What If???

Glen, before Yeshua died and rose again, Peter boldly proclaimed his allegiance and utterly failed. It is not insignificant that Yeshua talked with Peter after the resurrection and asked Peter if he loved him (Yeshua).
The answer to your question lies in whether we are walking in step with the Spirit or living by trusting in our own willpower. If by the Spirit, we will certainly stand fast. If by our own flesh, we will certainly fail.
As for standing with others...our hope is in Christ. May we treat our neighbors as ourselves even under persecution. May we be forgiving like our Coptic brothers have been in Egypt. We are ambassadors of God's Kingdom.

 

Interesting question, is that the exegesis of that passage? I always thought it meant "Promise=Heaven", well I'm sure you're right, you wouldn't post if you weren't sure.

Here's my take on that question, so the FG declares martial law, anyone professing Christ, in possession of a bible, etc. will be killed on the spot.

If we are TRULY REGENERATE, not a professing Christian, I think God would give us the grace to stand up to it, and yes die for the faith, while the professors most certainly would recant. This is biblical.

God grants us repentance, He grants us faith, He opens our heart to understand the scriptures, He takes out our hearts of stone and puts in a heart of flesh, He does these things. In ourselves, no, but if we are regenerate we are in Christ. I do think He'd give us the grace to say "Kill me then", not saying it would be easy, but I think we could do. I'm not afraid of death, but am afraid of dying, you know being aware of it, the pain of it, just something about it that scares me. Then I get in the Spirit and all fear is GONE.

I believe it was the second century, there was a large group of Christians being slaughtered if they wouldn't recant, some did, some didn't, then the question arose, as far as I know for the first time among Christians "Can we be saved if we deny Christ", here is my view, I say, as does scripture, that IF we are a truly regenerate Christian, we CAN'T DENY HIM. So those who did deny Him showed themselves as phonies, if we don't love Christ more than our lives we can't be His disciple. It's like Johns teaching on perseverance, "They went out from us, but there going out only illustrated that they never were of us", I think it's the same thing with facing death, as our Lord died, so would we IF we are truly regenerate. Yes Peter denied Jesus three times, but He hadn't the Spirit yet, the Spirit was with him, but not in Him.