Thread: Redefining Salvation By Use of Romans 10: 13
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Redefining Salvation By Use of Romans 10: 13
Posted : 25 Aug, 2013 07:36 AM
Redefining Salvation By Use of Romans 10: 13
"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Romans 10: 13
This statement does not include many of the other teachings of Christ and Paul about salvation, many of which deal with the spiritual condition of the unsaved person, and of the changes which come about when the person takes on the mind of Christ.. Paul emphasizes in I Corinthians 2: 14 that the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit.
But - because Romans 10: 13 does not include all the other doctrines of the NT on salvation does not mean is opposes these other doctrines.
Then in II Corinthians 5: 17 Paul teaches that "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Philippians 2: 5
"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." II Corinthians 3: 18
"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Romans 12: 2
"Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:" Colossians 1: 13
"I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God....Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." John 3: 3, 5-7
There are scriptures which add understanding to the salvation process beyond it being a big change in a person, which can occur at one time, or go on over a period of time.
"Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." Philippians 2: 12-13
Philippians 2: 12-13 would strongly imply that salvation involves more than following the Charles Finney Alter call. Nineteenth century revivalist Charles Finney began using the Alter Call, and later many evangelical preachers like Billy Graham popularized it after the period of about 1945 to 1950.
Romans 10: 13 can be more easily made into a doctrine of easy salvation than can John 3: 1-7, on being born again. Being born again has to be redefined to make it conform to easy salvation. Its called the New Birth in contemporary Christianity. The alter call and Romans 10: 13, without many of the other texts on salvation, can be made into a doctrine of salvation almost as by a procedure, a ritual.
Salvation can be something, as Paul implies in Philippians 2: 12-13, that goes on over time and is not just a one time emotional experience in the group dynamic setting of large congregation and evangelical preacher.
Then II Corinthians 13: 5 says "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" How do you know that you are in faith and that Christ is in you? If you are a new person, as II Corinthians 5: 17 talks about, a new creature, you can get some indication that you have undergone a real transformation in Christ.
In addition, Paul explains in II Thessalonians 2: 10-12 that "And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
Having a new love for the truth of the Word of God and a new understanding of it can be two indications that one is in faith and in Christ and is not a reprobate, not still in the spiritual state of the natural man.
Scripture does not contradict itself, though some verses in the newer English versions have verse wordings so different from the older versions - the Tyndale, Geneva and King James - that the doctrines taught by these verses are changed in the new versions..
The basis of faith is that scripture is truth. II Timothy 2: 15 writes about "rightly dividing the word of truth." James 1: 18 says "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth..." John 17: 17 says " Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1: 1 "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14: 6
Sanctification and salvation have been separated into two different concepts in man made theology, but they are not as completely separated in scripture - if salvation is understood to be the same thing as entering the Kingdom of God in John 3: 3 by being born again, or transformed.. Entering the Kingdom of God may have been redefined as being somehow different from salvation by man made theologies.
The word of God is absolute truth and fact. But the dialectic mind wants to compromise the truth of scripture, to make scripture seem to contradict itself, to compromise the absolute nature of scripture, to have it say yea and nay, for it to be ambiguous, to have loop holes, so man-made theologies can more easily be used to deceive people. Those who have the dialectic mind, which is an expression of the natural man, will argue against the absolute truth of the Word.
So Romans 10: 13 cannot be used to argue against many other texts on salvation because scripture does not oppose itself. If it appears to do so, it is the understanding of the one claiming it wars against itself that is lacking.
Paul says in II Corinthians 12: 20 "For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults:"
Those who are still in the condition of the natural man and ague against the absolute truth of scripture cause divisions in the ekklesia, and the result of this is what Paul is talking about in saying he fears he might find the ekklesia at Corinth in debate, strife, backbiting, pride, anger, and tumults.
Paul in Romans 1: 28-30 lists eris, which is translated in the Tyndale, Geneva and King James as debate, as an expression of the reprorbate mind. But following the Westcott-Hort led committee which produced the 1881 British Revised Version, eris was translated as strife, making a change in doctrine from the earlier English Bibles about Christians getting into debate or having quarrels. Almost all more recent English versions have stride instead of debate.
Paul in I Timothy 6: 3-5 says "If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself." Strifes of words is from logomachia, word fights. Those who teach contrary to the words of Christ are more likely to initiate word fights.
"Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;" Philippians 1: 27
Acts Two is not the new birth, it was the first Christians waiting for the day of Pentecost to fully come and be poured out.
No one can receive THE Gift of the Holy Ghost, lest they be born again.
lk 20:22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
Notice the language this is the first example I know of any being born again. it was not possible until Jesus sat down at the right hand of the father.
