True: the purpose of the free will is to drive us to Heaven, and God always offers reconciliation and renewal after the crash.
Why would you say it is impossible to protect me from driving into a telephone pole? We're talking God here. :) I could give a baby a certain toy and only let him play with it while I was sitting right in front of him and looking right at him. This would protect him from injuring himself. I think God watches us that closely all the time.
Watches, yes, protects us -- no, not always. The scripture is filled with men chosed by God who nevertheless drive themselves into telephone poles, the entire Hebrew nation being one example, St. Peter the other. Christ said that He will pray for Peter, and He warned Peter, but He did not protect him from denying Him.
Verse 54 DOES take us this far. But then, in order for eternal life to actually BE eternal, you impose a second condition, that of repeating the sacraments along with everything else one needs to do in order to keep eternal life. This second condition is not found in the verse, nor do I believe it is found anywhere in scripture. Eternal means forever.
But I gave you just recently verses about perseverance and making the election sure. Hence the eternal life can be lost through our actions. Was the Eucharist meant to be taken once? This is at least a strange hypothesis. Most people eat every day, and Christ said "food indeed". The parallel is with manna from heaven, and that was eaten every day till the journey lasted: "the children of Israel ate manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land" (Exodus 16:35). Besides, if your interpretation were correct, the Eucharist would have been an initation rite, but we already have one, baptism.
POTS says that perseverance is guaranteed by God for the elect
POTS may say the strangest things, but where does the scripture say it?
YOU may make sure [re. 2 Peter 1:10]. By faith first, you knew it originally. That is different from it being sure in fact, it has to do with our knowing it continually. This is a perfect verse for showing that works are an evidence of an already held faith, and not an independent component of salvation.
This is a very innatural mental gymnastics, not supported by the plain text. St. Peter lays out an elaborate programme of growing in virtues just so that you know what you objectively already have? Verse 8 warns of actual, not illusory emptiness and fruitlessness; verse 9 speaks expressly of forgetting the cleansing of OLD sins, not of present or future sins. It is hard to imagine that this admonition is all about subjectively forgetting an objectively assured salvation, especially with the numerous references to perseverance elsewhere.
The difference is whether saints, after physical death, actually pass along prayers they have received from us or not. So I agree that the incense is not the prayer of the living person on earth itself. The prayers of the people on earth go directly to God.
The scripture says they pass the prayers at Judgement, and it says that the members of the Church are all connected in the Mystical body of Christ, so I stand by my reading of Apoc 5 and 8.
But we are talking about salvation here. As we know, the original Hebrew nation was not chosen for salvation because of their race. Many were not saved. Those to whom God gave faith did not suffer fatal crashes into telephone poles. It was the same with Peter. He sinned, but it was not fatal. This matches my analogy of letting a baby stick a block in his eye, but not letting him choke on it.
But I gave you just recently verses about perseverance and making the election sure. Hence the eternal life can be lost through our actions.
And I answered that the surety was to the person's knowledge, not to the surety in fact. It is common for a person to have eternal life, but not to know it for sure himself. Works are an evidence of true faith, and can help the believer to be sure himself.
Was the Eucharist meant to be taken once? This is at least a strange hypothesis. Most people eat every day, and Christ said "food indeed".
No, the Eucharist/Lord's Supper is meant to be repeated. That's why the passage has nothing to do with the Eucharist. You see it as a physical metaphor and I see it as a spiritual one. Yet, we know that Christ was only talking about a spiritual matter.
The parallel is with manna from heaven, and that was eaten every day till the journey lasted
Well, did eating the manna have anything to do with their spiritual salvation? No way! :) Neither does the Eucharist.
POTS may say the strangest things, but where does the scripture say it?
Here are some examples:
John 5:24 : "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.
2 Tim 4:7-8 : 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day — and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
Phil 1:6 : ... being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
John 10:28-29 : 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.
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Peter lays out an elaborate programme of growing in virtues just so that you know what you objectively already have?
Yes, salvation is not earned through works.
It is hard to imagine that this admonition is all about subjectively forgetting an objectively assured salvation, especially with the numerous references to perseverance elsewhere.
Well, as I said, there are plenty of perfectly good Christians who know the Bible well and still have no assurance of their own salvations, even though it is objectively there. I could even name names. :)