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To anyone who can show me in the Bible where it
says;
"Invite Jesus into our
hearts",
1
or
"open up the door of our
hearts and let Jesus in"
2
or
"make Jesus the Lord of our
life"
3
or
"saying the 'sinners prayer'
.
4
AND
that doing any combination of
the above makes us a Christian.
The reward also extends to the following familiar beliefs with
qualifications.5
And I,
if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
(Jesus speaking in John 12:32).
God
inhabits the praises of His people.
By their fruits
you shall know them. (Used as a measuring stick usually
regarding Christian behavior.)
1. Inviting Jesus into our hearts is a garbled
reference to Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:
if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to
him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Notice that this scripture is written to Christians, not
non-Christians. Could Jesus be saying here, that
it is possible for genuine Christians to shut the door in Jesus'
face? It seems like it.
2. See '1' above
3. God made Jesus the Lord of all, including
everybody's lives. Now we can choose to agree with that fact or
disagree with it, but it is a fact regardless. Thinking that you
make Jesus the Lord of anything, is just more of religion's way
of doing a 'work' to deserve God's grace. Philippians 2:9-11
4. The nearest thing we see in scripture to a
'sinners prayer' is 'Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. Jesus
said of the man who uttered that prayer, that this prayer
(linked to the man's whole attitude), sent him home justified.
Luke 18:13
5. Finding any of these phrases in any English
Bible version must be fairly based on the original texts.
Here's a teaser.
If you were
to ask a variety of Christians what verse of scripture
encapsulated the Gospel, most would answer, John 3:16.
It reads...
For God so loved the
world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish,
but have everlasting
life.
(KJV Version)
Christians
often quote this verse, and in doing so, explain that the death
of Jesus provided the remedy for the cause and effects of sin in
our lives.
They would
never dream of separating this verse from the death of Jesus,
and would explain that "he gave his only begotten Son" means
"gave Him to die for us".
But, what
makes this interesting, is that it was spoken by Jesus Christ,
before Jesus' death, to a Jewish religious
teacher.
If Jesus
hadn't died yet, how could Nicodemus apply the effects of
Calvary to himself,
in the way
modern evangelists construe it?
More Soon...
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