Importance of Original Sin

It is ok that over the 66 books of the divine revelation God gradually and progressively unveils more and more of His salvation.Even in the Tanach the implication of man needing spiritual enlivening from a spiritual death is strongly indicated in Ezekiel 36.

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"I will also give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.

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And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and My ordinances you shall keep and do." (Ezek. 36:26,27)

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People of flesh with hearts of stone surely suggests a spiritually unresponsive and dead spiritual inner being. God needs to replace the stone heart with a living flesh heart and the old spirit with a new spirit.People with the heart of stone taken away and given a heart of flesh surely suggests an enlivening to spiritual life. And this making alive causes responsiveness to God's will. Being given a new and living heart they will walk in the Divine statutes and ordinances.So spiritual death is not totally a New Testament concept.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

Let's set the record straight. 1.) Jesus so-called "entourage" - If I was understood correctly, I taught that among all of Christ's believers after all raptures are completed, a remnant, a minority will be rewarded to accompany Him in the battle of Armegeddon. He will descend to the earth with this Bridal army accompanying Him.Did I say that I absolutely KNEW that I, jaywill, will be in that so rewarded group of overcomers ? No I did not. I would like to be among those overcomers so rewarded. But I have no guarantee at this moment that I would be so rewarded.If I am mistaken please produce the post in which I assured everyone reading that I personally knew I would be among this accompanying band of overcomers as Christ's so-called "entourage." 2.) The sheep people and the goat people are from the nations found alive on earthat the time of Christ's descent. I expect that all the Christians by that time would have been raptured to Christ and stand before Him to be judged. This judgment seat of Christ takes place in the air before Christ descends.I expect that I will have been raptured.
I do not expect all Christians to have been raptured at the same time.
But I expect all eventually will have BEEN raptured, so the crowds of
Matthew 25:31-46 will be the nations of non-Christians among Gentile nations at the time of Christ's descent.That is what I taught here.Of course I seek to be one of the overcomers. I do not know that I will be in that accompanying remnant with Jesus now, as it should be. Otherwise I would rest falsely on my laurels and not seek to keep pursuing the Lord Jesus.I have the assurance of eternal redemption and eternal life.
I do not have the assurance of reward.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

Not true at all ! I do not expect to be among those Gentile nations as sheep and goats. But I did not exempt myself from being judged by Christ.You misrepresent my posts Ringo.I wrote about the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10; Romans 14:10). That is a judgment not to determine eternal redemption which has been decided in the affirmative to all who believe into Christ.That is the judgment for reward or discipline for their position in the millennial kingdom. I believe that I wrote more than once that every Christian is subject to that judgement.It is in fact THERE that Christ will decide things like who will be rewarded to accompany Him as His overcoming bridal army in the battle of Armageddon - (See Revelation 19).Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

Before the evolutionary process started, was this standard of moral goodness and badness in existence for evolution to move kind of upwards towards ?Was there a moral law of goodness and badness before life's origin and evolution?Or is this moral goodness and badness just a chemical composition of molecules that somehow was selected for for species survival value in evolution's meandering unguided development ? Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

I use to refer to the site Rules but now I get "Selection Does not Exist."I recall something about decorum and respectful language being in the rules years ago.

You never read how God manifested Himself to the power accustomed prophet Elijah?He was not in the wind that broke the rocks in pieces.
He was not in the fire.
He was not in the earthquake.He was in the "still small voice." See First Kings 19:9-4.The prophet was use to God being only one way - dramatically overpowering. In the progressive revelation of God, God had to teach Elijah that God was also in the gentle, quiet voice of man's conscience.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

My point was this reminder: Names will not be mentioned.

God is omnipresent.The lesson, I think, He was teaching Elijah the prophet was that He was still mighty in ways quiet , intimate, very personal and subjective.We see this pictured elsewhere in the Holy Spirit symbolized as a dove.

You do have that chance. You do have the opportunity to put reality on that boast.I don't mean actual physical dying as when your heart stops beating. But receiving Jesus will afford you many opportunities to say "No" to your old nature and "Yes" to Christ living within you.Immediately something as death and resurrection occurs and Jesus Christ flows out through your soul to touch others.I am serious.And the wonderful thing is that the more you deny your soul-life in favor of allowing the life giving Spirit of Christ to flow out of you, each time results in a transformation of your soul into Christ likeness.So this is why our Christian brother the Apostle Paul pioneered the way and told us that he died DAILY -

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"I protest by the boasting in you, brothers, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily." (1 Cor. 15:31)

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Everyday Paul had opportunity to die and be resurrected in his psychological and spiritual being.Here again this pioneer in the Christian life told us that he lived a life of dying to his old self and living in the new man united with Jesus -

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" I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now ive in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

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I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness is through law, then Christ died for nothing." (Galatians 2:20,21)

