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NASB | Ephesians 1:13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation--having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Ephesians 1:13 In Him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the good news of your salvation, and [as a result] believed in Him, were stamped with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit [the One promised by Christ] as owned and protected [by God]. [John 7:39; Acts 2:33] |
Subject: Can you lose your salvation? |
Bible Note: Please note, the KJV reads, "after ye heard...after that ye believed, ye were sealed". (1) It looks "past tense" to me but that's no indication of "before the foundations of the world". A simple reading of the verse shows the sealing occurs after hearing and believing. (2) The book of Acts gives practical demonstrations of the Spirit's reception (and, therefore, sealing) occcurring after one has heard and believed the message. Also, none of the apostles are shown in Acts to have preached a sealing - the receiving of the Spirit - occurring from eternity past as you suggest, but clearly shows the opposite. (3) Ep 1:4. It seems to me you are misreading the verse, effectively ignoring the testimony of v.13 (as it reads) together with that of the whole epistle. (a) The "us" refers to believers, that is, those who after hearing, believed the gospel. (b) The stress of the divine choice refered to here is not of specific persons but of a specific pourpose: that believers should be "holy" and "without blame" in order to stand before "him in love". (4) An interpretation, as you suggest,(1) upends the clear reading of the verse; (2) reverses the way in which the text shows salvation is to be procured ("order of salvation" as some call it); and (3) proposes what seems to be an invented explanation of the Greek grammer to support an otherwise foreign understanding of the the plain reading of the verse in question. (5) What can be "biblically refute(d)" is not "what this verse says" (since the translation is not ambiguous) but your interpretation of it. |