So, now we are introducing yet another twist to theology, according to FK, that has heretofore not been mentioned – on a permanent basis. I won't go into what "permanent" means, maybe we can discuss that on another thread.
But, I suppose, you can raise your fist and curse God every now and then and still be saved? Is that what it means?
However, you still fail to tell me who is doing all this – your will or God's will. If it is God's will, as I would imagine you will say, then why worry about it? Right? You are doing God's will either way, correct?
Since God is just, then your damnation from all eternity is just as well. It makes no difference in your theology whether you accept Jesus Chirst as your Savior (the "accept" here is only illusiory anyway, since it is God who makes the decision whether you will accept Christ or not): you are doing God's will either way and are therefore always obedient to God (there is no choice in this at all according to your theology), even if you are enslaved by sin (again, only if God wants you to be enslaved by sin!).
So, even if you shake your fist at God, "on a permanent basis" instead of pray sinner's prayer (why pray, God does not change His mind!?), be glad that it's all in the Plan.
Either way, you are where God wants you to be and will end up where God already determined you will end up. The rest is gravy. That's Calvinism for you. Saved or unsaved, it's none of your doing, you are in God's hands! So, wherever you end up, don't worry, be happy.
I still don't see any "twist" in FK statement. Peter denied Christ three times well after saying Jesus was the Christ. Certainly we would all agree he didn't lose his salvation. If anything he was made more stronger for the situation.
People see people fall away all the time and misconstrued they've "lost" their salvation. This is man's perspective. If God is "out of time" as many of you claim (and I would agree) then God knows when that person is going to raise their fist and fall away. Why then would we believe they had salvation and then lost it? God never granted it to them in the first place. John states that "They went out from us for they were not of us, for if they had been of us they would have continued with us." That sums it up nicely.
So, now we are introducing yet another twist to theology, according to FK, that has heretofore not been mentioned – on a permanent basis. I won't go into what "permanent" means, maybe we can discuss that on another thread. But, I suppose, you can raise your fist and curse God every now and then and still be saved? Is that what it means?
No, there is no new twist. I was talking about defiant sin with one of you all (forgive me for not remembering) as in Heb. 10:26, which relates to Num. 15:30-31, and ultimately back to Pharaoh in Ex. 14:8. The point was that people who raise "a high hand" against God, and shake their fists in defiance for the remainder of their lives will be lost because their original salvation must have been false. God promises that He will keep His own, so such a person would not have been kept, making their salvation impossible. The point is the permanency, not whether a person makes an occasional mistake.
However, you still fail to tell me who is doing all this – your will or God's will. If it is God's will, as I would imagine you will say, then why worry about it? Right? You are doing God's will either way, correct?
I have been telling you all along, but you don't hear! :) You won't distinguish between human experience and God's POV. When I said my sinner's prayer (with what I knew then), I "felt" like I was making a fully free choice, all on my own to choose Christ. I experienced all the benefits and satisfaction of that "accomplishment". In reality, God willing, my name was already among those written in the book of life and my sinner's prayer was merely a formality concerning something that was ordained as a sure thing at the beginning of time. I didn't know that at the time, of course, so I had the experience that most have, considering that I was so immature in the faith. It was a blessing that God arranged it that way so that I could have the experience.
Even though I now know better what actually happened, I will still continue to have the experience of free choice because I can't know the future. If I stayed back from decisions because they were "already pre-ordained" then I would just waste away, or go crazy trying to figure out all the permutations. That's not how God tells us to live our lives. He gives us pretty good clues in the Bible, in fact. So, I think God wants me to follow that road instead. God wants us to obey, not sit back and do nothing.