Pastor And Seminary Teacher Who Was Outed As Member of Ashley Madison Commits Suicide..

Daily Mail (UK) ^ | September 8, 2015 | WILLS ROBINSON

[Steelfish]

Pastor And Seminary Teacher Who Was Outed As Member of Ashley Madison Commits Suicide Because He Carried Too Much 'Shame' John Gibson, 56, taught at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminar Was on the list of 32million names released after the huge hack in August His wife Christi said he felt shame, but insisted she would've forgiven him Gibson had also suffered from addiction and depression in the past By WILLS ROBINSON 8 September 2015

A pastor who was outed as a member of Ashley Madison has committed suicide. Father-of-two John Gibson, a teacher at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminar was found dead by his wife after his name was one of the 32 million released during the cyber hack last month. The 56 year old is just one of many purported users of the extra-marital affair site who are believed to have taken their own lives after the huge release of names by online criminals .

[GBA]

Thank you both for your posts and for your examples.

When we see something like this we should not say I'm glad I'm not a sinner like that preacher was. Rather we should say thank you Lord that I wasn't put to that temptation.

This is a more enlightened opinion than what one usually hears or what we usually tell ourselves.

It's taken some big life events over these last few years for me to start thanking God for the challenges He's given me, in whatever form they may be, instead of my old begging Him to make it stop.

I agree with you about suicide and pray that I never have a reason to stand before that door again. Unfortunately, in the wrong frame of mind, a person might not find a reason to turn away from it.

I lost a niece this summer. Tragic loss for all, but especially so for her sisters and for my sister.

I worry about the consequences of her choice. I hope and pray that she can be forgiven for giving in to the pains that got finally the better of her.

[Popman]

Failure to believe on Christ before you die is the only unforgivable sin.

Mat 12:32 “Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come".

Actually, attributing the acts and power of the Holy Spirit to satan is an unforgivable sin...

[Bob434]

[[I guess where I get, or got confused is the fact I have never felt that the asking God for forgiveness was a burden, or a chore.]]

We should regularly ask Him for forgiveness, but not to restore our salvation, but rather to restore our close relationship with Him- it’s kinda like spouses having a fight, the relationship suffers, until one apologizes and asks forgiveness- the two are still married of course, but the relationship suffers

[[I try very hard to be aware of things that I believe dishonor the agreement I made with Him when I accepted His son as my Savior.]]

Kudos, I don’t do this nearly as much as I should- although to be fair, (and ot help you as well) we both I’m sure don’t indulge I nthe sins that God states like coveting (and by this God meant coveting something so much that we plot how to get it away from the other person- whatever it is) Gluttony (I had a fella tell me he was a glutton because he liked to eat a little bit too much- but when we look I nthe bible, the sin of gluttony was talking about the romans who would give lavish parties, and who had back rooms made specifically for people to go into to throw up what they had eaten, just so the3y could go back out and gorge themselves several more times- neither you or I are guilty of this I’m sure), anger (God is talking about anger that is so bad that it leads a person to plot another’s death)

Etc etc etc- When God mentions certain sins In the bible, He usually is not talking about normal human emotions such as being angry with someone but only to the point you don’t speak or whatever- He’s talking about being so consumed by anger (or gluttony, or lust, or whatever the sin is) that we work out that sin to fruition (ie murder, adultery, -whatever)

[[Thing is, even though I know God is an omnipotent supreme being, when I speak to him through prayer, my idea of Prayer is like I’m speaking to a really close friend.]]

That’s how it should be- When you pray, you are praying through Jesus who is our intercessory- and Christ is closer than even a brother

[[I guess that’s where I got the notion that Suicide couldn’t be forgiven.]]

Suicide is usually caused by people with physical problems- mental issues- that God allows- Psychological problems can and often do become so severe that people take hteir own lives- God allows this to happen- Rick Warren the famous preacher- his son did it- he struggled with psychological problems for years, but it just became too much for him- He was saved- and is in heaven right now-

[[So I guess I always believed if I approached God with that stain on my soul, having not asked His forgiveness, that would be the one instance when He couldn’t forgive me.]]

