ive been reading pages of these posts and trying to figure out where to “jump in”,
It's somewhat disingenuous to answer questions with questions, and then to complain that your interlocutor holds off answering your second- and third- and fourth-tier questions until you answer his original questions.
Some one is placed into Christ when they confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in their heart that Christ raised Him from the dead. Rom 10
“Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.”
James 2:19
“Suddenly, a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, "Why are you interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are — the Holy One of God!"”
Mark 1:23,24
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Matthew 7:21-23
“But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.”
John 10:26
“And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
John 10:16
It seems to me that many who believe they are christians, who make confession with their mouth of Christ and say they are “in Christ” will be turned away, Clearly Jesus knows his sheep and to them is it given to be “in Christ” yet somehow the general consensus among the body of Christ is that they decide if they will be “in christ” and they imagine that anyone on planet earth can be there own God despising the election preordained by the sovereign God before the foundation of the world. Why does “the church” teach doctrine that stands contrary to what God declared through the prophets? Why does “the church” hold fast to prophetic events that dont align with what the prophets spoke concerning the end of the age and of the new heavens and the new earth? I keep seeing theological assertions that stand opposed to the ministry of Christ and of his disciples?