What Makes Ex-Christians Think They Once Were Christians?

[Behold]

Joh 15:2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit

If the branch is not bearing fruit, its because the root's sap is not going into the branch.

"apart from me you can do nothing".

This person is religious but lost., they are not in spiritual union, with Christ.
They are very "christian like"... and that's it.

They are not actually born again, they "have no root".

 

[Keturah]

NO ONE, knows another's status before God.No one!

Yes we can hear the professions made, we can fruit inspect, we can even measure the walk, but please take into account this......." The heart is DECEITFUL, who can know it" & there is a WAY that seemeth right unto man."

We all must give account, OUR OWN ACCOUNT, of what we have heard, what we have believed, and how we have walked the path appointed & directed of God for our lives!

 

[Behold]

NO ONE, knows another's status before God.No one!

Here is your Status if you are not saved.

"all have sinned".

Here is your status if your are born again and not just water baptized and religious.

"New Creation in Christ"...."One with God".

 

[Behold]

We all must give account, OUR OWN ACCOUNT, of what we have heard, what we have believed,

Actually what you have believed will give account of you after you die.

and how we have walked the path appointed & directed of God for our lives!

If born again, then that is the Judgement seat of Christ.
Its not a judgement against sin.

 

[Keturah]

How can one claiming to be in the light be soooooo full of negativity?

How can one WHO CLAIMS they are spreading "salvation's message" be the road block against other's seeking the "salvation message "?

You, you, & you, each of us, and I , myself, will each give an account of what was REALLY REVEALED unto us by the Spirit !

1.  Whether we twisted, corrupted, mis- interpreted,or lied about the  truth of the Word of God, it is on us, as God's mouth-pieces !

 

[Behold]

How can one claiming to be in the light be soooooo full of negativity?

How can one WHO CLAIMS they are spreading "salvation's message" be the road block against other's seeking the "salvation message "?

I agree.

You should only Give Christ all the Credit for Salvation, as there is no other Salvaiton.
And you should always give Christ all the credit for keeping someone Saved, as this is the proof that faith is in Christ.
This is the proof that you understand Salvation.

Philippians 1:6

 

[Keturah]

 

[Behold]

View attachment 33736

It's interesting to note that someone has been in my pm box today telling me that my "Jesus alt'" is offensive, because His Hair is too long..
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[Keturah]

@Stumpmaster
I am sorry & apologize if I have disrupted your thread with my own pontifications as some seem hell-bent on doing, instead of addressing the OP.

 

[Behold]

@Stumpmaster
I am sorry & apologize if I have disrupted your thread with my own pontifications as some seem hell-bent on doing, instead of addressing the OP.

"hell-bent", you wrote. @Keturah

Nice one.

The actual phrase is..

"Hell bent for leather'.


- recklessly determined

Moving recklessly fast, as in Out the door she went, hell-bent for leather. The use of hell-bent in the sense of “recklessly determined” dates from the first half of the 1800s.


Also, the 'OP" has concluded that Salvation can be lost.
This isn't possible., as Jesus is Salvation, and He's in all the born again, and they are 'in Christ".
Its a spiritual birth into union with God's Holy Spirit.

Its Eternal.

 

[Keturah]

Posts I have made here, on this thread ....#2, #13, #93, #95, #102, #105, #107, & #109 NONE are addressed to Behold..........back on ignore you go. Please do NOT ADDRESS ME AGAIN !!!!!!!

 

[Stumpmaster]

A partaker of the Holy Spirit, is a person who has or is receiving a blessing from God. (Because of Gods Grace).

People who receive blessings from God ARE:
1) Unknowing…(non-believers, who have not yet heard)
2) Atheists….(have heard but are non-believers)
3) Believers…(in God)
4) Believers….(in Christ Jesus and God)
5) Converted…(Believers in God Saved IN Christ)

Point being, ALL persons receive blessings from God. That is Gods Grace, Gods Works.

Point is NOT ALL persons acknowledge their good fortune IS a blessing from God. That is the individuals persons Acknowledgement (and Response) to Gods Grace…or Not.

