Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. (John 4:13-14)

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Meeting Tomorrow with 2-4 LDS Missionaries

Dear readers and patrons of Free Grace Theology Blog,

Please pray for me as I will be hosting 2 - 4 LDS missionaries to my house tomorrow.

I work at a church as a part time deal, and as I was getting ready to leave one Saturday, I saw 2 LDS missionaries proceeding to a house across the street from the church. They waved and nodded to me. I nodded and smiled. Now I don't know if they were uncomfortable with visiting a house to proseltyze it so close to a Southern Baptist church or they were arrogant with spiritual pride, or just plain friendly.

As I got into my car, I prayed for those who lived in the house and these missionaries. I found a tract that I like to use from Zane Hodges and wrote something like:

Hello, my name is Antonio da Rosa. If there is ever a time that you want to have your faith challenged by the Bible, I would be most interested in meeting with you.


I didn't hear anything for about a month and a half, but I received a phone call about a week ago and now I have a meeting with them. Please pray for me as I wish to be used as an instrument and tool in God's hands. Pray for wisdom and a moving of the Holy Spirit. Pray that God would orchestrate and oversee the conversation and that I can be sensitive to His leading. Pray for the salvation of these men who have become entangled in a hopeless religion.

I will let you all know how it goes.

Antonio da Rosa

39 Comments:

Blogger alvin said...

Hi Antonio

I will be praying that the Holy Spirit will open their eyes to the truth!!!

God Bless you bother!!!
alvin

November 11, 2008 8:23 PM  
Blogger Diane said...

Antonio,

Thank you for sharing this with us. I will be praying.

Diane

November 11, 2008 9:22 PM  
Blogger David Wyatt said...

Amen bro. Antonio! Praying now & will continue. God Bless you.

November 12, 2008 7:51 AM  
Blogger Rose~ said...

I will pray for you right now.

I could encourage you vocally if you would ever return mine and John's calls. :~)

I do hope the Lord moves in the midst.

November 12, 2008 8:12 AM  
Blogger Antonio said...

Well, I just finished this very moment. Please pray for Elders Caplin and Rich.

I hosted them for 2 1/2 hours. God used me, folks! Thank you all for your prayers. Truth was presented.

I will speak as to the encounter a bit more later. I am praising God that I was faithful to His word. His word will not return void, but will accomplish that which He intends it to. In eternity we will know what the results of this meeting is going to be.

Talk to you all later.

Antonio

November 12, 2008 12:40 PM  
Blogger Diane said...

Praise God! I've been praying for you, Antonio!!! You were right... God Word will not return void.

Rejoicing today,
Diane
:-)

November 12, 2008 2:02 PM  
Blogger alvin said...

Amen Antonio!!!!

I will be very interested to hear how it went because I have been dealing with a Mormon for sometime at work. It took me a while to figure out he believed everyone had eternal life. He stays on straight nights so I only get to speak to him face to face every other 10 weeks. But he is the nicest person you could meet and is respected by everyone.
Praise the Lord for your faithfulness!!!!

alvin

November 12, 2008 3:41 PM  
Blogger David Wyatt said...

Praise God! We'll keep praying.

November 12, 2008 6:58 PM  
Blogger Sanctification said...

Hi Antonio,

Did you end up getting four of them?? That's incredibly unfair odds against you, but the Word will see you through I am sure of it!

They must have sent their very best over to you, since you said "challenged by the bible."

;) Michele

November 13, 2008 1:41 PM  
Blogger Rose~ said...

We are looking forward to hearing about it, Antonio. :~)

November 14, 2008 11:17 AM  
Blogger alvin said...

Yah!!! We want to know if they came out with guns blazing!!! That’s kinda COWBOY talk uh? Bush got in trouble for that kinda talk . . . . .I take it ALL back!!! I already got scolded for “BIG GUNS” I guess I’ve watched just to many Western’s!!! I think I need therapy, or maybe just a hug?!?! :)

Alvin the recovering desperado!!!

