rumitoid

I got in many fistfights as a kid before I turned 13. I have this unnatural bulbous look to my muscles, taken as being strong. I had a reputation of being tough before I even had a fight. Always reluctant in all contests, always ready to say enough. Never could bring myself to swing away at a person. I had the same attitude about service in the Army. And I got a job where I was not in a position to shot others. A Blessing!

Peewee, your presence at those prisons changed a few lives for the better, I am sure of that. You are a decent man. I am not. Life is all in my head. I do not get the notion of hope because it is based on wishful thinking or fear.

rumitoid

I met Jesus when I was seven years old and drowned. Still feel that love and peace poured out to me. His presence is real to this day. I have no need for hope. None of that chapter and verse you quoted says hope is necessary for salvation; it is all there for people who doubt and waiver. I do not.

rumitoid

People are different. I have no use for hope. I do not think that is somehow wrong or a sin. Nor do I think that people who rely on hope are wrong or in sin. I take life as is and take Christ as he stated. No doubts. Almost all humans need reassurances and hope. That seems very odd to me. Why do they need those things?

Peewee Loc: San Antonio, TX

Because everyone is the same and everyone is different. We're all unique, fearfully and wonderfully made.
Even identical twins think differently about some things and have murdered one another.

rumitoid

Very true, thank you.

TommyRadd Loc: Midwest USA

You have the exact same arrogance and false sense of security the believing Jews in John 8 had, and the Gnostics who believed they were saved merely by “knowing” their destiny.

You should read more about what early Christians actually believed... from them.


Matt. 7:22Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’ 24Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

Matt. 4:4But he answered, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'"

When so many scriptures, as have been quoted to You already, and more, testify against your way of thinking, and you refuse to allow your mind to be conformed to the scriptures, it is clear, that isn’t living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God!

John 8:31Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed him, "If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples. 32You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." 33They answered him, "We are Abraham's seed, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How do you say, 'You will be made free?'"

John 8:39They answered him, "Our father is Abraham." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.

Heb. 11:8By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went... 10For he looked for the city which has the foundations, whose builder and maker is God... 13These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and embraced them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. 15If indeed they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had enough time to return. 16But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God.

Your disdain of “hope” exposes that you do not share in the hopeful faith of Abraham.

Even Abraham himself, at the very moment, and over the very mindset regarding which God imputed righteousness for his faith did not display a “I know who I am” self-deceit. Rather, the faith of Abraham was a faith of trust in God AND hope in God’s promise, and clearly NOT a faith, as yours, that ridicules the very idea of “hope.”

Gen. 15:1After these things {that is, AFTER Abraham had obeyed through faith} the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Don't be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward."
2Abram said, "Lord Yahweh, what will you give me, since I go childless, and he who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3Abram said, "Behold, to me you have given no seed: and, behold, one born in my house is my heir." 4Behold, the word of Yahweh came to him, saying, "This man will not be your heir, but he who will come forth out of your own body will be your heir." 5Yahweh brought him outside, and said, "Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." He said to Abram, "So shall your seed be." 6He believed in Yahweh; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness. 7He said to him, "I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it."
8He said, "Lord Yahweh, how will I know that I will inherit it?" 9He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." 10He brought him all of these, and divided them in the middle, and laid each half opposite the other; but he didn't divide the birds. 11The birds of prey came down on the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.
12When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Now terror and great darkness fell on him. 13He said to Abram, "Know for sure that your seed will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years. 14I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve. Afterward they will come out with great wealth, 15but you will go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried in a good old age. 16In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full."
17It came to pass that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
18In that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram.

God didn’t bless Abraham for knowing who he, Abraham, was in God. In fact, Abraham “knew” no such thing.

Heb. 10:36For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise.
37"In a very little while, he who comes will come, and will not wait.
38But the righteous will live by {Abrahamic, hopeful} faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him."
39But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul.

Phil. 2:12 then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Thus it is written:

Rom. 8:20For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. 22For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. 23Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body. 24For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees? 25But if we hope for that which we don't see, we wait for it with patience.

You have confessed out of your own mouth, by your disdain and ridiculing of “hope”, that you are not subjecting yourself to the One who has subjected all creation, including His saints like Paul, in hope.

In other words, you have decided and declared that you are beyond, and it is beneath you, to walk in the steps of the faith Abraham had before he was circumcised, not realizing the scriptures speak against that very notion of yours, and you have thereby literally rejected being what it means to be a spiritual son of Abrahamic faith:

Rom 4:12He {Abraham} is the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision.

And thus you do not subject yourself to the words of God, quoted to you, that admonish you to have hope, and instead you reject living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God...

Rom . 8:5For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace; 7because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God's law, neither indeed can it be. 8Those who are in the flesh can't please God.

Rom. 2:5But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God; 6who "will pay back to everyone according to their works:" 7to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life; 8but to those who are self-seeking, and don't obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath and indignation, 9oppression and anguish, on every soul of man who works evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek

Heb 11:1Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen. 2For by this, the elders obtained testimony

Heb. 11:6Without faith {...things hoped for} it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who earnestly seek him

Rose42

You avoided the questions.

rumitoid

Probably. What were they?

Rose42