beads wrote:But in my mind, every post you've made is a contradiction to what you've said in this paragraph. You've maintained that those who do not do good works, but practice a lifestyle of bad works, have lost their faith and therefore lost their salvation.The highlighted portion of your reply is exactly what I believe. How is it that you can believe that, and yet at the same time believe that good works are not required to keep salvation? This seems like a contradiction to me.
Since you are hanging your hat on 1 John, John is what I can use to show you that I do not teach salvation by works since I agree with what John wrote:
1 John 3:1-12
1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. 4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. 5 And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; 8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. 11 For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; 12 not as Cain, who was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous. NAS
Gay theology advocates practicing sin. Good works is not the absence of sin, good works is feeding the poor, housing the homeless, loving your nieghbor and your enemy, and etc. If your view is that committing sin is the same as bad works then no man is born of God since John also writes:
1 John 1:5-10
5 And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. NAS
Now, who proclaims to be Christian and denies that Jesus came in the flesh? Gnostic Christians and Gnosticism were the first false teaching that Christians had to deal with. In our time there are other "antichrists" that do not deny that Jesus came in the flesh, but do deny the Father and the Spirit.
What you seem to be advocating is that once a person is saved they continue to be saved even when they loose faith in Jesus and His promises, practice sin (unrighteousness), and can even deny that Jesus came in the flesh after they once affirmed He did come in the flesh.
If your position is that those who are really saved will overcome this world and endure to the end you do not believe in OSAS you believe in conditional security because your security is not based on your initial response to the gospel but to how you live your life after "believing in your heart and confessing with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord". So am I teaching good works? No, I am teaching that a Christian lives a life of obedience to God through an ongoing faith in Jesus Christ, which is indicated by good works based on faith not a belief that good works can replace faith.
beads wrote:Therefore, you are incorrect in believing that I John 2:18-19 only applies to a certain subset of unbelievers called false prophets because all unbelievers are false prophets. Therefore, I John 2:18-19 applies to all unbelievers, including apostates.
There you go redefining what "apostate" means.
APOSTASY
APOSTASY; APOSTATE
(a-pos'-ta-si), (a-pos'-tat) (he apostasia, "a standing away from"): I.e. a falling away, a withdrawal, a defection. Not found in the English Versions of the Bible, but used twice in the New Testament, in the Greek original, to express abandonment of the faith. Paul was falsely accused of teaching the Jews apostasy from Moses (Acts 21:21); he predicted the great apostasy from Christianity, foretold by Jesus (Matthew 24:10-12) which would precede "the day of the Lord" (2 Thessalonians 2:2). Apostasy, not in name but in fact, meets scathing rebuke in the Epistle of Jude, e.g. the apostasy of angels (Jude 6). Foretold, with warnings, as sure to abound in the latter days (1 Timothy 4:1-3; 2 Thessalonians 2:3; 2 Peter 3:17). Causes of: persecution (Matthew 24:9-10); false teachers (Matthew 24:11); temptation (Luke 8:13); worldliness (2 Timothy 4:4); defective knowledge of Christ (1 John 2:19); moral lapse (Hebrews 6:4-6); forsaking worship and spiritual living (Hebrews 10:25-31); unbelief (Hebrews 3:12). Biblical examples: Saul (1 Samuel 15:11); Amaziah (2 Chronicles 25:14,27); many disciples (John 6:66); Hymenaeus and Alexander (1 Timothy 1:19-20); Demas (2 Timothy 4:10). For further illustration see Deuteronomy 13:13; Zephaniah 1:4-6; Galatians 5:4; 2 Peter 2:20-21.
(from International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Electronic Database Copyright (c)1996 by Biblesoft)