Originally posted by AresMan:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by MRCoon:
CraigbytheSea: Interesting testimony! Are you saying that you were not a "new creature" when you prayed to accept Christ? Or that this transformation happened over a few week period?
CraigbytheSea does not believe in eternal security. He believes that one can lose salvation. </font>[/QUOTE]Although I know that the Bible does not teach the doctrine eternally security, I know that I am secure in Jesus and I have never doubted my salvation. Indeed, doubting my salvation would like doubting that the sky is blue and the sun is hot. I am the new creature in Christ that God created me to be and the old creature in dead and buried.
MRCoon asked two questions that I have not answered because I don’t want to derail this thread, but perhaps a quick and brief reply would help to eliminate some confusion. Here is my testimony of salvation in more detail:
One Sunday night I answered the altar call at a conservative, evangelical church (that I had been going to regularly as an unbeliever for several months) because I had promised a friend the night before that I would even though I believed that the Jesus of the Bible was a fictional character and that the Christian faith was a farce.
The senior pastor’s wife asked me to repeat a sinner’s prayer after her, and she gave me the words to pray and I repeated the words. The congregation was thrilled and began to shout, “Praise God! Thank you Jesus!” I was just glad that I had kept my promise to my friend.
I continued to publicly (though not at that church) deny that there ever was a Jesus, and one night about three weeks later I was at Baptist coffee house where I used to hand out and a young man asked me if I was a Christian. I was ashamed that I was hanging out with Christians and I was afraid that the word might get out, so I had refused to tell anyone there even my first name, and they named me “Charlie Brown.” So, when the young man asked me if I was a Christian, I told him that I was not. He took out of his pocket a “Four Spiritual Laws” Bible tract and began to share it with me while I didn’t say a word; but all of a sudden he stopped and looked at me and said, “I don’t know why you lied to me about not being a Christian, but I can tell that you are.” I was caught off guard, and I told him about what had happened three weeks ago. Someone overheard and shouted out, “Charlie Brown got saved!” I was absolutely shocked and more embarrassed than I thought possible, and I got up and got out of that place.
A few nights later I was walking down the main drag in downtown San Diego—Broadway—and as I stepped up onto the curb from 4th Avenue and began walking down the sidewalk along the edge of Horton Plaza, I noticed a young sailor standing near the corner. I had seen him there before, and I sensed that he was propositioning himself to other men, but that was very common on Horton Plaza so I hadn’t given any thought to it. But that night, something was very different—not about him—but about me! I wanted to just keep on walking, and I even forced myself to do so for several steps, but I felt something inside of me forcing me to turn around. I tried to resist, but I couldn’t, and I walked right up to him and asked him if he was prostituting himself.
He told me that he was, and he began to cry, and then he took off like a rocket running down Broadway toward the bay. And there I went—running after him. He ran right through the red traffic lights dodging the cars, trucks, and buses; and I ran after him, right through the red traffic lights dodging the traffic. He finally took cover behind a large pillar on the front of a building, but I saw where he went, and I ran up behind him and felt my right hand being lifted up onto his shoulder—and I heard Bible verses coming out of my mouth as he leaned up against the pillar with his face in his hands, crying.
After a few minutes, the young man turned around and told me that his name was Bob, that he was a Christian, that he was in the Navy, and that he was married and that his wife was expecting a baby, but that he was getting ready to go on a West Pacific cruise for several months and would be out to sea when the baby was born. He was extremely lonely, confused, and hurting inside—and he told me that he began to run because he was embarrassed, but that as he was running, he was hoping that I would care enough to pursue him and help him.
Up to that point in my life, servicemen had been little more than scum in my sight, but here I was holding in my arms a serviceman, and loving him more than life itself. And then I knew,
The hand of Jesus touched me,
And now I am no longer the same.
Am I secure in Christ—absolutely! He promised that He would never leave me nor forsake me and I know that I can trust Him to keep His word. Have I ever doubted that I am saved—absolutely not!
