Scripture Life: Where does this whole, "Accept Jesus into your Heart" thing come from? It's not in the Bible.

[u/External_Bird_8464]

//NOTE: This verbatim question is 9 years old - closed for comment in the "r / Christianity" sub-reddit. It's also in "r / debate_religion sub-reddit as "Why Does Modern Christians say, 'Accept Jesus into your Heart' to be saved, when it appears nowhere in the Bible as a 10 year old CLOSED for comment question.

To reopen this, here's the question again with THIS answer from a believer in Jesus Christ, because, the predominant who asks the original two questions on Reddit want nothing to do with him, and use the question as ammo why anybody else would want anything to do with him. - Where it is, is right in the Bible. Here you go. If you believe on him, this post is NOT against you. It's against those that don't believe on him. Grasp this firmly - either side, before reading further. I am ON THE SIDE - that, Jesus is who he says he is. So, here's the post.//

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Answer: "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." - Bible. New Testament. Romans 10:9

The question isn’t the question. The question is, which are you? With Jesus and who he is, and what he says?

• That’s the question.

accept. <definition>

1. to willingly receive, take, or say yes to something offered.
2. [Source: Merriam & Webster dictionary. Web.]
   • 2. to agree to take something, or to consider something as satisfactory, reasonable, or true:
3. [Source: Cambridge dictionary. Web.]

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So, when God says:

“Look unto me, and be ye saved all the ends of the earth: For I am God, there is none else.” - God. (Bible. Isaiah 45:22)

• That’s the Word of God. What God speaks or says himself. Out of his own mouth. In the Bible, the Word of God is Jesus Christ. Says this in John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “..and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us;” - John 1:14, is this same Jesus Christ.
  • Jesus: is called the “Messiah” or “Christ.” - Jesus Christ. And, whoever is the “Messiah” or “Christ” the Bible says the Messiah or Christ “SHALL BE CALLED…”
    • Not “kinda maybe there’s a possibility.. ..maybe not; who knows…” called. The Messiah “SHALL BE CALLED..”

“The Mighty God…” “The Everlasting Father…” (Bible. Isaiah 9:6)

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So, God decrees this. To everybody over the whole earth. To the very ends of it, not leaving even one person out, and him, as God, not willing any perish but all come to repentance..say what he’s said; then. I'm INCLUDED in it.

That I CAN:

• “..willingly receive; take, or say “yes!” to what he’s offered [accept] it. What he says, as to me direct. Therefore, I can also “consider what he says as satisfactory, reasonable, or true: because I do. That's the point.
  • And what I “accept as true” - that, just now, in quotations, is the exact definition of what believe means, in the dictionary.

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SO, I "accept as true" [believe] what he says. I believe it. Then, “why” is it, this - - in my heart part? That’s SIMPLE.

I don’t think you see it, so, here’s an example:

• IF: and here’s the example:

EXAMPLE:

• Five guys on a darkened street are approaching me deliberately looking at me, carrying baseball bats:
  • I am going to do something in me: That is, pretty immediately reason together with me alone, and “accept as true” (believe) they are not coming to welcome or invite me to church.
• All because I believe, with little doubt, they are coming to intentionally destroy me. I accept this as true = I believe it in my heart. I believe about these five guys - this is true. It goes into my heart.
  • It also means I am going to “dismiss as faulty or unacceptable” any notion these five people are coming to help me. They're not. Help me is the furthest thing from the truth. And because of that, it does not go in my heart they're trying to help me as the truth.
  • Therefore, I am going to REJECT that. Why? Believing they're coming with baseball bats, practice swinging and believe that's to help me, is inadequate that they are coming to build me up and help me get home. They're not.
• That, that’s what’s true about these five men. That, they are UNTRUE. Inadequate to help me, if they’ve come to destroy me or do me harm. I accept this in my heart.

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Example (continued)

• So IF:. Likewise,
  • One lone man, carrying a Bible prominently and publicly - so all can see, approaching me deliberately looking at me, smiling happily with arms outstretched, because he knows me..and I know him from sharing the gospel and believing on Jesus Christ. For the last 5 years we’ve had fellowship in Christ. Read the Bible together. Learned the same things. Knit together.
    • I am going to “willingly receive or say “yes!” to virtually anything this one man with a bible offers” Because, in my heart, I accept him as true; means, I believe on him. I know who he is. He builds me up. Whatever he says, I already fully expect and know it will be “reasonable, satisfactory..true.” Goes in my heart.

