,,, And Man's Foes, Shall Be They Of His Own Household - Matthew 10:36

Jay

2 Kings 2:23-24

Atheists quote that story to paint God as being mean for killing children (insert kindergarten school photos here).
"Little children out of the city" translated word for word : "unimportant city youths"... literally 'hood rats' or 'urban yutes' in arfcom-ese.

Guess I'm not alone in preferring the Old Testament based on the posts in this thread.

Aside from Revelations the New Testament is very.....pacifistic.

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15 KJV)

Do you feel compelled to do God's work?

Are you seriously trying to anecdotally argue against what Jesus and Paul say in scripture?

Let it go. You don't get to decide who God can save.

I never said you won't be saved if you don't do works. Slow down and take in what people are saying before getting angry.

I'm not angry. I've also read what you've posted in this thread and others.

Let it go. When you ignore the Bible and try to discredit people personally you've lost the argument.

Psalms 84:4

Rescue the weak and the needy, deliver them from the hands of the wicked.

Psalms 17:6   Thou shall not favor certain passages of Gods word over others.

never mind, it’s the weekend,

I’ll try to play nice.

Matthew 9:9-12

9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’[a] For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Amos 3:10 “They do not know how to do right,” declares the LORD, “who store up in their fortresses what they have plundered and looted.”
11 Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “An enemy will overrun your land, pull down your strongholds and plunder your fortresses.”

Romans 8:2

2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

The book of James speaks of men looking at the works of other men.  In other words, it's a horizontal view, not a vertical one.

The Lord knoweth them that are his (2 Tim 2:19).  God doesn't need to see works to know who He saved.  God saved Abraham when Abraham believed God.  Because Abraham believed God, he was willing to offer Isaac, knowing that God would keep His promises and if he offered Isaac, God would raise Isaac from the dead and Abraham's offspring, through Isaac, would be as the sand on the seashore.

But men couldn't see Abraham's belief.

But, when men heard that Abraham was willing to make that offering in obedience to God, THEN MEN knew that Abraham had faith - it wasn't just talk.

The. Bible, in James, is basically saying, "talk is cheap."  Any one can claimed to be saved.  I have no doubt there are people who know how to be saved - but aren't.  A person can know that a gift was purchased, and then offered to them - but just knowing that is not the same as receiving the gift.  Without accepting that gift one does not receive the benefits of owning the gift.

One of the benefits of receiving the gift of salvation is bearing fruit - good works that honor God.

Heb 11 is often referred to as the roll call of faith.  It is a roll call of Old Testament sinners saved by God's grace - through faith - and the works that they did as a result of their salvation.

The works are not the cause of salvation, they are the result of salvation.

Some erroneously conflate cause with result.  The Bible makes a clear distinction.

Who am I trying to discredit?