Well, I looked up one of "my guys", Matthew Henry, to see what he said about it and he actual agreed with the footnotes. He gave an example of sin leading to physical death as a capital murder in a land with the death penalty. Another example is what happened to Ananias and Sapphira. I don't see it as contradictory for my side to say that all sin leads to spiritual death. For example:
Rom. 6:23 : For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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From what I gather from our previous posts, you don't think our sins separate us from God at all - and now, even the slightest sin kills our soul?
I'm not sure to which posts you are referring. Sin is THE THING that eternally separates us from God. That's the bad part. The good part is that, for His elect, Christ paid the penalty for all those sins out of justice and love. It is sort of like the old story of the judge who found his best friend appearing before him on a $200 speeding ticket. The judge knew the friend could not pay and faced jail. Out of justice, the judge found his friend guilty, then out of love he came down from the bench, reached into his own wallet, and paid the cashier the $200.
Perhaps you should consider reading 1 John quickly. He talks over and over about obeying the commandments. THAT is how we know we are saved and have eternal life...
I don't see any problem. John talks about both having faith and walking in faith. I agree with that and it is a primo example of why OSAS doesn't work on its own. John never says we can never know until after we die, he speaks in the present tense. We can know now. I thought you didn't accept that. Walking in faith is "an" evidence that our faith is true. Not walking in faith, on a permanent basis, is STRONG evidence that the original profession of faith was not true.
Of course, it must be left up to God to sort out "close cases". I was remembering my early comment that perhaps I was unknowingly "invincible" in college :), but I may need to rethink that.
I don't see it as contradictory for my side to say that all sin leads to spiritual death.
The argument was that you claimed that ALL sin leads to spiritual death. Certainly, murder leads to spiritual death. ALL sin POTENTIALLY leads to death in that a person can make a habit out of sinning, gradually losing any contrition or desire to make amends. It is a common argument of the saints to say that minor, venial sins gone unchecked can lead to mortal, deadly sins. But 1 John clearly tells us that ALL sins do not kill the soul:
If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. 1 John 5:16
I don't see either in the Old Testament or the New Testament where God expects a man to be absolutely perfect and sinless to be considered righteous in God's eyes. Many men and women of the Bible were called "righteous", but all had their charecter faults, and most turned from God at least in a temporary moment in the telling of their stories. Abraham lied. David committed adultery and murder. Zechariah doubted God. Joseph had considered putting Mary away. While sin hurts our relationship with God, it does not kill the soul. We are not separated from God as a result of every sin. I believe the concept that you mention is a Protestant line of thought, not a Biblical one.
Sin is THE THING that eternally separates us from God. That's the bad part. The good part is that, for His elect, Christ paid the penalty for all those sins out of justice and love.
Ah, another Protestant error. Christ died for ALL men, not just the elect. I believe this forgets that God loves all men unconditionally. Here is where we can easily misunderstand each other. Catholics believe that there is "objective redemption", which is Christ's one sacrifice for all men that opened the gates of heaven potentially to all men - "God desires all men be saved". However, we also believe in "subjective redemption", which is how the individual is saved. How do we apply Christ's work to our individual self? It is apparent that not all men choose to use Christ's gifts and blessings won by Him. God offers us freedom. However, some CHOOSE not to see God's ways as "freedom". Some people choose to follow their own will, calling THAT freedom. God calls us to repent and believe the Gospel, the Good News - that God has provided objective redemption to all men. The Call is not heeded by all men, though, is it...
John never says we can never know until after we die, he speaks in the present tense.
Good call. Not the future tense! We can "know" TODAY!!! Thus, we can't call ourselves ABSOLUTELY the elect, since we can't see into the future. Sin exists. Even for those who think they are of the elect, those who are walking in Christ TODAY. Isn't it clear that men must persevere in Christ? The future is unclear to US.
Not walking in faith, on a permanent basis, is STRONG evidence that the original profession of faith was not true.
You are basing your salvation on an event of the past that you have NO control over anymore. Your salvation is not dependent on what you proclaimed 10 years ago, but whether you are walking in Christ today! I don't see the reason for "wondering" whether your proclamation was "true" 10 years ago. What does that have to do with today? By your fruit, you shall be known - TODAY. But if you fail to yield fruit "today", then you are to be rooted up and tossed into the fire... The Divine Gardener will do what is necessary for us to bear fruit - IF we accept His pruning (sufferings and testings) and His watering (graces). Does the "yield of a tree" this year depend on how the seed "proclaimed" its faith 10 years ago?
We can know if we are saved by how we act "today", not 10 years ago. Also, we cannot presume that we WILL be saved 10 years from now based on what we do today. Past performance does not guarantee future results... All of this, of course, is from our point of view, not God's. We don't know His point of view on our destinies.
Regards