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Daily Devotional – FEBRUARY 9

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Free-will? What Free-will?

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Part 3:

“Little Jack Horner Salvation”

(Continued)

To read part 1, click here…March 9th (“Free-will? What free-will!?”, Part 1)

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Little Jack Horner

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Sat in the corner,
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Eating a Christmas pie;
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He put in his thumb,
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And pulled out a plum,
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And said ‘What a good boy am I!’

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In yesterday’s devotional (click here to read), it was presented that an old radio preacher made the comparison: that this above nursery rhyme seems to be a good metaphor concerning “Salvation by good-works”.

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In other words, there are many who are under the notion that they have merited Salvation by some good work! They did some good work, just like Little Jack Horner!

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But the Bible makes it clear that Salvation is by grace alone… “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8, 9.

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Here we see that Salvation is by grace alone, and nothing can be added to that grace!

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Little Jack Horner – WW Denslow – Project Gutenberg

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MANY DIFFERENT PRECEPTS OF TRUTH

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The great problem in Christendom, is that many do not understand that the Bible is a book of precepts, each of which presents an individual truth, which altogether, make up that one giant truth, which God calls “The Gospel of Christ”.

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Think of a giant diamond, which is made up of many little facets. And as you twirl that diamond in the sunlight, different facets begin to shine.

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And so it is with the Bible. Listen… “A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it: whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth.” Proverbs 17:8

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So, this above verse alludes to the gift of Salvation being compared to a precious gem-stone, twirling in the sunlight.

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And isn’t it true, that the Bible is a very complicated Book about a very complicated God?

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And so, God has chosen to teach us about Himself, by showing us little facets of truth!

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Hope Diamond – Wikimedia – Share-Alike License

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“ALL SCRIPTURE IS GIVEN…BY GOD”

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Thus, there are little facets of truth which seem to contradict each other.

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But God has commanded us to search out the Bible in the following manner… “Whom shall He teach knowledge? and whom shall He make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:” Isaiah 28:9, 10

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And so, as this above passage tells us, our knowledge comes from placing precept upon precept, and line upon line, in order to rightly divide the “Word of truth”.

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Unfortunately, many have stumbled at the Word, by trying to take certain verses out of the Bible and making those particular verses the sum-total of any one particular church-doctrine!

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La Bible, Notre-Dame – Wikimedia – Share-Alike License

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ONE VERSE DOESN’T CANCEL ANOTHER

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Listen to this particular precept of truth…“And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered:” Joel 2:32,

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Many theologians have decided that this above passage is the sum-total of how a person becomes saved.

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But listen to this next precept, “…and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.” Acts 13:48,

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Many in Christendom ignore this above verse altogether because it doesn’t fit their traditional church doctrine.

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And they simply hold fast to their favorite verse that says, “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered” Joel 2:32.

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But we just can’t ignore Acts 17:48 (“…and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.”)! It is an integral part of truth. It must be delicately balanced together with everything else concerning how a person is saved!

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And so, we must not try to explain away this verse which speaks of being “ordained to salvation!”

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We simply must humbly bow our self to God’s infallible Word and say, “Yes, Acts 17:48 speaks of being ordained to Salvation”.  

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Jesus Discourses with His Disciples – James Tissot – by Brooklyn Museum – by Wikipedia – Public Domain

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NOT TO ADD, NOR DIMINISH

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And so, the correct way to reconcile such seemingly contradicting passages, is to do a prayerful search of all related passages, in attempt to balance them all together, without cancelling out any one verse.

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In other words, all related verses must be accepted and allowed to shine, whenever the sunlight shines upon them.

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The Bible warns us… “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it,” Deuteronomy 4:2.

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This above verse warns against diminishing ought from Scripture. But so often, that is exactly what theologians have done! In many cases, they attempt to cling to ancient church-doctrines and beloved church-traditions.

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And in so-doing, they must wrestle away any verse or passage which contradicts that particular cherished old church-doctrine!

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DON’T FORCE GOD’S WORD 

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It would be far better for all of us to not try to “nail down” some church-doctrine and simply let the various related verses stand on their own!

 

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But there is something in man, which compels us to try to put everything in a neat little package, and conjure up some nice-sounding man-contrived title, such as “Free-Will Salvation”.

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And so, now we are not only “diminishing ought” from the Bible, but also “adding to” God’s Word, by inventing our own non-biblical titles for our church-doctrines!

