christianyouth said:
Most people who I run into say that it is not, so I have a challenge(not being combative) for those who believe that we cannot discern the difference between a saved person and a lost person : Produce a verse or verses that you think states that we cannot know if someone is saved. (I will be open to the rebuke of Scripture. Besides the wheat and the tares, I have not found any verse that suggests this.)
For those who are undecided on this issue, here are some verses that say we can judge someones salvation by the lifestyle that they live:
Matthew 7:13-20, Ephesians 5:5, Galatians 5:19-21, and many verses in 1 John. 1 John 2:3,4 is a good one, but many more.
My two cents:
If a person has no testimony and no regard for the Lord and the things of God, it is a pretty good indication that something isn't quite right.
Most people I know who are not saved, believe contrary to the gospel, have no testimony, and have no regard for morality.
There are a lot of people using terminology today that sounds "Christian." I work with a person who talks about "God" all the time and how much she talks to "God" and she and "God" have a wonderful relationship. She even reads the Bible. But she is not a Christian. She professes no testimony about a day and time when she realized that Christ died for her sins and that she asked Him to save her. She believes that "God" will accept you as you are and that there is no need to change. You can be who you are, and try to be a good person, and you will go to heaven. Even though she believes she is right with "God" she knows the difference between being a born-again Christian and not being one because she says she is not one. However, praise the Lord, I have had several opportunities to share the gospel with her and she has been interested in listening.
I believe some of the scriptures already mentioned in this topic, about those who are fornicators, etc. not entering the kingdom, are speaking of those who habitually do these things without any conscience or care that they are sinful in God's eyes and have no personal salvation testimony about a time in their life where they asked Christ to save them. There are a lot of people in America today who believe they are "Christian" just because they go to church, they are a good person, or God won't really send anyone to hell. I've heard all of these and more from people that did not profess Christ as their Savior but who call themselves "Christian."
If there were no way to tell if a person was not saved how would we know who to evangelize? If someone professes to belong to Christ but has sinned or has been living in sin, they need a brother to correct them in firmness and love, as it says in James. The one who has been born-again will come to repentance, like the prodigal son, if God has not taken him/her home first, since there is a sin unto death where God sometimes decides to take the sinning saint home instead of letting him remain in this life living in a particular sin. However, people who continue on in habitual wickedness, with no regard of Scripture, and partaking in things such as abortion, the support of those who seek abortion, fornication, etc. without desiring repentance, or believing they have no need to repent of these things, are probably in danger and need someone to share the truth with them so they can be sure whether they have really asked Christ to save them or not. Maybe they were exposed to a false gospel and need to hear it as God has said it, for their own sake. Jesus spoke of the good tree and corrupt tree and its respective fruit immediately preceding his warning that not all who say "Lord, Lord" truly know Him. I had a friend once (we grew up together) who claimed she was a Christian but who believed she could break God's rules set for sexual purity, vile language, abortion, without believing she needed to repent of her beliefs. For me, Romans 1:28-2:6 is rather ominous in addressing behaviors that are practiced without conscience by those who might "look" like Christians on the outside but who practice these things, without repentance, in their lives. If the fruit is continually rotten and a tree never produces good fruit... I believe that is what Jesus was talking about. He didn't tell us this, however, so that we could go around and check everyone's fruit but so that we would treat those people with love and so that we would know how to approach them and share the truth with them so that they can realize their need for Him and truly be saved. If I never asked the Lord to save me and just thought I was a Christian, I would hope someone would recognize that and tell me so I could know.
I also believe that His analogy is explaining that a particular tree produces a particular kind of fruit. Oranges don't grow from grape vines and apples don't grow on olive trees. So, a Christian tree will produce Christian fruit, not the fruit of an unsaved tree, or the fruit it once produced before it became a Christian tree. This is not saying that a Christian cannot sin, but it shows that the habitual fruit of the believer will be Christian fruit more than the fruit of wickedness.
It comes down to whether or not the person has a personal testimony (profession) of having accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. It starts there. For those who do not profess Him as their Savior, we shouldn't judge them harshly because they are lost and need us to share the gospel with them so they can know the truth.
