The Thief on the Cross

[Sam]

Originally Posted by onefaith2

Not many Baptists ask Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed or baptize in Jesus name like Paul did in Acts 19. Or lay hands on them to receive the Holy Ghost.

Although there are some thank God!

Some of us Bapticostals do stuff like that.

[rgcraig]

Originally Posted by deacon blues

Jesus can save anybody. Even a man on his deathbed.

Amen!

[sandie]

Originally Posted by Apprehended

Did you change the post while I was responding to it?

To this statement above, I agree. In truth, I am a Jn. 3:5/Acts 2:38 ONE STEPPER. But, you would have to let me explain what I mean by this statement to fully understand where I am coming from.

I might start a thread tomorrow to explain what I mean. You will see that I am not a traditionalist.

Looking forward to it, Brother.

[Pressing-On]

Originally Posted by deacon blues

What about the parable of the eleventh hour workers? All of the laborers received the same wages. Its a picture of God's mercy and His gift of eternal life.

Yes, but the operative word would be "laborers". They got paid because they labored. They didn't just stand around watching everyone else do the work.

[Pressing-On]

Originally Posted by sandie

Looking forward to it, Brother.

Ditto!

[Apprehended]

Originally Posted by deacon blues

Jesus can save anybody. Even a man on his deathbed.

I have no problem with the Savior's ability to save. The reason that I have little to no confidence in death-bed repentance is that there is no life given to repentance. Repentance begins with a change of mind but ends with a life bearing fruit (meat) of repentance. It cannot be true repentance at moments before death since this kind of repentance is under compulsion or emotional duress looking into an eternity without God. Therefore, the problem is not in the Savior's corner, it's in the sinner's corner.

[notofworks]

Originally Posted by Apprehended

I have no problem with the Savior's ability to save. The reason that I have little to no confidence in death-bed repentance is that there is no life given to repentance. Repentance begins with a change of mind but ends with a life bearing fruit (meat) of repentance. It cannot be true repentance at moments before death since this kind of repentance is under compulsion or emotional duress looking into an eternity without God. Therefore, the problem is not in the Savior's corner, it's in the sinner's corner.

I have GREAT confidence in deathbed repentance, as does Jesus. I know it's difficult to spend a LIFETIME pouring your absolute best into the work of the Lord, even doing communion at home late in the evening and shedding tears on your bible, and THEN some guy who has lived like the devil for 80 years, actively opposed God's work the entire time, and given you fits, standing before God and receiving the same reward as you. But.......





Matthew 20:1 For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the owner of an estate who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard.


Mat 20:2 He agreed to pay the normal daily wage and sent them out to work.


Mat 20:3 "At nine o'clock in the morning he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing.


Mat 20:4 So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day.


Mat 20:5 At noon and again around three o'clock he did the same thing.


Mat 20:6 At five o'clock that evening he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, `Why haven't you been working today?'


Mat 20:7 "They replied, `Because no one hired us.' "The owner of the estate told them, `Then go on out and join the others in my vineyard.'


Mat 20:8 "That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first.


Mat 20:9 When those hired at five o'clock were paid, each received a full day's wage.


Mat 20:10 When those hired earlier came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day's wage.


Mat 20:11 When they received their pay, they protested,


Mat 20:12 `Those people worked only one hour, and yet you've paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.'


Mat 20:13 "He answered one of them, `Friend, I haven't been unfair! Didn't you agree to work all day for the usual wage?


Mat 20:14 Take it and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you.


Mat 20:15 Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be angry because I am kind?'


Mat 20:16 "And so it is, that many who are first now will be last then; and those who are last now will be first then."

[Apprehended]

I just KNEW Two Boards was somewhere lurking in the shadows.

J/K... Really, it's good to have Two Boards around.

Your scripture of the 11th hour worker is a good one to prove my point. The man on his death-bed never entered the field of labor at all. Such a man is in last moments of life from which there is no retrieval of opportunity to be called or chosen, much less to be found faithful.

Jesus, our Savior is not going to look at such a man and say, "Well done thou good and faithful servant, thou has been faithful over a few things...." If a man has not done well, the Savior is not going to lie just for the purpose of sounding sweet. If a man has not been faithful over anything, our Savior is not going to look at him, smile and then tell him a LIE. That is not the real savior, it is only an imaginary savior that soothes and appeases the carnal mind.

Then, we come to understand how that repentance is more than just a change of mind but that it must be brought forth as a way of life...which cannot be done at the last moments of a life...

Act 26:20 But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and [then] to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.

Just like the Jews in those days, the imperative nature of bringing forth fruit worthy of repentance is seen here as required by the Gentiles also.

A man in the throes of death cannot repent since his sorrow for sin is from the prospects of being lost forever and not by reason of the horror of sin itself. He is more interested in getting away with living a life of sin by being saved at the last moment than he is sorrowful for the sin itself. This is duress. No confession is valid under compulsion or duress. Such repentance is not from GODLY SORROW.

2Cr 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

Back to my earlier statement: The problem is not with the Savior's ability to save. The problem lies in the scoundrel that wants to get away with one last but ultimate heist.

[Arphaxad]

Originally Posted by Apprehended

I have no problem with the Savior's ability to save. The reason that I have little to no confidence in death-bed repentance is that there is no life given to repentance. Repentance begins with a change of mind but ends with a life bearing fruit (meat) of repentance. It cannot be true repentance at moments before death since this kind of repentance is under compulsion or emotional duress looking into an eternity without God. Therefore, the problem is not in the Savior's corner, it's in the sinner's corner.

so what about the person that goes to church for the first time and hears a powerful message and gets moved to go to the altar and decides to turn his life around to Jesus, and dies unexpetedly the next day?

[Apprehended]

Originally Posted by Arphaxad

so what about the person that goes to church for the first time and hears a powerful message and gets moved to go to the altar and decides to turn his life around to Jesus, and dies unexpetedly the next day?

When he jumped in the water and went under in the name of Jesus, he was absolved of all sin just for having heard the word, from a sorrowful heart because of sin, this ONE act of righteousness that justified him will accrue to him in judgment.