November 14, 2008 7:51 PM  
Blogger Sanctification said...

lol Alvin

November 15, 2008 9:36 AM  
Blogger Matthew Celestine said...

Did they end the discussion with the mantra "I believe that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God?"

November 16, 2008 11:47 AM  
Blogger Watchman Steph said...

Hi Antonio,

I came across your blogs today and I can't contain my excitement. I never run into anyone that knows about Grace Evangelical Society much less someone touting Reign of the Servant King. Keep up the good work and I'll try to follow your blogs from now on.

November 20, 2008 11:43 AM  
Blogger alvin said...

Hi Watchman,

Welcome to Antonio's blog. Also his group blog is very good in my humble opinion, and Rose has a very good blog also.

Roses Reasonings
Unashamed of Grace

See yah around!!!

alvin

November 21, 2008 6:21 PM  
Blogger goe said...

Watchman,

I'm glad you found this blog. I know what you mean about not being able to find fellowship with other believers who know and love GES. That's how it is for me too, so I was likewise excited when I discovered Antonio's blog. Like Alvin said, Rose's blog is great also. But watch out for Alvin--he has quite a reputation for being a gunslinger with a hair trigger round these parts! (ha!) Seriously, I've gotten to know some great people here. I've learned a lot and it's given me the fellowship I needed with other GES folk. I feel like I know them better than most people in my own church. It's really been a blessing and we hope you visit with us often!

Gary

November 22, 2008 7:07 AM  
Blogger Diane said...

Just a thought I had this morning.....

All of us are at a different place in our understanding of the Bible. Most of you know so much more than I do. There are truths that God has opened up to me that perhaps He hasn't opened up to you YET, and visa versa. But that's the wonderful journey we're on with the Lord. We're here to learn about Him, and we can learn from each other.

My husband has great interest in reading all kinds of articles from the Creation Research Institute. He knows so much more than I do on that subject. He's teaching me things that I wouldn't have known if he didn't point them out to me in the Bible. He learned it from others who pointed it out to him.

This blog is being used for good. We're learning from each other. But we're not the authority. God's Word is the authority. When any of you take me to a place where I see something that He has recorded, and it fits into His overall plan, I rejoice and thank God for your insights.

I also pray for your learning as well as my own. It's been a joy to meet you. You have become friends, and someday we will meet face to face in eternity if not here in this life.

Praying for you all right now!!!

A friend because of Jesus,
Diane
:-)
P.S. I agree with Gary's comment to Watchman, and I also agree that you have to watch out for Alvin. He's quite the gunslinger and usually hits the bulls eye!!!
:-)

November 22, 2008 9:10 AM  
Blogger Sanctification said...

Antonio,

I just want to encourage you not to get bogged down by the direction of the conversations. Very soon in the them, if you're very good and you are, you'll see that the bible is not their chief authority. Foremost the reason why they are LDS is because of their testimony -- they have an experience associated somehow with their church -- and nothing is able to overcome it, no matter how non-Spiritual it is.

They see the divine testimony of Mormon truth in their model of family togetherness, or in other kinds of "everyday things."

I think we talked once on the phone about the approach and we're agreed, which is to cut straight to the heart, and stay there: the gospel. They need to hear it over, and over and over again. It is the only thing they haven't heard, it is the only thing they haven't received.

I'm particularly excited to see what effect it will have to explain that you are an evangelical who believes you will be judged by what you do (eternal rewards) because they haven't heard that very often, and they are quite resentful and rejecting of two common teachings: predestination, and easy believism.

They really have a thing against calvinism. Go Antonio! I'm praying you'll see them again if it is God's will....

-Michele

November 22, 2008 10:09 AM  
Blogger alvin said...

Yes as you can see in my picture I started toting a pistola at an early age, but now I know what the bulls-eye is "the Christ."

alvin

November 22, 2008 12:11 PM  
Blogger goe said...

Alvin,

I noticed that you also like John Wayne. Did that contribute to your love for big guns?

November 22, 2008 3:15 PM  
Blogger Diane said...

