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Expert: Mr. McClellan - 11/2/2009


Question
"I read on the net the following and need to know if it is true. Especially the last portion.

As you will see in the way these verses are worded, they will specifically tell us that no one can come to Jesus to receive His gift of eternal salvation unless God the Father first starts to draw that person to Him. And then it says that no one can say that Jesus is Lord unless it is done "by" the Holy Spirit.



That no one can say Jesus is Lord? Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. regards, Mr. Stroud

Answer
Hello Mr Stroud,
That's what the scriptures say, but most people don't know what they mean. Typically, those passages are taught to mean that God picks and chooses who to save for reasons that we are not told. However, those verses do not actually teach any such thing.
God, as the creator of all things, determined before the creation of the universe that when humans started disobeying him he would provide a way to save anyone that would be faithful to him. So, he did some things that would cause some people to be attracted, or drawn, to him. In other words, he would choose to save those that chose to come to him.
Now, because faith is not really faith until a person actually begins to obey God, once a sinner accepts the truth about Jesus and once they repent of their sins (they are not save yet) they must allow themselves to be baptized as Jesus commanded. At that point in time, God puts the Holy Spirit into their hearts and counts them as his faithful child. However, that faithful child is still free to disobey God, and if they do they will return to being lost in sin. God never takes control of a persons life so that they have no choice. He only controls the lives of those who want his control. God's idea of faith is that you have to actually start doing what he says before you can truly call him Lord. You're right to call Jesus "Lord" begins after you have accepted the truth about him and after you have repented of your sins. Then, the moment that you come up out of the water that you are baptized in, having obeyed Jesus as Lord, God forgives you of your sins and counts you as one of his children that he has saved from the penalty of eternal death. This is what the scriptures actually teach.
So, how does a person get into the faith that is in Christ? They have to be baptized into Christ; into the faith that is in Christ. That is when they are born again, figuratively speaking, and are raised to begin living a new life by faith in Jesus. The Holy Spirit that is in them will be calling out to God the way a loving son calls out to his beloved father for help and his father will hear him.
All you have to do to know that what I'm saying is really what the Bible says is to read your Bible very carefully. It's all right there in front of you and you can see it if you won't let all the false teachings that abound cause you to misread the scriptures and make them mean things that are not what the writers of the Bible actually said and intended for people to understand.

Sincerely,
Mr. McClellan

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Mr. McClellan

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I can answer questions concerning Christian doctrine as well as other kinds of questions relating to religion. One important thing, among many, that needs clearing up is the meaning of religion. Religion is any system of belief that tries to explain how people should think and behave so that life is the best it can be. The definition found in the dictionary is seriously in error being based on popular but wrong ideas. Email me at and.the.truth.is@GMX.com for a free PDF 5 page introduction to my just completed book, "And The Truth Is?" It's uniquely different and interactive, designed to show you that you can actually know the way, the truth, and the life Jesus spoke of and what he expected people to do to participate in it as well as what to expect if they did.

Experience

My education puts me second to none in this area and I have had over forty years experience in the area of teaching Christian theology, doctrine, apologetics, hermeneutics, history, and philosophy. Publications: Among the things that I have written is a summary of the entire Bible that is intended to help people put it all together and quickly understand exactly what the writers of the Bible intended for everyone to understand. By reading it and then reading the Bible, the correct understanding should become quite clear and a sincere student will recognize that they have received an invaluable aid to knowing how to correctly interpret the Bible so that they can know, with certainty, that they are understanding it correctly. At the same time, they will be able to recognize the vast number of false doctirnes that are being called Christian doctrines but are only the teachings of men and have no more authority than any oridinary man can give them.

Organizations
I belong to no officially recognized organizations. I'm simply a person with a deep and lifelong desire to know the truth, a desire so strong that I have, for more than 50 years, poured myself and a lot of money into finding it and making sure of it. I believe that life is too short and valuable to waste it believing a lot of stuff that isn't true. Everyone can't be right and be in disagreement at the same time and the claims made by the writers of the Bible are simply too serious to guess about.

Publications
It's quite obvious that the Bible is not easy to comprehend thus all the divided opinions about what it teaches. I am finalizing a short treatise on the Bible that I believe will help a lot of people who seriously want to get a clear understanding of what the Bible actually has to say to everyone, a treatise that should take the mystery out of it and show that it really makes sense. People deserve help in recognizing the truth about what the Bible says because there is so much false teaching about it that is actually leading people away from God instead of to God. It should be ready to send out by the end of this year, 2011 or before. Now, you can purchase a PDF copy of my book "And The Truth Is?" on CD. It's very unique and it's interactive. If you're tired of living with a best guess and want to learn for certain what the truth is, this, the result of over 50 years of research and serious study, is what you're looking for.

Education/Credentials
I have two degrees in education, including religious belief systems. I also have many years of experience and many thousands of hours of study and research on which I've based my new book, "The Bible Actually Makes Sense."

Awards and Honors
All of my awards and honors are in the form of compliments from people who've read or listened to my attempts to help them understand what the Bible is about and how to comply with what it actually says. So many have said, in one way or another, that I helped them more than anyone they had ever met. It's comforting to know that my efforts to be of value to others is appreciated.

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