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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]. |
Bible Question (short): What do you mean by "initiated"? |
Question (full): New Creature, You said, "God authored and initiated your salvation". What do you mean that He "initiated" your salvation? Webster defines initiated as, to cause or facilitate the beginning of. Hebrews 12:2 tells us that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith, NOT the author and initiator of our faith. The actual greek work for finisher carries with it the meaning "completer". Then Jonah 2:9 tells us that Salvation is of the Lord? Then in John 6:37, Jesus said, "All that the Father gives me will come to me.." It doesn't say, "All the Father gives me will come to me if they decide in their own freewill to come to me, after God has initiated their faith. If that were the case then we would have something to boast about before God. We then could say to God when we meet him face to face, well you know God, I could have rejected you like my non-believing neighbor did, but I accepted you. Once again who made you different from the non-believer? Wasn't it God who opened your eyes and began and is finishing the work of faith in you. No where does scripture say that he grants faith to every person. God gives the gift of faith to only those that were given to Him by the Father. All that were given this faith WILL come to Him. Now if God is the author and finisher of our faith, then to say that someone could leave the faith is to say God didn't finish the work of faith begun in that person. That goes directly against Hebrew 12:2. How can you argue against Hebrews 12:2? How can you agrue against John 10:28-29 Where Jesus said, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. You see, those GIVEN to Jesus can not perish, or be snatched out of Jesus hand, or snatched from the Father's hand. All the Father gives Jesus WILL come to Him. They will never be taken from Him, they are given ETERNAL life! Sorry I get very excited about this. It is an awesome comfort to know that I am Eternally secure. I pray that God will grant you that same comfort! For I know that it is not I or any other man that can "convince" you of that salvation can NOT be forfeited. But it will be the Holy Spirit of God that will convince you using his Word. I am certain that if you would go back and review all the scripture references and the points that many have so clearly provided to you and you prayed that God would open your eyes to what is true about eternal security, then I believe God will open your eyes to this wonderful truth! The truth will then set you free from the fear of losing your salvation. Secure in Christ...Doug |