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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Are Reformed people lost souls? | 2 Pet 1:10 | John Reformed | 99489 | ||
Dear Noble, You wrote:"So I would like to reach out to our friends who use the name “Reformed”. I hope they would consider the possibility that they are not saved and that God is locking them into that position by deceiving them into thinking that they had been chosen to be saved. Their position seems to allow for that. I hope that that fear would lead them to ask God for mercy, that it be not so, and to trust him. He will yet respond to their faith." Rest easy. God Himself, through His Word and Spirit, assure me of my position in Christ. As to my reformed brethren, I would'nt worry about their position in Christ either if I were you. It seems unlikely that the founders of protestantism were all mis-led pagans! Imagine John Bunyon, who wrote "The Pilgrims Progress" a lost soul; Or John Newton who penned the lyrics for "Amazing Grace"; Martin Luther whose words broke the hold of the popes and translated the first Bible into the Language of the people; C.H. Spurgeon the English evangelist and preacher whose ministry was used of God to bring untold thousands to confess Christ; Martin Lloyd Jones; OR Jonathon Edwards and John Whitfield whose preaching on the sovereignty of God ignited the first great revival in colonial America: etc.etc. I wonder how much you know about "those who who use the name “Reformed"? I bear you no hard feelings Noble, but what you have written could not go unanswered John REFORMED |
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2 | Are Reformed people lost souls? | 2 Pet 1:10 | Aixen7z4 | 99723 | ||
I think I am free to respond or not respond, but I am not sure. Since I am responding, I guess I have that freedom. But in so doing I seem to have lost the certainty about my freedom to not respond. What is clear to me is the fact that others have stopped responding. I do not know if they have more freedom than I do, or less. I seem to be irresistibly drawn to olive branches., or what I perceive as such. I do not seem to be able to ignore the possibility that I am falling prey to, as you put it, a ploy. I shall yet see whether or not there will be a restatement of the doctrine you hold. I am not asking for it. I am trying not to provoke it. I am hoping it does not reappear. So we’ll see. Reconciliation is important to me, as I think it is to God. We are to be reconciled to him, and we are to be reconciled to each other. I agree that I may have lost some of my fervor for this inter-human reconciliation when no one took me up on the offer. I think it always takes two, and if they are both believers in the Lord Jesus Christ I believe it can be done. But it does not take one saying come let me explain my side further so you can come over to it. It takes mutual respect and the recognition that it is the Holy Spirit who brings conviction, and things like that. Since you were disappointed in my last response, I offer this in compensation. I can only hope you find it conciliatory. Since you were expecting a kinder answer, I hope this is it. As you had hoped, I do accept the possibility that you were sincere in wanting to clear up any mis-conceptions I may have had. I would like to assure that I am not aware of any misconceptions and I do not sense the need to have anything cleared up. I believe you will allow me to be the judge of my own needs this time and stop offering help. It is my hope that those who are believers in the word of God would abandon extreme positions which divide and seek to reconcile in our own minds statements which seem to be contradictory. When we seek such reconciliation we should not allow one passage to expunge the other from scripture or explain it away. We should hold them all. Again, this is not an invitation to have the doctrine restated. I hope you are not offended when I say now that we have heard it often enough. It is not that we have not heard it. It is not that we do not understand. It is not that we need a misconception cleared up. It is that we think it needs to be reconciled, modulated, combined with the other teachings in the Bible. I use the term “we” because I think I am not alone in wishing for reconciliation. I speak for those who have fallen silent because I have read their previous posts. Look, there are those who will read this response and say I am wasting my time. They think you will respond and restate your doctrine yet again. Prove them wrong. You have noted my fervor for reconciliation. You have suggested that your last post was not a ploy. Show your real motive now, not in words but in action. Or inaction. Let me say like you did. Please feel free to not reply to this post. In response to your question, “Are Reformed people lost souls” I think I should have given only one answer, as I eventually did above: It is a matter of personal redemption. With that you have agreed, You said, “Your main premise ‘It is a matter of personal redemption’ is quite true”. Perhaps we should leave it there. |
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