Quote:
Originally Posted by bibleprotector
My view of Ephesians 4:13 must be opposite to yours, "Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ".
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Our views on that verse must be opposite: as the verse says, "
Till we all come in the unity of the faith" - when will all Christians come in true unity of the faith? When we are in Heaven with the "fulness of Christ". As Matthew Henry puts it, "Now we shall never come to the perfect man, till we come to the perfect world ... we never come to that measure till we come to heaven."
(Paul wrote: "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus" (Phil 3:2). Paul did not attain perfection on earth, as he wrote in his epistle, and should we assume that we would if the Apostle didn't?)
Quote:
Originally Posted by bibleprotector
And when it comes to the Scripture perfection, and the claim that "God has not kept His Word on earth", it appears that you do not believe 1 Peter 1:21, 23, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. ... But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you."
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I do believe 1 Peter. If you read closely, however, the verses you quoted does not state
where the word of God "liveth and abideth" or "endureth for ever".
Quote:
Originally Posted by bibleprotector
What an unjust and weak God would not keep His Word, and would fail to provide it for His people at the end! This would be saying that antichrist and error are greater than the work of God in history. The Pagan Roman Empire didn’t stop Him, but end time apostasy did?!
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I have stated before that I agree with Scripture, as I'm sure you do too, when it says that God has kept His Word. What we do disagree on is
where God kept His Word perfectly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bibleprotector
Jesus said, “and they have kept thy word.” (John 17:6b). How can we obey the Word if it is not fully present? James 2:10 says, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” If we do not have the whole law, then how can we be sure that anyone can be saved? ... Where are the exact laws that a person might read them? where is the writing of the covenant in physical form?
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Let's put it another way: how are the old testament saints saved if they did not have the "whole law"? That is, they presumably had no knowledge of the new testament. And, Moses, for example, would not have had knowledge of future old testament writings, yet Moses was considered a "man of God" (Deu 33:1)? Or, David, who was considered a "man after mine [God's] own heart" (Acts 13:22)? They did not have the whole canon of Scripture, did they?
I remember an illustration that Chuck Missler gave on the similarities between Scripture and holograms. When you shine a laser through a holographic plate, it produces a holographic image. Cut the holographic plate in half, and shine the laser through it, and what do you have? It still produces the same holographic image, though degraded in quality. Cut the plate into an eighth of the size of the original, and it will still produce the same image, though even more degraded. In the same way, I believe a man like Job, or Moses, or David, etc. with the small amount of Scripture that they had, would still find the message of the Gospel, though not as clearly as we see it. Alternatively, add erroneous information into the holographic plate; the resulting image will still be visible, but degraded as well. Even if our faithful copies and translations of Scripture
may contain errors, the Gospel message is not totally hidden, and God's Word will always be discernable through the guidance and teaching of His Holy Ghost (John 14:26).