Sunday 20 July 2014

Only the Responsible Can be Saved (Christadelphians)

There is a video with false teaching by another Christadelphian youtube channel (Rugby) which is claiming that anyone can be saved with out the επιγνωσις epignosis (Strong's 1922) precise and correct knowledge of the truth

1922. ἐπίγνωσις epignosis ep-ig’-no-sis; from 1921; recognition, i.e. (by implication) full discernment, acknowledgement: —  (ac-)knowledge(-ing, ment).

Cognate: 1922 epígnōsis (from 1909 /epí, "on, fitting" which intensifies1108 /gnṓsis, "knowledge gained through first-hand relationship") – properly, "contact-knowledge" that is appropriate ("apt, fitting") to first-hand, experiential knowing. This is defined by the individual context.See 1921 (epignōskō).

Epignosis, a strengthened form of gnosis (e·pi´, meaning “additional”), can often be seen from the context to mean “exact, accurate, or full knowledge.” Thus Paul wrote about some who were learning (taking in knowledge) “yet never able to come to an accurate knowledge [“a real knowledge,” a clear, full knowledge,” of truth.” (2Ti 3:6, 7) He also prayed that ones in the Colossian congregation, who obviously had some knowledge of God’s will, for they had become Christians, “be filled with the accurate knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual comprehension.” (Col 1:9) Such accurate knowledge should be sought by all Christians (Eph 1:15-17; Php 1:9; 1Ti 2:3, 4), it being important in putting on “the new personality” and in gaining peace.—Col 3:10; 2Pe 1:2

Eph 1:15 That is why I also, since I have heard of the faith YOU have in the Lord Jesus and toward all the holy ones, 16 do not cease giving thanks for YOU. I continue mentioning YOU in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give YOU a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the accurate knowledge of him; 

(Philippians 1:9) And this is what I continue praying, that YOUR love may abound yet more and more with accurate knowledge and full discernment;
John 17:3 This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ. 

(Ephesians 4:13) until we all attain to the oneness in the faith and in the accurate knowledge of the Son of God, to a full-grown man, to the measure of stature that belongs to the fullness of the Christ;

From the Christadelphian statement of faith

Note: The entire Christadelphian Statement of Faith includes a list of "Doctrines to be accepted" 'Doctrines to be Rejected' and a formalized list of 'The Commandments of Christ'.

Doctrines to be accepted

C24 That at the appearing of Christ prior to the establishment of the Kingdom, the responsible (namely, those who know the revealed will of God, and have been called upon to submit to it), dead and living -- obedient and disobedient -- will be summoned before his judgment seat "to be judged according to their works," and "receive in body according to what they have done, whether it be good or bad."
2 Cor. 5:102 Tim. 4:1Rom. 2:5-6, 1614:10-121 Cor. 4:5Rev. 11:18.

Doctrines to be Rejected

16. We reject that the resurrection is confined to the faithful. [The resurrection will involve all who have known the Will of God, including those who have rejected that Will and those who have failed to uphold it in a faithful life — Jn. 12:48; 9:39-41; 15:22; Acts 15:24.]

21. We reject that baby sprinkling is a doctrine of Scripture. [Baptism is only valid upon a confession of understanding the complete Will and purpose of God. It is the outward manifestation of an inner conviction — Mark 16:16; Acts 8:12.]

22. We reject that “heathens,” idiots, pagans, and very young children will be saved. [Salvation is based upon a reasonable and logical understanding of the Truth; those who are foreign to the gospel, who lack the capacity to perceive its responsibilities; or who are unable to comprehend, are outside the sphere of salvation — Acts 8:12.]

23. We reject that man can be saved by morality or sincerity, without the gospel. [Morality and sincerity must be accompanied by an acknowledgement of the gospel for salvation — Acts 10:1-6.]

24. We reject that the gospel alone will save, without the obedience of Christ’s commandments. [Obedience to the commandments is a responsibility required of all believers; salvation will be determined upon the application of faith and obedience. Rev. 22:14; Mat. 7:26; 2Pet. 2:21; Mat. 28:20; Gal. 6:2]
http://www.thechristadelphians.org/htm/beliefs/rejected.htm

One Christadelphian writer says that those who believe in the doctrine of the immoral soul can not be saved:

The immortal soul doctrine has this effect: it causes the believer thereof to look upon every human being as the inevitable subject of positive eternal destiny; and as their theology recognises only two places and two classes as related to that eternal destiny, viz., heaven and hell, and the inhabitants thereof respectively, he necessarily assigns all mankind, in every age and country - of every state, stature, and condition -- to one or other of those places.

