The answer is a resounding, emphatic and unequivocal “Yes!” We will show from the Bible that GOD is confident—convinced—that those whom He calls to eternal salvation in this day and age WILL succeed.

Paul expresses his and God’s thinking in this regard in Philippians 1:3-6, as follows:

“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ…”

The Amplified Bible says: “… And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ… developing… and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.”

Ezekiel 28:14, 16 states:

“You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones… And you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing Out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones.”

Many commentaries completely misunderstand this entire passage and wrongfully assume that a human king is being addressed here. Based on this false assumption, their interpretation of the fiery stones is equally wrong.

We explain the events described, beginning in Ezekiel 28:11 about the “king of Tyre,” in our free booklet, Angels, Demons and the Spirit World, in Part 2 and the sub-chapter on “Lucifer and Satan,” showing that the Bible addresses here Satan, not a human being:

First of all, let us get our bearings as to what we should be doing today as baptised members of the true Church of God and begotten members of the God Family.

In Matthew 20:20-21, the mother of James and John was asking for top positions for her two sons, and this upset the rest of the disciples, because they were probably desirous of those top positions themselves.  Instead, they should have been looking at what they could do, not what position they would like to have had.  In verses 25-28 we read: “But Jesus called them to Himself and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them.  Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant.  And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.’”

God reveals through His written Word, the Bible, that He “…desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). Furthermore, God backs up His desire in that He has established a way for all of mankind to be offered the opportunity for salvation. Jesus explained how this would be possible:

“‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life’” (John 3:16).

On the Day of Pentecost, following the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Apostle Peter spoke to those assembled, saying:

“‘…Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call’” (Acts 2:38-39).

It is an interesting phenomenon which has been observed over the years, that many of those who have been considered Church members leave the Church of God in a rather sudden manner, and that they immediately turn to the wrong things and behavior patterns which they rejected, while “in” the Church. This abrupt rejection of the Truth can be stunning and confusing if we don’t understand why this is happening.

There are certainly numerous reasons which we could address. In this Q&A, we want to focus on the more obvious ones. But first, we want to show from the Bible that such conduct is indeed prophesied. It happened already in the days of the apostle Paul and before, and it has continued to happen ever since, while it will be finding its climax in the days just ahead of us.

In Exodus 20:1-17 God spoke the Ten Commandments, and the 5th Commandment reads as follows: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your (your)  God is giving you.” This is repeated in Deuteronomy 5:16.

The Church of God has long taught that the first four Commandments show us that we must love God first and foremost, followed by the love that we must have for other people which is defined in the last six Commandments. We further read in Ephesians 6:1-3: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.  ‘Honor your father and mother,’ which is the first commandment with promise: ‘that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.’”

By so doing this sets a pattern for life which can only be of great benefit to the growing child.

In the book of James, chapter 1 and verses 2-3, we read: “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.”

In Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Whole Bible we read that to count it all joy is to “regard it as a thing to rejoice in; a matter which should afford you happiness. You are not to consider it as a punishment, a curse, or a calamity, but as a fit subject of felicitation (an expression of such joy or acknowledgment).”

Coffman’s Commentaries on the Bible observes: “Count it all joy … Did not Christ say, ‘Blessed are ye when men shall persecute you … rejoice and be exceeding glad’? (Matthew 5:11,12). This is exactly the thought of James here.”

First of all, let us get some definitions.

WikiDiff gives the following explanation of these terms:

“As adverbs the difference between willingly and willfully is that willingly is of one’s own free will; freely and spontaneously while willfully is in a willful manner. It often means ‘purposely disobeying; purposely being contrary; purposely doing something wrong’.”

As we will see, this definition is close, but not close enough. Every day, true Christians wrestle against sin and the pulls of the flesh and Ephesians 6:12 also gives further information about our struggles: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

In the first part, we began with explaining as to why we are quoting New Testament writings primarily from the New King James Bible (the modernized rendition of the old King James Bible or Authorized Version). These renditions are both based on Greek manuscripts commonly referred to as the Textus Receptus. We also explained that basically two more sets of Greek manuscripts exist—the Alexandrian text and the Majority Text. Many feel that greater emphasis should be placed on especially the Alexandrian text, as the copies we have are allegedly older than those used for the Textus Receptus.

The Church of God has, for many decades, concluded for important reasons that the manuscripts based on the Textus Receptus are most reliable.

As a standard, we commonly use the New King James Version of the Bible, which presents current English usage along with some modified points of translation as compared to the Authorized or King James Version of the Bible (1611 edition and 1769 revision). In some instances, we may refer to other translations for better clarity of a particular word or verse in the Bible. Our ultimate goal for Bible translations we use is to convey the most accurate meaning of the truest translations available to us.

Quoting from the 1996 edition of the New King James Bible (Holman Bible Publishers):

“There is more manuscript support for the New Testament than for any other body of ancient literature. Over five thousand Greek, eight thousand Latin, and many more manuscripts in other languages attest the integrity of the New Testament. There is only one basic New Testament used by Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Orthodox, by conservatives and liberals. Minor variations in hand copying have appeared through the centuries, before mechanical printing began about A.D. 1450” (Preface, page v)…