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NASB | John 3:16 ¶ "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 3:16 ¶ "For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life. |
Subject: THE CROSS |
Bible Note: "1) If Calvinist doctrine, as I understand it, is applied to deathbed conversion, the new believer croaks without ever having his faith tested?" If that faith is genuine, yes. Think about the repentant thief on the cross. "Is it faith-fair that he gets a major break when the rest of us poor slobs have to persevere in effortful holinesss? When does our faith get as good as that fortunate son's?" Jesus answered your objection with a parable in Matthew 20:1-16. "2) If a Calvinist can't assure the dying guy that he's going to heaven, why is he there in the 1st place?" Calvinists believe that all who truly call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. We merely agree with the Bible that there are those who claim to believe but in truth do not. A progressively holy life is our evidence of salvation (2 Peter 1:10-11; James 2:14; Matthew 7:15-27). The best way to remember it, in my view, is that true salvation produces a holy life, not the other way around. I am sure of my salvation, not because of a prayer I prayed when I was eleven, but because of my growing love for God's laws as good and right, and my painfully slow but gradual conformity to God's law (in itself a result of the Spirit's work). I continue to have faith that results in works, and that is the only biblical basis for concluding that I personally am eternally secure. --Joe! |