Alvin... so that's what you look like! WOW! You sure are young looking for 53!!!!
:-)

That looks like "The Beaver" on "Leave It To Beaver!"
:-)

November 22, 2008 5:41 PM  
Blogger alvin said...

Hi Gary,

I'm sure it did! Everytime I go into the Sportsman Wharehouse and see this great big picture of him I want to buy it. But I'd have to get a bigger house . . .ha!ha! One of my favorite movies of him is "The Silent Man" where he's a retired fighter living in Ireland I think. I love the way the Irish talk "there'll be no patty fingers now!!!" My mother-law was from England and she would tell me to "shut your gobb!"

Hi Diane

Yes I hold my age very good all these 56 years. I'm still 4ft tall . . .ha!ha! I have been told before I look like Beaver. Over on Roses blog is a picture taken about six years ago when I was on hair, now I have a nice military haircut. You would love my favorite picture, it's when I was about 8 months old and my brother was almost 3 years old we were sitting on a trike in front of an old truck with your favorite verse on the door (John 3:16). It ws just after my Mom died that it was taken. I'll post it sometime on my profile.

The Lord is always GOOD!!!
alvin

November 22, 2008 6:44 PM  
Blogger Diane said...

Alvin, I'd love to see that picture. Be sure an let me know when you post it!!!
:-)

I'd like to see pictures of all of you!!!
:-)

November 22, 2008 7:01 PM  
Blogger alvin said...

Isn’t it something how some people can believe that God creates people just to reprobate them to hell for His glory, but yet He cares so much about a bird that it will effect how long a person lives by how they treat the bird and it’s baby chicks.

“If a bird’s nest happens to before you along the way, in any tree or along the ground, with young ones or eggs, with the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young;
“you shall surely let the mother go, and take the young for yourself, that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.
Deut 22:6,7

November 22, 2008 7:18 PM  
Blogger Diane said...

Dear Friends,

It happened again for me. The Lord brought me another piece of the puzzle in this whole debate of the core issue that is to be believed to be saved. Just when I think I have it all down, another piece shows up. This time God used John Niemela to bring that piece to me. You can read it in its entirety in the newest GES "Grace in Focus" publication... Nov/Dec 2008. The name of the article is....
"Who Is Able To Guarantee Everlasting Life?" Just e-mail GES and ask to be put on their list to receive the free bimonthly publication, and ask them to mail you this latest copy.
ges@faithalone.org

I hope you will all make an effort to get that publication and carefully study it. I'm convinced that the reason many aren't seeing this issue clearly is because they are not open to seeing it. Something is said that their theology does not allow, and they won't follow through on the thought process put forth. But if you all do that, the pieces will fit and your theology will be more closely lined up with scripture.

Here's part of what Niemela said....
"John's Gospel presents Jesus as the Messianic Son of God who was crucified and resurrected to guarantee everlasting life to all believers. Those who view Jesus as an ordinary human being disdain any notion that He could guarantee everlasting life to anyone. Ordinary human beings cannot bestow life everlasting upon others."

Then he says something important that caught my eye. He says.....
"Does this mean that we must of necessity first convince people that Jesus has the ability to bestow eternal life and then talk about His promise of life?"
The answer to that is NO.

He goes on to explain that Jesus always told groups of unbelievers HOW to receive everlasting life as a ONE-STEP message, NEVER a TWO-STEP message such as..... FIRST explaining WHY He is able to give us eternal life, and second explaining the promise of everlasting life to all who believe in Him. Even audiences who denied that He was anything but a mortal man were presented with the one-step message by Jesus. Isn't that interesting!!! Jesus was focusing on the core message that must be believed to have eternal life..... the bulls-eye. Yet He knew that no ADULT would believe in Him for eternal life if they only viewed Him as a mortal man. Even under those conditions he kept His message on the bulls-eye (one-step message).
That one-step message is true of unsaved groups of people Jesus talked to, and individuals such as Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, and Martha.

