FaithWillDo
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- Mar 1, 2023
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Dear Dan Clarkston,You must be one of those cherry pickers that does not accept the whole counsel of God...
2 Thessalonians 1:7,8
And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
You don't understand the process of conversion that Christ will perform within mankind to save us.
All mankind is condemned already because of sin. The penalty of sin is death (not eternal torment in literal fire as some believe). But because of God's grace, Christ will freely give every person a new birth prior to their destruction in the Lake of Fire (a symbol for judgment).
As for what 2Thes 1:7-8 teaches; none of carnal and sinful mankind (children of the devil) know Christ. Only the children of God know Christ and have faith in Him.
The death and destruction that you see in scripture, which occurs during the Day of the Lord, is showing the destruction of the old vessel. This destruction is necessary so that the new vessel can be created. This is conversion.
Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Mat 18:3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
One of the primary reasons that apostate believers don't believe that Christ can save all mankind is because they have added man's "works" to the Gospel. The mixing of "works" with faith comes from Satan's "another gospel" that he teaches via the spirit of anti-Christ. It is by this false gospel that Satan devoured the "babes" in the church near the end of the 1st century. Nothing has changed in the church since that time.
The true Gospel of Christ requires no works from mankind. Even a person's faith and repentance are gifts from God. If He didn't give those gifts to a person, they would never have them.
Salvation is by promise and is a free gift. When Christ is ready to save a person, He will come to them and do His spiritual work within them. This will change their heart and mind so that they will willingly accept Him as their Lord and Savior.
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
For any person to have faith, they must have the Holy Spirit indwelling them.
1Cor 12:3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit.
Apostate believers deny the truth that this verse above teaches. They believe that a person's faith comes from their supposed free will ability to have it. This is not what scripture teaches.
Joe