Results 1 - 8 of 8
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | What is eternal life? What is saved? | John 6:37 | Morant61 | 15274 | ||
Hi Hank! You wrote: "..... Frankly, I've never heard of, and find it most difficult to believe, a single example wherein a truly redeemed child of God who said to God, "Look, I've changed my mind. I don't want your salvation. I want to die and go to a devil's hell and live with the devil and his angels for all eternity." Have you? --Hank" I have only encountered one example that I would think fits this definition. My brother-in-law accepted Christ as a youngster, grew up in the church, and was fully informed in theology. When he was about 24, he meet a woman at a baptist church camp. They got married and he completely turned his back on Christ. He is currently into every new age heresy you can think of. He won't even talk about Christianity anymore. He thinks we are all immature spiritually and that he has advanced to a higher plane of spirituality now. He is the only person that I have ever know personally who I think would fit Heb. 6:4-6. Like you, I cannot understand how someone who has known the love of Christ could ever completely turn their back on Christ. But, it does happen. Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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2 | What is eternal life? What is saved? | John 6:37 | Hank | 15293 | ||
Thank you, Tim, for your note and comment. Like you, I don't even pretend to understand how anyone who once having had a saving relationship with Jesus could deny Him. But Peter did. And, from your story about your brother-in-law, he apparently did. Peter came back. And I believe that so too will your brother-in-law, if his conversion was truly genuine -- and that is a matter on which we must not and dare not speculate or attempt to judge. But by faith we know that God's love is boundless and His capacity for forgiveness beyond our comprehension. We have no power but the power of prayer to bring your brother-in-law back into the fold. So we pray, we trust, and we wait on the Lord, comforted in the knowledge that with our awesome and mighty God all things are possible. Even the restoration of your brother-in-law to fellowship with Him. Blessings Tim, in the love and grace of Jesus Christ. --Hank | ||||||
3 | What is eternal life? What is saved? | John 6:37 | kin | 15945 | ||
"if his conversion was truly genuine"? Was yours? How do you know? Is that eternal security, not knowing for sure? Do we have to say the right words? Feel the right way? If a "believer" leaves christ do you right him off as "never a believer"? " A good tree cannot bear bad fruit;by their fruit you will recognize them" A believer will live a life for christ. Will live according to the word of God. If a person lives for God it will be clear to all. "By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another." Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. God doesn't leave us wondering who is saved and who is not. His word "is living and active, it judges the thoughts and the attitudes of the heart." Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. Gods word says we can tell those that are saved from those that are not. So if someone is living for God and turns away and goes back to his old life, it will be very obvious. He has denied the faith and is jepordizing his salvation. Kin |
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4 | What is eternal life? What is saved? | John 6:37 | Hank | 15968 | ||
Kin, in your most recent response to my post, you, speaking of the genuineness of conversion, asked me, "Was yours? How do you know? Is that eternal security, not knowing for sure? Do we have to say the right words? Feel the right way?"......... Kin, how we "feel" has nothing to do with salvation, and salvation has nothing to do with our feelings. There are no "right" words, no works, nothing, and again I say, nothing that we can do now or ever that will contribute one iota to our salvation. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Period. Period. Period..... Scripture answers your question, "How do we know" (we are saved)? and it answers it fully and for all time in language so clear and plain that a child could understand. Here it is: "The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has that life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that may know (((so that you may KNOW, so that you may KNOW, so that you may KNOW))) that you have eternal life." (1 John 5:9-13) Parenthetical repetition and emphases are mine. .... By the way, did you happen to catch that last statement, "so that you may know that you have eternal life"? --Hank | ||||||
5 | What is eternal life? What is saved? | John 6:37 | Morant61 | 15986 | ||
Greetings Hank! I was curious about one point concerning your response. Most Calvinists that I have known do not believe that it is possible to know if an individual is one of the elect or not. They usually tell me that the only way to know ultimately is if someone perseveres. Do you accept this view? If not, how do you feel that election and belief relate? In other words, can believe be proof of election? I was just curious about you view these issues from your perspective. Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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6 | What is eternal life? What is saved? | John 6:37 | Hank | 16004 | ||