1) The unknowing will be Thankful to the person or circumstance or luck for their good fortune.
2) The Atheist will be Thankful to the person or circumstance or luck for their good fortune.
3) The believer in God will be Thankful to God for their good fortune.
4) The Believer in God and Christ Jesus will be Thankful to God and Christ Jesus. UNTIL …
1) they are faced with traumatic circumstances…(Tribulations caused by men, hardships, loss of possessions, loss of loved ones, etc. )
2) they begin being enamored with worldly things and ignore God.
3) they begin lending their ear to anti-God’s, anti-Christ’s and begin “considering” their words, proposals…(ie falling into temptations).

Every naturally new born person, is without knowledge of the Lord God.
Every Atheist, God Believer, Christ Jesus Believer IS ALIVE IN the WORLD and SUBJECTED TO the WORLD and at ANY TIME can BECOME SUBJECTED TO a crossing paths with a TEMPTER.

The ONE Glaring Difference OF HOW an individual person REACTS to a Tempter….IS:
By, Through, Of…WHAT that individual person HAS “made a commitment TO”.

In other words:
* BELIEF, is “one thing”…and CAN Change at ANY Time, as the individual Decides.
* COMMITMENT, is “another thing” of ones BELIEF To the Lord God, IS Permanent.

A mans BELIEF, is Kept by his OWN willpower. (And CAN change according to the mans willpower.)
A mans COMMITTED BELIEF, is Kept by Gods Power. (And CAN NEVER change according to Gods Power.)

Human men and woman make “forever” promises to be faithfully one with the other, by, through, of a “marriage”.
It’s a “practice”, between people, in preparation for an individual to test themselves in keeping their vowed / pledged commitments. Some succeed, Some separate, Some divorce.
The Point is: ONCE an individual MAKES a True and Faithful COMMITMENT to the Lord God…it IS FOREVER. No separation, No divorce, Never one without the other…by, through, of the Power of God.

Converted, Committed, IS NOT the meaning of the word “Christian”. A Christian is a believer IN God, IN Christ, following His Teachings. A man CAN, and many HAVE, stopped believing IN God, IN Christ, and STOPPED believing and STOPPED following His Teachings, and they are called “Having TASTED the blessings of the Holy Spirit, and Have fallen From GRACE.”

The GRACE they have “fallen FROM”, is to Receive the Blessing from God OF SALVATION of their soul”.
^^ That does NOT prevent God from giving whom He will other Blessings.

OSAS is not about BELIEF ONLY.
OSAS IS about Heartfully TRUE Committed Belief, that is Accomplished, By, through, of the Works/Conversion/Reconciliation of the POWER of God and KEPT Forever By the Power of God …. IN that individual.

Remember, Conversion requires a man to willingly GIVE his Word and his Body unto death FOR the Lord God and to Receive Gods Gift of Salvation of his soul.

A Physically Dead man can not CHANGE his commitment.
A man “Crucified” with Christ is a man who, is making a living sacrifice / vow, pledge of his body unto Death FOR the Lord God, and can not CHANGE his commitment.

OSAS is not solely about BELIEF, but rather about Committed Belief and Conversion that can not become undone.

Glory to God,
Taken

Thanks for your thoughts @Taken

The New Testament writers are occupied with this topic, hence their exhortations to remain faithful, which are in alignment with the Lord's illustration of branches needing to abide in the Vine.

Satan lives to lure prospects away from the Way.

Mat 13:18-19 "Therefore hear the parable of the sower: (19) When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.

2Pe 2:18 For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.

 

[Stumpmaster]

If the branch is not bearing fruit, its because the root's sap is not going into the branch.

Branches may be thriving but not producing fruit. This happens when flowers are not pollinated, or pests and diseases disrupt the fruiting process.

 

[Behold]

Posts I have made here, on this thread ....#2, #13, #93, #95, #102, #105, #107, & #109 NONE are addressed to Behold..........back on ignore you go. Please do NOT ADDRESS ME AGAIN !!!!!!!

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Behold]

Branches may be thriving but not producing fruit.

Humans are not plants.

So, that entire symbolic section of verses, is not a revelation on Botany.

Its like this.

The spiritual fruit produced by a Christian is from the Spirit of God.
Just like walking in the Spirit is Spiritual.
Just like getting revelation from the word of God is "Spiritually Discerned".

Everything with God is SPIRITUAL.
"God is A Spirit".

Bearing SPIRITUAL FRUIT.....Its to become a vessel that allows the power of God, to flow..............through.

We dont produce it.. We manifest it. (Born again, only) The religious water baptized , need not apply.

