This isn't the first time the Church of Christ has had to deal with deniers.
A whole cult was formed in the 3rd century on the basis of saying Jesus could never forgive sincerely repentent Christians who denied their faith under threat of torture or death. These were called the Donatists--and they split the Church wide open.
The duties of the priests in sacraments were understood as very important in that day--and due to severe Roman persecution, various priests and bishops had denied Christ--but later, like Peter, repented, and were allowed to be priests and bishops again. The Donatist party however, said that they could never be forgiven, and therefore any sacrament (holy communion, baptism, etc.) they performed was invalid and ineffective.
This went on for generations....and whole regions could be traced back to repentant-denier's sacraments. (ie. Bishop RD baptized this town, along with its priest, then they baptized so many more...etc. etc....) The Donatists insisted--since the sacraments of certain regions could be traced back to ineffective sacraments of the RDs---those regions of the Church were not really valid Christians. Obviously this was a serious issue for the Church.
Finally, in the 5th Century, St. Augustine defeated the bitter Donatists with this simple logic. Grace for every Christian comes from Christ Himself--not through the good character of the priest. So while priests of course should be godly men, even if a priest was not godly, or not repentent from denying Christ, and unsaved, their sacraments are valid, since the grace they provide is Christ' not the priests.
Seeing as how Jesus forgave Peter's 3 direct denials, I for one cannot say God commands anyone who deny's Christ is forever lost. If they sincerly repent, the grace of God can even cover the sin of denial.
Thank you so much for the Church history lesson, in your entire post#81. I would agree with those that God alone will decide our fate, and that nothing we do or say here will determine that, with the exception of "denial of the Spirit" - but I'm certainly not clear on what God means by that, so I'll never make that call, but this story doesn't seem to even come close. I CAN however, and must, make judgements as to whether a person is acting grossly counter to the Word of God, and might possibly be called upon to exhort that person to examine their life - and this man clearly can't be called to task by me or any here.
This passage delineating Augustine's thought is clearly pertinent in many situations that the Church has found itself in through the years.
St.Augustine (and the other doctors of the church) were simply awesome.
That being said, my particular take on this situation is that this man denied himself the easy way into heaven should he have said, 'Yup, Jesus Christ is one of the three persons of the Trinity, I believe that, and will go to my grave testifying to that.' That he chose not to do so, for whatever reason (with my being the only shepard of my 7yo daughter now, I might choose similarly 'cause He may disagree with my selfish "easy way into heaven" motive otherwise) only means that he will have to slog the rest of his life out like the rest of us, with all the attendant opportunities for the Evil One to change our course. There have been times in my life it would be have been totally wrong for me to fail in such a profession, though. For this man's missed opportunity, I concur with those expressing sadness for the man, as well as also rejoicing in his life and faith. God knows his heart and circumstances.
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