Hello, Tim. I'd like to begin with another appeal to you and the rest of our forum family to continue in prayer for our land and for its leaders in this sad hour when we stand in so dire a need of God's help and strength to get us through this time, a time of tragedy and mourning, and a time when this republic faces one of the greatest crucibles in its history......... Tim, I'll try to paraphrase the questions you have asked, and they are tough ones. I'd really rather you'd put them quietly back on the shelf and ask me something about dinosaurs or Cain's wife :-)........ You ask whether I accept the Calvinist view that the only realtest of election for any individual is his perseverence; and, if not, how do I feel that election and belief relate?..... Well, Tim, first of all, I'm not a five-point Calvinist; I'm a Southern Baptist. I'm not acustomed to or comfortable with using the words "election" and "belief" in the same sentence, and I'm not trying to be a smarty pants when I say this. I'm simply not used to thinking in this way or in this category of thought. And I simply can't answer your questions, Tim -- not because I am being stubborn, not because I am trying to duck them, but simply and honestly because I don't know the answers to them....... Dr. Paige Patterson, considered by many Southern Baptists to be one of our top theologians, is on record somewhere as having given a lecture at one of our seminaries on the topic of election and free will, citing for the students the main points of each view. Near the close of his lecture one of the students said, "But, Dr. Patterson, I still don't really understand the relationship between God's election and man's free will." "Frankly," Dr. Patterson responded, "neither do I." (This item about Dr. Patterson is anecdotal; I heard it in a sermon from a Baptist minister and am relating it from memory; yet I believe the facts are essentially correct)...... So, Tim, that's it for me. No deep wells of theology spring forth from me. I have never fully understood God's election much beyond the simple concept that God is God, transcendent and sovereign, and can do and does, in fact do, whatever he wills. I have much less problem understanding that Jesus saved me 52 years ago by His grace through the faith that I, a 14-year old boy, had in Him. I trusted Him then and I trust Him still. I wasn't a theologian then and am no theologian now. I've let Him down many times and in many ways; He has not let me down even once. I'm not quite sure, Tim, exactly how to explain what belief in Christ has to do with election, except to say that I believe the Holy Spirit had everything to do with my conviction that I was lost and needed a Savior. That's how I see election and that's how I see free will. Jesus offers His salvation; we learn of it through the message of the gospel; the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin; the choice, or free will, that we have is whether to accept or reject the offer of salvation..... So, then, my friend and brother Tim, I have herewith told all I know and confessed all I don't know about this topic. So, please have mercy on me and don't ask me hard questions like these :-) Blessings in Christ. --Hank | ||||||
7 | What is eternal life? What is saved? | John 6:37 | Morant61 | 16008 | ||
Greetings Hank! Thanks for the honesty my friend! :-) At the risk of sounding like I'm trying to make a convert, might I recommend that you read Robert Shank's "Elect in the Son" if you haven't yet. He is a Southern Baptist pastor and professor who has come to some very intresting conclusions regarding election. Now, on to the serious matters at hand! I join you in prayer my friend. We are going to need it. My wife and I were discussing the changes that are most likely to take place in our great nation as a result of this cowardly attack. I believe that our nation will change drastically as a result of this terrible event. My nephew was in the galley of the U.S.S. Cole when it was attacked. I know the kind of anxiety that everyone went through as we waited to find out if he was alive and well. At first, we were told that he was fine. Then, we were told that he had been injured. Then, we found out that he was one of only two survivors in the galley, which was hit hardest by the explosion. So, I have some idea what the families of the individuals who were working, visiting, and serving in the towers must be going through today as they await word about their loved ones. Do terrorists really believe that such a cowardly attack is going to make the United States feel sympathy for their "cause"? Do they really believe that the United States will be so terrorized that it will turn away in fear? All they have done is unite a country, which in peace time is as ununited and directionless as they come, but when attacked comes together in an amazing way. All these cowards have accomplished is to bring down a world of hurt upon themselves. My wife asked me if I thought the resolve that most of our leaders seem to have would fade after a few days. I think not! I think that when the death toll really becomes clear in hard numbers, that their resolve will only strengthen. Let us pray for the families of the lost! Let us pray for those who will be dealing with injuries for the rest of their lives? Let us pray that our leaders do the right thing in the coming days! Let us pray that all would be future terroists get the message that it simply doesn't pay to mess with the US! Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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8 | What is eternal life? What is saved? | John 6:37 | Hank | 16022 | ||
Tim, with all the vigor I can muster this morning, I echo your feelings and perspectives about the heinous acts of yesterday morning that leaves injury, death, destruction, and untold agony to countless numbers of American citizens. My wife and I truly emphathize with the families who have lost loved ones in this disaster. We lost a son at the hands of a drunken driver. Though on a smaller and more limited scale, the devastation wrought by a drunken driver is no less devastating to a particular family than that wrought by a terrorist. Our personal scar has remained with us for over a decade and our lives have never been quite the same in the wake of our loss. So it will be with the families of the victims in yesterday's unprecedented tragedy; and not the families only, but with all Americans. I pray that we as a nation will return to God who has promised that if "My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land." (1 Chron.7:14). --Hank | ||||||