Heaven is going to be here on earth. To inherit heaven, you have to be a son of God. Accept jesus as lord by faith and then keep his commandments. The major thing is to keep the commandments of christ.

[quote author=Righteousness89 post=90580812]

Is JESUS that works in you and Make you to be able to bear fruits!

Jesus would only begin that when you are willing and you know you have work to do.

No natural man can bear The fruits of the Spirit by himself.

Anyone who hears the words of christ and decides to obey them, the spirit would be pleased to abide with such a man.

The Moment you Surrender to JESUS, You are Saved!

Yes and No. Yes because God accepts you, but no if you don't continue or grow by obeying the commandments of jesus christ.

To Experience more of LORD you Press on to Sanctification. You ask for it! He sanctifies you . Roots out the adamic nature from you.

The fact that you want sanctification and ask for it is a good one, it means you are willing to obey christ and do what he says we should do.

You need more of HIM, you press for the Power of The Holyghost! You ask for it! LORD Baptize me with the power of the Holyghost!

The Holyspirit have been poured out upon all flesh already, so it is not difficult for a willing man to tap into the power of the Holyspirit of course.

With all this you need to continue following the MASTER. His Word becomes your food. Fellowshiping with Him or The Brethren becomes Joy to you. Anything Wordly, Unrighteous irritates u. You get Boldness to preach His Word. HE is the Source of Everything!

Good, at this point you are doing the works of christ.

The Moment you begin to think u have arrived and that your works makes you Saved. Or that you are now Experienced! The Things of GOD suddenly become familiar to you. You know it all!

The parable of the talents signifies that we must work no matter what, we work based on love and faith. Love is not selfish, and would never make you feel you know it all.

That man that you begin to see the worst Sinner , may just before his death say LORD JESUS Forgive me! And he will make Heaven while you who depend on your works Miss it!

Where do you get that from? heaven is here on earth, in the second coming of christ. A willing repentant sinner may be given the chance to avoid the second death during the resurrection, that's what I understand. The repentant sinner may still have some work to do in the 1000year reign of christ.

Righteousness89:


My Brother The Truth, Some of you Read the Bible as a story book!

What does it mean to take your cross?

Did The Master say take your cross and you Eternal Life?

What is in my Bible is Take your Cross and FOLLOW ME!

The way to Heaven is John 3:16
The Moment you believe And Accept JESUS Genuinely, HE gives you The Power to be His son! John 1:12..

Placing your Righteousness on your works to the detriment of the Price JESUS has paid is foolishness.

2 men went up to pray! One said I do this ! I do that! I Fast! I give!
The other man simply said , LORD be Merciful unto me a Sinner! And He was more Justified!

The Thief that was on side of JESUS is in Heaven today ! Lord Remember me in Paradise!

Don't place your Salvation on your works! Place it on JESUS and The Price he has paid!

The Works we do and all that is to Give Pleasure to our FATHER! Don't place your Salvation on Your Works!

There is Nothing you will do by yourself or might that will grant u Eternal Life.. you Need to FOLLOW THE MASTER!

When you Follow , He makes u! It's not by Struggle!

You will Struggle as a Christian if you wanna live by your Power! You can't be happy! You will be in burden!

Whosoever Believes and Accepts JESUS is Saved! He/she is instantly an Heavenly candidate! That is the sole ticket to Heaven!

The moment you accept jesus and believe, that is just the beginning. You then have to bear fruits, you have to show works of righteousness thereafter by the Holyspirit.
If you accept jesus and do not keep his commandments, you can't make God's kingdom coming on earth.
If you struggle to keep the commandments, you then tap into the Holyspirit in you for help, but you must keep the commandments. You must do the works set out for you. Love your neighbour, take care of the helpless, increase the talents given to you.

solite3:
Those who believe in Christ has the righteousness of Christ already. working out your salvation is not the same as working for your salvation. working out your salvation simply means proving the reality of your salvation by through sanctification in Christ while God sanctifies inwardly. you can't even workout what you don't have, first possess salvation before working it out.

The righteousness of christ can only be shown to the world by your deeds. Even after you believe, you must do the works of God. You ask for Holyspirit to sanctify you and lead you in order to do the works of God cut out for you. Faith is all about the willingness to work for God and not simply works of the law alone. Abraham believed God and he proved these by his works and not merely works of the laws of Moses( who was not even born then). That was the argument of paul in a nutshell which many have misunderstood till date.

What is salvation? jesus came to save us from our sins, and sin is simply breaking the rules of God thereby displeasing him.
In saving us from sin, he taught us how to keep the laws of Moses effectively by summarising them into two. He also taught us how to live the kingdom life as though we were already in the kingdom of God.

