Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: ASC105@psuvm.psu.edu Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Holiness Message-ID: Date: 19 Nov 90 08:39:20 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Penn State University Lines: 41 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In many religions, how holy a person is is determined by the virtue of his position. That is, the higher up a person is in leadership of the religion, the more holy he is considered to be. However, the bible says something different about holiness. The key to someone or something being holy is God's PRESENCE. Holiness cannot be earned by reading books or going through the motions in a church. When a person accepts Christ in his heart and proclaims Him as Lord, his heart gets changed. His heart is his spirit, the real person. The soul is the mind, and the body is just an outer covering. The soul and body REMAIN THE SAME when a person gets saved. ONLY the spirit is changed and this is done by God, not by us. That's what the new creature is. This is what it means to be born-again. What defines a Christian is this: that his heart is changed as a result of accepting Christ. Now, this heart is holy, because if it wasn't holy and God puts his Holy Spirit within it, it would kill the person. The Holy Spirit resides in these reborn spirits. God communicates most of the time through these changed spirits. We have no right to ask for visions from God. We also have no right to ask for voices to guide us. Since the Holy Spirit resides in these new reborn spirits, supernatural guidance should come from within us. It shouldn't come from outer voices or visions of Mary because the world is where Satan operates. "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world." -1st John 4:4. "For as many as are led by the Sprit of God, they are the sons of God." -Romans 8:14. This does NOT say "For as many as are led by FLIPPING COINS..." Guidance should come from within... from our inner being which is more in tune with God than our mind, if you are saved. Your spirit will not tell you to do something wrong nor will it tell you to do something out of line with God's Word. "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he CANNOT sin, because he is born of God."-1 John 4:9 This is speaking about the heart. The reason a Christian can sin is because he is getting guidance from the mind or outside world or letting his flesh rule. All the while, the heart is weeping because it knows God's commandments. If you can't tell whether your heart weeps or not when you sin then you are either backslidden or YOU ARE NOT SAVED. In Christ Jesus's Name, Allen S. Cheung (Jesus is Lord)