Works Required for Salvation Under the Gospel of the Kingdom?

Jerry Shugart

Well-known member
"Works Required for Salvation Under the Gospel of the Kingdom?"

Those in the Neo-MAD camp obviously do not understand the meaning of "grace" because they say that the Jews who lived under the Law could not be saved apart from works.

But this is what Paul says:

"Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all" (Ro.4:16).​

According to those in the Neo-MAD community "grace" and "works" are not mutually exclusive. Of course they just turn their ears from the truth because Paul teaches that they are mutually exclusive:

"Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt" (Ro.4:4).​

How is it possible that they have ever believed the gospel of the grace of God since they are clueless about the meaning of "grace" as defined by Paul?
 

Robert Pate

Well-known member
Banned
And what does the Bible propose on how to please God?

We simply have good will to our neighbors.. much of whom are going to Hell as far as what I can deduce from the scriptures.

Which makes our works hardly meaningful, it's in our own willingness- that's what God seeks.

The only thing that pleases God is faith in his Son Jesus Christ.

Faith is the only thing that God will honor, not works.
 

Danoh

New member
Before a person could be baptized with water that person must first believe, as witnessed by the following exchange between Philip and the eunuch:

"And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God" (Acts 8:36-37).​

And by the time when anyone believes he is already saved:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (Jn.3:16).​

Of course you in the Neo-MAD camp do not believe what is said there. And besides that, none of you know what the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins was about.

Jerry's profound narcissism has him twisting the Scripture to his own self [and that of other's] destruction.

And though he asserts he is Mid Acts, he is actually some fifty years behind later, further refinements in understanding.

What you see in him is a case of the actual Neo-Mid Acts-ist in all this; attempting to shame others into his errors.

We differ with him on some issues.

But he turns that into strong disagreement against others.

Why? Because he cares?

No. Because he is a hypocrite through and through in his narcissism.

The narcissist is never content with differences.

Never.

To such an individual, difference is evidence of strong disagreement against his puffed up self-image his profoundly low sense of self-worth has resulted in because he has never dealt with its issue by the only means to - at the Cross alone...

Not by ever pitting oneself against one's own in some sort of a never ending self-righteous hypocrisy.

Truth is, Jerry's battle is not with his own, rather; with himself in his failure to take this issue of his to the Cross.

As a result, he ever lives dead to the Spirit's mind; in his ever pressing sense of need to be proven the only one who knows what's what and this will simply not allow him to allow others to differ.
 

Danoh

New member
Do you think that James was in the will of God when, according to you, he introduced works into justification?

Your answer, should you agree with him, Robert, will be followed with a request from him that you lay out exactly why you agree that he is right.
 

Jerry Shugart

Well-known member
I wish that there is at least one person from the Neo-MAD community who would define what being justified by "grace" really means.

They continue to insist that the Jews who lived under the law could not be saved apart from works. And of course they have yet to even attempt to explain what is said about David, a man who lived under the Law:

"Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin" (Ro.4:4-8).​

Instead of actually addressing these words of the Apostle Paul some of those from the Neo-MAD camp on this thread think that if they continue to attack me personally then the words of Paul which I quoted will go away.

But I got bad news from them. The facts which prove that those who lived under the Law were saved by "grace" through faith will not go away:

"Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all" (Ro.4:16).​
 

Jerry Shugart

Well-known member
Paul Sadler, perhaps the top spokesmen in the Neo-MAD community as well as the president of the Berean Bible Society, teaches that under the gospel of the kingdom works were required for salvation:

"We should add that the gospel of the circumcision and the gospel of the kingdom are inseparably bound together. Both are based upon a 'performance system. 'It is this program and message that James was laboring under when he wrote his epistle...How often James must have heard one of his countrymen say, 'I believe in God.' But James observed that there were no fruits in his life that substantiated his claim, which was essential under the gospel of the circumcision" [emphasis added] (Sadler, "Studies in the Epistle of James," The Berean Searchlight, January, 2006, p.8-9).​

Sadler continues, writing that "According to James, Abraham served as a 'pattern' to the circumcision that faith and works were 'required' for salvation under their program" [emphasis added] (Ibid., p.10).

Sadler gave no reason why we shouldn't believe what is written here, words that prove that only faith is necessary for salvation:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (Jn.3:16).​

Now let's see if any of those in the Neo-Mad camp will address this verse.
 
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