Eventually he died for proclaiming the kingdom of God and was seen again by his 12 disciples ( 12 signifying the beginning of a new Israel living the kingdom life). This is the gospel and story of christ.

letu:
As in gnostics Hebrews or gnostics Messianic Hebrews this is crazy because the last time I checked John has always been a Hebrew so let me ask, fellow members of Nairaland forum have any of you heard of such know as gnostics Hebrews/gnostics Messianic Hebrews?.

Scholars are not totally certain as to when the gnostics appeared on the scene, but by the second century they already existed and wrote many early christian books such as the book of Thomas, gospel of Peter, etc.
So probably gnostic Hebrews/Messianics already existed. But John emphasized over and over again that jesus came in the flesh, this is a more likely interpretation of that verse, as a verse against probably messianics who bought into some of the emerging gnostic doctrines.

Righteousness89:


No book of the Bible is less or confusing..

The Bible is the Word of GOD. It's your duty to prayerfully read the Word and ask The owner to give you Understanding...

Salvation is no other than Accepting and Believing the Finished work on Calvary.

JESUS Christ is the Symbol of salvation. No Matter what you do, if you get JESUS wrong, you have missed it.

You cannot be saved by your Righteousness. Our Righteousness are filthy rags before HIM. See Isah 64:6,

If the LORD should count your iniquity, who shall stand? Psalm 130:3

After you have done all these things, you are still an unprofitable servant Luke 17:10..

JESUS Christ is The Righteousness of GOD.. Romans 3:10. To attain that Righteousness all we need do is follow Him..

He says, Follow me , I will make you. U can't make yourself.. you can't stay off Sin by your Power! No Matter who you are! As we Follow HIM, He makes us! He Releases His grace! You suddenly see that there are certain things you can't do anymore! It's not by Power! You will crash if you go by your Power!

HOW do you get to Follow JESUS

1. You Accept JESUS as your savior

2. You Ask HIM to sanctify you and fill you with the Holyghost.

3. You Give yourself to Him in Prayers and Reading His Word!

4. The More you come to Him, the more HE works in you..

I never said any book of the bible is less, but the truth is that jesus walked the earth and told us what to do to be his disciples, he said we should take up our cross and follow him. He told us to do the works of God, it wasn't just merely to believe.
This is why I said read matthew, mark, and luke first. When you believe and strive to do God's work, then you also ask God for the leading of his Holyspirit to become the sons of God.
I know you don't want to hear this, but christianity is all about the works of love you do by faith (not works of the mosaic laws) but by the faith of christ and his kingdom.
There are works for us to do, but these are different kind of works.
Read your bible properly to rightly divide the word of truth.

My man, the gospel of christ is all about your deeds not just faith. Faith without works is dead, you must work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Read more of the gospels, mark, matthew, luke, to understand the truth of the gospel of jesus christ. Then only after that, you read stuff like Romans and John.
Also spend time reading the book of James, and proverbs. Don't concentrate on only Paul's letters or that of john, they would confuse before you are ready to understand them fully if you don't take your time.

PiccoloBrunelli:


Yes God is omniscient. He knows it all. However, if you had the best singing voice in the world, would you sing 24/7 just because you can? You will still decide when to sing and what to sing. God has impeccable self control. So he can decide not to know the outcome of a particular event. If he knew that the angel he made would become Satan and that he will deceive the first human couple and subject mankind to thousands of years of unspeakable suffering AND HE STILL WENT AHEAD TO MAKE THAT ANGEL, then that would be most unloving and wicked.

But the Bible tells us different. God is love.

So in other words, God chose not to know what satan would do in the future when he created satan. Does it mean he simply chose not to look into satan's future?

Shelumiel:
The answer is freewill.

Freewill makes no sense to me, if there is an all knowing God.

budaatum:

No it doesn't! That is just a belief you have! And I beg you not to spoil your beautiful understanding with lazy beliefs!

The Quran too is a book. And like the Bible, one must not look at its cover and believe before actually reading to understand it.

Apart from that. buda bows to your superior understanding.

I was responding to his statement that you must believe everything in the bible. The quran actually states that it was dictated to Muhammed from God through the angel jibreel, and that believers cannot reject one part of this revelation and cling to others, you must believe everything in the Quran. Note that the quran was said to be revealed( not written at first) by one man in the space of 23 years. Islam is a true definition of religion of the book.

delkuf:
I don't have problem with people understanding the Bible. my point is that you must believe in the Bible

Must I necessarily believe those stories in Shakespeare were all real in order to live by their principles or to take to heart, what I learnt from them?

delkuf:
I don't have problem with people understanding the Bible. my point is that you must believe in the Bible

what does it mean to believe in the bible from your point of view?

