Under the thread entitled, “The "In Christ" Doctrine”, written by Robert Pate, and posted by H. Richard the writer posed the question:
“How does one get “In Christ?”
His reply, “All who have accepted (placed their faith in) Christ as their savior are "In Christ." Eph 1:12-13 says, "That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." All who are "In Christ" have been sealed with the Holy Spirit. You can never be unsealed. You can never lose your salvation. If you fall away from Christ you never did have faith in him, you were a counterfeit.”
We note three specific errors being taught here,
The first is the erroneous assumption that all believers (all who profess faith in Christ) are “IN Christ”. The Scriptures do not support this conclusion; to the contrary they state that only those baptized into Christ death are considered as being “IN Christ”, as perspective members of the body of Christ and of the Church of the First Born.
Second it is evident our friend here is an OSAS believer, another false doctrine disproved by the Scriptures.
And last, the statement that if one falls away they were never a believer in the first place, they were a “counterfeit”
A counterfeit would be one who makes a false profession of being something they are not, one who merely imitates or pretends to be something. Such a one could not fall away, for no one could fall, until first they had been lifted up, and in order to be lifted up from the mire of sin and death (justified to life) one must first believed (profess faith) in the forgiveness of sins which comes through Jesus Christ our Lord, for as the scriptures so state, we are justified by our faith (Rom 5:1) Those without faith could not fall from a faith which they had never had in the first place.
With this in mind in our next post we should like to examine just what it means to be “in Christ”.
Return to Index
“How does one get “In Christ?”
His reply, “All who have accepted (placed their faith in) Christ as their savior are "In Christ." Eph 1:12-13 says, "That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." All who are "In Christ" have been sealed with the Holy Spirit. You can never be unsealed. You can never lose your salvation. If you fall away from Christ you never did have faith in him, you were a counterfeit.”
We note three specific errors being taught here,
The first is the erroneous assumption that all believers (all who profess faith in Christ) are “IN Christ”. The Scriptures do not support this conclusion; to the contrary they state that only those baptized into Christ death are considered as being “IN Christ”, as perspective members of the body of Christ and of the Church of the First Born.
Second it is evident our friend here is an OSAS believer, another false doctrine disproved by the Scriptures.
And last, the statement that if one falls away they were never a believer in the first place, they were a “counterfeit”
A counterfeit would be one who makes a false profession of being something they are not, one who merely imitates or pretends to be something. Such a one could not fall away, for no one could fall, until first they had been lifted up, and in order to be lifted up from the mire of sin and death (justified to life) one must first believed (profess faith) in the forgiveness of sins which comes through Jesus Christ our Lord, for as the scriptures so state, we are justified by our faith (Rom 5:1) Those without faith could not fall from a faith which they had never had in the first place.
With this in mind in our next post we should like to examine just what it means to be “in Christ”.
Return to Index
