How can God dwell inside of you?

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FEDOS: You can only truly repent of sin by accepting Jesus Christ as your savior and receiving newness of life. Repenting means to turn away, to not practice (again) those things that you were previously bound with.



I repented for many of my sins and dont do many of them anymore. Isnt repentance an action one chooses to DO? How does repentance come through something else like belief in Jesus pbuh? You committed the sin in the first place.
 
AntiKarateKid said:
I repented for many of my sins and dont do many of them anymore. Isnt repentance an action one chooses to DO? How does repentance come through something else like belief in Jesus pbuh? You committed the sin in the first place.
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Repentance is what God enables you to do. By accepting Christ you can be free from all unrighteousness. That is the only way to truly be free from sin. Christianity is holy God reaching out to sinful man, everything else is man reaching out to God.

The Bible also says that God is not the author of confusion.
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Yes this is true. But we are all born into this world spiritually dead, and it takes divine intervention for us to know God. Meaning, that those who are in the world (ie in their sins) will consider the things of God foolishness, because they are in enmity towards holy God.
 
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Fedos said:
Repentance is what God enables you to do. By accepting Christ you can be free from all unrighteousness. That is the only way to truly be free from sin. Christianity is holy God reaching out to sinful man, everything else is man reaching out to God.



Yes this is true. But we are all born into this world spiritually dead, and it takes divine intervention for us to know God. Meaning, that those who are in the world (ie in their sins) will consider the things of God foolishness, because they are in enmity towards holy God.
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Then how come you said that Christians don't necessarily start doing better deeds and sinning less by accepting Jesus pbuh? They are free from all unrighteousness now right?
 
AntiKarateKid said:
Then how come you said that Christians don't necessarily start doing better deeds and sinning less by accepting Jesus pbuh? They are free from all unrighteousness now right?
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I said that God puts those things on your heart when you become a Christian. You don't have to work for your salvation as a Christian, it is a gift of God. And I've explained the Christian lifestyle mutliple times now.
 
Fedos said:
I said that God puts those things on your heart when you become a Christian. You don't have to work for your salvation as a Christian, it is a gift of God. And I've explained the Christian lifestyle mutliple times now.
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But my brothers at the Mosque devote many hours to charities and praise God morning and night, they arent Christian? Neither is my Jewish barber who's a godfearing man.

Why do you say you don't have to work for your salvation?

There are many hardcore murderers and rapists who are Christian, are they promised salvation? The bloodthirty conquistadores who wiped out the native americans were devout Christians. Are all of these guaranteed heaven?

If you say no, that you contradict yourself, and you DO have to work to be a Christian.

If yes, well... I'll leave you to figure out what's wrong with that.
 
But up until the time of Jesus, God made people work for their sins. They had to repent for the wrongs they had done by turning to God in forgiveness. Suddenly, Jesus dies and people no longer have to work.

What makes more sense; a God who is constant or a god who changes? Given that God is an ever-present, uncreated, omniscient being, I'm going to go with the former.
 
rpwelton said:
But up until the time of Jesus, God made people work for their sins. They had to repent for the wrongs they had done by turning to God in forgiveness. Suddenly, Jesus dies and people no longer have to work.

What gives?
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Technically since Jesus is God he changed his way of forgiveness by sacrificing himself.
 
AntiKarateKid said:
But my brothers at the Mosque devote many hours to charities and praise God morning and night, they arent Christian? Neither is my Jewish barber who's a godfearing man.

Why do you say you don't have to work for your salvation?
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God will not accept the good works of those who are still committing trespasses. To God those are not good works but imperfect works, because they are still in their sins. God wants to first cleanse us from all unrighteousness, then we can start doing good works for him.

AntiKarateKid said:
There are many hardcore murderers and rapists who are Christian, are they promised salvation? The bloodthirty conquistadores who wiped out the native americans were devout Christians. Are all of these guaranteed heaven?
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The whole point of Christianity is to receive newness of life. Sins like murder and rape I would imagine are what the Bible calls sin unto death. But just because you murder or rape someone that doesn't mean that God has forsaken you. You still have an opportunity to be forgiven of even things like that. Consider the mercy that Cain professed God showed him after he murdered Abel.

Now, that doesn't mean that Conquistadores were really Christian, because they weren't. It also doesn't mean, that those Catholics who initiated the Crusades were Christian either, or Hitler. These people had none of Christ. It's not like you can accept Christ, and begin to live any kind of way you wish.
 
Fedos said:
God will not accept the good works of those who are still committing trespasses. To God those are not good works but imperfect works, because they are still in their sins. God wants to first cleanse us from all unrighteousness, then we can start doing good works for him.



The whole point of Christianity is to receive newness of life. Sins like murder and rape I would imagine are what the Bible calls sin unto death. But just because you murder or rape someone that doesn't mean that God has forsaken you. You still have an opportunity to be forgiven of even things like that. Consider the mercy that Cain professed God showed him after he murdered Abel.

