1 Thessalonians 4:13-18...what do you think?

the truth be with us said:

i just read it in the kjv and there’s very little that are the same... i believe that if anyone is to get any spiritual growth the bible has to be properly translated if not then how will we know that it is the truth?

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Which is a good reason to avoid the KJV! It was translated into a different dialect of English than the one we speak now. Those who hold to the "inspired version theory" are mostly legalists. You're not a legalist now are you?

wow net doc.....look at all those 6's. are you the antichrist? I thought the antichrist was jar jar binks!

Buttercup said:

So are you saying that you could be a devoted Christian most of your life....then for a month before your death you forget to pray, don't go to church and are too busy to ask for forgiveness of your sins. This momentary lapse of fervent rule following causes you to lose your salvation?

How about if you slip up for two weeks, one week or one day? Loss of salvation?

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Of course not. The Lord knows our hearts and is fully able to distinguish between a momentary lapse and a true lack of conviction. He hardly needs to look for loopholes, or try to catch us off guard so that He doesn't have to save us after all. If that were the way He thought and acted, He would hardly have been willing to die to save us. All I'm saying, and I can't imagine that you would disagree with me, is that once we accept Christ, once we profess our faith in Him, we need to continue throughout our lives to be faithful to Him. He expects us to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. It is entirely possible for someone's devotion to Christ to fade and for him to lose the strength of the convictions he once had. And that's what we need to make sure doesn't happen.

The verses are not that difficult to understand. You seem to have a handle on it already. Paul comforted those who were seeking Him early. The time, he said, was not known. Jesus did say that He would come as a thief in the night:

"Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

"But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.

"Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." (Matthew 24:42-44; KJV).

He also said:

"But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." (Matthew 24:36).

The early saints were awaiting an earlier arrival and were anxious during some parts of the persecutions they suffered. Many saints did die in the early years of the Church and anxiously looking for their Savior may be understandable.

Today we still do the same thing, but the same advice still applies: We do not know when He will come, even the angels are not privy to the information until the time has arrived, only Father knows. Does Jesus know? Perhaps by now, but we do not know. See Luke 12:35-48 for more.

Squirt said:

Of course not. The Lord knows our hearts and is fully able to distinguish between a momentary lapse and a true lack of conviction. He hardly needs to look for loopholes, or try to catch us off guard so that He doesn't have to save us after all. If that were the way He thought and acted, He would hardly have been willing to die to save us. All I'm saying, and I can't imagine that you would disagree with me, is that once we accept Christ, once we profess our faith in Him, we need to continue throughout our lives to be faithful to Him. He expects us to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. It is entirely possible for someone's devotion to Christ to fade and for him to lose the strength of the convictions he once had. And that's what we need to make sure doesn't happen.

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I am basically in agreement with this.... If a person has truly accepted the works of Christ, all this should follow. Thank God we aren't the ones to judge who gets in and who doesn't!

We should quit going off topic huh? Sorry folks!

Buttercup said:

I am basically in agreement with this.... If a person has truly accepted the works of Christ, all this should follow. Thank God we aren't the ones to judge who gets in and who doesn't!

We should quit going off topic huh? Sorry folks!

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Ah, but I think in many ways we will be judging ourselves.

5:1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.
(King James Bible, 1 Corinthians)
deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
(King James Bible, 1 Corinthians)

3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
3:12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; 3:13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
3:14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
3:15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
(King James Bible, 1 Corinthians)

6:11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
6:12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
(King James Bible, 1 Corinthians)

11:30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
(King James Bible, 1 Corinthians)

6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
(King James Bible, 1 Corinthians)

Paul amonishes us to live right, for we are bought with a price, and shows us that we are saved, but that our works will be judged for reward, some of us will be saved, but with no reward. This is where salvation gets confused by many, salvation is a free gift given to us the moment we believe. If we quench the Spririt within us, and do not read the Bible and fellowship and obey, then we do not grow well, and will not bear fruit. When we live carnally, we are in danger of not having any treasure in Heaven, but we are assurred of getting there, yet, who wants to stand before the Lord empty handed? We want to live right because we have been bought with a price, and we strive to, yet our old sin nature will be with us to battle with until we receve our transformed, incorruptible (sinless) bodies. If we struggle with sin and fail, and we will sometimes, we get up and fight on, God is with us, helping us. If we choose to disobey and do our own thing, and fall into sin, we will reap the consequences of it here and now, and will lose reward in Heaven, but not salvation. So it is good to live right, but not to fear your salvation, for that is what Jesus freely gave us, with a great price, and I do not add anything I do to what He did.
Mike

I would add a saying I heard:

Some people go to Heaven and recieve crowns, and some people God crowns and takes them to Heaven. Get it?