I have no excuses or unbiblical beliefs to defend and Bible_Highlighter's long-winded eisegesis….
Jesus had made a long winded sermon. It’s called the Sermon on the Mount (See
Matthew 5-7).
Stephen had made a long winded sermon, and He was killed because of it (See:
Acts 7).
So just because somebody speaks God’s Word for a lengthy amount of time does not automatically equate with it being unbiblical.
The Bereans were more noble because they searched the Scriptures to see whether those things be so or not (
Acts 17:10-11).
Well, you are not doing that. You have given no indication to me here that you are going to look at the verses I presented.
You said:
and Bible_Highlighter's…. eisegesis culminates in salvation by faith PLUS WORKS in contradiction to scripture no matter how much he tries to sugar coat it. (Romans 4:5-6)
First, I’ve already explained key verses in Romans 4 (See again
here).
Paul is fighting against “Circumcision Salvationism” as was brought up by the council of believers in Acts 15.
So if somebody thought they had to FIRST be saved initially by circumcision, then they would be by-passing God’s grace through faith in Jesus in their Initial Salvation. It’s why Paul makes his whole point about whether Abraham believed first before he was circumcised (a work). Granted, we do not have to be circumcised. That is Old Covenant. The point was to illustrate the order of things. We are to first believe in Jesus for our salvation and not partake of circumcision to be initially saved. Paul makes the illustration of Abraham and his belief coming first before he did a work (circumcision). This is a parallel to our faith (Which has different instructions under the New Covenant).
Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:5, and Romans 11:6 are all clearly in context to Initial Salvation (See again
here).
Nothing is said in these verses about how we can continue in sin so that grace may abound.
Second, I also have demonstrated clear verses in Scripture that teach works (or works of faith) are a part of our salvation (See again
here). Granted, this is only AFTER we are saved by God’s grace. But you cannot change the plain child like reading of all the works for salvation verses in the Bible. So you either have to ignore these verses or you have to come up with a “work around” to explain them away. Take for example of the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25. The unprofitable servant is cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Yet, those who were faithful over a few things were told to enter the joy of their Lord. The Parable does not end with admonishing us to have more faith in Jesus as our Savior or to believe more on the gospel message as a remedy to being more fruitful. The Parable is only concerned with you doing something or you are not going to make it into God’s Kingdom. There are of course many more examples of these kinds of verses you would have to either ignore or change because they do not agree with your current belief.
You said:
He is very passionate about this topic because his "type 2 works salvation" gospel results in shared credit with Jesus Christ for salvation. He is yet to place his faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. (Ephesians 2:8,9)
While a believer must cooperate with God and walk with Him, works are ultimately done by Him doing the good work through us when we fully surrender to Him. It’s why the 24 elders cast down their crowns before Jesus. So all praise and glory is given to God for His working in us (Philippians 2:13). We are not looking to pat ourselves on the pat as you incorrectly assume.
You want “
Perpetual Belief Alone Salvationism” to be true but you set up a contradiction by saying that a genuine saving faith will always produce good works to some degree. This sounds like Calvinism but in reverse order. As if you are turned intoWhy all the warnings in Scripture to be fruitful or to do good works if it was all just automatic to having faith? Again, I am not denying that God’s grace and mercy can help us to be fruitful like in 1 Corinthians 15:10, and Luke 7:36-50. But we are also told to affirm works constantly to others (Titus 3:8) so that they will not be unfruitful (Titus 3:14).
Your belief is a contradiction (i.e., it is confusion).
Hand #1. (On the one hand you say): “Works do not save.”
Hand #2. (On the other hand you say): “Works will always be present to show a true saving faith.”
In order to TRULY BELIEVE Hand #1, you have to claim that you can have no works and still be saved by a belief alone without works. That is the only consistent way for your statement by Hand #1 to actually work.
If you hold to Hand #2, then you must claim that works is a part of the salvation equation because you cannot ever have a faith lived out without any kind of works. Therefore, you would have to believe like I do in that works are necessary as a part of God’s plan of salvation. Why? Because you are saying that a true saving faith (belief alone) will always have works or fruit to show itself to be true.
This is why your belief is a contradiction and it is confusion.
But God is not the author of confusion. I am able to easily reconcile both the grace through faith without works verses by the apostle Paul, and being justified by works by James. This is something that your belief cannot allow.
You said:
Bible_Highlighter clearly exposed his false gospel of "salvation by works at the back door" in post #716 below:
Again, the burden of proof is on you to demonstrate this with Scripture instead of making claims with no biblical backing.
You said:
His arguments line up with the same arguments that Roman Catholics and other works-salvationists use as a result of confusing justification with ongoing sanctification and descriptive passages of scripture with prescriptive passages of scripture.
Again, I already told you that Catholics do not believe in the first aspect of salvation correctly in that we are saved by a belief alone.
One Catholic told me they see water baptism as a belief alone and that works will follow after. They see baptism as the entrance gate to salvation. But baptism is a ritual or work. So we do not exactly agree. The RCC also holds to many traditions (works) that are not found in Scripture. I believe we are FIRST saved by a BELIEF ALONE in the gospel message in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 in that Christ died for our sins, He was buried, and risen the third day. This is the gospel. It’s how you GET saved. It is also something we must continue to believe in as a part of salvation (See: 1 Corinthians 15:1-4). If we later one day choose to stop believing the gospel we will not be saved. But that is not our only instructions from the Lord in the New Testament as part of entering the Kingdom. You must take the next step of faith in Sanctification, which is a part of salvation (2 Thessalonians 2:13) (Romans 8:13) (Galatians 6:8-9) (1 Timothy 5:8). For a person can deny God by being reprobate unto every good work (Titus 1:16). People who deny God are not saved.
Not true. I have already shown to you that you are ripping the verse out of context in relation to James 1, and James 2 in my
post #1169.
You also to do back flip twists through hoops of fire with poodles biting on your finger tips to avoid the many works for salvation verses I have already shown
here. Explanations on at least 2-3 of them would be helpful. But I am not expecting that because we both know you cannot explain away Scripture without it sounding odd or silly.