What is the gift of the Holy Ghost?
I read about the 14 steps of losing your salvation and I totally agree, but one of the arguments some Christians have is, What about your free will? Can you give the free gift of salvation back once have received it from God by announcing that you don't believe and want it anymore? Will God accept his free gift back? Is our Free Will so strong and powerful, that God has to honour it?
I recently read an interpretation of Ephesians 2:8-9 that said, "faith there is not the gift - salvation (the subject of the entire passage) is the gift of God. Faith is a feminine noun, while the demonstrative pronoun that ("it is" is not in the Greek) is neuter and could not refer to faith. The Greek will not permit "faith" to be the gift." How do you interpret this passage?
The way I understand this passage is that the Lord heard Cornelius' prayers. I don't know if He answered them, but I am in a quandary about the Lord hearing the prayers of unbelievers. I do not take from this passage that Cornelius was saved - it just states that he was a devout man that feared God. Can you shed some light on the subject for me?
Recently, I have been discussing man being made in the image of God. Some say that God's essence is spirit and, therefore, that image is mind, will, and emotions (or similar variations) and cannot include anything physical like a body.Some put forth that the image is spirit, soul, and body. But even most of those admit that the body is looking forward to Jesus as God in the flesh. My question for you is, why couldn't the Word have had a spiritual/physical body before the incarnation and, thus, man being made in God's image would be body, soul, and spirit?
