How Many "3 Steppers" Do We Have On Aff???

[stmatthew]

Originally Posted by Truly Blessed

Salvation, according to my understanding of Scripture, is a process that begins with God and ends with God and involves faith, repentance, baptism in water, the gift of the Holy Ghost, sanctification and walking in the Spirit, witnessing, and my eventual resurrection from the dead.

People who reduce the role of the Holy Ghost to an event in which someone speaks with other tongues, IMO diminish the work of the Spirit in this process of salvation.

To deny the transformational impact of the Word and the regeneration reality of someone who has placed their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation is absurd IMO. Legalist love to dissect everything and break things down into steps, but it's not really steps, it's process. If it was steps, God Himself could not deviate from the steps He has put in place. In other words, a person wouldn't be allowed to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost without first being baptized. If you believe the theology of SE for example and it's a matter of steps, God often baptizes folks with the Holy Ghost whose sins have not been remitted. That's like saying it would have been acceptable for the OT priests to bypass the laver and enter into the Holy of Holies, then go back later and wash their hands in the laver. Steps are steps. Salvation is process.

I can wholeheartedly agree with you that it is a process. It don't stop with Belief. It don't stop with Repentance. It don't stop with Water Baptism. It don't stop with Spirit Baptism. And it don't even stop with Holiness living. It is a continual growth, and just like anything living thing, the moment growth is stopped, it usually indicates a death has occurred.