Kept/Discarded

[Webers_Home]

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I ran across an interesting story on YouTube recently. It's about a man who
grew up in a Christian home and attended a Christian church. He believed
that Jesus Christ died for his sins and rose again. He believed in the Spirit
birth about which Jesus spoke in John 3:3-8. He was baptized in the name of
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and he prayed to Jesus, confessing his sins
on a regular basis. He had the assurance of his salvation and sincerely
believed had eternal life,

Today that same man is an Atheist; and even though he explained why, it
still puzzled me that an apparently born-again Christian could lose so much
faith in Christ and the Bible.

But I had overlooked the fine print in something Jesus taught; which goes
like this:

"All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me
I will certainly not cast out." (John 6:37)

The man had come to Jesus; but apparently was not among those whom the
Father had given him; therefore Jesus could not promise to take the man on
permanently in accordance with his Father's will.

"I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of Him
who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me; that I shall lose none
of all that He has given me" (John 6:38-39)

I attended a Billy Graham crusade in San Diego back in August of 1976 and
was frankly surprised at the large number of people coming forward that
night to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior. Well, looking back; I
am now very curious to know how many of those that came forward were
selected to join the fortunate ones that the Father gives to His son for
safekeeping because anybody with a mind to can come to Jesus, but not all
who do so are taken on.

"Many are called, but few are chosen." (Matt 22:14)

"Be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you"
(2Pet 1:10)
_

 

[BreadOfLife]

.
I ran across an interesting story on YouTube recently. It's about a man who
grew up in a Christian home and attended a Christian church. He believed
that Jesus Christ died for his sins and rose again. He believed in the Spirit
birth about which Jesus spoke in John 3:3-8. He was baptized in the name of
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and he prayed to Jesus, confessing his sins
on a regular basis. He had the assurance of his salvation and sincerely
believed had eternal life,

Today that same man is an Atheist; and even though he explained why, it
still puzzled me that an apparently born-again Christian could lose so much
faith in Christ and the Bible.

But I had overlooked the fine print in something Jesus taught; which goes
like this:

"All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me
I will certainly not cast out." (John 6:37)

The man had come to Jesus; but apparently was not among those whom the
Father had given him; therefore Jesus could not promise to take the man on
permanently in accordance with his Father's will.

"I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of Him
who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me; that I shall lose none
of all that He has given me" (John 6:38-39)

I attended a Billy Graham crusade in San Diego back in August of 1976 and
was frankly surprised at the large number of people coming forward that
night to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior. Well, looking back; I
am now very curious to know how many of those that came forward were
selected to join the fortunate ones that the Father gives to His son for
safekeeping because anybody with a mind to can come to Jesus, but not all
who do so are taken on.

"Many are called, but few are chosen." (Matt 22:14)

"Be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you"
(2Pet 1:10)
_

OR, maybe they were truly born again - then fell BACK into sin and were lost as Scripture CLEARLY warns us . . .

Romans 11:22
“See, then, the kindness and severity of God: severity toward those who fell, but God's kindness to you, provided you REMAIN in his kindness; otherwise you to will be cut off.”
Paul is warning the faithful to REMAIN in God’s favor or they will lose their salvation. How can they lose what they never had?

Hebrews 10:26-27
“If we sin deliberately AFTER receiving KNOWLEDGE of the truth, there no longer remains sacrifice for sins but a fearful prospect of judgment and a flaming fire that is going to consume the adversaries.”
This is a clear warning that falling away from God will result in the loss of our salvation. The Greek word for “knowledge” used here is NOT the usual word (oida). This is talking about a full, experiential knowledge (epignosei). This verse is about CHRISTIANS who had an EPIGNOSIS of Christ and who can fall back into darkness and LOSE their salvation by their own doing.

2 Peter 2:20-22
For if they, having escaped the defilements of the world through the KNOWLEDGE of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, again become entangled and overcome by them, their last condition is worse than their first.
For it would have been better for them not to have KNOWN the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment handed down to them.
Here, Peter illustrates that those who had a full, experiential knowledge (EPIGNOSIS) of Christ – CHRISTIANS – who can fall back into darkness and LOSE their salvation by their own doing.

Matt. 5:13
You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
This one is self-explanatory - even to a blind, deaf and dumb person . . .

1 Cor. 9:27
"I pummel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified."
Paul is saying that he wrestles with his own fleshly desires so that he might not fall back into sin.

2 Peter 3:17
Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position.
Peter is warning the faithful not to fall back into sin and lawlessness.

1 John 2:24
See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. IF it does, you also will REMAIN in the Son and in the Father.
This is an admonition to try to remain faithful.

Rev. 3:5
He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.
God cannot "blot out" a name that was never there in the first place. He is talking about CHRISTIANS who are already saved and how they can LOSE their salvation.

Rev. 22:19
And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
How can God "take away" somebody’s share of heaven if they never had it to begin with? This is about CHRISTIANS who may or may NOT make it into Heaven.

 

[Webers_Home]

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One of the faults that Atheists find with deistic religions like Christianity is
that they are essentially unproven; ergo: insensible and unreasonable.

I believe that is a normal response.

"A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are
foolishness to him and he cannot understand them" (1 Cor 2:13-14)

However; the Spirit birth about which Christ spoke in John 3:3-8 is supposed
to remedy the Atheist's skepticism

"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from
God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things
we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught
by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words." (1Cor 2:12
14)

So when a supposedly born-again Christian is thinking like an Atheist, I
think we have to assume that Christian-- though they say otherwise --has
not yet, nor ever has, undergone the Spirit birth spoken of by Jesus at John
3:3-8.
_