I have listened to Mike Adams for several years now...more so for the entertainment value, but recently his constant virtue signaling and his paralleling ego has forced me to stop almost entirely.
Mike's most recent ego trip has been his acquiring his license to be a minister? He has said over and over on his show that his knowledge of the Bible is minimal at best and now he does, what he calls, Bible Sermons? We all need to pray for Mike actually because his theology is straight from the pit of hell and he knows nothing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He has said that all religions are legitimate and have a place in getting people to Heaven and worse yet, he has said repeatedly that the only way to get to Heaven is doing good, not sinning and working your way into Heaven! This is heretical teaching and Mike needs to just work his ranch and stay away from politics and preaching!
Again, I say he needs our prayers that God will open his eyes to the real Saving Gospel of Jesus Christ which teaches that we ARE saved through faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross. We are NOT saved by works lest any of us should boast...
Almost everyone I have ever heard who consciously, knowingly and forcefully teaches Works Salvation, by definition believes that they are themselves sinless and that it's possible and required by God for Christians to not sin. For anyone to think we can live in this fleshly body and not sin is deceiving themselves or...as in Mike's case...has such an inflated ego and pride...that they indeed they sin not! Thinking we are above sin is pride and that's the worst sin of all!
We all sin...just as the Apostle Paul said in Romans 7:15..."For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I."
The reason we try to live for Christ and not sin is because we love Him and want to serve Him for the price He paid for us. We try not to sin, not so we can gain entrance into Heaven Mike...that's the whole reason for God's Son.
I haven't listened to him lately. Only see his social media posts. But I agree 1000%
He is in no way qualified to give "Bible Sermons". Why is he so quick to call himself an expert. It's off-putting and especially insulting to life-long Christians.
Trust me, no Catholic believes they are sinless, but with the free gift of faith also comes grace to perform good works. Faith saves, but it’s a lived out every day anew faith, rather than a once saved you can never lose salvation. This is why St James said faith without works is dead, and St. Paul asked for prayers that he himself might not be lost. Work out your faith in fear and trembling (!)
I find it so unfortunate that no matter what the Biblical subject matter, the Church of Jesus Christ cannot come to agreement on literally ANYTHING! Even the foundational Christian beliefs that the early Church Fathers agreed on are regularly argued amongst brethren in today's modern Church!
This is what I say to everyone who teaches others that it is possible (once saved) to lose one's salvation. If (after you have accepted Christ's gift and His Sacrifice paid your sin debt) you can do something to lose your salvation, this by definition means that there's something that you must do to maintain your salvation...this is simply what is called "Works Salvation" and is anathema to our salvation being a gift from God through faith in the completed work of Jesus on the Cross. The Book of James was almost not included in the canon of Scripture because of his language with regard to "works" and the importance those works play in revealing the true nature of one's conversion experience. And that is what was determined to be James point...if we truly are saved, we have truly had a conversion experience, our lives will outwardly show it...and the only way this will be evident is by what we do. However, James NEVER says our works have anything more to do with our salvation than that.
We all have different encounters with Jesus. Some people come to Jesus after having lived lives of utter debauchery and by the grace of God are instantly freed from their sin and a radical change occurs. Some people receive Jesus early in life and get into the world in their later years...struggling the entire time with sin...only to return to their first love in their later years. The important thing to remember is if we believe in what Jesus did for us on Calvary and at some point make a decision to accept His GIFT (a true gift is always unconditional and in our case unmerited) of Salvation, we are continually washed in His blood because Jesus PAID our sin debt completely. Now if someone falls away completely and actually in their heart of hearts turns out to be an unbeliever, well, of course I would say that individual never really believed in the first place. Once a person truly humbles themselves at the foot of the Cross, I believe my Jesus is strong enough to keep hold of that person through life's ups and downs until the day of resurrection. There's nothing I can do to maintain my salvation...it's all Jesus Christ and His finished work on the Cross.
I agree with you on the lack of unity among Christians — unfortunately it is possible to find someone taking virtually every possible position, among the 40,000+ different denominations.
Worse, this extends even to quite important doctrines impacting our basic understanding of salvation.
I realize you think you have no possibility of losing salvation, but that is not what most Christians believe, either currently nor historically.
St James’ epistle was and still is part of the canon of Gods word, and was unquestioned until Luther realized it clearly contradicted his faulty ideas regarding faith and grace.
What began during the so-called reformation were a bunch of false ideas regarding salvation, along with rejection of the teaching authority of ordained bishops united to the pope, with the dismaying result that each person becomes their own pope.
When Jesus founded His Church, he set it up to have power of the keys (binding and loosing), which included the power to authoritatively teach and interpret all teachings without mixture of error.
Rejecting that authority is precisely why we have disunity.
