Posted by Joyce on 11/1/2006, 8:02 am, in reply to "questions" You have brought up a very interesting question when you wrote, "Isn't belief neccessary for everlasting life? Isn't this what separates the wicked from the righteous?". In fact it is the question that I am now writing a paper about. What exactly is the gospel of salvation? Is it forgiveness of sins, or is it belief in Christ as the Son of God? I believe it is the later as that is what John tells us in Jn. 20:31, "But these (the signs) are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name". Actaully (and I hesitate to mention this as I don't want to make anyone angry) but forgivenss of sins has nothing to do with salvation, it has to do with God's fellowship with man. Consider I Cor. 15:17, "And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are YET IN YOUR SINS". If we are, apart from resurrection, "yet in our sins" then obviously it is not the forgivenss of sins that saves us, it is resurrection. I suppose I should have waited till my paper is finished and on the web before I brought this up, but the timing seems to be out of my hands. By the way, reconciliation is not the same as resurrection. Rom. 5:10, "For if, when we were enemies. we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, MUCH MORE, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life". The fact that Paul speaks of being saved as "much more" than reconciliation proves that they cannot be the same or one would not be "much more" than the other. There is a paper on my web-site (www.rightwordtruth.com) called "Who Was Reconciled to God By The Cross?" that discusses that issue. In Christ,
64.12.116.13
Dear Lynn,
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