No- once we’re saved we’re always saved- As I mentioned, the bible is very clear on this- The Evil One- works to try to convince us that we’re not forgiven- he causes many people to live in guilt unnecessarily- thereby stunting their spiritual growth- this is the goal of the Evil One- If He can cause a CHristian to doubt, that Christian won’t be as effective a witness for Christ as he or she could be- and that pleases the Evil One to no end because His whole goal is to thwart God’s people

[[life is the most precious gift we’re given, and to throw that gift back at God, and say I didn’t care enough about it to preserve it would be the ultimate betrayal.]]

Christ is the most precious gift- this life is nothing but a stepping stone to a much much greater and more precious gift of an existence In eternity-

God understands people’s pain, and SOMETIMES He doesn’t allow them to overcome the pain- We must remember that God has a plan for everything- even suicide- This sounds harsh, but the reality is that someone’s suicide Has ripple effects we will never know of. God may use that person’s suicide to cause a great many people to turn to him more fully in their own pain, and thus prevent many suicides in the future- He may use it to turn drug addled criminals to Him, or He may use it to turn ordinary citizens to Him- We just don’t know how He might use it- but we can be sure He has a plan for it

Of course this is NOT to put a stamp of approval on suicide- or to condone it. but simply to point out that While suicide is terrible, and many get affected by it, family, friends, etc- God does allow it for His purposes-

WE might ask “How could God allow a Christian to get ot htep oint of suicide without doing anything about it” But the reality is that God does do things about it- bringing things into that person’s life, whereby IF that person takes it, they would be on a path to recovery- God let’s things run their course- WE brought evil and pain into our lives, and God NEVER promises to protect us or shield us from them- He DOES however promise that if We keep our eyes on Him, He will see us THROUGH such evil things as rape, murder, suicide, etc-

God allows many bad thigns to happen- and hard as it may be to see or even to accept, He does allow them for His purposes- Purposes we personally may never discover- but whom others will discover later in life-

One excellent point is that Sampson prayed to God and asked God to give Him strength to commit suicide and God granted him that strength

Just as God allows a Christian person to die from cancer, MSW, leukemia etc, He also allows some Christians to die from suicide brought on by mental problems which are every bit as much medical problems as the others mentioned- We don’t know why But like I said, every act has ripple effects that work far into the future that we can’t see- We do know though from His word, that we are eternally saved, and not even suicide can alter that fact

[HiTech RedNeck]

I used to wonder if that was a one-time act, but that no longer seems a tenable explanation. It is a continuous, unbroken attitude. If you never allow God to be anything more than a “devil” in your life, you never will allow Him to pull you out of your hopeless condition.

[Bob434]

[[10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.]]

here is another verse which has caused untold needless suffering I n the lives of Christians because of misinterpretation

Simply saying a swear word using God’s name, or Jesus’s or even the Holy spirit’s is NOT blaspheming the Holy Spirit- (Note, we should NOT use their names when we swear, however, we ARE still saved if we do)

Blasphemign the Holy Spirit was talking about people who got VERY close to beign saved, they lived, breathed, spoke, etc ‘religiosity’- by all intents and purposes, they SEEMED like they were saved, but they never came to the point where they actually asked Chrsit to be their Savior- they knew a great deal ABOUT Christ- but they did not KNOW Christ personally

These people would often come to ap oitn hwere they leave the church, and then turn around and give creadit to Satan,, or to ‘other gods’ (like ‘the great spirit,’ or ‘mother earth’ or to Baal, or whatever)- Taking the credit away from God and the Holy spirit, and giving credit to other gods- This is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit

These people who do this- who came close to salvation, then turn around and attack God and give credit for what God does to other gods, are blasphemers and apostates, and they will NEVER AGAIN be given the chance to be saved- These people seal their own doom when they commit this act of blasphemy

So, we need not fear that we ‘lose our salvation’ if we use God’s name I n a swear, (although I would encourage everyone to stop doing so if you do- out of respect For God) Because the blasphemy talked about in that verse is talking about people who never had salvation to begin with, and it is talking about them losing their chance to ever be saved again because they threw that chance away by disobeying God so grievously by turning on Him in a deliberate attack on God’s character and miracles-

