At 02:28 PM 8/5/04, Dan Minette wrote:
I missed covering this earlier.
>> Several things >> gradually changed my self-acknowledged status; I've >> previously mentioned the issue of belief as a Gift, >> and my inability to accept that Belief is in itself a >> Grace or Gift, because that means that God withheld >> that Gift from some of my friends - good, honest and >> caring folk - why?
I understand that the idea of double predestination has floated around Christianity, but its support in scripture is tenuous at best. In a sense, faith is a gift; but one that is freely offered to all. Detrich Bonnhoffer gave a great statement about receiving this gift: from obedience comes faith. In other words, we should not sit back and wait for God to grant us faith, we should work on doing God's will, and that will open our hearts up for faith.
Agreed. Which leads to the question, "How does one find out what God's will is for him/herself in order to do it?" Also a secondary question, "Should one obey God's will in order to obtain faith (or anything else), or should one obey God's will because doing so is the right thing to do because He is God? Can we expect the blessings from Him if the only reason we obey Him is to get Him to give you particular blessings? Or do the blessings come after we obey Him with no expectation of reward but because it is the right thing to do?
Look at Matthew 25 for one discussion on those who really have faith.
Which of the parables there are you specifically referring to?
-- Ronn! :)
"Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot remain in the cradle forever." -- Konstantin E. Tsiolkovskiy
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