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To: John Leland 1789
You can't make that judgment?

You're darn right you can't.

I pity you.

3,572 posted on 06/06/2008 1:04:20 PM PDT by Petronski (Scripture & Tradition must be accepted & honored w/equal sentiments of devotion & reverence. CCC 82)
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To: Petronski
I don't believe that all church members are saved, or that all ministers in pulpits are saved. Religion can't save, and there are a whole lot of fantastically religious people on church membership rolls, including in our church.

Matthew 7:21, 22 reveals that there are and will be people who do many WONDERFUL works in Jesus’ name; and Jesus will disavow their profession of Him as “Lord.” And then He will call their WONDERFUL WORKS “INIQUITY..”

I think that kind of thing is going to go to the tops of the ladders in all religious structures. People don't have to be boozers or adulterers, or thieves or molesters, or extortioners to be iniquitous. Some are iniquitous in their religiosity.

This is exactly how Jehovah described His own Covenant People, Israel, by the mouth of Isaiah (Isaiah ch. 1). Actually they were doing the religious works that He had commanded them to do, but then God called it wickedness. There was an element missing.

I've had, on many occasions, church members (an a half dozen ordained ministers over the years) come to me and ask, “Do you think I'm saved?” I tell them the same thing — “I haven't the foggiest idea.” Then I often go on to state, “Since salvation includes the indwelling of a Witness — the Holy Spirit — I can't put any more confidence in one's salvation than they do themselves.” If they don't know if they are genuinely saved, how can I possibly know?

I know what to tell a sinner who is conscious of his own need for the New Birth (regeneration; salvation) what to believe from the Scriptures to become a child of God, and how to go to Christ personally for the gift of salvation. If a previously professing Christian expresses uncertainty in their connection to Christ, I will not give them a false hope. I will take them back to the very same message of the Cross, and the sufficiency of Christ's Blood in the payment for their sins. I can only deliver the message. I can't make them a Christian. Only Christ can make a sinner a child of God.

3,578 posted on 06/06/2008 1:30:02 PM PDT by John Leland 1789
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To: Petronski

You’re darn right you can’t.

I pity you.

************************************
What were you hoping I would say?


3,582 posted on 06/06/2008 1:34:18 PM PDT by John Leland 1789
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