"Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." (Mar 16:16 ).
This is not writes that the saved will be those who receive faith as a gift from God.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 6:23 ESV)
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1-2 ESV)
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV)
So we see from scripture that we receive a 'free gift
from God', a gift of faith
from God, and that we have been saved and justified
by God, through faith in Jesus...which is a free gift.
Where "other scriptures outright tell us that salvation is ONLY a gift from God"?
COVENANT. I read that the one who endures to the end will be saved ( Mat 24:13 ). I also read who do not endures was rejected, as quoted.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 6:23 ESV)
the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. (Romans 3:22-25 ESV)
yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:16 ESV)
I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. (Galatians 2:21 ESV)
Rejection of the Bible relates to the rejection from God and not from the community, as it is you are trying to prove ..
In summary you claim, that "those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit" - "it is clear that they are not true Christians", in other words, they “fall away” from something, in which they were never.
You claim that the one who was sanctified by the blood of the covenant ( Heb 10:29 ) - it is "someone who had been “set apart” or identified as an active participant in the Christian community of believers" and it is "people in view are not (and never were) genuine believers; that is, these are people who have never genuinely embraced the gospel"...
You claim that "shipwreck of their faith" ( 1Ti 1:19 ) applies to people who never really had faith.
Very comfortable philosophy, but blatantly unreliable
Perhaps it is 'blatantly unreliable' to your doctrines. However, as I start my beliefs from the bible itself, it is not so for me. The bible tells us that we have 'assurance' in Christ...as the verses I have already supplied above show. If the Bible teaches that those who are truly regenerated...those who have really given their lives over to Christ and are saved by that faith...if they cannot lose their salvation, how can I begin my assumptions elsewhere? When the Bible tells me that it is God's strength and Jesus' perfection in life and death that holds me to Him, and that He won't let me go...how can I come at scripture believing otherwise? It is these convictions that lead me and many others to exegesis above. It's got nothing to do with 'comfort' and everything to do with bible centered theology.
It's you saying, but not the Scriptures. Scripture encourages the works, and never says that righteousness are meaningless.
Ah, no, it's not just me saying it....Bible says it repeatedly....
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV)
For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. (Romans 3:28 ESV)
Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— (Galatians 3:2-5 ESV)
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17 ESV)
Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
(Romans 3:27-28 ESV)
But there is no something like "He chooses some and not others", because:
Ez 18:23 esv "(23) Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?"
Ez 33:11 esv "(11) Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live;"
2Pe 3:9 esv "(9) The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance."
Act 17:30 esv "(30) The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,"
I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” And as Isaiah predicted,
“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
we would have been like Sodom
and become like Gomorrah.”
What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written,
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
(Romans 9:1-10:4 ESV)
(sorry for my english ...)
Your English is much better than a lot of people who have it for a first language!!!
