Subject: Bible question-please help
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 05:42:40 -0500
From: Jack Barr To: XXXXXXX@xxxxxxxxx

Hello XXXXXX

You have asked the following questions:
I recently taught Sunday School in 1 Thes Chapter 5. Now as I studied and prepared for my lesson, one word troubled me in I Thes Chapter 5 (don't have a Bible with me) uses the word BLAMELESS. What does that mean?

Some will say that Since you are Washed in the Blood then you are Blameless because your sins Past, present and Future are forgiven. Then why are you to strive to be blameless and worthy????

Answer:
While it is true that Jesus died on the cross for every sin, there is a problem with the belief that when you come to Jesus, that every sin that you ever did, and every sin that you will continue to commit have been forgiven at that time. (that time, - meaning the exact time that you first gave your heart to Jesus) It is true that when you first accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and God, asking for His forgiveness, that every sin that you committed before that time are forgiven, forgiven because you have asked for forgiveness for those sins. But from that time on, when a person sins, they must ask forgiveness for those sins, and if they do not, then there is no forgiveness and they will go to Hell for those sins.

That false belief says that once you say "Jesus I am yours" that you can still live just as you have in the past. That is a variation of the "Once Saved Always Saved False Doctrine." The statement would lead you to believe that if you lied, cheated, raped and robbed before you came to the Lord, and it was forgiven when you came to Jesus, that you can continue to lie, cheat, rape, and rob, because it has already been forgiven. If that does not make any sense to you, it sure does not make any sense to God either. It is not what God said.

Ezekiel 3:20 "Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered............"

Ezekiel 18:24 "But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doetyh according to all the abominations that the wicked doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned; in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die."

Ezekiel 33:13 "When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousness shall not be remembered, but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it."

Ezekiel 33:18 "When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die for it."

And in the Book of Revelation

Revelation 3:5 "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will NOT blot his name out of the book of life."

Look at Ezekiel, The word gives us three different ways to loose salvation, each of which is Our Own Fault. And in the Book of Revelation where the message was sent to Believers who had received Salvation, for their names were in the Book of Life, that they had to overcome in order for their names to remain in the Book of Life. Those who do not overcome, those who continue to sin will have their names Blotted out, or erased, from the Book of Life. And I have not even mentioned the parables which tell us ways to loose salvation.

With all this in mind, let us now look at the word "blameless" in 1 Thessalonians 5:23. What is this part of the chapter telling us to do?

1. We are not to give evil for evil
2. follow only what is good
3. always rejoice over everything
4. pray with out ceasing
5. give thanks to God for everything
6. do not quench the Spirit
7. do not despise (refuse to accept) prophecy and those who give the prophecies
8. prove all things, test everything back against God's Word
9. keep away from every form of evil.

Then Paul tells us that he is praying that God will help you to overcome all the sins of the world, so that when Jesus returns that we will have no sins that have not been overcome and forgiven, therefore, be blameless. That is, there is nothing that has not been paid in full for by Jesus Christ. If we do all the things above, then at the end, we will be found blameless (no sins on the book against us.)

To be blameless before God is to obey all of God's commandments. Blameless means you have no blame, you are guiltless, you are innocent.

Question:
Some say that the backslidden will not be raptured.....

Answer:
Now just what is a backslider? Isn't a backslider a Christian who had salvation, and then started sinning without repenting? Going back out into the world?

If that is true, then a backslider falls under the category of Ezekiel 18:24. The backslider has sinned repeatedly but has not yet repented and been forgiven. In this spiritual condition, I do believe that they would miss the rapture.

Speaking for myself, I believe that a person can not loose their salvation by accident, nor can they backslide by accident, that they must deliberately walk away from Jesus Christ. Our Lord is a Loving God, one who will give us every chance and opportunity to repent before calling us before the judgment seat. However God will not force us to do anything. We must come to Him by our choice, and by our choice (deliberate or by apathy) we can choose to leave Him.

In addition see the following:

From Geneva Note:

5:23 And the very God of peace {i} sanctify you wholly; and [I pray God] your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

(i) Separate you from the world, and make you holy to himself through his Spirit, in Christ, in whom alone you will attain to that true peace.

From John Gill's Expositor for 5:23

preserved blameless; not that he thought they could be kept from sinning entirely in thought, word, or deed; but that they might be preserved in purity and chastity from the gross enormities of life, and be kept from a total and final falling away, the work of grace be at last completed on the soul and spirit, and the body be raised in incorruption, and glory; and both at the coming of Christ be presented faultless, and without blame, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, first to himself, and then to his Father.

See also blamelessness Php. 2:15, 3:6; Col. 1:22; 1Thess. 3:13, 5:23; 1Tim. 3:2; Tit. 1:6; 2Pe. 3:14
See also guilelessness - innocence Ps. 32:2; Joh. 1:47; 1Pe. 2:22; Rev. 14:5

I hope this answers your question on Blameless.

May The Lord God Almighty Lead you into All God's Truth.

Rev. Jack Barr