This is peculiarly the case where the knowledge in question is associated with the doctrine of the immortality of the soul; for it then ceases to have any scriptural significance or efficacy whatever. This will be seen if we realise that Christ died to purchase life. "He brought life and immortality to light", by the sacrifice which he submitted to. By the grace of God, he tasted death for every man (Heb. ii, 9). But if we regard immortality as the essential attribute of human nature, we displace the sacrifice of Christ from its Scriptural position. We destroy its character as a means of securing life, and are compelled to transform it into that anomalous doctrine of pulpitology which regards it as substitutionary suffering of divine wrath, in order to save immortal souls from the eternal tortures of hell! - a suffering, which, after all, according to orthodox teaching, is awfully inadequate; for countless myriads of immortal souls, according to that system of teaching, still continue unreconciled, and are fated to spend an eternity of existence in raging, blaspheming torture!

The doctrine of the immortality of the soul must be removed from the mind before gospel truth can obtain a proper entrance, for it nullifies the whole system, by obliterating its foundation doctrine, that "by one man came death," and destroys its efficacy by entirely diverting attention from the salvation which it offers, and directing it to a reward which God has never promised. In fact, its effect is to pervert, vitiate, poison, nullify, and destroy everything pertaining to God's truth. It sends its jarring vibrations through the entire system of revelation, introducing confusion and absurdity where otherwise reign peace, order, harmony, and beautyTheologically, it is an unclean spirit, of which a man must be exorcised, before he can become clothed and in his right mind in relation to divine truth. Previously to this, his mind is filled with truthneutralising doctrine, which effectually prevents the entrance of a single ray of the truth.
The first thing a man has to do, then, in order to gain salvation, is to believe the gospel. To do this he must know the gospel, for as Paul says, "How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard"? (Rom. x, 14). Knowledge must always precede belief; for a man cannot believe that of which he has not previously been informed.Hence, the first inquiry on the part of man or woman anxious to be saved will be, WHAT IS THE GOSPEL? Until they know this, they cannot go on to the second stage of believing unto salvation. The gospel is styled "the one faith," because it is made up of things which require faith to receive them - the act of the mind by which these are apprehended being metonymically put for the things themselves. It is laid down as a principle, "Without faith IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO PLEASE GOD" (Heb. xi, 6), and it is affirmed of believers, "Ye are saved through faith" (Eph. ii, 8), and " the just shall live by faith," (Heb. x. 38). Now this faith, in scriptural usage, is not a mere abstract reliance on the omnipotence of Jehovah, but the belief of specific promise. It is said that "faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness" (Rom. iv, 9). Now let us note the character of this righteousnessacquiring faith:-
"He staggered not at THE PROMISE OF GOD through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God:and being fully persuaded that WHAT HE HAD PROMISED, he was also able to perform" (Rom. iv, 20, 21).
Hence, it is said that faithful Abraham was constituted the father of them that BELIEVE, by which it is evident that scriptural faith is belief in the promises of God; and thus by the consideration of terms of a more general nature, we arrive at the conclusion to which we were guided in a former lecture by specific testimony, viz.: - that the Gospel which must be believed in order to obtain salvation, is made up of unfulfilled promises as its chief element.

http://www.antipas.org/books/chris_astray/ca_lec17.html
HERESIAN: But the apostle saith, we are saved by "the renewing of the Holy Spirit" (Tit. iii. 5).

BOANERGES: He also says, we are renewed by knowledge" (Col. iii. 10). In this, however, he does not contradict himself, but rather makes the one phrase explanatory of the other; as if he had said, "we are renewed by the Holy Spirit through knowledge." The Holy Spirit renews or regenerates man intellectually and morally by the truth believed"Sanctify them by thy truth," says Jesus; "thy word, O Father, is truth" (John xvii. 17). "Ye are clean," said he to his apostles, "through the word which I have spoken to you" (John xv. 3). God's power is manifested through means. His Spirit is His power by which He effects intellectual, moral, and physical results. When He wills to produce intellectual and moral effects, it is by knowledge revealed by His Spirit through the prophets and apostles. This knowledge becomes power when received into "good and honest hearts"; and because God is the author of it, it is styled "the Knowledge of God" (2 Pet. i. 2)or "the word of truth" (James i. 18), by which He begets sinners to Himself as His sons and daughters. "The word of the truth of the gospel,"" the gospel of the kingdom." "the incorruptible seed,""the word," "the truth as it is in Jesus,"" the word of the kingdom,"" the word of reconciliation," "the law and the testimony," "the word of faith," "the sword of the spirit which is the word of God," "the word of Christ," "the perfection of liberty," etc.-are all phrases richly expressive of" the power of God" by which He saves His people from their sins, and translates them into the Hope of the kingdom and glory to which He invites them. The truth is the power that makes men free indeed (John viii. 32, 36). Hence Jesus says, "My words are spirit, and they are life." The prophets, Jesus, and the apostles were the channels through which it was transmitted to mankind; and the spirit the agent by which the knowledge was conveyed to them. Hence, the knowledge or the truth being suggested to the prophets by the spirit is sometimes styled "the spirit" (Rom. ii. 20). The spirit is to the truth as cause and effect; and by a very common figure of speech, the one is put for the other in speaking of them relatively to the mind and heart of man. So that the phrase "renewed by the holy spirit" is equivalent to renewed by the belief of the truth testified by the Holy Spirit (John xv. 26: xiv. 13-14).

