Originally posted by Helen:
Craig, I can see no Spirit of the Lord in your responses there. So it does make sense to me why you don't think your salvation is secure in Him.
Another personal attack—very typical of Helen’s posts when she disagrees with what her brothers and sister in Christ believe.
Helen, What you personally do or do not see in my posts is irrelevant to the vast amount of Biblical evidence against your personal interpretation of the Bible.
Originally posted by Helen:
In the meantime, I KNOW I am His sheep (John 10).
He has said "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand." John 10:28
The fact that this verse does not necessarily teach or support the doctrine of eternal security has been documented many times in various threads on the this message board, including this vary thread, and if you are familiar with the scholarly literature on the doctrine of eternal security you know for a fact that John 10:28 is NOT used by OSAS scholars to support the doctrine of eternal security because of the grammatical issues in the Greek text—so why do you post something that is so absolutely irrelevant?
Helen says,
Originally posted by Helen:
“In James we read that works are the expression of the condition of the heart; that faith expresses itself in works.”
The Bible says,
James 2:14. What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?
15. If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,
16. and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for
their body, what use is that?
17. Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead,
being by itself.
18. But someone may
well say, "You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works."
19. You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
20. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?
21. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
22. You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;
23. and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS," and he was called the friend of God.
24. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
25. In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
26. For just as the body without
the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
Originally posted by Helen:
Now go to 1 John 3:18-20
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
Now go to 1 John 3:2-9 and 1 John 5:12,
1 John 3:2. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
3. And everyone who has this hope
fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
4. Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
5. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.
6. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.
7. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;
8. the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.
9. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
1 John 5:12. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
Originally posted by Helen:
Thus, even if I am worried about not belonging to Him, if that worry should occur to me, I can look at the works HE has done through me and KNOW that I BELONG to Him and my heart can be at rest.
If I was not sure of my position in Christ, my heart could never be at rest.
I am not sure of my “position” in Christ because of a ludicrously false doctrine concocted by men in the 16th century; I am sure that I am in Christ because I am a new creation in Christ Jesus. If a man has nothing but a ludicrously false doctrine concocted by men in the 16th century upon which to base his “position” in Christ, I would say that that man is not only positionally lost , but well on his way to the fires of hell.
(All Scriptures NASB, 1995)