Joh 14:17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
There has to be understood in Romans 10: 13-17 that transformation Paul talks about in Romans 12: 2, becoming a new creature in II Corinthians 5: 17, having the mind of Christ in Philippins 2: 5, being translated into the kingdom of his dear Son of Colossians 1: 13, changed by the Spirit of the Lord in II Corinthians 3: 18 and especially being born again in John 3: 1-7. The Holy Spirit does not function in our time, but in a timelessness, so that when he gives a scripture he knows the related scriptures he has inspired in the past and the scriptures on that topic he will inspire in the future. Not to believe this is not being in faith.
You continually mix several different topics here,
Romans 12:1-2 is speaking of the new man in Christ, keeping his body under, and this new man in Christ renewing his mind which is an ongoing work, the mind did not change in the new birth, it has to be renewed to the word of god by the new man in Christ, this is not a work of the holy spirit. The mind of Christ is simply not a new mind but an ability to think as god thinks, his thoughts.
Man is born again by the word of God not the Holy Spirit, then the holy spirit regenerates man as a brand new Spirit being,
Those who do not obey the Gospel and are not in faith, as Romans 10: 16-17 says, and remain in the flesh as two part man, body and mind, without the spirit of man created by the Holy Spirit, and who are in the state of the natural man of I Corinthians 2: 14 want a means to salvation which does not really change them. Romans 10: 13 cannot mean that the act of calling on the name of the Lord, merely as a procedure, or act, brings on salvation and all that means in the many scriptures in the NT.
Man is not a two part being and he never was, that is a man's doctrine, he was a spiritual being after the fall, just as he was before the fall. The passage you mention teaches that the word is spiritually discerned, not naturally discerned, speaking of the flesh ruled by the five physical senses, and the unrenewed mind.
You continue to substitute the word salvation for being,getting saved.
The easy salvation message, which often increases the numbers of people in the churches, has led to an increase of tares in the ekkelsia to the point that non-Christians see Christianity as phony and powerless. There are non-Christians who are anti-Christian and non-Christians who are not anti-Christian. But it is almost impossible to get non-Christians who are anti-Christian to see that there are Christians who are not part of the phony and powerless religion they often see. They cannot separate Christianity from the churches in their man-made doctrines. They cannot understand that the churches are in false doctrines while the Word of God still stands and Christ is still there.
Those who claim to be Christians but show no evidence of having been changed so that they are different from people in the world are a negative witness to those people in the world who look on Christianity as being phony or that becoming a Christian is like joining a club, political party or fraternity.
Christian leaders and individual pastors who have replaced the Word of God on salvation with a very easy way to salvation - which is not salvation for many or most - are among the many false prophets that Matthew 24: 11 mentions and that Peter in II Peter 2: 1-3 talks about, who "with feigned words make merchandise of you."
"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." Matthew 7: 13-15
"Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:" Romans 9: 27
"And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Revelation 12: 17
Only a few of physical Israel accepted Christ, which is what Paul is talking about in Romans 11: 5, and they fulfilled the prophecies in the Old Testament that God would turn physical Israel upside down (II Kings 21: 13, Isaiah 29: 16, Jeremiah 18: 1-7).
"Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
3. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:
4. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
5. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
6. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.
7. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
8. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.
9. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
10. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
11. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
12. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not."
The foolish virgins thought they were in Christ and secure, but it turned out that this was not true.
"Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:" II Peter 1: 10
If salvation were as easy as the easy salvation preachers say, then why would Peter tell us to make our calling and election sure?
"For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
20.And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
21. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22. In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
23. If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;" Colossians 1: 19-23
To be saved one must continue in the faith grounded and settled and not rely on an easy salvation which often turns out not to have led to the person being born again.
We do not have any luxury to put any meaning to scripture we want to, according to our ideals.
When you speak of Romans 10:13 it is simply as it is written.
Sozo To Rescue, to deliver, to make whole.
Col1:12 � Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
Col1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
Col1:14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
When Man confesses Jesus as lord he is born again, that simple delivered from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son, and made whole in every area of live on the earth.
Acts 2:37 � Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Acts 2:39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Acts 2:40 And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
Acts 2:41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
Here is an example of that very sozo taking place one minute they where not and then they where.
"The easy salvation message, which often increases the numbers of people in the churches, has led to an increase of tares in the ekkelsia to the point that non-Christians see Christianity as phony and powerless. There are non-Christians who are anti-Christian and non-Christians who are not anti-Christian. But it is almost impossible to get non-Christians who are anti-Christian to see that there are Christians who are not part of the phony and powerless religion they often see. They cannot separate Christianity from the churches in their man-made doctrines. They cannot understand that the churches are in false doctrines while the Word of God still stands and Christ is still there."