http://www.the-gospel-truth.info/clerical-theology-unscriptural-part-1/

David, one of the prophets, speaks copiously of resurrection in the Psalms. The word is not found there, but the thing itself very frequently is. He treats of the resurrection of his descendant, the Christ, from among the dead; to the end that He will reign King in Zion as the sovereign ruler of the world. He teaches this in the second Psalm. "In death," he says, "there is no remembrance of the Deity" PSA 6:5 "the dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence" PSA 115:17 "the living know that they shall die, but the dead know not anything: Their love, and their hatred, and their envy, are now perished:" Hence, "There is no work, nor device nor knowledge, nor wisdom in SHEOL, whither thou goest" ECC 9:5 ECC 9:6 ECC 9:10 This Sheol is styled in JOB 10:22 "the land of darkness;" and in PSA 88:12 "The land of forgetfulness; and in PSA 30:3 and many other places, "the grave". 

Thus, the Scriptures speak of the DEATH-STATE into which all go when they depart from among the living. While "in death" they are said to sleep. From this sleep some never awake; which is equivalent to saying, that they are never the subject of resurrection. This is evident from JER 51:57 where, speaking of the princes, wise men, captains, rulers, and mighty ones of Babylon, the eternal spirit saith: "they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake": and Isaiah, speaking of the same class, says, "they are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise; therefore hast Thou visited and destroyed them, and make all their memory to perish" ISA 26:14 So that "the man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead": PRO 21:16 A decree of very extensive application. 

But all dead ones in the grave shall not sleep the sleep of death perpetually. "The wicked shall be turned unto sheol, all the nations that forget God; but the needy shall not always be forgotten; the expectation of the poor shall not perish forever." PSA 9:17-18. These poor and needy are those dead ones, who, while living, "obtained a good report through that faith which is the full assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" HEB 11:1 HEB 11:39 HEB 11:42 These are they styled by David in the Psalms the righteous, who shall flourish as the palm tree: The upright in their hearts; the seed to be accounted to YAHWEH for a generation; the excellent in the earth, in whom is all His delight; Those who regard His works and the operation of His Hands; His people; His inheritance; them that reverence Him; the blessed whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, to whom YAHWEH imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile; the broken of heart and the contrite of spirit: they who shall inherit the earth and dwell therein for ever; the meek, who shall delight themselves with abundance of peace; the saints, who are preserved for the Olahm, and shall shout aloud for joy, when they execute the judgments written; the perfect, whose end is peace; His lovers and His friends; the fellows of the King, and princes in all the earth; those under whose feet the peoples and nations are to be subdued; the Man styled by Paul "the One Body"; the prisoners of YAHWEH; His servants who take pleasure in the the stones of Zion, the heavens who declare His righteousness; those who keep His covenant, and remember His commandments to do them; the seed of Abraham His servant, the children of Jacob His chosen; the priests of Zion clothed with salvation; the kings of the earth, who shall sing in the ways of YAHWEH. These have been sleeping the sleep of death for ages; but, inasmuch as that many of the things affirmed of them by the Eternal Spirit, are no part of the estate of the poor and needy during their sojourn among the living, it follows that, as not one jot or tittle of the Divine Word shall fail, by implication David inculcates their resurrection to execute the judgments written against the kings and nobles of the nations; to take possession of the earth, and to dwell therein for ever. 



http://www.angelfire.com/bc2/Bereans/Cornerstones/Resurrection/anastasis.html



Biblical Christianity 5 Conditions to Salvation 







Video Link to false doctrine below:


Christadelphians need to ask themselves how this video agrees with our statement of faith?

I would love to read your reply or watch a video response with your answer(s)










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