For those who don't know, I'm an Orthodox Jew (you can check it out on my profile). Many a member here has informed me over the last two years that I will be going to hell. It has occurred to me that as Christians do not agree on many matters (as they say, "two Christians, thirty-thousand opinions"), perhaps they also do not agree on why exactly I will be going to hell.
So please, lay it on me: Do Christians who believe this agree on the exact reasoning? And if not, what arguments does one denomination have over the views of other denominations?
Have a good weekend, by the way.
I agree with your observation. Before I first joined my first Christian forums site, I was not aware of many of the weird doctrines that have gained traction in the Church. Our common foundation should be the Word of God. And how many wrote the Word of God? Well, if inspired by God, then only One. I have only read a few verses in the New Testament that were admittedly NOT inspired by God, but were the apostle's own opinion, and do not let man use those weapons against me as they were about women and Paul's personal bias against them for whatever personal reason he had, but they were mostly from culture and women's lack of education back then. But not all women and he praised those few.
There are many prophecies about the Messiah in the Old Testament, and the one that I can see Jews mocking Christians about is Daniel 9:24. The number one thing that separated Adam and the rest of mankind from God was SIN. But God had a plan. First supply the Jews with the Ten Commandments to educate us on sin, and then send the Messiah to once and for all take away the problem of sin.
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy.
So what did Jesus claim to do? Four passages come to mind. There is one interpretation to all four, and 29,999 in the Church against these verses. I choose the one, as Jesus said in Matthew 7:13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide
is the gate and broad
is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow
is the gate and difficult
is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. (one out of 30,000)
1 John 3:4-9.
4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.
7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. 8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.
John 8:32, 34-36
32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
34 Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 And a slave does not abide in the house forever,
but a son abides forever. 36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
Romans 6:
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For
the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but
the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
2 Peter 1:2-11
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that
pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises,
that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound,
you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; 11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
So what are the mechanics to make a Christian keep the laws of God perfectly? By His
indwelling Spirit. Instead of keeping laws engraved on stone that had to be kept with a sinful nature, after Jesus died for our sins as the perfect sacrifice, He sent back His Spirit to fill a newly created nature for all those who believed in Him.
Romans 8:1-10
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those
who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded
is death, but to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind
is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9
But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ
is in you, the body
is dead because of sin, but the Spirit
is life because of righteousness.
Verse 10 shows the body as a shell. It is not the source of sin, our nature was, our soul and spirit. (29,999 against.) That is why in verse 9, we are no longer in the old sinful nature, but in a new one created by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of Christ.
If you would like to hear my testimony of the night my old human nature was taken out of me, and the supernatural creation of a new nature in me that made me dead to sin, let me know and I'll send it by private message.