[Bob434]

But I think it is God who pulls us out- not us who allow Him to- He takes the most hardened of us and turns us completely round (against our sinful will I might add- if left to our sinful will, we would never turn to Him- it takes Him to turn us to Him)

However, as in my last post, there is a condition upon which God does say “No More Chances’ and only one that I am aware of- and that is when talking about apostasy and blasphemy- God gives the unregenerate a warning- ‘Do not get close to me, then turn from me and give credit for what I do to other false gods- if you do, there is no salvation for you’- In this condition, their hearts are permanently hardened.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I meekly disagree. The overall biblical picture is that we have a permission power on the level of a solidified eternal fate. Taking certain scriptures in a vacuum might look like that is not so, but they only treat one side of the paradox.

[HiTech RedNeck]

And that is by the very nature of what love is. God “decided” (if we can put it that way) to be love, and the fact is documented in the scripture.

Relationships to love have to be voluntary, however much they snowball after the voluntary act is made.

[Bob434]

[[Actually, attributing the acts and power of the Holy Spirit to satan is an unforgivable sin... ]]

Committed ONLY by the unsaved- God will NOT forgive them nor allow htem to be saved-

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

32. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come—

In Mark the language is awfully strong, “hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation” (Mr 3:20)—or rather, according to what appears to be the preferable though very unusual reading, “in danger of eternal guilt”—a guilt which he will underlie for ever. Mark has the important addition (Mr 3:30), “Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.” (See on [1279]Mt 10:25).

What, then, is this sin against the Holy Ghost—the unpardonable sin? One thing is clear: Its unpardonableness cannot arise from anything in the nature of sin itself; for that would be a naked contradiction to the emphatic declaration of Mt 12:31, that all manner of sin is pardonable. And what is this but the fundamental truth of the Gospel? (See Ac 13:38, 39; Ro 3:22, 24; 1Jo 1:7, etc.).

Then, again when it is said (Mt 12:32), that to speak against or blaspheme the Son of man is pardonable, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is not pardonable, it is not to be conceived that this arises from any greater sanctity in the one blessed Person than the other. These remarks so narrow the question that the true sense of our Lord’s words seem to disclose themselves at once.

It is a contrast between slandering “the Son of man” in His veiled condition and unfinished work—which might be done “ignorantly, in unbelief” (1Ti 1:13), and slandering the same blessed Person after the blaze of glory which the Holy Ghost was soon to throw around His claims, and in the full knowledge of all that. This would be to slander Him with eyes open, or to do it “presumptuously.” To blaspheme Christ in the former condition—when even the apostles stumbled at many things—left them still open to conviction on fuller light: but to blaspheme Him in the latter condition would be to hate the light the clearer it became, and resolutely to shut it out; which, of course, precludes salvation. (See on [1280]Heb 10:26-29). The Pharisees had not as yet done this; but in charging Jesus with being in league with hell they were displaying beforehand a malignant determination to shut their eyes to all evidence, and so, bordering upon, and in spirit committing, the unpardonable sin.

Note, this commentary is talking about those who ‘come close to salvation’ and who, with ‘eyes wide open’ (IE: They KNOW OF the truth, but have not accepted the truth themselves), do blapsheme the Holy Spirit by giving credit for what the Holy spirit has done to other gods or to Satan or Demons-

[Bob434]

[[Relationships to love have to be voluntary, however much they snowball after the voluntary act is made.]]

a man in a sinful state can not give love to God- Nor accept it lest God should draw Him- A man doesn’t decide to love God, but is compelled By God to Love God- Our Sinful nature is steeped in the Evil One- We are enemies of God- We want nothing to do with God- But God in His love, Does away with our animosity towards Him when He compels us to Himself. If I can say that it was I who chose God- then I can boast that “I” Allowed God to save me because “I” recognized my lost condition, an “I” realized that it was in my best interest to accept God- therefore “I” humbled “Myself” before the Lord, and He accepted me

[Bob434]

[[I meekly disagree. The overall biblical picture is that we have a permission power on the level of a solidified eternal fate. Taking certain scriptures in a vacuum might look like that is not so, but they only treat one side of the paradox.]]

