Post by Les Brewer on Feb 12, 2012 16:31:31 GMT
John Wolf
Hi my friends and family,I hope all is well with you today! Continuing with my post from yesturday and the question:"Can a truly "born again" christian backslide away from God with the possibility of losing their soul in the end?" For the definition of backslide,see my post from yesturday. Are there an...y examples in Scripture that will show clearly that a person can fall from grace and be lost? I believe the Scriptures are repleat with examples both from the Old and New Testements.First,let's look at a few from the O.T. Adam & Eve:Created perfect by the LORD God Himself,placed in the perfect enviroment,the Garden of Eden.Everything they needed for life and happiness,perfect fellowship with their Creator.They did not earn any of these blessings from the Lord any more than you or I could have.They lived in the grace of God,until their fall into sin,thereby passing sin on to the whole human race.A little sound reasoning will reveal that since they fell from grace and incurred the penalty which was spiritual death,which also passed upon all mankind,we must conclude that the fall from grace was real or there was no fall at all! This one example of someone falling from grace should satisfy any reasonable person who is open to truth. Let's look also at King David.We are all aware of the sin that David fell into with Bathsheba.He committed adultry with her,got her pregnant,and in order to try and cover up his sin,he had Uriah her husband put on the front line of battle to be killed,thereby committing murder.Psalm 51 shows the utter dispair of David and where his heart was and an accurate assessment of his backslidden condition,until he repented and sought God through prayer and fasting.Anyone with an open mind to truth can see that David found himself in a backslidden condition and needed to return to the Lord.There may be some who would say,"that was under the Old Covenant,the law,we are not under law anymore." Oh,contrare mon frare,we who under grace are under a New Law.The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,Romans 8:1-2,is a more serious law than the law of Moses.Hebrews 10:26-29 explains this clearly. Although you will not find the words backslide,backslider,backslidden or backsliding in the New Testement,you wil find the concept of it there.Jesus said in Luke 9:26,"Whoever puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not worthy of the Kingdom of God."John 3:16 is the perfect example of the will of man in the salvation experience,it says:"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,that WHOSOEVER WILL believe in Him,SHOULD not perish,but have everlasting life." Our will is never violated by God to make choices.He has given us free will to choose Him or reject Him.The fact that we may be saved never changes our free moral agency.It is always a choice to serve Him or not serve Him. James the Elder,in James 5:19-20,writing to the twelve tribes scattered abroad,calls us brethren,he says,"Brethren,if Anyone amoung you wanders from the truth (backslides,falls away from the truth,abandons the truth)and someone turns him back,(back to the truth from sinful living,back to repentence)let him know(the one who turns the person back to the truth)that he who turns a sinner from the error of his ways(a person living in sin,as if they had never been saved)will save a soul from death(spiritual death is refferred to here,not physical death,for no one has yet been saved from this except Christ Jesus)and cover a multitude of sins." II Peter 2:18-22 describes those who,through the tactics of false teachers,have been led astray and have backslidden away from the Lord.The context says that they have clean escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (salvation) and AGAIN entangled in them and overcome (backslide).Verse 21 says it would be better to never have known salvation than to have known it and turned your back on it.If it is not possible for a christian to backslide and lose out with God,then these verses make no sense at all. Tomorrow I will continue with the security of the believer and who's responsibility it is to maintain this security.Until then be blessed and be a blessing to someone else...Love in Christ,JW
Hi my friends and family,I hope all is well with you today! Continuing with my post from yesturday and the question:"Can a truly "born again" christian backslide away from God with the possibility of losing their soul in the end?" For the definition of backslide,see my post from yesturday. Are there an...y examples in Scripture that will show clearly that a person can fall from grace and be lost? I believe the Scriptures are repleat with examples both from the Old and New Testements.First,let's look at a few from the O.T. Adam & Eve:Created perfect by the LORD God Himself,placed in the perfect enviroment,the Garden of Eden.Everything they needed for life and happiness,perfect fellowship with their Creator.They did not earn any of these blessings from the Lord any more than you or I could have.They lived in the grace of God,until their fall into sin,thereby passing sin on to the whole human race.A little sound reasoning will reveal that since they fell from grace and incurred the penalty which was spiritual death,which also passed upon all mankind,we must conclude that the fall from grace was real or there was no fall at all! This one example of someone falling from grace should satisfy any reasonable person who is open to truth. Let's look also at King David.We are all aware of the sin that David fell into with Bathsheba.He committed adultry with her,got her pregnant,and in order to try and cover up his sin,he had Uriah her husband put on the front line of battle to be killed,thereby committing murder.Psalm 51 shows the utter dispair of David and where his heart was and an accurate assessment of his backslidden condition,until he repented and sought God through prayer and fasting.Anyone with an open mind to truth can see that David found himself in a backslidden condition and needed to return to the Lord.There may be some who would say,"that was under the Old Covenant,the law,we are not under law anymore." Oh,contrare mon frare,we who under grace are under a New Law.The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,Romans 8:1-2,is a more serious law than the law of Moses.Hebrews 10:26-29 explains this clearly. Although you will not find the words backslide,backslider,backslidden or backsliding in the New Testement,you wil find the concept of it there.Jesus said in Luke 9:26,"Whoever puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not worthy of the Kingdom of God."John 3:16 is the perfect example of the will of man in the salvation experience,it says:"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,that WHOSOEVER WILL believe in Him,SHOULD not perish,but have everlasting life." Our will is never violated by God to make choices.He has given us free will to choose Him or reject Him.The fact that we may be saved never changes our free moral agency.It is always a choice to serve Him or not serve Him. James the Elder,in James 5:19-20,writing to the twelve tribes scattered abroad,calls us brethren,he says,"Brethren,if Anyone amoung you wanders from the truth (backslides,falls away from the truth,abandons the truth)and someone turns him back,(back to the truth from sinful living,back to repentence)let him know(the one who turns the person back to the truth)that he who turns a sinner from the error of his ways(a person living in sin,as if they had never been saved)will save a soul from death(spiritual death is refferred to here,not physical death,for no one has yet been saved from this except Christ Jesus)and cover a multitude of sins." II Peter 2:18-22 describes those who,through the tactics of false teachers,have been led astray and have backslidden away from the Lord.The context says that they have clean escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (salvation) and AGAIN entangled in them and overcome (backslide).Verse 21 says it would be better to never have known salvation than to have known it and turned your back on it.If it is not possible for a christian to backslide and lose out with God,then these verses make no sense at all. Tomorrow I will continue with the security of the believer and who's responsibility it is to maintain this security.Until then be blessed and be a blessing to someone else...Love in Christ,JW
