What the Bible says about belief to enter Heaven, and Satan as a believer.
Both the believer and the atheist, hold to either a faith-based belief or a faith-based non-belief; but it takes more than faith to have salvation. It takes grace, which is unearned favor from God, and commitment. Trusting God to keep His Word and save you from the condemnation sin placed on us all, until we ask Jesus to forgive us of our sins. He is trustworthy and turns no one away. When God forgives us, He forgets our sins. We are then reunited with our Heavenly Father, by the Holy Spirit God places in us, upon confession of faith, as fellowship is restored.
Ephesians 2:8-9 - 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.
It is important to know that salvation cannot be earned. It is a GIFT from God. If I give you a gift, it is free. You didn't do one thing to earn it. Same way with salvation. NOTHING you can do, will earn you a free ticket to heaven. HOWEVER...God graciously offers it for free! Free to you, but it cost him, his life. That's how much he loves you and he proved it on the cross.
Faith is simply believing God (taking Him at His Word) when He tells us to stop trying to earn a place in heaven, and instead, trust in the fact that Jesus paid for ALL our sins. It is God who set the standard for salvation. Man was not given that privilege and it is not up to him to change it.
Anyone can claim to believe. Even Satan believes in God, but he is not saved and he'll certainly not see heaven. Consider how it is with two couples, for example. The guy says he loves her. She has lots of people who love her, but his is a special, different kind of love. Wanting to give her your all, you make a commitment and ask her to marry you. In marriage, you become one in the flesh through that commitment. Same with Jesus. Only you become one in the Spirit with God, when you invite him into your heart and life as your Savior. If you confess you believe in Him, you'll want to make a commitment and be faithful to Him. You have become spiritually "one" with Christ. A spiritual union between you and God. You become part of His family when you do, and inherit eternal life.
When Jesus finished his Earthly mission, over 500 people witnessed him ascend into heaven, back to his Heavenly Father. Since we can no longer see him physically , that is why you can only know that God is real through Faith. The proof is in the experience, as you receive the Holy Spirit upon confession of faith. By reading the Bible and praying for God's understanding of His message to us, or someone sharing their faith with us, can we learn how to accept His Son Jesus as our personal Savior. The Bible says all you have to do is let Jesus know, through simple prayer, that you would like to receive him as your personal Savior. Repent, believe, and receive.
@DocSavage If that were true that would mean that everybody who has fear and panic, would turn to the Lord. And everyone who turns to the Lord has not done so because they are in fear or panic. People don't need an excuse to turn to the Lord. They do so because that is their desire and if it wasn't they wouldn't stick with it.
@LadyGrace No, they're just in denial of Christianity being entirely grounded in a physically impossible event that cannot be proven. It's a foundation of sand.
No, they're just in denial of Christianity being entirely grounded in a physically impossible event that cannot be proven. It's a foundation of sand.
When you address me, please include what I have said so I can know what reference you make. Also we can make our points without being critical of each other's beliefs. For example, you say the Christian faith is on a foundation of sand. What does that mean to you exactly? Why is it on a foundation of sand? God's Word says it is on a foundation of Truth and solid ground, and all other ground is sinking sand. On Christ, the Solid Ground I stand.... all other ground is sinking sand, so if you disagree you'll have to disagree with God and call him a liar. I don't care if you call me a liar but God is not.
The Bible does not say that. The Bible says that all prayer should be directed towards Jesus' father, God, Jehovah.
Take a look at John 3:16 and it says exactly that we should pray to Jesus for salvation.
As for John 16:23 you've taken that out of context and I did not even list that in my post so why are you is showing a quote around that is if I said that, and bringing that up? We're not talking about who we pray to here we're talking about how to receive salvation.
I haven't called you stuff, you're just hurling insults when you notice the conversation is over instead of stopping.
Wow, where in the world did that come from? I never called you any names. Prove it. The last thing on my mind is to hurl insults. 🙄 All I've been doing is replying to your statements. Anyway, we're going to have to agree to disagree. I feel my scripture verses proved very well that we can pray to Jesus but you disagree and you have that right, and I do not want it to get to the point where we're angry with each other or have ill feelings towards each other, so let's just move on. I had thought that we had done a pretty good job of discussing in a fair and amicable manner. Sometimes it's hard to distinguish whether somebody is being sarcastic or not because we cannot hear tone or anything else, but I assure you my intention was not to insult you. I only wanted to make a point. If it sounded sarcastic, that was not my intention.
Then you're either blind or can't read. You left out, I noticed, all the verses I had put in there where the disciples were praying to Jesus. Even when I give you the verses of proof, you either ignore them or say they're not true and they come from God's own Word. I can see now that you don't want to learn. I see that you are too stubborn to believe what God shows you in His Word, and if your pastor or anyone else is telling you that you don't have to pray to Jesus for salvation, when God's word says just the opposite, I hate to say this but you are in a cult and don't even realize it. Someone is teaching you false doctrine and you're eating it up.
@AnonymousJSS That's not really an answer. What makes you so sure that there couldn't be a God? I have seen him do miracles. Of course not physically seen him, but the effects from his healing people that I know are not faking. And I'm one of them. That's how I know he is real amongst many other things. He saved my daughter from dying when the doctors told her she would be dead by next week and there was nothing more they could do for her and her organs were already shutting down.
@LadyGrace It’s called the placebo effect. How do you even know your specific god is doing all that? You don’t. Provide some factual evidence before you claim your God is real.
@AnonymousJSS None other but God could do it. Heal her in one minute? No one but God could do it. Bring her back to life like that. It's certainly wasn't coincidence. Why is that so hard to believe? You can't see the virus yet people are hiding in their house from it. Why? Because they see the effects of it. It's the same way with the Lord. He may be invisible but he is still alive and a miracle worker and he proved it to me many times. Things that people don't understand they tend to criticize or ignore. But just because they have not experienced it doesn't mean it isn't true.
@RedBaron oh yes time will tell I guarantee you. The Bible tells us exactly what's going to happen in the future and there's no other book that can do that and all the prophecies to date, have come to pass. The Bible is as up-to-date as TOMORROW'S NEWSPAPER.
@RedBaron umhmm....just as I thought. You don't know the answer. If you do, let's hear it. You wanted to discuss so let's discuss. Back up your criticism.
The Bible says all you have to do is let Jesus know, through simple prayer, that you would like to receive him as your personal Savior. Repent, believe, and receive.
The Bible does not say that. The Bible says that all prayer should be directed towards Jesus' father, God, Jehovah.
John 16:23 In that day you will ask me no question at all. Most truly I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything, he will give it to you in my name.
Tell me one scripture in the bible where it ever tells us that we should pray to Jesus?
