| Author | Message | ||
| Jim02 Registered user Username: Jim02 Post Number: 1169 Registered: 5-2007 |
I have been looking for a church and part of that is to look at their beliefs. This (Sunday Observing-Protestant) Christian Church stated the following: ARTICLE 9 - SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER The Holy Scriptures declare that the believer is secure in Christ as long as he walks in obedience and faith. The Scriptures also declare that it is possible after the experience of regeneration and/or the experience of entire sanctification to depart from grace and fall into sin, and if one remains in this state to be eternally lost. However, by the grace of God, a man may through repentance and faith rise again from a backslidden state and be restored to righteousness and true holiness. Phil. 1:6; 2:12 Gal. 6:1 2. Heb. 6:1-6; 10:26-31; Matt. 18:15-35; Gal. 5:4 Is this an accurate position? It sounds very familiar to SDA beliefs. | ||
| Ric_b Registered user Username: Ric_b Post Number: 1038 Registered: 7-2004  |
Is it a common position, yes. Is it an accurate position, NO! | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 12632 Registered: 12-2003  |
I agree with Rick. Colleen | ||
| Jlondon81 Registered user Username: Jlondon81 Post Number: 43 Registered: 6-2004 |
RUN, as fast as you can, as far away from that place! The leadership has the audacity to quote passages in Hebrews, yet I doubt they've read anything in between Hebrews 6:6 and 10:26. If so they would have such a statement. Hebrews 9:12 (NASB) ...but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. Those five chapters of Hebrews are required reading, BTW. Joel | ||
| Jim02 Registered user Username: Jim02 Post Number: 1171 Registered: 5-2007 |
I have also been looking at the Ainion sp (eternal) on assorted sites and ran into a Univeralism site. At first I thought, well this agrees with the SDA and my belief in a non eternal hell, but then the more I read the more twisted it got. This is the unavoidable problem with researching opinions and beliefs. | ||
| Asurprise Registered user Username: Asurprise Post Number: 1919 Registered: 7-2007 |
The Bible wouldn't say that a believer has eternal life, (1st John 5:11) if a person could lose it. The same thing with Ephesians 2:8,9 where it says that the believer has been saved. (And there are other verses such as 2nd Timothy 1:9, Titus 3:5 and 1st John 2:12.) | ||
| Freedom55 Registered user Username: Freedom55 Post Number: 73 Registered: 3-2008 |
Just wondering how you deal with verses that suggest otherwise, like James 5:19-20 "If anyone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back again you can be sure that the one who brings that person back will save that sinner from death..."? | ||
| Ric_b Registered user Username: Ric_b Post Number: 1046 Registered: 7-2004 |
Personally, this is one of those areas where I have to accept that both the warnings and the promises are 100% true, because Scripture says both. The best explanation that i have heard is that the contradiction is not in God, but in our contradictory heart. The warnings are real and addressed to our pride and self-reliance. The promises are true and addressed to our fears and insecurities. The issues I had in the prior thread was that assurance of salvation was based on obedience and entire sanctification. Our assurance is based only on faith and our trust in His promises. If assurance is based on man, there is no such thing as assurance. If it is based on God, we can take it to the bank. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 12637 Registered: 12-2003 |
Rick, I agree. I have to know that both ends of the apparently contradictory spectrum are true, because God has said them both. I can't make a formula to explain them... The best way I understand these is that if someone really does fall away into apostasy and rebellion, his own pride and self-reliaince (as you called it, Rick!) were never submitted to the Lord Jesus. He was somehow divided in his loyalty/commitment. Judas helps me with this a lot. He was sent out with the other 11 when Jesus sent his disciples into the cities of Judea to heal, cast out demons, and preach the kingdom of God. Judas participated in all that...yet Judas had a divided heart, and ultimately he apostatized. Peter, however, did not have a divided heart...he betrayed Jesus in utter weakness, but he did commit his entire life to his Lord. He repented...Judas merely suffered deep remorse. But Peter owned his sin. Colleen | ||
| Asurprise Registered user Username: Asurprise Post Number: 1922 Registered: 7-2007 |
There's two kinds of death. Physical death and eternal death. A few verses before that (James 4:14), it says our life is just a vapor that vanishes away. If a person was thinking of eternal death here, their assurance of salvation would be gone because they would think their eternal life would vanish away! Remember in Hebrews 12:7 where it says that God chastens His children? If a person who's saved, is doing something evil, He chastens them. If they persist and WON'T learn from the discipline, in His mercy He will take them home before they do even more damage to His Name. That's what James 5:19,20 means. |