Now, that doesn't mean that Conquistadores were really Christian, because they weren't. It also doesn't mean, that those Catholics who initiated the Crusades were Christian either, or Hitler. These people had none of Christ. It's not like you can accept Christ, and begin to live any kind of way you wish.
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Fedos, thanks for the response but I feel like you are sidestepping each of my questions. I tried to make them as direct as possible but this is kind of frustrating, to be honest.
 
rpwelton said:
But up until the time of Jesus, God made people work for their sins. They had to repent for the wrongs they had done by turning to God in forgiveness. Suddenly, Jesus dies and people no longer have to work.

What makes more sense; a God who is constant or a god who changes? Given that God is an ever-present, uncreated, omniscient being, I'm going to go with the former.
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In terms of the Old Testament saints, the Bible says that Abraham for instance believed God (that he would make of him a nation) and it was accounted to him for righteousness. People in the Old Testament were waiting on the promise of the Messiah, which is Christ. The Old Testament is a precursor or a foreshadowing of the New. The Old Testament saints, when they died, were in what scripture calls paradise in the center of the Earth, because they couldn't be in the presence of a holy God without Christ's redeeming work on the cross. If the law (or Old Testament) was perfect (meaning if people could keep the law perfectly without spot or blemish) then there would have been no need to send Christ into the world to redeem us.
 
Fedos said:
Now, that doesn't mean that Conquistadores were really Christian, because they weren't. It also doesn't mean, that those Catholics who initiated the Crusades were Christian either, or Hitler. These people had none of Christ. It's not like you can accept Christ, and begin to live any kind of way you wish.
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That's very judgmental of you. I wonder how many Christians there actually are in the world, if we're going by your standards?
 
rpwelton said:
That's very judgmental of you. I wonder how many Christians there actually are in the world, if we're going by your standards?
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Well, it doesn't take you long to discern who is Christian or who is not Christian. If someone confesses to you that they are Christian, and the next thing that comes out of their mouth is a dirty joke or a swear word, then no, they don't have an ounce of Jesus.

And in Hitler's case for instance, no, he had none of Christ. Now, he may have been aided by the Catholic Church (I've read this in a couple places) but the Roman Catholic Church is not Christian. Hitler was actually an occultist, and demon possessed.
 
Fedos said:
Well, it doesn't take you long to discern who is Christian or who is not Christian. If someone confesses to you that they are Christian, and the next thing that comes out of their mouth is a dirty joke or a swear word, then no, they don't have an ounce of Jesus.

And in Hitler's case for instance, no, he had none of Christ. Now, he may have been aided by the Catholic Church (I've read this in a couple places) but the Roman Catholic Church is not Christian. Hitler was actually an occultist, and demon possessed.
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So you would say the Muslim who abstains from such behavior has more "Jesus" in them?
 
AntiKarateKid said:
So you would say the Muslim who abstains from such behavior has more "Jesus" in them?
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Well, that was just an example. You have to first accept Christ. Me for instance, when I was in sin, I cursed a handful of times, mainly because my parents too were Christian, and they served as an example to me.
 
Fedos said:
Well, that was just an example. You have to first accept Christ. Me for instance, when I was in sin, I cursed a handful of times, mainly because my parents too were Christian, and they served as an example to me.
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You didnt answer my question Fedos...
 
Fedos said:
I thought I did. You have to first accept Christ to have any of him.
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So the Christians who go to church but continue to use foul language and act rude have more Jesus in them than the Jew who acts polite and abstains from foul behavior huh?

And the Christian who goes to church but doesnt donate to charity has more Jesus in him than the Muslim who dedicates his life to the poor.
 
AntiKarateKid said:
So the Christians who go to church but continue to use foul language and act rude have more Jesus in them than the Jew who acts polite and abstains from foul behavior huh?

And the Christian who goes to church but doesnt donate to charity has more Jesus in him than the Muslim who dedicates his life to the poor.
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I didn't say that. I said that you have to first accept Christ to have any of him. And, if someone is using foul language and acting rude I question if they are truly saved to begin with, simply based on how I know God works in the life of a believer.

In terms of the last part of your response, this is how it goes: the deeper you go in Christ (ie falling in love with him, studying the Word and discovering his plan for your life, praying, etc, etc), the more concerned you become, and more passionate you are for the lost.
 
Fedos said:
I didn't say that. I said that you have to first accept Christ to have any of him. And, if someone is using foul language and acting rude I question if they are truly saved to begin with, simply based on how I know God works in the life of a believer.

In terms of the last part of your response, this is how it goes: the deeper you go in Christ (ie falling in love with him, studying the Word and discovering his plan for your life, praying, etc, etc), the more concerned you become, and more passionate you are for the lost.
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So you admit that a pious Jew has more "Jesus" in them than an immoral Christian? yes or no?
 
AntiKarateKid said:
So you admit that a pious Jew has more "Jesus" in them than an immoral Christian? yes or no?
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I said, that I question whether or not this supposed "Christian" has ever had a real experience with Jesus Christ. Unless this Jewish person you speak of is one of the Messianic Jews, then no, they have never known Christ. If a Christian stumbles and falls into sin (and I stress the if because they don't have to) at least they know what it is like to live holy before God.
 

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