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NASB | Matthew 10:33 "But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 10:33 "But the one who denies and rejects Me before men, that one I will also deny and reject before My Father who is in heaven. |
Subject: Easy to deny Christ? |
Bible Note: Dear Hank, Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus! My dear fellow in Christ, I will accept your 'random thoughts' anytime! Also, you can preach to the choir, as we all need to hear the Gospel, even 'after the fact' of salvation. :-) I do agree with you that the Holy Spirit places trust (in Him to our salvation) in our hearts, personally. And perhaps this trust extends to family, church fellows and even acquaintances attending other churches. However, I have noticed that we sometime do NOT have this same trust (in Him to salvation) concerning others outside our own sphere of familiarity. By this I mean that we do not hold very much hope for those with different doctrine or habits. If I may elaborate, it seems that we have decidedly more trust that God has saved someone we know than someone we don't, or someone we know but personally dislike. I am aware that 'human nature' could be cited as the cause for this discrepancy. :-) But is is sad, nonetheless. One example would be this particular topic. Those on 'my' side of enduring salvation of the elect (I'm already in trouble!) would look askance at the salvation of those on the 'other' side, as only someone 'not truly saved' would doubt that God's salvation is complete. In other words, we could be 'denying' them the salvation, even though they share faith in Christ Jesus with us. At the same time, one who believes that they 'decide' or 'choose' to know Christ consider it the height of arrogance to believe yourself 'chosen' by God, and they (might) think that this attitude makes you unworthy of Christ. I know this may be a bit 'philosophical,' but I have witnessed these exact situations here on this forum. Yet, I think that I can say that I trust that the great majority (virtually ALL) of the participants of this venue ARE saved by grace, even if they don't agree with ME! (or with the Scriptures :-)) Blessings to you in Christ Jesus, charis |