Walt,
Thank you very much for your response.
You had written:
There is a
big difference
between being "worthy" and being "accounted worthy". I
promise you that there are none of us that are worthy in and
of ourselves or by any qualities we may or may not have. we
are all lost without the sacrifice of the Lamb of God for
our sins. The verse that i think you are referring to is
Luke 21:36. I know that I am not worthy. but I pray always
that I will be accounted worthy by the only one that
can account me so. I do not know how to be worthy to escape
"all these things", I only know that I am told to "watch
therefore and pray always to be accounted worthy".
There are three
lines of scripture that speak about this being “accounted
worthy”:
Luke 20:35 But they which shall be
accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from
the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage:
Luke 21:36
Watch ye therefore, and pray
always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these
things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of
man.
II Thessalonians 1:5 Which is a
manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be
counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:
Apparently, the 1st
& 3rd ones are not speaking about being
“accounted worthy” based on merit/obedience or lack thereof,
as that would contradict the gift of grace regarding
salvation.
The 2nd
one you already had quoted, earlier.
There, Jesus doesn’t
say “watch and strive that ye may be accounted worthy”.
He also does not say
“watch and obey that ye may be accounted”.
He does say watch
and pray. Pray for what?
He does not say to
pray that we may be able to obey in order to be accounted
worthy.
He says to pray that
we may be accounted worthy to escape.
Apparently it is
something that he gives, rather than we earn, thus the
admonition to pray for it rather than to work for it.
btw – I totally
agree that only the Lamb is truly worthy.
And like our imputed
righteousness, any worthiness that we have is only that which
we have is in him.
Revelation 3:4
Thou hast a few names even in
Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall
walk with me in white: for they are worthy.
In a similar
thought, many churches today teach that in reference to the
Lord’s supper, the partakers need to be “worthy”.
However, the passage
does not say “unworthy”, which would be an adjective modifying
a noun,
in this case that
noun would be the person themselves, which would then be a
description of their own personal worthiness -
But it does say
“unworthily”, which is an adverb modifying the verbs eateth
& drinketh,
which describes how it is done, rather than the person doing
it.
I Corinthians 11:27 Wherefore whosoever
shall eat this bread, and drink
this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the
body and blood of the Lord.
28 But let a man examine himself, and
so let him eat of
that bread, and drink of that cup.
29 For he that eateth and drinketh
unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not
discerning the Lord's body.
30
For this cause many
are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
Thank you,
Gino