CES Sunday Service Episode 115 (March 15th, 2020)
Channel: Church of the Eternally Secure (C.E.S.)
Date: 2020-03-15

The panel fields the congregation's questions every week during Sunday Service where we seek to  exemplify Liberty in non-essentials and share our views and opinions through a spirit of Charity.
Below are the questions that are covered during today's service:

Q1 (@19:13):  "One of the topics I have a hard time dealing with is the problem of evil. An atheist asked me yesterday as we were talking about the flood, 'Doesn't it concern you that you're defending genocide?' Like how could you defend a God that kills the innocent along with the wicked kind of thing. This is a question I've been struggling with."

Q2 (@37:24):  "Apostle Paul said to the king in Acts 26:20:  'But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.'  Is this teaching people that we've got to repent of our sins to get saved, then on top of that, do works to prove that we have repented?  Of course it is not, but I learn so much from everyone at the panel. The person who threw this at Renee obviously didn't read the previous verse (Acts 26:18) where Jesus said that we are sanctified by faith that is in Him! That proves that context really is everything when Lordshippers throw things at us to try to frighten us by telling us that Jesus is not enough to save."

Q3a (@48:46):  "Romans 8:13 says:  'For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.'  It really looks like it is saying that if we are not living a holy life, we will lose our salvation, especially when it says 'live' and 'die.'  I've seen brothers and sisters try to explain this verse by saying that death in this verse is talking about physical death.  But, someone made the point that this verse can't be 'physical death' because we all physically die."

Q3b (@1:12:03):  "I believe this verse [Romans 8:13] is not saying even what true brothers and sisters think it is - i.e. this is not primarily a command to live holy – although we can get a secondary principle in this that sin causes emotional and early death.  But primarily, I believe (from comparing context) that this verse is actually a call for fence sitters in the church who were still unbelievers to accept the Gospel.  Because there are verses in Romans 7, then Romans 8:10 which define 'mortifying the flesh' as that once you've put faith in Christ your flesh is considered dead.  Then there are Scriptures that say we have died with Christ (because of belief).  So believing the Gospel is essentially how you mortify the deeds of the flesh, especially since we are credited with Jesus' righteousness.  We know there were unbelievers in this letter because even Romans 8:10 (and others) say and IF Christ be in you.  And IF the Spirit dwells in you.  So verse 13 is saying to those unbelievers to mortify the deeds of the flesh by following the call of the Spirit to accepting the Gospel, which will give them life."

Q4 (@1:29:09):  "I've heard theories (especially based on archaeological evidence) that before the flood, the world was actually very technologically advanced.  It is believed that the people before the flood of Noah were not these ancient cave or dessert dwellers at all.  At the very least, their technology was as sophisticated as the level of technology we had in the early 2000's (Internet, powerful small personal computers, going to space, medical technology, aircraft etc.).  There was supposed evidence that pre-flood humans had been into space and even had technology that we have not thought of.  What do you all think?  Could this be true?  I believe it could have been because people had a lifespan of hundreds of years and were in better physical shape than humans of today, which means they would have had better mental capacity."

Q5 (@1:45:41):  "I totally agree with the dogmas of CES.  But, there is so much division, even disgust, over us versus what we call hyper-dispensationalism.  Some even go as far as to say they e.g. Robert Breaker are outright heretics leading people to hell despite having the correct Gospel.  So my question is, should we add another dogma to CES which says something like:  'We believe that it is only by faith alone in the Lord that saved anyone in all dispensations, in all periods of time, past, present and future.'?"