I think maybe you do not understand the nature of discourse among people of varying views? Just asking how it looks like from over there is no indication that the same thing is being viewed from over here.
Those quotes neither answer the question I am asking nor explain your opinion to someone who has questions about it.
I mean this: We papists can look at a text in I John and triumphantly wave it about as ‘proof’ that there is a Biblical distinction between mortal and venial sin. Guess what. Our opponents will not be persuaded. We have to do more if we are to make out point clear and believable.
Similarly, those texts may ‘prove’ something to you, but they are not clear answers to my question. If I work at it, I can see that you are saying something like, “If you have to ask if you are saved, you aren’t.”
But there are ample texts which SEEM to propose the idea that one could be like St. Paul and still lose out at the end; one could call on the name of the Lord but still be denied by Him at the end; one could be summoned before Him and be sent away not on the basis of ‘faith’ but on thee mercy shown to the least of His brethren.
In one of those collections of “I was was not a Catholic and now I am,” stories a young lady got “saved” many times because she was not SURE she was saved.
Now I can read that as possibly some kind of psychiatric disorder, depression or somesuch. Because of such illnesses, I hesitate to tell somebody a feeling or an assurance of some kind is diagnostic of one’s soul’s health. For some of us, faith, is an “infused virtue” a given strength which we have to exercise with determination while our family, friends, and internal chemistry cry out against it.
Such folks to not FEEL assurance. They clutch to the proposition that God loves them, in spite of the shrieking witnesses to the contrary, NOT because they FEEL loved but, well, for some other reason. [Hint: grace.] They hold on though beset by doubts and uncertainties. IMHO their faith is a true miracle because it is unaccompanied by any ease or satisfaction. They truly keep their eyes on the prize.
And that's not uncommon especially with religions that tell you that you can lose your salvation...
But regardless of how many times you ask the Lord to save you, it only takes one time...
If I work at it, I can see that you are saying something like, “If you have to ask if you are saved, you aren’t.”
It's more like; if you don't know what being saved is, you apparently don't understand salvation...
But there are ample texts which SEEM to propose the idea that one could be like St. Paul and still lose out at the end; one could call on the name of the Lord but still be denied by Him at the end; one could be summoned before Him and be sent away not on the basis of ‘faith’ but on thee mercy shown to the least of His brethren.
I agree with you...And I apparently am one of the few who believes the scriptures are clear that salvation can be lost and works are necessary in one dispensation while in another dispensation (the church age), we are eternally secure in our salvation, with works of any kind...
Such folks to not FEEL assurance.
One must be careful when depending on 'feelings'...And certainly Satan will attack anyone's knowledge of eternal security...That's why we are to constantly be on guard with the Sword of the Spirit which is the word of God...