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Paul says that he does not nullify the grace of God. What is this grace of God ? It is that Jesus Christ is alive and available and in a form in which He can enter into a man's innermost spiritual being in reality. Then the man can not just enjoy a new birth but a new growth, new development, new maturation, a new process of learning to die to the old life and live in the sphere of God united with his being.So when you confidently boast that you could gladly die and be raised for the benefit of others, believe me, you do have ample opportunity to live a crucified and resurrected daily life in Jesus.And you could demonstrate this by being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ receiving Him as Lord. This simple act of baptism is one of the few Christian symbols ordained in the New Testament.It portrays your decision to die with Christ, be buried with Christ, and be raised with Christ in faith and utter identification, even as Paul confessed -My ego is given over to the Lord Jesus Christ. His death and resurrection I by faith count as my dying to the old Adamic nature and living again in the new nature - a divine / human nature imparted into me by my receiving Jesus as Lord. " The last Adam became a life giving Spirrit " (1 Cor. 15:45) The last Adam - Christ, concluded the whole race of Adam and his downward decline away from God.The last Adam - Christ is the second man, the new Head of a new humanity. And in His resurrection He became a God giving, life giving, Holy Spirit giving, grace conveying, new nature empowering Spirit.Those are not just words now. This is real. The last Adam, Jesus Christ, rose and became a life giving Spirit to dispense Himself into all who believe in Him and receive Him.

I understand what you said.You do not understand what I am saying and what the New Testament is saying in this regard.You don't have any experience of what I am saying.
And you do not understand me.
It is not a matter of more intelligence needed as if you are not smart enough to read and comprehend words. It is a matter of having no experience because of no revelation or obedience to that revelation.Maybe someday you will understand.

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Act of The Apostles says that those who CHOOSE TO BE CHRISTIANS had to give up their houses and possessions.

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Acts does not say that that was a legal requirement. It says that some did it voluntarily. And when Ananias and Sapphire FAKED that they did to look good, they were rebuked for the hypocrisy and NOT for any disobedience.Their property could have remained their own. The discipline they underwent was because they wanted to look good when it was not a legal requirement for them to relinquish their property.

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The scripture says nothing of anybody ELSE keeping their property except the couple you just mentioned.

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That is true. But this instance was recorded for our teaching.This instance was recorded. Whether other instances occurred is speculation.

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The scripture says every other Christian believer, at the time, gave all of their possessions.

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Generally, it highlights that this was their practice.

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Just prior to this incident, it says ALL gave everything. Unmistakable words in the text. Do you, Jaywill, disagree with the literal interpretation of the chapter 4 text which says that ALL GAVE EVERYTHING?

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No. I do not disagree with the general information.
To think there were NO exceptions may be unrealistic.
Ananias and his wife were exceptions.The "all" already has a qualifier.

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Now, some logic.

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I don't know if you will agree with my logic, but doesn't is seem LOGICAL to assume that there would have been lots, of the thousands of believers, who would have kept their property if it was voluntary?

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Logically, I think we could compare it to the Israelites offering freely theur ornamants for the building of the tabernacle. Eventually they had so much that they needed no more.I do not mean an exact parallel. I mean the over all general practice was a communal trust that all things could be combined into a common pool.Peter's word indicates that some had freedom to keep a portion or perhaps all as their own if they did not have the faith to participate. Isn't that the tone of his rebuke of the couple?The numbers of such similar cases can only be speculated upon.My point really was that we should not understand that a "Thou Shalt Be Communal" like COMMANDMENT was issued. This was a spontaneous outpouring of good will and empathy.Latter by the time of the epistles of Paul generosity and liberality were more depending upon nor a general outpouring but individual spiritual growth. This is in fact probably harder then going along with a crowd.Latter, before God and in the Christian conscience men and women were to give of their resources according to the grace of God they had. See Second Corinthains.

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Taxes aren't voluntary today, for a reason.

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You are going into an area beyond my interest.
This account was concerning the CHURCH - the called out community. She is in the world but not OF the world.Superimposing all this on wordly government practices delves into practices which do not even require God or God's salvation.Worldly government may IMITATE things read in the Bible.
This is somewhat like a dog walking on its hind legs "like" a man.It is not the same thing for it does not require the grace of Christ within.

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The text says Ananias and Sapphire had the power to give the money but lied.

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I agree.

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People lie on their taxes, but it is the act of not paying them that is the issue.

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The rebuke from the Apostle Peter to the couple, however, was about their under appreciating the knowledge of the Holy Spirit. Outwardly, they wanted to look good too. Peter showed them and all else that in the church there should not be play acting to look good. All was based on inward reality.This is totally different from the IRS demanding that a citizen fork over the revenue being withheld against proportions demanded by law.You can see the difference, can't you?Peter didn't say "Ananias and Saphira, You OWE us, the church in Jerusalem such and such number of dollars!"

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Ananias and Sapphire WERE IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT.

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I agree.

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Call it the "Captain Power dressing down"

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Not sure I follow that.
But there was an outpouring of liberal empathy and generosity.

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YOU HAVE THE POWER!

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He said that they had every right to withhold what they did. They should not PRETEND that they were doing otherwise for the sake of looking good to everyone.What they were BEFORE GOD was what was important.
God the Holy Spirit knows all, sees all.The local church was not being run by mere men.
It was being overseen by men in the Holy Spirit who cannot be deceived.

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(Don't torture the text!)

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I didn't torture any text.
And I have experienced some and heard of this kind of thing because I have practiced the New Testament church life for over 40 years.I know what it is to have a powerful revival off the Holy Spirit come through.
Similar things I have seen happen.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.