What caught my eye was the fact that no ADULT would ever believe in His guarantee of eternal life unless they had reason to believe that he could deliver. They had to know that He was the Christ, the Son of God. Niemela points out that...
"no sane adult believes Christ's promise of life while viewing Him as an ordinary person. It is common knowledge that no mere mortal can guarantee everlasting life to anyone."
He then ends the article with these words....
"The magnitude of His PROMISE of life everlasting was Jesus' focal point."
Alvin calls that the bulls-eye.
Niemela goes on to finish his statement by saying this...
"The infinite scale of that PROMISE is what allowed Jesus to make it the core of the message. HIS FOCUS SHOULD BE OURS AS WELL. (emphasis mine.) He guarantees life everlasting to all believers."
Gary likes to emphasize His PROMISE, and he's so right.
"As Paul puts it so clearly in Rom. 3:26, God is 'just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.'"

The article has so much more. I hope you will read it and think carefully through all the points.

After reading that, I had this question....
What about the man who Zane Hodges refers to when telling the story of a fellow class mate of his at Dallas Theo. Seminary who worked as a janitor and made the comment to Zane... "I never realized that Jesus was God until I came to seminary." Was he saved before he realized that? Yes, because he believed in Jesus as the giver of eternal life. He believed the core message (the one-step message) that Jesus presented. He had to recognize that He was more than a mortal man because mortal men can't give eternal life. He had to believe that He was from God for the purpose of giving everlasting life. He just never consciously thought about Him being God before that time in seminary.

Bob Wilkin helps clear that up in my mind by the article he wrote in the same publication, called.....
"Essential Truths About Our Savior."
There Bob explains that none of us have a full understanding of His deity. God has to be eternal, true, good, loving, merciful, immutable, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, just, righteous, holy, self-existent, and much, much, much more. How many of us comprehend the attributes of God? None of us fully comprehend that. So the fact that we believe that He is God is a limited knowledge in each one of us. Some understand more than others. This man that Zane talked about knew that Jesus was more than a mortal man. He knew that He was from God. That brought him to the place of believing in Him for everlasting life. But one day at seminary it dawned on Him that He was God.
It wasn't a matter of denying that truth like those religious leaders and others did as recorded in the Bible.

But then I had a dilemma. What about this 3 year old little girl that I told you all about. She believed that Jesus was the only One who could take us to heaven to live with Him when we die. She understood that those who didn't believe in Him as the only way would not go to be with Him when they move out of their bodies. They would go to the bad place where God didn't live. I don't know what this little girl realized about Jesus, but she knew that God sent Him into the world to give us the gift of everlasting life with Him. Also, she was NOT an ADULT. She had child like faith. She came to the place where she believed the core message that Jesus brought. She believed in Him without thinking through all the positions that we adults think about before coming to the place of believing.

So the piece of the puzzle that came to me through these publications is this.....
Adults believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, because only He can give eternal life. But we all have limited knowledge of what that means...... except the core...... He guarantees everlasting life to the ones who believe in Him. He is the Christ, the Son of God who we can believe in to make good on his promise.

That's what Jesus taught....... a one-step message.
Wouldn't it be best for us to follow His example!!!

Rejoicing again for His goodness towards me,
Diane
:-)
P.S. Alvin, I tried to put in bold letters and italics the way you said. If it doesn't work in this post, then you know I did it wrong!
:-)

November 23, 2008 2:28 PM  
Blogger alvin said...

