Quote:
Originally Posted by Brett Prince
I believe this approach to explaining a 3-step salvation plan is wrought with folly.
An apple tree has not proven it is truly an apple tree until it bears its fruit.
But, it is folly to declare it NOT an apple tree until it bears fruit, for indeed from the day it was but a foot tall, it was an apple tree. We could not be SURE that it was an apple tree until it bore fruit--and if it WERE an apple tree it WOULD bear apples--but it did NOT BECOME an apple tree when it bore its first apple. It was an apple tree LONG before that.
So, to try to take James and make it say faith is not alive until it has works is slightly off. Faith was alive long before the fruit came forward. We can simply be assured, says James, that if the faith is alive--the works will come.
James is not going to prove a 3-step salvation plan no matter how hard one tries.
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Great points. However, they in no wise detract form saying faith is the beginning of the experience, not the end. I can have faith all day long that an apple tree is an apple tree, but with no fruit it has little value as an apple tree. There must be production to prove identity. JMO.