You mentioned the early Church fathers, and again, I agree — a way to make progress in unity is to study what the early Church taught — even before Constantine, there are Linus, Clement, Polycarp, Ignatius, the didache, and other early writing which shed light on what early Christians believed.
But nowhere among the Church fathers is the idea that faith is just an abstract decision, made once, with nothing on our part required.
Jesus own words all over the Gospels make it clear we are to believe, be baptized, obey the commandments and spend the time he gives us doing good and serving others, lest at judgement he say, depart from me…. You did not give me food, nor clothing, etc. cf the beatitudes, among many other examples.
St Paul mentions making up what is lacking in Christs sufferings (!) and asks for prayers lest, having preached, etc, he might still be lost (!)
Based on the feel of your writing, I am suspecting you are a Catholic? You refer to Paul and James as being saints? Catholics tend to deify men and this is the purpose of the use of Saints in that case...curious.
True or not, the crux of the matter is can an individual know they are saved? Based on what you believe I would say we can NEVER be secure in salvation because if we sin or for whatever reason (a devastating divorce, death of a loved one, etc.) we may go off the rails and either get upset with God or fall into temptation and sin and thus lose our salvation. I suppose if we die in this condition, we are eternally lose regardless if we made a profession of faith before or not...which tells me your Jesus is and Indian Giver, not the guarantee of our faith and salvation, isn't strong enough in His commitment to us to give us a gift and not take it back because we screw up...I could go on and on. In other words...for you my friend it must be a very scary existence not knowing if you are actually going to Heaven one day to the next.
As I said before, if there's something you can do to lose your salvation, that means there's something you must do to maintain it. At this point salvation is conditional and based on our performance and this clearly goes against the teaching and overall position of scripture on this matter. Try hard as we may, we will never be perfect enough to earn our way into Heaven...in fact the harder we try (the less we rely on Jesus) the more we descend away from Him. Please don't misunderstand me...we are commanded to love God with all our heart, mind, strength and soul and love everyone else as much as we love ourselves, but once we have received the eternal GIFT of salvation, our motive for being this kind of person is because we love our Savior and desire to be more and more like Him because He first loved us and went to the cross for us.
So then, according to you, there's no such thing as grace and ultimately since we can do or not do something to lose our salvation...that means there are things we must do or not do to maintain our salvation...which means that Jesus death on the cross was meaningless. This is typical Catholic cult heresy although there are many Protestant Christians who also think you can lose your salvation.
I have listened to Mike Adams for several years now...more so for the entertainment value, but recently his constant virtue signaling and his paralleling ego has forced me to stop almost entirely.
Mike's most recent ego trip has been his acquiring his license to be a minister? He has said over and over on his show that his knowledge of the Bible is minimal at best and now he does, what he calls, Bible Sermons? We all need to pray for Mike actually because his theology is straight from the pit of hell and he knows nothing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He has said that all religions are legitimate and have a place in getting people to Heaven and worse yet, he has said repeatedly that the only way to get to Heaven is doing good, not sinning and working your way into Heaven! This is heretical teaching and Mike needs to just work his ranch and stay away from politics and preaching!
Again, I say he needs our prayers that God will open his eyes to the real Saving Gospel of Jesus Christ which teaches that we ARE saved through faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross. We are NOT saved by works lest any of us should boast...
Almost everyone I have ever heard who consciously, knowingly and forcefully teaches Works Salvation, by definition believes that they are themselves sinless and that it's possible and required by God for Christians to not sin. For anyone to think we can live in this fleshly body and not sin is deceiving themselves or...as in Mike's case...has such an inflated ego and pride...that they indeed they sin not! Thinking we are above sin is pride and that's the worst sin of all!
We all sin...just as the Apostle Paul said in Romans 7:15..."For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I."
The reason we try to live for Christ and not sin is because we love Him and want to serve Him for the price He paid for us. We try not to sin, not so we can gain entrance into Heaven Mike...that's the whole reason for God's Son.
I haven't listened to him lately. Only see his social media posts. But I agree 1000% He is in no way qualified to give "Bible Sermons". Why is he so quick to call himself an expert. It's off-putting and especially insulting to life-long Christians.
Well said amigo!
Trust me, no Catholic believes they are sinless, but with the free gift of faith also comes grace to perform good works. Faith saves, but it’s a lived out every day anew faith, rather than a once saved you can never lose salvation. This is why St James said faith without works is dead, and St. Paul asked for prayers that he himself might not be lost. Work out your faith in fear and trembling (!)
I find it so unfortunate that no matter what the Biblical subject matter, the Church of Jesus Christ cannot come to agreement on literally ANYTHING! Even the foundational Christian beliefs that the early Church Fathers agreed on are regularly argued amongst brethren in today's modern Church!