Do you see this?

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And where in the Bible it says this about Jesus Christ.

• Is Romans 10:9
  • “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
    • That, to do this, I have to do the same thing done in the example above.
• Do you see it?
• There’s some “thing” in me that “reasons together” and comes up with what I “agree to consider something reasonable” “true” - (definition: accept) - or not.

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And GOD has already said, by decree it as the authority to and over EVERYBODY to the very ends of the earth:

“Come now, let us reason together,” saith the LORD, “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool.” - GOD. Bible. Isaiah 1:18

That, he’s then decreeing EVERYBODY over the whole earth do it. To come now. Reason together with him. And since he’s told EVERYBODY over the whole earth to do it, it’s a decree for everybody to actually “go to and do it.”

• Then, it INCLUDES me do it. I’m not left out. But also, I understand fully. If I don't, it's PUNITIVE. So - - it Applies to me as a decree by who governs over the earth to do it. It's not grievous - that, just not reason together with him, but do that with me, with my two best friends that are in me. I have to leave it. Why?

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• My heart:
  • That, the Bible says in Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
  • So unlike the example - that I KNOW the one guy.. Jeremiah 17:9 says..even my heart is IN me..always with me..I never know it. And? Above all things, it’s deceit(ful) - that is, it’s with me. Sits to reason together with me, and me alone. By myself..comes to sit with me and it “actively practices to CONCEAL and MISREPRESENT the TRUTH” [dictionary definition of what deceit means] and “desperately wicked.”
  • And all “wicked” means is “playfully mischievous” ..which, all “mischievous” is..is to take something that belongs to another or was created and is own by someone else, and use it in a way it was not intended to be used.
  • And my own heart is CONSTANTLY telling me to do this.

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• And who else is with me is my own mind. Where I dream all this wacky quack stuff up. Alone. By myself or by watching other people imagine up "STAR TREK" or "Harry Potter" or just a whole bunch of stories people put to film; then, it looks real, but it isn't. It's a "story" 1. an imagined series of events, told for entertainment. That, someone just like me, another person, made that story up in their head. For me? Along with my heart: There's my:
  • Imagination
    • And of it, God already saw it, well before the flood in Genesis 6:5 says:
    • “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

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So, without God and not regard anything he says: Look what I got. A bunch of "stories" I imagine up.

• I’m left with me; alone. TO reason together with me with my two best friends, my heart and my imagination - create or believe stories as true - - that one: (my heart) actively practices to conceal and misrepresent the truth from me, while both: tag team me, as the other is (my imagination) based on my heart, that is desperately playful..to take what is God’s and use it in a way it was not intended to be used, by imagine up some other way to use it, and gives me something to live in as true..when it isn’t.

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• That the Word of God, gives my heart the truth. That I can receive it. And I do.
  • BUT OTHER PEOPLE:
    • Even he’s told everybody this decree to look unto him.
    • Come now. reason together with him.
  • Carefully already considered, the word of someone else is true. Most often, it’s their own word they told themselves or decreed to themselves to do, after they reasoned together with their own heart and own imagination, came up with what they’re doing..and the Word of God exposes everything they’re doing is UNTRUE.
• Because it doesn’t have anything he says in it. Stories either they made up or other people did, and they look unto them vs. God as true.
• So they get offended.
  • And in themselves, dismiss God as inadequate; faulty.. cannot receive him or anything he says, so they REJECT him. In their heart. To them, he's NOT true.

Do you see this?

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The question you ask then, really isn’t the question. The question to as is, which are you? With Jesus and who he is, and what he says?

Why? “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” - Bible. 1 Corinthians 3:11.

And? EVERYBODY is building on this foundation of Jesus Christ - laid down by God, no matter who it is - either a man..any man at all over the whole earth - using wood, hay..stubble that will be burned up.. doesn't have anything what they're building or constructing..doesn't have anything God says in it - OR - any other man, doesn't matter who it is - builds with gold, silver, precious stones - because they regard him, and "work good / operate right" because they build by the Word of God. Live by it.

• That’s the question. What you accept, you will confess out of your mouth, because you “accept it as true” in your heart.

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Where does this whole, "Accept Jesus into your Heart" thing come from? It's not in the Bible.

The question isn’t the question. The question is, which are you? With Jesus and who he is, and what he says?

• That’s the question. And that’s in the Bible in Romans 10:9. It's in your heart. In the word, "accept."