delkuf:
No

Don't you think that even many so called non Christians may understand the gospel than many christians today? I understand a lot from Shakespeare and many underlining truth behind the stories. If I live my life according to the principles of those truth because of my understanding, I do not need to be called a Shakespearean. I am already fulfilling the purpose of those stories, which was why the author wrote them in the first place.
What it means to believe in and follow jesus is to understand his story and let the story lead you to the truth of God for your life. It is also to understand the principles behind his teachings and allow them guide you. If you allow them guide you, it means you believe in them. But first you must let them sink into your soul ( by understanding).

delkuf:
I can't fathom what you have just written. can a person seek to understand the Lord Jesus Christ more without believing in him.

yes

delkuf:
Can that person seek to understand the Lord Jesus Christ more without believing in what the Lord Jesus Christ did. Can that person understand the Lord Jesus Christ more without believing that he died and on the third day he rose from the dead. can he understand without him believing that the Lord Jesus Christ heal the blinds and raise the dead. you guys are missing the most important thing and trying to use logic to read the Bible. it cannot work like that. if I want obey some body, I will believe in what that person say and do.

The person should not necessarily start from believing in anything. Before jesus died and rose, he also taught the gospel. He wanted his people to believe the gospel ( good news), but that was impossible because they did not totally understand his good news(gospel). His good news ( or gospel) was beyond just liberation from Rome, it was first a liberation from your own slavery to self and sin. So jesus taught and taught, he gave many parables about the kingdom of God. That it was already with them there and doesn't necessarily have to come the way they understood previously.
The people had to understand the gospel of jesus in order to believe it.

delkuf:
Please answer my question. what will you tell that individual

I would tell the individual to seek to understand jesus more and perhaps he would come to the knowledge of christ in addition to that of the ten commandments, but I can only tell him/her this, not necessarily because I just believed in jesus but because I myself also have come to the knowledge of christ and I am growing in that knowledge.

delkuf:
No you are wrong. If you don't believe everything in the Bible, you don't believe in it at all. Now if someone says he believes in the ten commandments, but he don't believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead on the third day, what will you tell that individual.

Where do you get this rule from, this applies to the quran and not the bible.
The bible is not one book, the new testament was canonized for the church 300 years after jesus christ. I believe in many messages of the Didache for instance than I believe in Revelation, because I do not understand a lot of what is written in the book of Revelation. It is not necessarily about believing the ten commandments or believing in jesus, it's about understanding the truth and principles in both the ten commandments and jesus.

delkuf:
Does that mean you did not believe in it. My point is you must believe. Even if you understand it, you must still believe. That is why many people are atheist today. They are trying to understand the Bible without believing in it

ok I don't believe that a donkey spoke, or that all miracles in the bible happened the way they were described. I don't believe in the story of Noah's ark and how he housed all those species of animals. I have tried, but I find all of these and many more hard to believe. But I am not an atheist, and I want to obey the teachings of jesus christ and be led by his spirit.

delkuf:
You just quoted what I said. So I don't understand the long episode

That you can't believe everything in the bible, and that it was not dictated by God. It is a book of man that gives us the teachings of God. Was that what you said?

delkuf:
Am still on the point that we cannot understand the Bible if we don't believe in it

But you can. I understand a lot of the stories in the old testament and their context, without necessarily believing all of them happened as written.
When jesus taught in parables, he wants me to make use of my understanding first and to open my eyes. He was challenging my reasoning first and then my beliefs thereafter.

delkuf:
So what is your point. That someone should believe some part of the Bible and not believe in the other part. It was written by ordinary men like me but they were inspired by God. so it is not just ordinary men that wrote the Bible, but men with the Holy Spirit in them. You see what I have been saying. You read the Bible trying to understand it without wanting to believe in it

The bible is a library of books put together by the early church in around 300 A.D.
Before then, there were so many books, for example the Didache and shepherd of hermes, read by the early church in addition to what we have today in the new testament, that were not included. The bible is not one book, and it was written by men like you and I. The bible has several authors across different time frames, and it is not really possible to believe in everything.
It is primarily a book of man with inspired teachings of God within it.

delkuf:
It is not a rule. It is the way it is. That is why many of you don't know the Bible. read the Bible with the mind set of believing what it says and you will understand it. So you cannot understand the Bible without believing in it

And that is why I am asking you why you think so. Why should you believe the bible before understanding it, why not the other way round?

delkuf:
yeah, but not with the Bible. You cannot understand the Bible without believing in it. you must believe then understand.


And sorry for tagging you as an atheist

why do you think so? there is no rule that states you must believe the bible first before understanding it.

Kobojunkie:


No one can become a follower of Jesus Christ simply by wishing for it. Jesus required that those who choose to follow Him do the work that He commands they first do.