I hjave no idea what you are talking about or referring to?

[Bob434]

[[Taking certain scriptures in a vacuum might look like that is not so]]

If you are referring to the apostasy I was speaking about, it’s not just taking one verse- it is taking the whole passage In context- and when taken in context, it shows that apostasy refers to those who come close to salvation, but who turn from it at the last second and then blaspheme the holy spirit - people like this were common in those days (and in ours too), and that was who was being discussed in those passages- Not saved people, and the verses were not suggesting saved people can lose their salvation-

[Bob434]

We are starting to delve into the complicated issue of predestination, and or foreknowledge- I don’t wish to take it down htose roads though- as it’s complicated and both sides have strong compelling arguments to be made, and it’s an issue that has been asked, discussed and debated since the beginning of time practically, and we’re not likely to solve it here-

[Bob434]

not to beat this subject to death, but one more important point- Jesus was talking to the Pharisees- who were not saved- they were what we call ‘CINO’s” (Christians in name only) They claimed to be saved, but were not- Fro the most part, they based their salvation of the law

His warning was to these false Christians who tried to say that His indisputably divine miracles were done by the Evil One- He warned them that they were very close to blasphemy of the Spirit and warned them that if, after having come close to the truth but rejecting it, turned and started giving credit for what the Holy Spirit does, to the Evil One-

Here’s an article on this issue that states it better than I could:

WHAT THE UNPARDONABLE SIN IS

As was noted earlier, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the only sin in the Bible that is given the status of unpardonable or eternal. In fact, Jesus prefaced His discussion of this sin by stating that, “every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men,” except for blasphemy against the Spirit. Using the working definition of blasphemy as “speaking evil of,” it becomes clear that the sin described by Jesus was a “tongue sin” that the Pharisees had committed, or at least were dangerously close to committing.

What had the Pharisees done that would have put them in jeopardy of committing the unpardonable sin? According to His own testimony, during Jesus’ time on this Earth He cast out demons by the “Spirit of God” (Matthew 12:28).

When the Pharisees saw that Jesus had performed a verifiable miracle, they could not argue with the fact that Christ possessed certain powers that others (including themselves) did not have. Therefore, in order to cast suspicion on the ministry of Jesus, they claimed that He was casting out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons. The name Beelzebub is simply another name for Satan (Franklin, 1936, p. 227), as can be seen from Jesus’ reference to Satan in Matthew 12:26.

Even when faced by the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit through Jesus, the Pharisees were, in essence, attributing Jesus’ power to Satan, and claiming that Jesus was “Satan incarnate instead of God incarnate. It is this, and nothing else, that our Lord calls the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost (or Spirit—KB)” (Franklin, p. 227).

https://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=11&article=1218

[cva66snipe]

I lost a niece this summer. Tragic loss for all, but especially so for her sisters and for my sister. I worry about the consequences of her choice. I hope and pray that she can be forgiven for giving in to the pains that got finally the better of her.

The hurt it brings the family is the best reason I know NOT to go there with suicide. The acceptance of the death is different and harder for loved ones to accept than the usual life ending events expected or otherwise. My friend went through a real rough time over his dad. His dad had suffered Strokes. And one night said enough.

I went through some darkness this spring and summer. Almost a month before I lost my wife I lost my only sibling to Dementia brought on by Strokes. I was her medical POA. She was 5 years my senior and was 62. Next was my aunt my dads last sibling I was close too. Then my wife. Then a close buddy from my Navy days all died within about five weeks. The icing on the cake was when my sister passed our area went under a month long ice/snow/ice deep freeze and I live in a rural area on a ridge. The logistics were a nightmare of their own and I have a 4WD.

The person that throughout most of my life kept me sane and I sorted things out with was my dad. Lost him in 2011. I did his Hospice care with mom. But several things came of it. I made him a promise {not that he even needed to ask} that I would take care of my mom. My wife when she was fixing to pass had me promise to take care of our grown kids and the grand kids and be there for them.

