"My first big question for you is, do you really know what you are fighting against? The next big question would be how are you going to get around "NO MAN". The John 6:44 no man can come to me unless the Father which has sent me draws (drags) him."
First, let me tackle John 6:44 so you can understand the viewpoint that I understand here. John 6:44 states:
"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day."
The proper perspective, I believe, to look at this scripture has to do with the reconciliation of man to the Father through Jesus Christ. I don't want to turn this post into a preach fest, but you asked me questions, and I have to respond by scripture:
"For if, while we were God's enemies, (speaking of the Father) we were reconciled to himthrough the death of his Son, (Jesus) how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved."
Now let's look at John 6 in context:
43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you,the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.” (NIV)
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My understanding is as such: The Father God has been reconciled to man through Jesus Christ, who died for us and lives in us. The Spirit is what gives life (The Holy Spirit whom lives in us), and the flesh counts "for nothing". The focus that Jesus said was this: That it is a matter of who believes and who does not believe - those that believe that Jesus is the Son of God and those that would betray him. Jesus said that this is the reason He said no one can come to himself unless "the Father has enabled them" to believe.
The question is on belief. Jesus has made clear that any and all who believe in Him have life. This was proven as evidentiary by the acceptance of the Gentiles by the Holy Spirit who gave the Gentiles the same gift as the Jews - an event that absolutely rocked the hearts and minds and the worldviews of the Jewish Church. Those who did not believe were not drawn by the Father (God is never about forcing people to believe something or not, He gives choice), those who did believe did so because the Father accepted their belief even before Jesus actually died on the Cross.
Every man who believes is accepted by God. It doesn't make them perfect, it doesn't make them immune to sin - but it allows the ability of repentance through acceptance of reconciliation to the Father only provided by Jesus Christ. It is this message that Armstrongism is against - stating that reconciliation to the Father has not happened yet, is STILL A FUTURE EVENT EVEN NOW, that the world is still ruled by Satan except those few who believe in Armstrongism, and that those in the world are deceived and cut off from God, thereby not receiving or taking part in any reconciliation to the Father, whether Jew or Gentile, unless accepting of the doctrines of Armstrongism and the keeping of and bonding to the entirety of Law. This is contrary to the teachings of the New Testament, of Paul, of the Acts 15 Council decisions, and of the entirety of the reconciliation proof of God to man through the acceptance of the Gentiles without the necessity of the keeping of the Law as was mandated to the Jews in the Old Testament. This is where the "No man" difference is put to a test. So the question I have for you, then, is simply this: Did the Father reconcile man to himself - and who does that apply to? Armstrongism, or all who believe?
The other question that you pose is "do I know who I am fighting against"? Scripture answers that question in Ephesians 6:12:
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.(NIV)
The bottom line to your question is this: The Father has been reconciled to man through Jesus Christ. Mankind has a choice: To believe, or not to believe. This is a personal choice, not done by force or coercion. No man can come to the Father unless drawn by the Father, to make the choice of belief. The issue is if one believes, or does not believe - in their heart, mind and soul - of who Jesus says that He is. The Father knows who does and who does not in their heart, and by their heart shall they believe. This is not a question of who is or is not accepted into Armstrongism or Armstrong's doctrines. It's a matter of belief in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
