I see, so you know how much time I have put into diligent Bible study over the 54 years that I have been saved. To assume also that I have not studied salvation before is naive on your part. I have studied it from every angle for decades. But yes, I went over all the verses again, just so I could tell you that I submitted to your challenge. And to further assume that after 5 1/2 decades of Bible study, that I still do not agree with you - it must be because of my lack of diligence that I don't come to the same conclusion that you do - is a joke, but I'm not laughing.
By the way, if it took you two years to do what you challenged us to do, and then asked us to get back with you (which I did), then it was a bogus challenge to begin with. The truth is that many of us have studied the Bible for decades - and hundreds of topics, so it doesn't take two years to come to conclusions. Why did it take you that long? You must have taken a lot of coffee breaks.
I have studied Mormonism, Jehovah's Witness doctrine, Seventh Day Adventist doctrine, Christian Science doctrine, the Word of Faith doctrine, Sabbatarianism, Dispensationalism, Calvinism, Once Saved Always Saved doctrine, the Trinity doctrine, the Deity of Christ doctrine, the Hebrew Roots movement, Pentecostalism, the Charismatic movement, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit doctrine, the Second Coming doctrine, the rapture doctrine, the millennium doctrine, the Bill Gothard hoax, and the Church of Christ doctrine, the generational curse doctrine, the Catholic church doctrine, evolution, attended a Bible school for 2 1/2 years, spent a summer in Israel, the six-day creation doctrine, the Power of Positive Thinking doctrine, and more that I won't mention now. I have compared all of these with the scriptures "examining the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so." Acts 17:11 By the way, I am NOT saying that I disagree with every doctrine or teaching that I have listed - some I agree with, others I don't.
"Now I make known to you, brethren, THE GOSPEL, which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, BY WHICH ALSO YOU ARE SAVED, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you AS OF FIRST IMPORTANCE what I also received, THAT CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES, AND THAT HE WAS BURIED, AND THAT HE WAS RAISED ON THE THIRD DAY ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES ..." 1 Corinthians 15:1-4
To all my brothers and sisters on the Forum: Beware of the teaching of Doug Brent. It is a false teaching about salvation.edited In the above passage in 1 Corinthians, Paul makes it CRYSTAL CLEAR what we must believe to be saved. Notice he didn't say we had to DO ANYTHING for initial salvation, no works of ANY kind - JUST BELIEVE. To add anything to that or subtract anything from that is to invite the curse of God into our lives, which Paul warns about in Galatians 1:6-9. It is telling that both the Mormons and the Catholic church hold to this false doctrine, as well as the Church of Christ, all of which have MANY false doctrines.
One sign edited that it tampers with the truth of how we can be saved - this is exactly what Doug Brent and the Church of Christ do - Satan loves to do that, so that more people will be lost.
Ask Doug Brent if he thinks that those of us who disagree with him, are truly saved. Many of his ilk will say "No, you are not saved."
Ask him if we continue to reject his doctrine, is there any hope of us ever being saved. Again, many of his doctrine will say "No."
We need to listen to what Paul and the other New Testament authors teach, not what Doug Brent tells us they are saying.
Baptismal regeneration is found nowhere in Scripture. A first time reader of the Bible will not even see it. Why? Because it's not there! It takes Satan to deviously twist a verse here and a verse there, to even devise such a false teaching. Then Satan will use a deceived person, a false prophet or false teacher, to propagate his poison.
