I chose to respond to these two questions separately to prevent an unneccesarily long post.
Regarding your first question, you wrote:
Quote:
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“Second, as you gave in the example of Jesus words, "go and sin no more", what aspect of human nature therefore would drag him to sin after receiving power from God to be the son of God? John wrote, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in his name". John 1:12.”
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The implied answer is obviously "None." See another writing of John: "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, and cannot sin, because he is born of God, and his seed remaineth in him." (1 John 3:9)
Regarding human nature, see the very same Peter whom you later mentioned:
"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." (2 Peter 1:4)
Of course, the entire chapter of 1 John 3 is an excellent read, as he stated repeatedly and unequivically the fact that a Christian does not and cannot commit wilfull sin. There is no aspect of human nature which Christ has not conquered on our behalf; there is no propensity to sin which our Savior cannot save us from.
We can do all things through Christ - if a man believes this, the most obvious and first application is "Stop breaking His law." Anything short of this amounts to mere unbelief, or a belief that we have a God who either wishes us to continue in sin, or is powerless to keep us from it. Jude 1:24, of course, states otherwise.
Regarding Peter, see Luke 22:42. For all the time spent with Christ, he was obviously not converted or born again - in fact, none of the apostles could be said to have "got it" til Pentecost, after which we see a stark contrast in the experiences of the apostles and their testimonies of themselves; for example, Peter's own in 1 Peter 4:1,2.
One potential exemption you mentioned is Paul's words in Romans 7. We have a valuable
article online at the link provided, entitled "The Two Pauls." To summarize it's contents briefly, the context that chapter with the surrounding chapters of 6 and 8, as well as every other epistle Paul penned that we have recorded in the Scriptures, shows that Romans 7 from verse 5 onwards was speaking about the experience he had while he was in a the flesh, a pre-converted Paul, and was not intending to convey his present-day experience.
The direct contradictions of Paul's testimony in Romans 7 with every other thing he spoke about himself is an important factor of this, as well as Paul's demonstratable writing style of setting the tense and then continuing to speak in present.
We do not believe in "once saved always saved."
If you are interested in understanding what we believe and why, please visit our website at
The Creation Seventh Day (and) Adventist Church (CSDA not SDA) We have a FAQ section in the Binary Angel section of the site.