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Thus on Judgment Day, we must give account to God for all such heresy!

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“GOOD NEWS FROM A FAR COUNTRY!”

Proverbs 25:25

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The Good News is, that God has graciously given us time to correct these kinds of errors. 

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No, don’t expect the church-world to collectively repent of these errors.

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There will not be a mass repentance of these babylonish errors!

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All such repentance must be accomplished by the individual Christian.

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And by watchfulness, trembling, and by pleading for grace to help in this fearful hour of need, we will be able to say along with David…

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“I waited patiently for the LORD;

and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. 

He brought me up also out of an horrible pit,

out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a Rock,

and established my goings.”

Psalm 40:1, 2 

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David’s sorrow – Wikigallery – Public Domain

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TO READ PART 4, CLICK HERE…

JULY 26 (Free-will? What Free-will? Part 4: How To Prove “Free-will” or “Predestination”)

magnifying glass on puzzle – Wikimedia – Share-alike license

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THE READER IS HIGHLY ENCOURAGED TO LISTEN TO THIS 24 MINUTE AUDIO BIBLE STUDY (#219) IN THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH ON THE SUBJECT OF THE NEW COVENANT AS OPPOSED TO FREE-WILL. THE LATE HAROLD CAMPING, FORMER CEO OF FAMILY RADIO CONDUCTS THIS 600+ JEREMIAH SERIES… 

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Prophet Jeremiah – www.christianimagesource.com – Public Domain

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TODAY’S PRAYER…

“Dear Lord, Let me not think I have to defend church-doctrines. But let me defend only what the Bible says! Yes, let me simply declare all that the Bible says, not insisting that others must fall into line with church-orthodoxy…

David’s sorrow – Wikigallery – Public Domain

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READ MORE…

To explore deeper into this subject, please read… “Fleeing to the Mountains: The Abomination in the Church, Part 1”, or you can also read… “January 30th (ABC Christianity)” 

Question book magnify svg – Wikimedia – GNU license

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THE END

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TODAY’S FEATURED HEAVENLY SIGN

The info and pics of the constellations on this site are all taken from Wikipedia and from The Internation Astronomical Union (click here to view their site)

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The photo to the right is the Pleiades Cluster. Does it appear to you like an angel? Well, if it does, then you are encouraged to keep reading.

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The above two verses concerning the Pleiades  are all the Bible has to say about the Pleiades, directly. But if you will read this article, you will discover that the Pleiades represents concepts which span much of the Bible! 

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And The Heavens Declare.net will attempt to unravel this mysterious phenomenon in the night-sky, and will, hopefully, also interpret these two verses to show just what all this means, and how it might apply to our lives.

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The Pleiades (Above constellation can be seen in colder months in mid sky, traveling east to west through the night. With the eyes alone, it would appear much smaller than this. But with binoculars, it would appear more like this photo).  NASA photo by Robert Gendler 

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TALE OF TWO WOMEN

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You see, this constellation tells the tale of two women! But how can it be, that nobody has ever seen the Pleiades as a constellation of a woman?

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This article will discuss this great paradox of these two women, found in the Pleiades, and what it means scripturally to us: we who comprise the global community of Christians.

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Because this constellation (or should we say Constellations, plural), has very much to do with us: those of us who are living right now on the threshold of eternity. 

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And as you might expect, if you are at all familiar with this website, the Bible holds the key to understanding all this!

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READ MORE…

To explore deeper into this subject, please read… “The Pleiades: The Captive Angel & Mystery Harlot Constellation”

Question book magnify svg – Wikimedia – GNU license

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TOMORROW…

” FEBRUARY 10 (The Deserted Island Theologian!)”

desert island – credit ChristArt.com.

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20 MINUTE+ AUDIO STUDY IN JEREMIAH 

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ALL‘NOBLE BEREANS’ (open-minded seekers of Bible truth) ARE ENCOURAGED TO BEGIN FOLLOWING THIS 650+ AUDIO BIBLE STUDY THROUGH THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH EACH DAY ON THIS DAILY DEVOTIONAL.

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THIS STUDY #405 IS PRESENTED BY THE LATE HAROLD CAMPING, FORMER CEO OF FAMILY RADIO…

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above picture: Prophet Jeremiah – www.christianimagesource.org – Public Domain