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To: jonno

I should also have included this par. as it get to the heart of the issue - how many of us struggle...

“So the agonizing question for some is: Do I really have saving faith? Is my faith real? Am I self-deceived? Some well-intentioned people try to lessen the problem by making faith a mere decision to affirm certain truths, like the truth: Jesus is God, and he died for my sins. Some also try to assist assurance by denying that any kind of life-change is really necessary to demonstrate the reality of faith. So they find a way to make James 2:17 mean something other than what it seems to mean: “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead.” But these strategies to help assurance backfire. They deny some Scripture; and even the minimal faith they preserve can be agonized over and doubted by the tormented soul. They don’t solve the problem, and they lose truth. And, perhaps worst of all, they sometimes give assurance to people who should not have it. “


26 posted on 01/28/2015 9:05:30 AM PST by jonno (Having an opinion is not the same as having the answer...)
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To: jonno
>>Some also try to assist assurance by denying that any kind of life-change is really necessary to demonstrate the reality of faith.<<

Can you show where anyone made that claim?

30 posted on 01/28/2015 9:09:07 AM PST by CynicalBear (For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus)
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