I remember you have distinguished between venial sins and mortal sins, but still everyone commits mortal sins, so I thought your position was that they are lost until the next confession. Why else is confession necessary to salvation?
Second, we BOTH believe that man is lost until his "confession" - that "Jesus Christ is Lord" through Baptism.
Well, yes, except for the Baptism part. :)
My disagreement with you is over the CERTAINTY of eternal salvation and the inability to "lose" this status, regardless of future actions.
What you say is a OSAS approach, and I do not believe in that anymore. So, future actions do matter. I just believe in God's promises to His elect in that regard. Those actions are future included events to the salvation.
A person cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless he accepts Christ - whether that means your concept of that, or whether that means a person abides in Christ and loves, although not knowing WHO Jesus of Nazareth was. Your concept closes the doors to billions of people who happen to have been born in the wrong place at the wrong time.
How so? I don't declare for God who gets into heaven and who doesn't. God picks His elect and they will go to heaven. It only makes sense to me that He would also pick some who lived their entire lives without access to a Bible, etc. God is sovereign and makes His own perfect decisions for His own perfect reasons. I don't see how this is in conflict with my concept.
This [someone turning to Christ] can happen at any stage in a person's life, even on one's death bed.
I fully agree. God can do anything He wants, and your example of the thief is exactly right. I have always believed this.
Once a person has turned his life over to God and actually begins to try to live the life God meant us to live, mortal sin is rare, if non-existant. I don't remember the last mortal sin I confessed.
So, future actions do matter. I just believe in God's promises to His elect in that regard. Those actions are future included events to the salvation.
You appear to contradict yourself in these two sentences. First, you future actions do matter - I presume towards salvation. Second, God has already chosen you and you cannot fall. So tell me, why do your future actions matter if you have already declared yourself saved irrefutably?
I don't declare for God who gets into heaven and who doesn't. God picks His elect and they will go to heaven. It only makes sense to me that He would also pick some who lived their entire lives without access to a Bible, etc.
Ah, well this is a new concept from you. Previously, you have told me that one must have knowledge of Jesus Christ and believe upon Him. Why does it make sense to you that God would pick some elect who don't have access to the Bible?
Regards