The devil catches people at their most vulnerable time. In The Bible he tempted Jesus at times He was weakest the last one was likely either the night of His arrest as The Bible describes His prayers in the garden or while on the cross where He still had the power to come down from it and He realized He could not feel the presence of GOD. That was something He had never experienced but GOD could not look upon our sins which were upon Him as the sacrificial Lamb for sin.

While some people in life seem to have a charmed or less eventful life and others seem to experience lot more of the harsher things, I do not believe that once you accept Christ your life will be a bed of roses free of trial and tribulations. Those events are for our sake and to GOD's Glory if we surrender and allow him to work His strength through us.

Adversity is GOD's refining flame He uses to temper and mold to His satisfaction and purpose. We should draw closer to GOD being GOD dependent spiritually. We likely will not know the reasons some tragic or life changing things happen. But I have learned that even trivial things we don't think about can change the direction of others. Events we see as happenstance.

Often we don't see the WHY until much later in life. GOD began a plan a readying my future back in my early teens. I had to attend a special school for two years set up for kids with physical disabilities and take Occupational Therapy because of my eye/muscle coordination, Inner Ear issues, and being single eye vision functional. That taught me the compensation skills that even allowed me to pass my entrance physical for the Navy to later the V.A. doctors amazement LOL. But it did a lot more.

My classmates were some in wheelchairs, some deaf, some legally blind, MD, CP, Polio, you name it. I learned fast to look beyond that part of their physical being and get to know them as a person. GOD knew what my future held.

What we face when unexpected bad things happen in our lives has nothing to do with what we did wrong nor a punishment. As The Bible says it rains both on the just and unjust. But rain always eventually stops. It is a necessary part of life for things to grow just as events we may not like are rain for us to spiritually grow.

Jesus knows our weakness and our hearts. Like I said clear thinking persons very seldom consider ending their life. It is a pain just as cancer is a pain and an illness just as cancer or any other thing is. Society however placed a stigma of sorts on mental health issues and treatment. Many things like depression are often secondary conditions caused by hidden or detected physical ailments that weaken the mind because the mind is busy trying to heal and deal with the physical ailment. But I can say this about getting help. Twenty years ago I spent five years in therapy with a counselor for PTSD and the other issue the seizures which hit full blown at the same time. Than person was a Godsend. Psychiatrist??? Not so much just IMO and experiences with them. They're more screwed in the head than me LOL. Any good doctor or a Neurologist can usually do as much. The Therapist is the ones who teaches how to live with serious issues. Their title is usually Licensed Clinical Social Worker. A poor name for what they actually do in my opinion and it creates a huge misunderstand by many as to what they actually do. They and not the doctor are the ones who help you work through it and they have extensive psychology training.

[D-fendr]

Again I’m not doubting God or his promises. I’m doubting man.

Men can be wrong and they can change. They can believe, they can think they believe, wish they believed, they can stop believing; they can accept and then reject; trust and then no longer trust; bless and later curse.

OSAS is a soteriology that would bind God forever based on a man today.

We don’t know what the future holds or how we will react to it, whether our faith will endure. “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”

[imardmd1]

No, Romans 7 refers to Paul’s life as a believer.

This cannot be. If so, that would be totally inconsistent with Paul's instruction in Chapter 6 to the ones professing salvation (made free from sin, Rom. 6:18,22), and the behavior of ones confessing unity with Christ ("in Christ," en being the dative of association, Rom. 8:1,2)(including himself) who walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (of Christ), because they cannot serve the Spirit's law and be concurrently under the law of sin that leads to death.

These Chapters bracketing 7, in which unit Paul describes himself as having been carnal, sold under sin (not freed from its power), and walking after the flesh, is Paul executing the duties of a Pharisee and killing Christians.

In Chapter 8, he has been freed from the bondage to the law of sin and death which he describes in 7 as his master, and has become a God-fearing Christ-serving Apostle demonstrating the sanctified lifestyle developed in a mature Christian.

You cannot have both. To teach Romans 7 as being typical of the life of a regenerated believer-disciple is to give a person who only professes Christ the impression that he possesses Christ, when in actuality he likely does not, and his self-confessed behavior shows it. And that seems to have been the case of the protagonist of this article, sadly.

"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" (2 Cor. 13:5 AV).

