Subject: how can we minister to homosexuals |
Bible Note: Doc- you wrote: "To suggest to someone who is willfully practicing drunkenness, deceit, adultery, thievery, etc. that they MIGHT be saved, is giving false assurance and doing it in complete repudiation of Scripture." I sincerely disagree with you brother. I'm having a most difficult time believing that you are taking this position. It’s easier to believe though (and might be the case) that we are continuing to misunderstand each other. If that be the case, let me point to what I see (assuming I’m reading you right) as a misrepresentation of what I have said. Are you saying here that I have suggested or stated that I believe that a person who is “willfully practicing”, living in a continuous and willful lifestyle of sin, IS saved, or MIGHT be saved in the present. If I am reading you wrong please redirect me. If I have you right then I’m convinced at that point that you have misunderstood me. It is why I wrote to another poster to reread my post(S). I am confident that my posts clearly represent that I have continually referred to a person’s eternal condition (the final state – and not the current state)…. the end result, never ever was the current state ever my argument. Doc, thanks for pointing to 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. I rest my case in verse 11. “AND SUCH WERE SOME OF YOU. BUT you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (ESV, emphasis added). When believers go into the world and witness to the lost why do we do that? Because our Lord commanded it (Mark 16:15)... and He assured that there would be a direct result in that some will believe and will be saved (Mark 16:17). When we, in sin, judge that an individual or certain demographic is beyond hope we have certainly lost our ability to witness to them. Tragic! So teaching that someone who willfully practices these (or any) sin is beyond salvation is really the falsehood here. Never believe for a minute my friend that offering the hope of a willing and able Savior is “giving false assurance” and it is never “in complete repudiation of Scripture” but rather, is our obedience to our Lord’s command and in hope of His promise. We were all willfully in our sin before the Lord called us. (Romans 5:8). You wrote: “If Scripture doesn't give them assurance, all the while we tell them there is hope for those who cling to their sin, then we do sin grievously (Ezekiel 13:16; Jeremiah 28:9-17).” You surprise me Doc… that you would even insinuate that I’m advocating that. “Clinging to sin” is your input… I never even suggested it. But to address that I’ll only say that Paul surely was clinging very tightly to his up to the time he met the Lord face to face…. was he not? Jeff |