1. Be prepared to abandon parents, brother, sister, children, spouse, in-laws, e.t.c.
2. Abandon all that you know/believe, have, and all that you are
3. Bear your own burden (not someone else's cross- not even your family's or children's)



4. Become a child again in your thinking and your actions


5. Be prepared to lose life(reputation, career, control, property, etc.)


6. Desire above all to find and enter the Kingdom of God and also walk the path of righteousness, with God as your guide every step
7. Let go of all control you have over your life and circumstances, allowing God to take care of your every need

Exactly. This is what it means to accept jesus, it is simply by our actions, but in today's christianity they tell you that all you have to do is believe in and recite a formula to be saved.

Righteousness89:


Except A Man be Born-again , He cannot See the kingdom of GOD.

How do I get Born-again?
It is a Spiritual thing but a physical and conscious act.
You have to Accept that you are a Sinner and Confess your sins

You have to Accept and Believe that the Death and Resurrection of JESUS As the only means to be Saved

You call on The Name of JESUS CHRIST to Wash and cleanse you.

It's as simple as that!

All you need to do after that is to connect to His Grace which is able to keep you from sin..

How does merely believing that jesus died and resurrected save you from your sins or the so called Hellfire?

Righteousness89:


My Brother You claim to be wise but u display great Folly!

How does the Home you are born into affect your Salvation..

Even if you are born by a Pastor or Bishop it does not guarantee you eternal life.

Eternity is a Personal Race! It's not a Family Race!
Your Father's Salvation cannot save u!

So also your Father's sin cannot stop you from Eternal Life..

It's about you! Did you Accept JESUS CHRIST?

Whether you are born by a pastor or by a Muslim or by a Buddhist or Atheist or whatever is inconsequential!

The Gospel of JESUS CHRIST is Everywhere and it's Free!

Without Accepting JESUS CHRIST you cannot Make Heaven. It's not my Word ! It's GOD'S WORD

What do you mean when you say.. Accept jesus christ?

Righteousness89:


My Salvation cost you and the 8billion people in Earth Nothing!
It's Free! The Price has been Paid! No sacrifices needy! No goats! Nothing!

JUST Accept JESUS CHRIST!

Even if 7.5 billion refuse to Accept JESUS, they will pay the price! They sent themselves to Hell..

My man, you are mistaken if you think all you have to do is accept jesus and that's all God wants from you. Accept jesus to what end?

What type of evidence would you accept as objective?

MuttleyLaff:
Let me face you then instead of Daejoyoung, who has gone quiet on me and ask you this direct question fieryy. Do you or do you not, have freewill?

Depending on how you answer, the next thing I'll be going for is, I am going to ask, if you are prepared to do an exercise to prove whether or not, you really do or don't have freewill, so be careful how you answer the above question. Waiting for your reply

Lol, I actually answered you, I have freewill but from the view point of an omniscient God, it is useless.

Dtruthspeaker:


The simple understanding of the idea of Freewill vs Foreknowledge is Seen and Explained in a Father and Children Relationship.

Every father here has seen and experienced that he is Sometimes Able to Predict and Foresee what his children shall do but Does He interfere? No, he does not!

He watches to see what his children shall do! As was done to Cain and to Sodium and Gomorrah and all over the Bible, even right now!

Why? Every father here knows the answer! Which is to either Bless with more Goodies or whip and Cane dey come or some other plan wey d papa get, but na d papa na Im go get plan. Pikin can NEVER know I'm papa. All E fit do na to dey calculate and speculate and to dey watch I'm papa to see if him fit find I'm papa plan!

Is God merely predicting how we use our freewill, or he already knew how we would use it even before he created anything?

Oghenerobo2002:
When God created us. He didn't have a predestined destination (hell or heaven) for anyone. He gave us the ability to choose, and that is our problem. Sinning is a choice

In other words, God didn't know everything that would happen beforehand.

MuttleyLaff:
Daejoyoung, nwanne, brother, you're trying to say that there is no freewill, and so then implying because of that, human beings can't be held morally responsible for their actions because according to you "que sera, sera" what would be would be, and nothing can change that coming from an argument that all everyone and everything, humans, animals and things are each and all doing is following the lines in a scripted destiny and fate existence.

I am not against freewill. My having freewill is part of what sets me apart from an animal, object and/or whatever phenomena you can imagine.

Whether freewill is exercised or not exercised, freewill is intrinsically present in every human being and to be made use of as of from when maturely able to. Adam & Eve were matured enough to put freewill into use, so they did and the rest is history.

Now, please tell Daejoyoung, do you really believe that you don't have freewill?

I exercise freewill, but I am arguing from the point of view of God in order to make the Christian arguement consistent. Are you saying God already knows how I would use my freewill? In that sense, you can't say I have freewill even though I use it in this world, but to God it is useless, if he already knows my fate beforehand.