Subject: Inability? |
Bible Note: Jibbs, Who needs faith or hope if one has "absolute assurance." Are the two not mutually exclusive. If one is wrong in their assertion of eternal security, their security will not be eternal and if one is insecure about their election but is among the elect they will not be eternally insecure but only temporarily so. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for" Hebrews 11:1. "But hope seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees" Romans 8:24 What position better displays the Christian of humility; absolute assurance or prayeful trust in God. A beautiful illustration of an attitude of humility is found in the reply of a saint to a question posed as a trap by her ecclesiastical judges: Asked if she knew that she was in God's grace, she replied: "If I am not, may it please God to put me in it; if I am, may it please God to keep me there." God gets the glory either way. She was burned at the stake for heresy, but not for failing to assert her absolute eternal security; Her questioners would have found that to be heresy. Instead she was convicted on other trumped up charges, just like the Savior she followed and was burned at the stake anyway. She was Joan of Arc, later canonized as a saint by the same Church whose corrupt English clerical court had condemned her, though they professed the same faith. They were a lot more sure of themselves than she was, but nobody even remembers their names and their eternal fate is even less certain. Emmaus |