[af_vet_1981]

The gracelessness of the responses here, especially those who have no idea of the work, is painfully astounding.

Fear of falling; denial is chosen instead to avoid thinking about the possibility; so he is transformed from a fallen Christian to never having been a Christian to begin with, which is cognitive dissonance.

[Chickensoup]

great insight there!

[Mrs. Don-o]

That's the paradox of the "Once saved, always saved" deal. Since quite a few do apostatize from the faith, the only recourse is to say that they never were Christian to begin with.

However, if you see a faith resume like "Accepted Jesus as my personal Savior at age 11, baptized at my own request at age 12, devoted my energies and my life to serve the Lord, re-dedicated myself to God in the midst of life's difficulties, married a faithful believing spouse, raised all our kids as Christians, then ---" in his 40's, this person leaves the Faith?

The "Once Saved" theory would force the conclusion that you can never know IF you really HAD the faith, or if you were fooling yourself all along.

I don't see how that would give anybody the claimed state of assurance.

It's a tautology anyway.

• No believer can ever apostatize.
• Josh apostatized.
• Therefore Josh was never a believer. Not a true believer.

  It's the No True Scotsman Fallacy.