Big distinction.... Stumpmaster

 

[Taken]

Thanks for your thoughts @Taken

The New Testament writers are occupied with this topic, hence their exhortations to remain faithful, which are in alignment with the Lord's illustration of branches needing to abide in the Vine.

Satan lives to lure prospects away from the Way.

Mat 13:18-19 "Therefore hear the parable of the sower: (19) When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.

2Pe 2:18 For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.

Yes. There are many who follow, who believe, who enjoy Gods Blessings, who praise Him…
And then get side-tracked, with money issues, debt, entertainment, family, job worries, governing worries, illnesses, etc. and they begin to pray for, plead for, edging on ultimatum for an instant intervention of God to fix their woes, and the thing is MEN decide what will FIX their woes, and do not notice what God has in His offering to FIX ones woes…and often that person begins the spiral of falling away, blaming God, ignoring God, and such person becomes susceptible to lending his ear to the WORLD to FIX his woes.
Multiple times Scripture Warns to be not OF the World and Trust what and how and when God will answer ones prayers.
OF the World, is full of promises of Peace and Safety, for your cost of Freedom, Go into debt, (you deserve it) and Demand your desires now, enjoy for a little while and throw it away. Everything is temporary and throw away….

 

[Keturah]

Yes. There are many who follow, who believe, who enjoy Gods Blessings, who praise Him…
And then get side-tracked, with money issues, debt, entertainment, family, job worries, governing worries, illnesses, etc. and they begin to pray for, plead for, edging on ultimatum for an instant intervention of God to fix their woes, and the thing is MEN decide what will FIX their woes, and do not notice what God has in His offering to FIX ones woes…and often that person begins the spiral of falling away, blaming God, ignoring God, and such person becomes susceptible to lending his ear to the WORLD to FIX his woes.
Multiple times Scripture Warns to be not OF the World and Trust what and how and when God will answer ones prayers.
OF the World, is full of promises of Peace and Safety, for your cost of Freedom, Go into debt, (you deserve it) and Demand your desires now, enjoy for a little while and throw it away. Everything is temporary and throw away….

Amen to the truth !

 

[Stumpmaster]

Humans are not plants.

So, that entire symbolic section of verses, is not a revelation on Botany.

Its like this.

The spiritual fruit produced by a Christian is from the Spirit of God.
Just like walking in the Spirit is Spiritual.
Just like getting revelation from the word of God is "Spiritually Discerned".

Everything with God is SPIRITUAL.
"God is A Spirit".

Bearing SPIRITUAL FRUIT.....Its to become a vessel that allows the power of God, to flow..............through.

We dont produce it.. We manifest it. (Born again, only) The religious water baptized , need not apply.

Big distinction.... Stumpmaster

Bordering on non-sequitur but I'll let it past.

A branch on the Vine that bears no fruit is going to get pruned off and burned.

A branch that does bear fruit is also going to get pruned so it produces more fruit.

Those are CONSEQUENCES.

They CONTRAST with regard to being fruitful.

A Calvinist will say the fruitful branches produce fruit because they are predestined to, but that raises the question of why aren't the unfruitful branches predestined to produce fruit also.

 

[Behold]

A branch that does bear fruit is also going to get pruned so it produces more fruit.

God does not save a sinner, based on..... their "fruit bearing" subsequent to their Salvation.

He saves them for this 1 Reason.

"Jesus came into the world to save sinners".

Doing works, or bearing fruit, .... happens after God has already given you Salvation.
Salvation is spiritual union with God, caused by a new birth, in the spirit.

"Born again".

You can't stop being born again.

 

[Stumpmaster]

"Jesus came into the world to save sinners".

The parable known as the "Parable of the Fishing Net" or just "The Parable of the Net" is found in the book of Matthew 13:47-50 . It describes how the Kingdom of Heaven is like a fishing net that was thrown into the water and caught fish of every kind. When the net was full, they dragged it up onto the shore, sat down, and sorted the good fish into crates, but threw the bad ones away. This is how it will be at the end of the world. The angels will come and separate the wicked people from the righteous.

Obviously there are selection criteria in play, firstly of which fish are made good, and secondly of the separating of good fish from bad.

Not all sinners are made saints, not all those called to salvation receive salvation, and the Bible tells me why that is. Israel found out why it was, too.

Heb 6:4-9 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, (5) and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, (6) if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. (7) For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; (8) but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. (9) But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner.