Featured Am I Now IFB?

Yes, exactly. This was James' point. If one claims to have faith, yet doesn't live accordingly, is that a faith that can save? A claim to faith that does not work, is not a claim that can be justified.

Well, in general, yes they were. But the author knew what Christ said, that tares would always be among wheats. So he naturally warned them to examine their hearts.

Heb. 3:12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;​

You'll also notice he used verbs such as tasted to describe the faith of those who fall away.

Heb. 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit,​

Compare this to Jesus' verbs regarding faith unto eternal life—eat, drink.

John 6:53 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.​

Tasting won't do it. True faith is akin to eating. And generally speaking, this is what the Hebrews author believed of his readers.

Heb. 6:9 But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation...​

IOWs, things like falling away don't accompany salvation.

 

Remember the parable of the sower. The seed was scattered indiscriminately on the various soils.

The seed began to grow even in the shallow soil.

A children’s teacher may take bean seeds and put them in a ziplock bag with a small bit of water. The seed, because “it has life in itself” will sprout root and stalk, but because there is no nutritional soil will die.

The Lord Jesus expressed this is as the heart of a person. There are those who seem to respond, because the gospel Word has life in itself, but there is no true substance, and soon withers away.

However, the prepared soil has that which will cause the seed to grow to harvest.

Now. Do not forget, the soil has no self conditioning ability. It relies upon outside influences to instill nutrients and worms for aeration and keeping it pliable.

Now, the obvious question is who is in charge of the soil? The soil or the owner of the soil?

Is God not the sovereign over all? Does He not appoint to His purpose all maters?

Therefore, James can rightly point out, faith without works is dead (worthless).

However, all humankind faith is worthless, but that which God delivers through the Word and work of the Holy Spirit is that gift of faith from God. (Romans- “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” )

What God authored God will complete. (Hebrews 12:2)

 

Two points:

1) when it comes to salvation, the sovereignty of God is called into question when one denies the ability of God to “keep” the redeemed, redeemed. It matters not about how one considers there view on freewill.

Free will is not for this thread, but only as it would be applied to the omniscience and sovereignty of God.

2) The Scriptures state that one who persists in repetitive sin cannot be considered as a believer. Look at the statement of John (1John 2):

1My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 3And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.​

It isn’t what sin, it isn’t the quantity or quality of sin, it is the unrepentant attitude that one can continue un-rebuked in continual practice of sin that is the breakpoint. The fruit of the believer does not allow the continued practice without rebuke.

Believers sin.
“Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.“ (Zacharias).

The passion of the believer is to “die daily” to the flesh. To cherish the living for Christ.

 

Salvation does not begin with Salvation.

A 'Profession of Faith', or 'Decision for Christ', or 'Repeat this Prayer after me', are typical examples of people mentally answering the question, "do you want to go to Heaven", by answering, "yes".

That thought process is called a 'decision', and is easily confused with the words, 'believe', 'have faith', or 'chose', etc.

It is 'thinking' performed with a fallen mental capsity, affected by the Spiritual blindness of a sin-cursed Nature.

These people that have not actually Experienced The Savior from sin, Saving them from their sin, AFTER God Has Made them Aware of their personal sin against God and Convicted them that they HAVE NO HOPE or Ability to 'do' anything, have NOT, in turn Been Enabled to AGREE WITH and UNDERSTAND GOD'S WORDS.

They fight what God Says and do not have a Spirit that is Capible of being Taught God's Word. BECAUSE they have never been Convicted of their sin and GRANTED TRUE REPENTANCE and Faith.

True Faith is Faith in The Finished Work of Jesus, as The Savior.

Sinners who become Saved are Saved FROM THEIR SINS, because they are lost.

A lost soul Must Be Born Again.

That lost soul MUST BE "LOST" BEFORE THEY ARE SAVED.

Answering a question of, 'do you believe and are able to have faith to make a decision to be' saved', is purely mental and begins with 'Salvation'.

Bible Salvation of God begins with a lost descendant of Adam, who is without hope and without strength in the World, ABSOLUTELY DIVORSED and ALIENATED from God, until God Comes to them.

A 'decision' made by a mind that is reasoning within the lost, Spiritually Dead, sin-cursed brain of a finite child of Adam may result in a whole Country full of 'Once Saved Always Saved' deniers by practice, as well as, 'doctrine'.

The acronym that reflects Eternal Salvation is, at the least, OLASFTSBTSJAS.

Once Lost And Saved FROM THEIR SINS By THE SAVIOR JESUS, ALWAYS SAVED.
...
Instances you see in Scripture of 'presumed' saved souls may very well have never been saved.

That is the same with the, "I hate Calvin, because I hate God, in my Natural God-Hating State and Spiritually Blind Condition of flesh, because I HAVE NEVER BEEN CONVICTED of BEING LOST... AND...
THEREFORE NEVER GRANTED REPENTANCE TO AGREE WITH GOD about my sinful HOPELESSNESS, or with HOW GOD SAVES SOULS.

Those individuals never discuss, 'sin', because they DO NOT AGREE WITH GOD about it and they DO NOT GLORIFY THE SAVIOR, as their SAVIOR FROM SIIIIIN.

They profess a 'testimony' to BELIEVE & HAVE FAITH, & CHOSE, & DESIDE, & NAME THEIRSELF A CHRISTIAN and will argue you to death that they not only know more, but are more powerful than God.

That is an Eternally Fatal position to be in.

OSAS HAS TO BEGIN WITH A LOST SOUL, CONVICTED by THE HOLY SPIRIT, through THE WORD of GOD that THERE IS SOMETHING TO BE OSAS FROM, AND OSAS TO, AND THAT IS FROM AND TO A PERSON.

That PERSON'S Name is, THE OSAS SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST.


OL-ASFTS-BTSJ-AS.

Once Lost -
And Saved FROM THEIR SINS-
By THE SAVIOR JESUS, -
ALWAYS SAVED.

OL-OSAS.
ONCE LOST - Once Saved Always Saved.

 

What is your view of the following scripture in relation to osas?

[Eph 1:13 KJV] 13 In whom ye also [trusted], after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

[Eph 4:30 KJV] 30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

 

I am puzzled. I have been a believer in what is now popularly called, "once saved, always saved," since 1962. I became a Chistian because of the notion of knowing for sure of going to Heaven.

Please, what I would like to understand from you, is upon what Scripture did you imagine taught "once saved, always saved" when you thought you believed that?

 

I understand that dispensationalism is the most literal system of interpreting scripture.

What is your method of interpreting the Bible?

Additionally, I would like to know your belief concerning the marriage supper of the lamb.

[Rev 19:7-9 KJV] 7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. 9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed [are] they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

 

Good question. Understand, how we know comes before what we know. And one can only know they are saved, if one believes in God's Christ, not some false Christ, ". . . Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: . . ." -- 1 John 5:1. So do you believe in the Christ who is both God's Son and an actual human being too? That Christ being God's Son is God too (Hebrews 1:8)? In order to be sinless He would have to be God (Luke 18:19; 1 John 3:5). And that He was still fully a man (Hebrews 4:15). And that He paid for all sin (1 John 2:2). And the promise under the New Covenant is full and an unrevokable forgiveness, ". . . saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. . . ." -- Jeremiah 31:34; Hebrews 10:16-17. This is the forgiveness God says He will not take back. The evidence that this is so, is the testamony that Jesus as the Christ is risen from the dead (Romans 4:25). Those who are yet lost do not understand this correctly, ". . . But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: . . ." -- 2 Corinthians 4:3. And this promise (1 John 5:9-13) is one which God cannot lie, ". . . In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; . . ." -- Titus 1:2. So again, ". . . Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: . . ." It is like knowing 1 + 1 = 2. Once one actualy knows this, one cannot not know it. All truths in order to know any of them must be believed. It is how we know anything. We understand a thing and then believe it.

 

As reference:

This site Publishes this Entire Book

“The Gospel of the Kingdom” (1927)
By Philip Mauro,

WHICH YOU MAY COPY & PASTE:

Philip Mauro : The Gospel of the Kingdom (1927) Free Online Books @ PreteristArchive.com, The Internet's Only Balanced Look at Preterism and Preterist Eschatology

HOWEVER, that site also throws this ‘rebuttal’
of Brother Mauro’s FINE Book in your face.

The Kingdom of God: What, When, Where?
(.pdf) An Answer to Mauro’s Gospel of the Kingdom

Where it seems to says, ‘yeah, but’,

& you will need SEVERAL KINDS of ‘another Gospel’
and a full denial of The Trinity and The BIBLE, if you bother with that 'review'.

The 'review' is a:

“mankind is O.K.
and just needs a little of our religion
to catch on and be a ‘Christian’

being simply, ERROR COMPOUNDED.

So, no:

THE ‘Answer
to Mauro’s Gospel of the Kingdom’ THING,
just misses GOD’S REVELATION.

1.0.3b The Gospel of The Kingdom #1; 20th Century ‘Dispensationalism’ is practically identical to LOST 1st Century JEWS who CRUCIFIED JESUS

 

Sets of Scriptures come to mind.
Weighing which ones I should cite.

". . . Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. . . ." -- Romans 7:4-25; Romans 8:1-2. . . .

James 2:10, ". . . For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. . . ."

1 John 3:4, ". . . Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. . . ."

Romans 4:15, ". . . Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. . . ."

Romans 10:4 , ". . . For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. . . ."

Galatians 2:21, ". . . I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. . . ."

This is just the "icing on the cake" so to speak.

1 Timothy 1:9-10, ". . . Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine; . . ."

2 Corinthians 5:21, ". . . For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. . . ."

 

". . . Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. . . .".-- Philippians 2:12-13.

". . . For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. . . ." -- Ephesians 2:8-10.

". . . Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. . . ." -- 2 Corinthians 5:17.

". . . For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. . . ." -- 1 Corinthians 3:11-15.

". . . He that overcometh, . . . I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, . . ." -- Revelation 3:5.

". . . For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. . . ." -- 1 John 5:4.

 

". . . Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. . . ." -- 1 Corinthians 3:8-11.

Wow, I guess you do not understand it as I have.

". . . Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: . . ." -- Matthew 28:19-20.

Jesus, as I understand this, commissioned His disciples teach their disciples, what He had taught them. And so on down the line to us. And we others after us. That was my "Baptist" training, beginning with me being won to Christ.

". . . Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours. . . ." -- John 4:34-38.

". . . Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. . . ." -- John 15:8.

". . . Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. . . ." -- Matthew 5:14-16.

". . . Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. . . ." -- John 8:12.

". . . And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. . . ." -- Daniel 12:3.

". . . The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise. . . ." -- Proverbs 11:30.