quote:1. How does one attain salvation?
2. Can one KNOW that he/she has eternal security in Jesus Christ?
3. A number of times I have given my view of the End Times, which you always deny. Please, in as few words as possible, without hate filled sarcasm -- can you explain YOUR view of what will happen in the End Times?
1. Through good works a sincere belief in the Lord.
2. No. No one can "know" despite your snake handler's insistence to the contrary. There are many paths to salvation. While I've never outright denied His presence, I fervently hope that the God of infinite love and mercy will understand why I wavered from time to time. I've spent my life in an earnest and honest attempt to understand and worship God with the best facilities He gave unto me. A lifetime of devotion to Him, good works, combating evil where I see it (which includes battling people like you who are doing everything you can to push people away from grace), my acceptance of Jesus as a great humanitarian, SHOULD cement my place in heaven. If it does not, then God isn't the merciful being I thought he was so I'd want no part of it, anyway.
3. Oh please. The "End Times" were fully expected by all the apostles to happen within their lifetime. 2000 years later, still no apocalypse. While I hope mankind will overcome his tendency to blow up the world, I suspect he won't. So the end times will likely come but it won't be by the hand of the Lord. It will be from Muslim people who, like you, cannot think past their religion and will actually celebrate that blinding nuclear flash over Israel as a sign that the prophet has returned.
When you consider that Rome was undertaking a vast and rapid expansion and killing Christians like a child stomping an any pile, then you can understand why these poor people thought the End was Near. I'm sure they would be just as dismayed as I am that, 2000 years later, ignorant people have forgotten their struggles.
So BG you can stop with your insistence that you "know" this or "know" that. You don't. None of us do. We are imperfect beings living in an imperfect world feeling our way towards salvation as best we can.