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To: Mr Rogers; kosciusko51
Well: "...who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come..." Seems pretty clear. Takes a lot of gymnastics to turn that into a description of someone who has never believed.

Not necessarily so.

I know of people who have heard the gospel, many times, have experienced God's work in their lives and seen miracles, and STILL resist and fight God.

They are people who have experienced the work of God in their lives as He has reached out to touch them and yet, even some of those people will continue to reject God.

Judas is a prime example.

He was one of the Twelve and was sent out to preach and perform miracles.

Jesus gave him the same ability as the other apostles. He partook and was certainly enlightened to a degree and chose to reject.

Jesus never spoke of him in a way that indicated that He considered him saved.

*Son of perdition* I believe is the term Jesus used.

59 posted on 02/20/2017 9:35:55 AM PST by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: metmom; kosciusko51

“have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit”

If that does not describe a Christian, what does?

“12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”

While I believe Hebrews 6 is incontrovertible, it is not the only example. Indeed, there are many:

“Such warnings cannot be easily dismissed, and the Christian theologian should be diligent in giving full consideration to the entirety of the book of Galatians in formulating his doctrine of continuance in salvation. In particular, hear once again Paul’s words as he winds down his argument: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (6:7-9).”

http://evangelicalarminians.org/daily-scripture-commentary-continuance-in-salvation-eternal-security-and-pauls-letter-to-the-galatians/

Also http://evangelicalarminians.org/apostasy-and-perseverence/

No one simply reading the New Testament would conclude no Christian can leave the Lord. It is filled with warnings about falling away, and full of encouragement to stay the course to the end. It takes an external theology imposed on top of the scripture to make the obvious go missing.


151 posted on 02/20/2017 5:55:46 PM PST by Mr Rogers
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