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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: One example of loosing salvation NT |
Bible Note: Greetings Matt! Thanks for the question; I will do my best to answer your inquiry. First off, whenever I read a verse from Scripture and am trying to find out what the verse means, I need to look at the immediate context, the context the letter was written in, and look at the letter in light of the rest of Scripture, the whole council of God’s Word. In the immediate context, it seems clear to me that Peter is speaking to a body of believers, and is specifically discussing the topic of “false teachers”, or some translations have “false professors”. In the context of the whole letter, the letter reads like a admonition, a pleading by Peter to this body of believers to continue to show the fruits, the works that come by faith, and to persevere to the end. The reason why Peter is saying all of this is because there were false teachers within that fellowship. These teachers seemed to be teaching some pretty bad doctrine. For example, here are a few that can be drawn from the text: Somehow using Christian liberty as a license to sin, specifically sexual sin (2:14). They denied the Lord (2:1). They seemed to despise authority and “angelic beings” (2:10). Later, they denied and scoffed at the second coming of Christ (3:3-4) These seem to be just a few of the heretical teachings these false teachers were expounding. Notice also, as a set-up, at the end of chapter 1, Peter explains the difference between true and false prophets. We believe in prophecy from God Himself, in the person and work of Jesus Christ, not from “cunningly devised fables” (1:16 NKJV) of men. And then from this, Peter then begins to speak of the false teachers. Ok, so now we come to the verses in question. Notice that throughout the discourse, Peter is describing the teachings of these false professors and then gets to the point where he makes the statement that although they once had the knowledge of the Savior, they have now returned to their old ways, they have become entangled in sin again, they are like a dog going back to it’s vomit, which is a quote from Proverbs 26:11: “As a dog that returneth to his vomit, So is a fool that repeateth his folly.”(ASV 1901). So, in light of everything Peter lays out in the context of the letter, we have here a set of false teachers who once had escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Savior who are now back to their old ways, basically trampling underfoot the cross of Christ. Therefore we have to ask, were these false teachers ever really saved? From the text the only clue we have to go on is the fact that they escaped the world through their knowledge of the Savior. Does knowledge save? Faith in Christ alone saves, but simple knowledge really does nothing. Many people have knowledge about Christ, they know who He is, they may even follow His commandments, they think He is a great teacher, but the one thing these people don’t have is true saving faith. And from this passage of Scripture, I believe it is a serious stretch to say these false teachers, who, let’s face it, were very heinous in their teaching, were ever really saved in the first place. They showed no true fruits because Peter basically lays out what they were teaching and how they were acting, and it was not pretty. I realize much more could be written on this topic, but I will stop here because you asked me for my comments on this text of Scripture, and I have done the best I can with the limited space I have to work with. I will leave you with the following Scriptures to consider as well as an invitation to check out my other posts, #88279 and #88451 concerning the topic at hand. Please read these other posts and let me know what you think. Thank you for letting me share what God has laid upon my conscience!! To God be ALL the glory in the salvation of sinners! In Christ, Joe Is. 54:10; Jer. 32:40; Matt. 18:14; John 3:16, 3:36, 5:24, 6:35, 6:37, 6:40, 6:47, 10:27-29; Rom. 5:8-10, 8:1, 8:29, 8:34-39; 1 Cor. 1:8-9; 2 Cor. 4:14, 5:5, Eph. 1:5, 1:13-14, 4:30; 1 Thess. 5:23-24; 2 Tim 4:18; Heb. 7:25, 9:12, 9:15, 10:14; 1 Pet 1:5; 1 John 2:19, 2:25; 2 John 5:11-13; Jude 24-25 PS- Just a few questions to ponder surrounding this topic: Can Christ lose a Christian? What is the nature of true, saving faith? Is true saving faith even ours to claim? When God makes a promise, do you believe He will follow through on His promise? Two passages to ponder: Col 2:12-14 and Hebrews 10:14. |