John tells us that a truly saved person does not habitually commit sin, and when guided into spiritual maturity, has overcome the Wicked One.

"And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked" (1 Jn. 2:3-6 AV).

This is what is to be taught by the faithful man of God.

The man as described in Romans 7 is not saved. Period.

[WVKayaker]

The man as described in Romans 7 is not saved. Period.

Whaaaaaaaaaat???

Your discourse lacks consensus. Maybe you should read ALL of Paul's extant letters, then get do it again! Obviously this must be Rome's interpretation. It has nothing to do with the reality of Christian life. Indeed, it reveals a complete disconnect from the role Jesus plays in our lives. It is a classic cultic response.

15 Reasons Why Jesus Came

Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.
1 Timothy 1:15, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief."

Jesus Christ came into the world to call sinners to repentance.
Mark 2:17, "When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Jesus Christ came into the world to seek and save the lost. Luke 19:10, "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."

Jesus came into the world to demonstrate the true purpose of life and give Himself a ransom.
Matthew 20:28, "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."

Jesus Christ came into the world to be a King and bear witness to the truth.
John 18:37, "Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice."

Jesus Christ came into the world to do the Will of His Father.
John 6:38, "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me."

Jesus Christ came into the world to be a Light in the world.
John 12:46, "I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness."

Jesus Christ came into the world that men might have the Abundant Life.
ohn 10:10, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."

Jesus Christ came into the world to Judge the world.
John 9:39, "And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind."

Jesus Christ came into the world to Proclaim or preach the Good News about the Kingdom of God.
Mark 1:38, "And he said unto them, Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth."

Jesus Christ came into the world to die on the cross.
John 12:27, "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour."

Jesus Christ came into the world to fulfil the law.
Matthew 5:17, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."

esus Christ came into the world to be a Divider of men.
Matthew 10:34, 35, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law." (Christ makes it necessary to choose between relatives and the truth. This choice often causes division.)

Jesus Christ came into the world as a demonstration of God's Love.
1 John 4:10, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

Jesus Christ came into the world because the Father sent Him.
John 20:21, "Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you."
a. The Father SENT Jesus to be the Propitiation (atonement) for our sins.
1 John 4:10, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
b. The Father SENT Jesus and gave Jesus as the Saviour of the world.
John 3:16-18, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
c. The Father SENT Jesus to bless us by turning us from our iniquities.
Acts 3:26, "Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities."
d. The Father SENT His Son to redeem us from the curse of the law.
Galatians 4:4-5, "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."
e. God SENT His Son to make possible a new power in the hearts of men, a power to enable him to fulfil the righteousness of the law.
Romans 8:3,4, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

- http://www.ecclesia.org/truth/why_jesus.html-

[ican'tbelieveit]

your faith does not have to endure. When God promises you eternal life, He keeps His promises.

The penalty to you for losing your faith is losing a blessed walk in your Christian life. Not your salvation.

Listened this morning to a sermon on this very topic. To doubt eternal salvation, to believe that you can cause the loss of your salvation is bondage to doubt, to faithlessness. It is sin.

It is so easy to accept salvation, but man is so steeped in sin, pride, doubt, and guilt that we cannot accept the gift, we have to put qualifiers on it.

By saying that a man can accept Christ and do anything that would cause God to revoke salvation is sin. It is not biblical. But, over and over and over, the Bible reminds us that the gift is eternal. There is nothing we can do to earn it, there is nothing we must do to keep it. By definition, it is a gift.

[Bob434]

[[They can believe, they can think they believe, wish they believed, they can stop believing; they can accept and then reject; trust and then no longer trust; bless and later curse.]]

Thank God that God doesn’t change- and when He said eternally saved, he meant it, even when people change their minds after salvation

[[“But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”]]

That is talking aobut the end times tribulation suffering, not losing salvation- this verse, and the others like it, are all talking aobut the promise of persevering -

Paul and the other desciples all spoke to carnal Chriatians and made it clear that these people were still Christians, and had they died that day, they were going to heaven- He didn’t tell them to ‘endure till the end or lose their salvation- he made it clear, that even In their backslidden condition they were still Christians- He did however encourage them to get their lives straightened out-