Man...all this doom and gloom end times business I've been saying on Youtube that MOST "Christians" believe. You are all in a serious identity crisis! Do you know who you are? I suppose you gotta get IN Christ FIRST because that is the problem, most of you all are NOT IN Christ! (Please see Galatians 3:27 and Acts 2:28 for instructions.) If you are IN Christ, then you know that Christ is in you and He will lead you and teach you ALL things.
John 14:26 Tells us that HE will teach us (Not some...not just the "important" stuff)...No HE says "ALL THINGS." Just like Galatians 3:27-29 says we must be Baptized INTO Christ in order to be IN His body and heirs to all the promises which are ONLY in Him. Acts 2:38 says we must be baptized IN HIS NAME (No other name but Jesus) FOR the forgiveness of our sins.
So here it is...DO WE REALLY BELIEVE AND FOLLOW THE WORD...or do we just SAY and really believe Billy Graham, Creflo Dollar, T.D. Jakes, Joel Olsteen, Pope Francis, John Smith, the RCC, the UPC, the UPCI, the UCC, the Nondenominational community churches, (which still are a denomination all you gullible people) Do we believe in the WELLS synod, the ELCA synod, the Baptists, the Methodist, the Presbyterians, the Mormons, the JW's, the Anglicans, etc...
At the end of the day our loyalty DOES NOT belong to any of these men or organizations, it belongs to Jesus. Who in fact is God, who is His word, which is the Bible. This is how we can get to know him, is through what he has told us. In fact with out the Bible, there is no way to know Jesus because there is no account! So if you hear it from the Bible...you are hearing it from Jesus.
If you believe the Bible and the Gospel message it says, then you MUST OBEY it! You must OBEY the Gospel like it says in 2 Thessalonians 1:8. Here me now...it doesn't say believe the Gospel in this verse...it straight up says OBEY it. So yes, for us to have any shot at salvation, (which is grace because we don't deserve it) we must believe the entire Gospel message and OBEY it. The Gospel message according to scripture is 1 Corinthians 15:1-5 and OBEYING it is applying this same death, burial, and resurrection to your own self as stated in Romans 6:3-5 Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.
This passage lines up perfectly with Acts 2:38, which is the original salvation message of the New Testament because this is how we get into covenant with God and become a part of His church or body as stated in Acts 2:41. (Physical Hebrews are no longer God's people because God's people must be born again and those who are born of water and spirit are HIS church!
John 3:16 alone is NOT going to save anyone...because we must define what "believe" is. Also in John 3:16 the word "believes" is plural, meaning it's PRESENT tense all you English scholars. This reveals that you better continue walking in this belief. In fact, you better be believing this idea all the way up to John 7:38 where Jesus defines "believes." Jesus says in this verse that if you really believe in Him and His John 3:16 message, then there will come a time where rivers of living water will be flowing out of your mouth and you will be speaking in tongues like all His true BELIEVERS did in Acts 2:4!
Yet people want to tell me that "it don't take all that." Well then take it up with the word. It's not my salvation on the line because I believe in Jesus according to what the entirety of scripture says about him. This living water that Jesus is speaking out pertains to HIS very Spirit. This is the Holy Spirit of God that fills ALL true believers. In fact, there are many Old Testament prophets who speak about this. The prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 44:3 speaks of this! For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your offspring.
The Spirit of God is what is poured out and it will come out of us if we believe and obey. Faith without obedience is not faith at all, it's doubt. Abraham had the faith to sacrifice his son, to the point where there was no doubt he was actually in the process of doing it. This is faith, it's not just saying something, faith MUST be accompanied by action or it's not faith it's hope. Faith must be accompanied by something for it to be true faith.
So now this prophecy in Isaiah was fulfilled in Acts chapter 2. When the Holy Spirit was first poured out. In fact we only know if one has the Holy Spirit of God in them if and only if they speak in tongues! If the entire chapter of Acts chapter 2 doesn't convince you of that, maybe Acts 10:46-7 will. "For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said, "Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have." So HOW did Peter know these gentiles had God's Spirit in them? HE HEARD THEM SPEAK IN TONGUES.
It's only when you have the very Spirit of God in you, that you can spit out real words and doctrine that will spring up life in other people! Of course this promise of having God's very spirit in us is for ALL those who God will call. (Acts 2:39) It's in God's word, so we have to believe it right? Unless that is, we really don't believe the word of God but men or tradition.