Here are my responses:
"I'll bite :) I always liked the hypothetical 'if' argument. Paul often argues from the 'hypothetically speaking' standpoint, and here he says that "IF" someone did lose their salvation, they'd be toast because there'd be no further source... of salvation.
1 John 2:9 is a great commentary on this verse. "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us." Here John tells us that IF people who are 'saved' then become 'unsaved', it was because they were never 'saved' to begin with. They were professors and not possessors, as the saying goes.
IF a person could go out from us, who had been of us, then John's verse would be a lie. But God's word is truth, and therefore IF someone goes out from us, it's because they were never actually part of us to begin with.
And therefore, Hebrews 6 is hypothetical, not literal.
"But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak." Hebrews 6"
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2nd post:
"I read "They Shall Never Perish" by Strombeck when I was newly saved. Awesome.
He argues that to 'walk away' from salvation, we'd have to somehow un-birth ourselves from God's family, and re-birth ourselves back into Adam's family. However..., the only way to re-birth yourself is to die, and we can't do that anymore!
We'd have to recover our sins that were washed away. We'd have to find our old heart and put it back inside of us. We'd have to dis-member the body of Christ of which we are flesh and bone. We'd have to un-join with the Holy Spirit. etc.
Can we make unholy was God has made holy?
It's not a simple case of walking away. You're not just deleting the new programming, you have to re-install the old stuff too. But it doesn't exist anymore!!"
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3rd post:
"I want you all to think about that word 'eternity' for a second.
To lose something, or walk away from it, you must do so inside of time. Inside of time, there is a progression of events. But in eternity, all time occurs at once.
God is ...the I AM because he "inhabits eternity" (Isa 57:15). To Him, the past, the present, the future (even to a thousand generations) are all at the same time. Time is a place, more or less, not an event.
Now listen, to be joined with Him for a moment, no matter how brief, is to touch all parts of time. To be saved for a second, is to be saved for eternity. It can't be undone. It is done.
If you are part of Him, you ARE part of the I AM. Your salvation is ever-present just as His life is ever-present.
We cannot undo our eternal life. We'd have to make God to be NOT the great I AM first. We are joined to eternity. And that is for ever."
Hope you liked them. Leave me a comment if you did.
5 comments:
Not to mention the whole body, soul, and spirit thing. If you're saved, your spirit is "wall to wall Holy Ghost" and joined to God; you are partakers of the divine nature. Sure, your brain might go on the fritz, but no way that it's going to overrule the "mind of Christ" that we now possess.
When I sin now, it is no more I, but sin that dwelleth in me. In much the same way, I have a part of me (spirit) that will NO WAY choose to leave God. Oh, and that's the real me. I'm safe by my own choosing as well as by God's keeping.
See, you should post on Billy's page!
Another post: "If Christ is perfecting us, then can we make ourselves unperfect? No matter what I do, I will always be "meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light."
Another post: ""whosoever shall CALL upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved"
We call, AND He calls.
Our Western minds want to categorize and pigeonhole doctrine. The Eastern mind does not need to have either/or, it can accept both this one AND that o...ne. It is known as a 'dialectic under tension' and is one of the keys to a balanced view of Scripture, and a right interpretation of it as well.
It is BOTH: God chooses man, and man chooses God. Free will and election.
One is correct as viewed through the lens of man. The other is correct as viewed through the lens of God.
Both views are simple. Both are in Scripture. Both are right.
They are two sides of the same coin, or better yet, like two sides of the same door."
Another post: "To 'call' is basically to 'agree with God fervently.' It is not a sideways acceptance of God, but rather a whole-hearted one.
We must 'receive' him into ourselves. We must LET him come in.
The word 'receive' is like when the ...clay receives the fingerprint of the Potter, or when the wax receives the imprint of the seal. Our reception is NOT a doing, NOT an action, but it must be whole-hearted nonetheless.
He wants to come in. That is His calling to us.
We must allow him, too. That is our calling to Him."
Another post: "Things that are spirit are not bound by time or weakness.
They "are" spirit today, right now. They will never grow old for they are 'in eternity' with God. They were spoken by the I AM, and are being spoken by the I AM, and will forever ...be spoken by the I AM. They are 'spirit.' They are eternal.
He did not say that they were spiritual, but that their very substance is spirit -- not of this world."