[Petronski]

And then we look at the Scriptures, where it seems undeniable that SOME are not saved.

I would suggest, dear brother, that they are not saved because they failed the initial test of John 3:16.

Joh 3:16 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.

Others, having met that test, failed to keep his commandments to so serious a degree as to compromise their own salvation: what we know as mortal sin.

[Mad Dawg]

It seems to me that the theological enterprise would then lead us to ask such things as,

• "Why didn't they believe in Him?"
• Is such believing a "work" or a "grace", or both?
• If a grace, why do some receive it and others not?
• Can we think that grace is resistible, and if it is, then how does that impinge on our beliefs about the sovereignty of God, if it impinges at all?
• In that connection, what does the kenosis passage of Phillipians suggest about how God exercises his salvific Will?
• Is there more than one meaning of "believe in"?(I think so.) I think that if we were able to find all the questions and their answers, at the end we'd still be left shrugging.