This is what I say to everyone who teaches others that it is possible (once saved) to lose one's salvation. If (after you have accepted Christ's gift and His Sacrifice paid your sin debt) you can do something to lose your salvation, this by definition means that there's something that you must do to maintain your salvation...this is simply what is called "Works Salvation" and is anathema to our salvation being a gift from God through faith in the completed work of Jesus on the Cross. The Book of James was almost not included in the canon of Scripture because of his language with regard to "works" and the importance those works play in revealing the true nature of one's conversion experience. And that is what was determined to be James point...if we truly are saved, we have truly had a conversion experience, our lives will outwardly show it...and the only way this will be evident is by what we do. However, James NEVER says our works have anything more to do with our salvation than that.
We all have different encounters with Jesus. Some people come to Jesus after having lived lives of utter debauchery and by the grace of God are instantly freed from their sin and a radical change occurs. Some people receive Jesus early in life and get into the world in their later years...struggling the entire time with sin...only to return to their first love in their later years. The important thing to remember is if we believe in what Jesus did for us on Calvary and at some point make a decision to accept His GIFT (a true gift is always unconditional and in our case unmerited) of Salvation, we are continually washed in His blood because Jesus PAID our sin debt completely. Now if someone falls away completely and actually in their heart of hearts turns out to be an unbeliever, well, of course I would say that individual never really believed in the first place. Once a person truly humbles themselves at the foot of the Cross, I believe my Jesus is strong enough to keep hold of that person through life's ups and downs until the day of resurrection. There's nothing I can do to maintain my salvation...it's all Jesus Christ and His finished work on the Cross.
I agree with you on the lack of unity among Christians — unfortunately it is possible to find someone taking virtually every possible position, among the 40,000+ different denominations.
Worse, this extends even to quite important doctrines impacting our basic understanding of salvation.
I realize you think you have no possibility of losing salvation, but that is not what most Christians believe, either currently nor historically.
St James’ epistle was and still is part of the canon of Gods word, and was unquestioned until Luther realized it clearly contradicted his faulty ideas regarding faith and grace.
What began during the so-called reformation were a bunch of false ideas regarding salvation, along with rejection of the teaching authority of ordained bishops united to the pope, with the dismaying result that each person becomes their own pope.
When Jesus founded His Church, he set it up to have power of the keys (binding and loosing), which included the power to authoritatively teach and interpret all teachings without mixture of error.
Rejecting that authority is precisely why we have disunity.
You mentioned the early Church fathers, and again, I agree — a way to make progress in unity is to study what the early Church taught — even before Constantine, there are Linus, Clement, Polycarp, Ignatius, the didache, and other early writing which shed light on what early Christians believed.
But nowhere among the Church fathers is the idea that faith is just an abstract decision, made once, with nothing on our part required.
Jesus own words all over the Gospels make it clear we are to believe, be baptized, obey the commandments and spend the time he gives us doing good and serving others, lest at judgement he say, depart from me…. You did not give me food, nor clothing, etc. cf the beatitudes, among many other examples.
St Paul mentions making up what is lacking in Christs sufferings (!) and asks for prayers lest, having preached, etc, he might still be lost (!)
Based on the feel of your writing, I am suspecting you are a Catholic? You refer to Paul and James as being saints? Catholics tend to deify men and this is the purpose of the use of Saints in that case...curious.
True or not, the crux of the matter is can an individual know they are saved? Based on what you believe I would say we can NEVER be secure in salvation because if we sin or for whatever reason (a devastating divorce, death of a loved one, etc.) we may go off the rails and either get upset with God or fall into temptation and sin and thus lose our salvation. I suppose if we die in this condition, we are eternally lose regardless if we made a profession of faith before or not...which tells me your Jesus is and Indian Giver, not the guarantee of our faith and salvation, isn't strong enough in His commitment to us to give us a gift and not take it back because we screw up...I could go on and on. In other words...for you my friend it must be a very scary existence not knowing if you are actually going to Heaven one day to the next.
As I said before, if there's something you can do to lose your salvation, that means there's something you must do to maintain it. At this point salvation is conditional and based on our performance and this clearly goes against the teaching and overall position of scripture on this matter. Try hard as we may, we will never be perfect enough to earn our way into Heaven...in fact the harder we try (the less we rely on Jesus) the more we descend away from Him. Please don't misunderstand me...we are commanded to love God with all our heart, mind, strength and soul and love everyone else as much as we love ourselves, but once we have received the eternal GIFT of salvation, our motive for being this kind of person is because we love our Savior and desire to be more and more like Him because He first loved us and went to the cross for us.
So then, according to you, there's no such thing as grace and ultimately since we can do or not do something to lose our salvation...that means there are things we must do or not do to maintain our salvation...which means that Jesus death on the cross was meaningless. This is typical Catholic cult heresy although there are many Protestant Christians who also think you can lose your salvation.