I am going to comment on this post one more time.
There has been a few comments about God's perfection. Matt. 5:48 says God is perfect. Psalms 18:30 says God's way is perfect. Though I may not understand it God's complete plan for mankind existed from day one. Everything God created was perfect. It was man's freewill that allowed man to sin, that introduced sin and death to the world. God is perfect but man is not.
I break religion down into those things essential for salvation and "non-essentials" for salvation. There are a whole lot of things of denominations that are non-assential to salvation. The problem comes when man/denomination puts the ultimatium of "my way or the highway' on these beliefs. You believe like me or you are going to hell. This division is to me the greatest hinderence of local churches and biggest obstacle to attract new members. I do not understand mans mind set that "you must believe like me or you are wrong". I think it takes a mature Christians to overlook these flaws. You can always start an arguement about politics,Ford vs. Chevy or religion.
Paul was quite different in his approach. In first Cor. 9:19 Paul wrote he became" all things to all people so that he might save some". Paul accepted the local practices and went on with his message of "Jesus Christ and him crucified". Paul did not entangle himself in petty non-essential matters as they would detract from his true message. I think we should do the same today.
Answer to initial question- in one word is “Love”. Men are born from above into the kingdom of God. We don’t choose to be born physically or in “Spirit. God gives the gift of eternal life to whomever He is pleased to give it. It’s a gift! The Son came into this fallen world to live a life of perfect obedience to the Fathers will; even the wrath of God the Father fell on the Son. Jesus willingly bore His Fathers wrath for us! He was completely innocent; we’re the ones who should have been crucified. His perfect obedience was placed to our account when we believe He is from God. And the faith that is required to believe is from God! Eph 2v8 Do I love God the Father and His perfect Son? You better believe I do!
Decreed by our Creator: The man who has been made able to believe and understand that Jesus Christ has been sent into this world by the Father has been born of the Spirit of God. This man shall never experience spiritual death. He will live forever!
The passage in Matt 5:48 refers to loving others. There is no question that God’s love is perfect. But that does not extend to conclude everything that God has or will do is perfect. Of course, we can agree to disagree.
Psalms 18:30 speaks of Gods way as perfect. There is no elaboration on exactly what that means. It can be argued that, being unconstrained, everything about God and what He does is perfect. But this was the opinion of David...as God has never proclaimed His perfection. Quoting from the Quest Study Bible “The Psalms are poetry, not doctrinal essays. The palmists frequently were interested in how something felt more than what it meant.....” IMHO not a firm basis for providing the question of perfection.
Don Verna
Don't know who or what you are fearing but no one truly comes to a believing faith (trust) in our God from fear; who could fear someone or something they didn't truly believe in? Truth is, it is saved Christians who fear the reality of a physical eternal living he77 apart from all the good things of God, not the lost!
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