Can a TRUE believer turn away from the faith?

[Heavenly Pilgrim]

Ann: HP, are you saved? Not will you be saved, but are you saved?

HP: I have been saved, I am being saved, and I will be saved if I faithfully remain in faith and obedience until the end. I have NOT seen my name written in the Lamb’s book of life, and I have not absolute knowledge of my final standing with God for I have not stood before Him and gave an account of every idle thought and deed done in the flesh. What I can do and should be doing is making certain I have a conscience void of offense ‘NOW’ in the ‘PRESENT’ towards God and man, and if I do these things via the help proffered me by the Holy Spirit I have a firm assurance I will be found in Him in the last day.

An assurance or confession of being saved today apart from a conscience void of offense before God and man at one and the same moment, is paramount to playing Russian roulette in regards to ones eternal destiny of ones soul.
Ps 24:3 ¶ Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?
4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
Ac 24:16 And herein do I exercise myself, to have ALWAYS (especially at this very moment, present tense) a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.

 

[annsni]

HP: Ann, it is you that clearly implies that were are still the same old sinners were were. You deny we can live apart from sinning, and that it is impossible to live above sin, correct? Have you ever heard the following statement? Could this possibly be yours as well? ‘We sin everyday in thought word and deed.’

What import does being ‘convicted of sin’ have in the life of the believer as opposed to any ordinary sinner? Every sinner to convicted of sin to one degree or another, yet conviction is just a sign one is still in their sins. Either one is still in their sins or they have ceased from sin, which is it? If you tell me the old is passé away but you continue doing the old sins, how can you say they are passed away?

Again I am not trying to indicate that a believer under strong temptation cannot fall and sin, but it should be the unordinary, not a daily occurrence. Repentance involves a change of heart and a turning away from, not a mere acknowledgement that one has sinned or conviction that one has sinned. If we are continually doing the same old things how can one say repentance has taken place??? Speaking of millisecond Christianity. One millisecond we are obeying and in another we are doing the same old sins. Sounds more like a divided heart or an unstable one to me, not the life of a believer seeking to walk a holy life before God.

1Co 6:11 And such WERE (past tense) some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
Ro 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

I fully agree with you that, as believers, we will not continue in willful sin but we WILL sin. The difference between a believer and a non-believer is that a believer has the Holy Spirit to convict us of that sin and cause us to never want to do it again. Will we ever do that sin again? Probably but not absolutely. As we grow in Christ, we will turn more and more from sin and become more and more like Christ. When I was a young child, I could cheat easily. When I was first saved as a child, I continued to cheat at first but each time I did, I felt ill. Seriously. It affected my spirit and I did not want to do that again. I would repent and vow to not do it again. Did I never cheat again? Unfortunately no but each time I did it, it was so much more distasteful that eventually just the thought of it would make me sick. That is a result of the new life in me and the new heart. I no longer had a heart of stone that was oblivious to my sin but now had a heart of flesh that hurt when I disobeyed God and sinned.

 

[DHK]

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