Hi Diane,

That makes perfect sense!!! And as I chewed on it so many Scriptures popped into my mind. That’s what Jesus said that the Father had given Him, the words of eternal life (John 12:50). So that was the message He gave. He didn’t try explaining to Nicodemus that He was God when Nickodemus gave Him the perfect opportunity by saying, “Rabbi,we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” But Jesus doesn’t say “Yes I’m God” but instead Jesus cuts straight to the core “you must be born again!” Then in John 3:16 He gives him what he MUST believe to be born again, “that the one who believes will never perish and has eternal life!” Jesus knew that if one believed in Him for eternal life then the Father had revealed this truth to them that He was “The Christ.” Matt 16:15-18 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this Rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. emphasis mine
That Rock folks is a revelation that Jesus is the Christ the One who guarantees everlasting life to the one who believes in Him and it’s only as that is believed that the church is built. Paul tells us in 2 Cor 3:14 the veil is taken away in Christ. It's as we seek the Lord in truth that the Father removes the veil, and there is alumination. The light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, shines on us! (2 Cor 4:4)
Diane I love listening to John Niemela because he speaks in such simple child like terms, and gives examples that are very clear and easy to understand. I was listening last week to him and he explained how our understanding of God is probably much lower then we know. He said if the lowest angel were to appear in the room right now before us we would prostrate ourselves and say “God I never knew you were so glorious!!!” And the angel would reply “not only am I not God but I am the lowest of angels!” John went on to explain our understanding of God falls way below the reality of who God is, and just how glorius He is!

Diane, I think it was Rachel who taught me how to do the bold and italics. She must have been a good teacher because I was able to pass it on. Rose showed me how to put in a URL address, and she didn’t even know it. If your reading this Rose, I was snooping when you taught someone else. Sometime it’s good to be a snoop . . . ha!ha! Thanks Rose you are a good teacher also!!!

Diane you are a real blessing to me . . . .keep on teaching us all you girls!!!!

alvin

November 23, 2008 6:54 PM  
Blogger Diane said...

Alvin.... you say things so well~!!! I love it when you post a comment!

As you all know, I'm going through the Gospel of John verse by verse with my Tuesday Discipleship class of young moms. So this new piece of the puzzle was just another blessing from the Lord. I don't know how anyone can examine the book of John without seeing clearly that Jesus always gave a one-step presentation guaranteeing everlasting life to the believer in Him. This was ALWAYS Jesus' focal point.
Please, friends, check it out!!!

I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving. I'm so thankful for my friends here on this blog. And I'm especially thankful for Antonio for putting this wonderful blog together. He's taught us so much here. I thank YOU Antonio for that, and I pray for you and your family. You are a blessing to all of us. I hope all of our friends here will keep Antonio in your prayers this coming year as the Lord continues to use him and his blog for His glory.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving friends!!!

In Jesus' love,
Diane
:-)

November 23, 2008 8:41 PM  
Blogger wjc said...

God bless all of you my dear dear brothers and sisters in the grace of our Lord Jesus. I've been away for a while but have really enjoyed catching up to your comments in this thread! As some of you may know by now, our dear brother, mentor and giant in faith - Zane Hodges - passed away this last weekend. If you go to the GES web site there is short memorial written by our dear brother Bob Wilkin. This is a time of great loss for me as I'm sure all of you feel as well. I am deeply thankful to our Lord for His goodness in giving us such a gifted writer, teacher, example and friend for the time that he was here. Few men have been used by God in the way that He has used Zane to defend the clarity, simplicity and beauty of His matchless grace! I will miss him greatly until the day I see him with our Lord...

November 24, 2008 5:00 PM  
Blogger Diane said...

WJC.... AMEN to everything you said about Zane Hodges.

We will miss him greatly!!! He is someone we loved and respected in the Lord so much because of his tremendous dedication to the truth of the Word of God. God used him in our lives like no other. It was like taking us by the hand and leading us from one passage to another and to another so that we could see how all the pieces fit. He was a master at that for us. We loved him because of how God used him to open up the scriptures to us like no other. We have lost a great giant in the faith, but we praise God that his writings will continue, and hopefully millions will learn of the wonderful grace of God through those writings.

We're sad because we miss him tonight, but we rejoice for him because he is NOT sad. He has seen the face of Jesus and we're sure he heard those words.... "Well done good and faithful servant!!!"

Thanking God for our friend,

Dale and Diane Boring

November 24, 2008 5:53 PM  
Blogger alvin said...

Well I’ve already been invited to a Christmas party, It’s hard to believe that Christmas is only a few weeks away. The party for our shift is already all arranged and is going to be at the Mormon Church. Some have already said they could not attend because they had other things scheduled for that day. The Mormon who arranged everything is the one I’ve been witnessing to for sometime now. I’m not going to be attending for spiritual reasons, but some I’m sure will see me as just a self-righteous person. What would you do?
I’ve decided to share one thing with my Mormon friend rather then get in a big discussion over many things. While reading “Grace in Focus” by Bob Wilkins the article “Essential Truths About Our Savior.” Something clicked in my brain concerning Jesus birth. I liked what Bob said “The Messiah had to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). If Jesus had been born in Nazareth, for example, He couldn’t give anyone eternal life.”
Then Bob quotes Sir Robert Anderson:
That the true Messiah must be born in Bethlehem was asserted by the Jew and conceded by the Christian: that the Nazarene was born in Bethlehem the Jew persistently denied. If even today he could disprove that fact, he would justify his unbelief; for if the Christ we worship was not by right of birth the heir to David’s throne, He is not the Christ of prophecy. Christians soon forget this when they had no longer to maintain their faith against the unbroken front of Judaism, but only to commend it to a heathen world. But it was not forgotten by the immediate successors of the apostles….Justin Martyr asserted….that Christ was born during the taxing of Cyrenius…..in the royal city [Bethlehem], and not in the despised Galilean village.4
(4 The Coming Prince: The Marvelous Prophecy of Daniel’s Seventy Weeks Concerning the Antichrist, 14th edition (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1954),pp. 89-90.)


Yes that is a BIG point, and the Book of Mormon says in (Alma 7:10 And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God.)emphasis mine
Of course we know that the Mormons believe that there father god who was a man at one time on another planet who became a god had sexual relations with Mary. And also that Satan is the spiritual brother of Jesus. But I’m not going to get into all of that, I’ve already shared with him the truth of the Christ the One who gives eternal life. But he flatly rejects it being a free gift you can just take. So I’m hoping that their false teaching of Jesus being born in Jerusalem will keep him awake at night wrestling with that one lie.

alvin

December 05, 2008 9:41 AM  
Blogger Diane said...

Alvin.... HOW EXCELLENT!
I read Bob's article and appreciated it so much, but you have given me another reason to appreciate it. I'll be praying that your friend will wrestle with that point and that God will use it to bring him to faith alone in Jesus alone!!!

December 05, 2008 9:52 AM  
Blogger David Wyatt said...

Amen bro. Alvin! We also pray that this man will turn in siomple faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ alone! Isn't it amazing! ONLY the perfect, sinless, all-holy God-Man Jesus Christ who died & rose again for us could offer eternal salvation as a free gift! But He can & He did!! We'll pray.

December 05, 2008 10:56 AM  
Blogger Rose~ said...

Alvin,
That is such a poignant thought.

If someone caught up in a cult could just be bothered by one innacuracy about the person of Christ maybe it could draw them to re-examine their whole belief system about Jesus and then ultimatley see that He can GUARANTEE them eternal life (not just take 'em halfway) and they would turn to Him in truth.
God bless you Alvin.

December 05, 2008 11:31 AM  
Blogger alvin said...

Hi Diane

Thanks for the encouragement!!!


Hi David

Yes, for Jesus to be able to give eternal life to anyone He had to fulfill all the prophecy concerning Him. But we must not confuse as Bob Wilkins has said: There is a difference Biblically between what we must believe to be born again and what the Savior had to be and do in order for us to be born again. The Bible distinguishes between these two.

There are many false beliefs this Mormon holds I’m sure and would block him from belieivng that Jesus is the Christ the One who promises eternal life. But that doesn’t mean that God has to remove every false belief before he can believe, it might only take one for him to question his beliefs and the light to come on and then the rest would fall with more light.


I see Nathanael in John 1:45-49 as a good example of this. Nathanael didn’t have all his ducks in a row so to speak. Nathanael said: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” I’m sure Nathanael didn’t have all his questions answered but all it took for him to believe Jesus was the Christ and his brother’s testimony “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Was Jesus saying: “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” That was enough for the light to come on and cause Nathanael to believe that Jesus was the Son of God, the King of Israel.” I would also point out that believing in Jesus as the Christ isn’t a decision one makes, because you cant decide to believe something you really don’t believe. And if you have believed a decision isn’t necessary. Someone might say “yes but Nathanael did not know about the gift of eternal life there either!” We know that all faith is propositional and the proposition John wants his readers to believe in the Gospel of John is that Jesus gives eternal life to the one who believes in Him. And whether they are believing in a witness or the witnesses testimony or in a person they are believing a proposition about that person. We see that proposition given over and over in the Gospel of John (John 3:16; 4:10; 5:24; 6:47; 11:25-27; 20:31). And that is what John uses in his gospel to show that someone has believed in Jesus for eternal life.

Hi Rose
Amen Rose, sometimes it only takes one block to fall and all the rest follow!!!

alvin

alvin

December 06, 2008 9:18 AM  
Blogger David Wyatt said...

Thanks bro. Alvin. I'm sorry that I'm still a little hazy on your understanding here. I certainly trust in the Lord Jesus who has given me eternal salvation, maybe it's just the way I've heard it & believed it all these years just doesn't bend to new ways of saying it. I don't know, but I DO know Him! Hey thanks again brother! Still praying!

December 06, 2008 9:52 AM  
Blogger alvin said...

Thank you Brother!!
Thanks for the prayers David!!! I wasn't questioning your salvation, just expanding my thoughts. I think O'Reilly would probably call that bloveating . . .ha!ha! But what does he know . . . he's a Catholic . . .Ha!Ha!

I really like your Impala!!! My best friend I use to hang with had a blue one just like it. It brings back memories when I see the picture.
Hey whats up you changed the picture?

alvin

December 06, 2008 10:44 AM  
Blogger alvin said...

Oh! I see you changed it back. The one looked like a Ford Fairlane, my grandmother had one of those. I like the Impala a lot better!


Have a great day in the Lord!!!
alvin

December 06, 2008 11:06 AM  
Blogger alvin said...

Sorry I posted this in the wrong place first, just like me though!

When I saw Zanes father’s first name Zebulon it reminded me of this.

Yes the Scriptures are precise in Micah 5:2 stating Bethlehem Ephrathah because there was a Bethlehem in the territory Zebulon which is where Nazareth is located in lower Galilee. Nazareth being 70 miles north of Jerusalem and Bethlehem Ephtrathah being 6 miles south of Jeruslem.



“The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
By way of the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles:
The people who sat in darkness
Have seen a great light,
And upon those who sat in darkness
Have seen a great light,
And upon those who sat in the
region and shadow of death
Light has dawned.”
Isa 9:1-2; Matt 4:14-16
Naphtali means wrestling and he was the sixth son of Jacob, and second of Bilhah Rachel’s maid.
Zebulun means dwelling and he was the tenth son of Jacob, and sixth of Leah.
Their territory was in Galilee which is Zebulon, East of Asher and North of Zebulun

Nathanael said “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Just before the Light dawned on him.

alvin

December 06, 2008 4:41 PM  
Blogger David Wyatt said...

Alvin!

Brother, are you sitting down? Well if you are, you shouldn't be! You oughtta be a stand-up comedian! You kill me!

Hey bro, bloviate all you want to, it's bro. Antonio's blog, won't hurt me none!

OK, now to the really important stuff. That Impala is unfortunately not mine, but mhy 1st car was a '65 SS like that one but not as nice. God used it to show me my need of Him, though! So it brings back great memories for me too. The other pic was a '63 Galaxie, which I'd love to have, but that one was a regular 500. The one I would want is the mid-year, '63 1/2 Galaxie Fastback with 427 side-oiler! Man, that's a ride!
Now to the genuinely important things, I never thought you were questioning my salvation. I really appreciate you & look forward to meeting you one day! God Bless.

December 06, 2008 6:32 PM  

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