"Bart Goddard" wrote in message
news:132.12.09.05.862960000@srcbs.org...
>
snip
>
> I think Gary and I both see faith/belief as a pipeline
> through which grace is delivered. I'm asserting that
> the building of the pipeline is part of God's gift of
> grace. Gary is saying that it is not, but an act of
> man which must preceed grace. I'm not trying to trick
> him with the question (a trick question is one where
> you get a person to say something he didn't mean) but
> to lead him to where his doctrine logically ends up.

Bart, you are TOO smart for me.

I am simply agreeing with God. When God was asked (actually
Paul was asked, but God spoke through Paul), by the Jailor,

"What must I do to be saved."

God's response was not Bart's "response."

Bart says: "Well, Jailor, you have miss-phrased the question. So I won't
answer you."

No God answered the simple Jailor with a simple answer:


Acts 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt
be saved, and thy house.

Where the Bible has a simple answer to a simple question, what
is wrong with using exactly what the Bible says?

You, I think, also referred to the question of the Rich young ruler when he
asked Christ, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"



Luke 18:18 And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I
do to inherit eternal life?



Did Christ answer as you do? NO! He answered:

19 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save
one, that is, God. 20 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery,
Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and
thy mother. 21 And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.

There are two ways to inherit eternal life. (Just for you Bart, one is an
empty set.)
One is by KEEPING the commandments, and the other by Grace THROUGH faith.

Christ teaches us here several things, the most important being who HE
really is,
which point our friends the BlueOne, and Sarah, completely miss.

But the rich young ruler also misses the point. He has deluded himself. He
has not kept the commandments at all, and Christ shows him that this is
true.

Romans 4:16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so
that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of
the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the
father of us all. 17 (as it is written, "I have made you a father of many
nations") in the presence of Him whom he believed--God, who gives life to
the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;