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NASB | Luke 8:13 "Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Luke 8:13 "Those on the rocky soil are the people who, when they hear, receive and welcome the word with joy; but these have no firmly grounded root. They believe for a while, and in time of trial and temptation they fall away [from Me and abandon their faith]. |
Subject: Predetermined or Free Will |
Bible Note: God loves us (everyone) whether we are saved or not - and nothing will or can stop Him from loving us - not even principalities. I'm not as strong in my opinion as to whether once saved always saved is true as I am in that God has put into motion a plan for salvation that EVERYONE can choose this plan to be saved. I don't believe that God has selected only a few ELECT people to have the opportunity to be saved. But back to once saved always saved. If that was true, why then all the warnings to guard your salvation? You mentioned Peter - What if he didn't repent but ran away instead? Same for Saul - What if he said "Hey, I'd rather be blind than to promote that Jesus thing."? God gave us the ability to choose for ourselves the path we take. While it's true that no one can take our salvation away from us, I just see to many examples in the bible that imply that we (being human) may choose to deny it and fall away - for whatever extreme reason. Some would argue that they were never saved in the first place. I would then ask those people how they know that they are truly saved then? My faith grows the more I realize that I need God. I understand (and am fully aware) that I'm not perfect and I do sin and maybe even sometimes run away from God - but I know that God still loves me and calls me His own. I'm still saved. I have always come back and never ever thought about rejecting God. But what about those people that walked and talked the path to God thru Jesus, accepted Him fully, was baptized, attended church and church funtions, witnessed to others, etc... but later because of maybe a loss of children or spouse or maybe over time because he though that he could not lose his salvation became stagnant and fell into the ways of the world and forgot about God over time and then died. Are they still saved? Truely - only God knows for sure. Keep in mind that these are my interpretations of what I read and studied from the Bible. Why we have so many different views - I don't know. All I know for sure is that God loved us so much that if He didn't do something to get us back on track we were going to end up in a big mess again. The only thing He could do that would get through our thick skulls (although some still refuse to believe) is to to become human and show us who God really is and what it really means to serve Him. Jesus died for us once and for all as a final sacrifice for our sins. No more pigeon killing. No more slaughtering of Lambs. Jesus is our new convenant with God - and just to prove it God raised Jesus so that many would witness and spread the truth so that we too would hear it through the written word. Now that I've written way more than planned, I'll end. I hope I didn't ramble on too much and sorry if I did. |