Mike Berzins said:
Don't duck the question. It was a hypothetical statement. As you hypothetical asked what someone would preach at his funeral, I am asking what you would have preached if he hypothetically had fallen into adultery. Would his adultery prove that he was never saved to begin with?
First of all that is not what happened to John R. Rice. So clear his name.
Second, your question has been asked and answered many times in other threads especially in debate by Brother Bob and myself. If you to see a full debate on this discussion I would urge you to go back a couple pages and read the threads on it.
Thirdly, the question is a simple one of OSAS.
Look at my signature verse and ask yourself if you believe it.
Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
--Will the One (Jesus Christ) who has begun that work of salvation) keep it until Jesus comes? I believe he will. Don't you?
How about this?
Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
--There is absolutely nothing, no power, not in the present
or in the future that will be able to separate me from God or his love. MEers have a hard time explaining that verse and have yet to explain it to me. If there is nothing that can separate me from God and his love how could the possiblility of a "Baptist Purgatory" even exist? That totally contradicts the Bible. It puts the ME'er's doctrine way out in left field.
Now having established that basis, we need to establish the basis of salvation.
Did Jesus pay the full penalty of our salvation; or do you have to pay a part of it too? Do you need to help out in the atonement of Christ somehow? When you eventually reach heaven (or even the kingdom) will you boast and say: "Look what I did; See I helped Jesus accomplish his work of salvation; I had a part in paying the penalty of our sin too." That is the MEer's heresy. They take away from the sufficiency of the blood of Christ.
As I tell the Catholics I tell you.
You don't beleive that Christ paid the penalty for your sin.
Why?
Because you still pay the penalty for your own sins in purgatory.
And the MEer's do the same thing in their "Baptist Purgatory."
When Jesus said: "It is finished," He meant the work of salvation is finished. There is nothing more to do. The payment for sin (all sin--past present and future) was paid for. There is nothing more to do. The payment for the penalty of sin was paid for with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You or I can do nothing more but accept that payment. That means that salvation is by grace through faith and not of works.
Once you say you have to do works to enter into the kingdom you have a salvation based on works just as the RCC does. That is heresy. Salvation is not based on works. It is by faith.
Thus if a man dies while committing sin: whether it be lying, cheating, driving over the speed limit, or adultery, he will go straight to heaven to be with the Lord, as the Bible promises.
There is no difference in sin.
Sin is a transgression of the law. In God's sight all sin is the same, though the consequences on this earth may be different. All sin is a transgression of the law. A lie is just as bad as adultery.
James 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
If you have broken one command you are just as guilty as breaking them all.
If you have lied you are just as guilty as murder and adultery.
In short if a person died committing adultery he would go to heaven.
If David had died of a heart attack before Nathan the prophet had reached him he would have gone to heaven, because he had been made righteous in the sight of the Lord long before that time. His sin has no effect on his salvation.
