Jump to content
  • Welcome Guest

    For an ad free experience on Online Baptist, Please login or register for free

Depart From Me...


Recommended Posts

  • Members

Mt. 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.


I admit it; this passage bothers me. Not because Jesus said it but because someone who sincerely believes they are following Christ could end up in hell anyway. So I wonder, who are these people?

The other day someone was rejoicing that the "Holy Spirit filled Pope Benedict " proclaimed the Gospel while in Yankee Stadium by saying, ??Christ has died, Christ is Risen, Christ will come again?Christ is even now preparing a place for us in heaven! No compromise! Follow HIM only!? The Bible says that anyone who confesses that Jesus is the Christ has the Spirit of God.

This thread isn't about Catholicism so please don't go there. I'm just asking... how do people believe in Jesus and proclaim Him as Christ w/o being saved? Is it because they haven't repented of their own sin and asked for forgiveness?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

As a kid this passage always scared me too, it made me afraid maybe I didn't really get saved "right".

I will assume its "religion" rather than repentance though. You notice the passage says "I did...I did...I did..." not "I believed...I repented....I served." Sounds like its a passage about works salvation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Let me try to explain with some examples. ( This verse scared me when I was first saved)

When I was a boy though Teenage years I believed in God, I prayed to God. I figured if I would go to Church it would be a "Christian" Church. Though I believed there was a God I had never received him as saviour. I trusted in my works for salvation. Had I died in that state I may have been one asking why.

Another example; a good friend of mine (who is a Mormon Bishop) claims to know Christ. Only the Christ he believes in is Satan's brother, not the Christ of the Bible.

Kitagrl pegged it with religion. The JW's will ask this question.

Thats what I believe, it is those who may in sincerity think they are serving the Lord but are in false persuit of wrong things based on the flesh and the world and the deception of the Devil.

1Co 1:21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Belief is based on the Bible.

1Jn 3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. This is why we are attacked by the cults and false religions.

Sadly these are the folks Matthew 7:21-23 are talking about.

Hope this helps. :thumb

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Even those who have chosen to believe in a false hope, no matter how strong their believe is, they will hear the words, "I never knew you."

Which I understand well even thought some churches teach a false path to the Father, we know that Jesus is the only path to the Father, there may well be people in that false teaching church who are truly saved.

And that there will be people in true teaching churches who are not saved & or who are not holding to all of God's truths.

One thing is extremely important to us who have gone down the proper path, that we do not condone those who chose a false path to the Father & that we don't encourage anyone to believe any false teachings, even though they are truly saved.

For instants, here and or at our church I may speak of those churches who take liberties with the Bible and or may be liberal in their views, that is they don't hold to all truths, but yet holds to the truth about salvation, I don't stand in the world seeking them out to tell them they are wrong. But if they come to our church or here and some topics comes up that is a Baptist truths from the Bible, I'm going to stand for that Bible truth, I not going to say, it make no difference simply because its not about salvation.

But it scary to see the churches I spoke of above who teach acceptance of those who do not teach the proper path to heaven and or don't hold all truths.

For instant a long while back I was talking with the new youth pastor of our local large SBC Church in town, he told me that our church ought to shut down and come join them, being as we were smaller than they, for God wants us to all be one. I asked him about a few other denominations I our area that believe in works base salvation as well as saved by baptizing, do you think they ought to shut down their churches and come join with your church because they're smaller where all can be one. His answer was yes God wants all churches to be one, there is no need for all these different churches, we all have Christ in common and all ought to come together.

I firmly believe that Jesus wants His Churches, His people, to stand for all truths, separate from those who do not hold to all truths, not encourage those who do not hold to all truths, not to fellowship, worship together with them who do not hold to all truths.

I firmly understand that in any true teaching church, there will be some who are in different points of their growth in Christ, but they are not going to constantly reject true teachings every time it comes up causing strife in the church.

That said, there are issues that we can disagree to disagree on, but there are issues that we cannot disagree to disagree on.

Perhaps I have been fortunate but my past pastors have all held to those historical Baptist distinctives we have spoken of in other topics, and during the years God was leading me to be a pastor and I was really digging into the Holy Scriptures and coming to knowledge exactly what historical Baptist distinctives were I had a pastor who could show me why these were truths we should hold to and not compromise.

Plus during those learning days of mine there were a group of churches who joined together to hold a local crusade. This group of churches made up by several different denominations, some believing in works based salvation, did their best to get all pastors, preaches, churches to support them. They wanted the pastors and preachers to be there to stand down front during the invitation at the crusade, but their instruction were if anyone came to you and they were affiliated with or had been attending another denomination than you, you were to see that they get to a consular of their denomination and or church they had been attending, not point out to them the path to Jesus Christ. Anyone who would not agree to that was not allowed to stand up front during the invitation.

I might add, a lot of churches thru this area joined in with this crusade more did than didn't.

One Baptist pastor who took part in this, who later saw the mistake of joining in with them spoke to me of how he regretted having took part in the crusade. Because of having agreed to hold to their rules he feels he may have directed a couple of young teenagers to a works based counselor, perhaps loosing their only opportunity to be taught the only path to Christ and that they might one day stand before Christ hearing those dreaded words, "Depart from Me." You know its harder to reach someone who has no hope than it is someone who has not hope of Heaven.

I know I carried this a bit far, but its so important to hold to all truths so that we have no part in anyone hearing those dreaded words by Jesus, "Depart from me, I never knew you."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...