and cast out devils
Do you believe Benny Hinn really heals people? Me neither but I promise you one day he will say he did
And since you keep avoiding this question, I'll keep asking it:
At conversion, were all of our sins forgiven - past, present, and future?
Yes or No.
NO. Future sins are not forgiven before we commit them
I'm not avoiding anything just starting to wonder about your reading abilities. Lol
When Jesus died on the cross, He paid for every sin that you and I and the rest of the human race will ever commit, from Adam’s first sin until the very last sin that will be committed on this planet.
But that doesn’t mean that God forgives our sins before we commit them. That is not taught anywhere in the Bible, and when the Lord says that He forgives us and remembers our sins no more, He’s speaking of the sins we have committed at the time He forgives us.
The New Testament is totally clear on this. As it is written in 2 Peter 1, the believer who goes backward spiritually rather than forward “is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed
from his past sins” 2 Pet. 1:9 “having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.” WHAT!!!
What sins did God forgive when we asked Him to save us and cleanse us? He forgave our past sins, our former sins, the sins we committed before we were born-again. As explained in Colossians 2, when we put our faith in Jesus and became children of God, He cancelled “the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Col. 2:14). The CJB explains that “He wiped away the bill of charges against us” and the TNIV reads, “having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.”
Under God’s holy law, we accumulated a massive amount of spiritual debt, with each new sin we committed adding to that debt. And it was a debt we could never repay, especially since the standards of God’s law continually reminded us of our failures and shortcomings. But the moment God saved us, He forgave us that debt
So, when we look to the Lord for salvation, He forgives every sin we have committed up to that point and He even forgives us for who we are: lost, rebellious sinners. But He does not forgive us for our sins before we commit them. This is clearly stated in many passages and it makes perfect spiritual sense as well.
When you put your trust in Jesus as your Savior and Lord and you asked Him to forgive you for all your sins, what sins did you mean? Perhaps you said something like, “God, I confess to you that I am a sinner and have done many wrongs things in my life, and I ask you to forgive me and wash me clean.”
Is that how you prayed? I said something similar to the Lord, and He met me right where I was as a heroin-shooting, LSD-using, rebellious, hippie rock drummer. I was clean and forgiven and washed at that very moment. Totally! And all the guilt I had been feeling in previous weeks as the Holy Spirit was convicting me of my sins was totally gone as well. What amazing grace!
But it didn’t dawn on me to say, “And Lord, while we’re at it, could you please forgive me for all the sins I plan to commit tomorrow and for the rest of my life, along with the sins I don’t plan to commit?”
I bet it didn’t dawn on you to say that either. Why? It is because we understand that forgiveness is for what we have done, not for what we will do.
In the same way, if I sinned against my friend and let him down, I would go to him and say, “Please forgive me for being irresponsible and causing you pain. I was wrong and I make no excuses.” But I wouldn’t say to him, “And since I’m confessing and you’re forgiving, I ask you to forgive me in advance for every sin I will ever commit against you in the future as well.” Of course not!
You might say, “But isn’t it different with God, since He sees the future the way we see the past?”
Not at all, even though He inhabits eternity (Isaiah 57:15) and knows the beginning from the end (Isaiah 46:8-10). But when it comes to forgiveness, He only forgives people for what they have done, not what they will do. Consequently,
there is not a single verse in the Bible where God forgives a person’s sins before they commit those sins. Not one.
forgiveness covers whatever “debt” we have incurred, which is why Jesus taught us to pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matt 6:12) in the Lord’s prayer. (Remember: the Sermon on the Mount is for disciples – for followers of Jesus – according to Matt 5:1.)
Look at every single prayer for forgiveness recorded in the Bible, and you will see that people (and nations) only ask for forgiveness for what they have done, not what they will do. Then look at every single time that God pronounces a person or nation forgiven in the Bible and you will see that, without exception, it is for sins that person or nation have already committed, not for future sins.
I know that some teachers today say that, “God doesn’t forgive in installments,” and it sounds very powerful. But that teaching has no basis in Scripture. In fact, the entire Bible is against it.
in 1 John 1, John says to God’s people (the “we” and “us” of his letter) that, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). The Greek is present, continuous as opposed to one fixed time, and it speaks of the pattern of our lives as believers. So, as saved, forgiven people, loved by the Father, if we sin against the Lord, we confess that to the Lord, receiving fresh cleansing and forgiveness
On a practical level, it is very important to understand clearly that God does not forgive our sins before we commit them, since this false teaching opens the door to all kinds of deception and danger. You see, if I really believe that my future sins are already forgiven, in a time of weakness or temptation I might think to myself, “It no big deal if I do that, since I’m already forgiven and therefore nothing could change my relationship with God, no matter what I do.” I think you can see how dangerous that could be.
To say that my future sins are forgiven before I commit them would be like a driver saying, “By faith, I’ve already arrived at my destination, so I can ignore these warning signs on the road.” In reality, we ignore them to our own peril.
