Nope. If a person is saved, we are assured in Scripture that the fruit of the Holy Spirit will follow. Therefore, repentance is not a work of our own doing, but a desire and ability given by God to those whom Christ leads home.
Let's, then, take your average Joe Protestant, who in his heart believes in Jesus, but who in his lifetime committed numerous sins and repented of some, but not all because he is not yet perfected, who dies before he had a chance to be perfected, and therefore leaves this world without having repented of all his sins. Is he saved? According to Dr. E, he is not.
No one is "perfected" on earth. All men sin until the day they die. The EO and RCC have that all wrong.
Christ was the only perfect man on earth.
Again, anyone can say they are a Christian. You said it for years, right? But apparently you were not given perseverance to the end. At least that's how it looks today. God willing, He will bring you back to Him. None of us knows for sure about anyone else until their death. If they repented of their sins and believed in Christ with their last breathe, then Scripture tells us they were saved.
If not, then not.
Then what is there to be perfected? So, the question remains, why do men continue to sin? What purpose does it serve? I think sinless Christians would be a much more persuasive witness to their God then the sinful ones.
No one is "perfected" on earth. All men sin until the day they die.
Why? Because they they can resist the grace given them? What's the point?
No, my eyes were opened and all I saw was man-made superstition and fantastic tales. I am not against God, I don't deny that there is God, whatever God may be, but I certainly have no clue what that God is, and I don't believe anyone else does (contrary to what they say), except what they have been told within the man-made framework of organized religion. (nothing personal)
God willing, He will bring you back to Him. None of us knows for sure about anyone else until their death. If they repented of their sins and believed in Christ with their last breathe, then Scripture tells us they were saved. f not, then not.
Thanks for the kind words. And that's your belief and I respect that. But most Protestants will tell you they "know" they are saved, they "know" they will be in heaven, they "know" their departed ones are in heaven, etc. There is a very clear and unquestionable certainly expressed in their "salvation."
The idea that all of Protestantism is Calvinistic, or that it historically did not emphasize repentance and works, or that anything close to all believes that the Bible does not warn of souls casting away their faith or denying it by impenitent sinning, (Gal. 5:1-4); Heb. 10:25-38) is not true.
As for denoms, an informational chart w/ the position on eternal security (Wesleyan or Arminian usually no), is at the top of this page: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2020660/posts
Stats:
Pastors who embrace the term “Wesleyan or Arminian” currently account for 32% of the Protestant church landscape – the same as those who claim to be Reformed.
The director of the study, David Kinnaman, clarified that respondents were not given definitions of these terms. [this can mean a wide variation in degree and emphasis]
Despite the common public view of Reformed churches being doctrinally conservative, a greater proportion of these leaders described themselves as “theologically liberal” than was true among Wesleyan/Arminian leaders (17% versus 13%). - http://www.barna.org/faith-spirituality/447-reformed-movement-in-american-churches
Charismatics are found throughout the fabric of American Christianity. Although just 8% of the population is evangelical, half of evangelical adults (49%) fit the charismatic definition. A slight majority of all born again Christians (51%) is charismatic. Nearly half of all adults who attend a Protestant church (46%) are charismatic.
36% of Americans accept that designation. That corresponds to approximately 80 million adults. (For the Barna survey, this included people who said they were a charismatic or Pentecostal Christian, that they had been “filled with the Holy Spirit” and who said they believe that “the charismatic gifts, such as tongues and healing, are still valid and active today.”)
research showed that one-third of all U.S. Catholics (36%) fit the charismatic classification. Framed differently, almost one-quarter of all charismatics in the U.S. (22%) are Catholic.
7% of Southern Baptist churches and 6% of mainline churches are charismatic, according to their Senior Pastors. - http://www.barna.org/congregations-articles/52-is-american-christianity-turning-charismatic
*Calvin, in his Institutes,, states: “With good reason, the sum of the gospel is held to consist in repentance and forgiveness of sins (Luke 24:47; Acts 5:31)” (p. 592); and, “surely no one can embrace the grace of the gospel without betaking himself from the errors of past life into the right way, applying his whole effort to the practice of repentance” (Book III, p. 593). “Repentance has its foundation in the gospel, which faith embraces” ( Book III, Chapter 3, p. 593)
“To repent of sin and to believe in Christ as a Savior from sin are really two aspects of one and the same spiritual transaction...Some recognition of Christ and some measure of appropriating faith must thus be involved in all true repentance On the other hand such recognizing and appropriating faith seems to require as its condition some deep consciousness of sin and guilt and impending doom such as will impel the convicted soul to look away unto Jesus for the deliverance it needs.
The practical fact is no one repents worthily except in the sight and vision of as a possible Savior from sin nor does any one truly attain sight and vision of Christ without finding his wicked nature subdued within him and his eyes filled with penitential tears. Whether therefore we place faith first and repentance subsequent as the Symbols do or reverse the order of the two elements should never forget that both are in reality parts of the gracious experience logically set in a certain procession chronologically and spiritually one and inseparable. So we ever interpret the tender injunction so often repeated in the Testament Repent and Believe.
The biblical conception of acceptable repentance is well in the language 87 of the [Westminster] Shorter Catechism a saving whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin and of the mercy of God in Christ doth with grief and hatred of sin turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor new obedience.
The Larger Catechism 76 expands the in terms but adds nothing except that this saving grace is to be wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit and Word God. The [Westminster] Confession emphasizes the sense of the filthiness odiousness of sin as contrary to the holy nature and righteous of God and defines the scope of repentance in the declaration the penitent soul is henceforth resolved to walk with God in the ways of his commandments. Other descriptive phrases in the Minutes 279 and elsewhere Such an experience is course to be radically differentiated from all experiences might seem to be in any way related to it from natural arising from some perception of the loss or other harmful consequence providential or retributive that may be following indulgence in transgression from moral remorse the sting outraged conscience in view not so much of evil results from a sinful course but rather of the intrinsic wrong the of wickedness in the sight of the personal reason and judgment that must rise up occasionally in every soul not seared and deadened by personal sin also from what may be termed penitence
Calvin has comprehensively defined acceptable repentance as a true conversion of our life to God proceeding from a sincere and serious fear of God and consisting in the mortification of our flesh and of the old man and in the vivification of the Spirit.
The Augsburg Confession Art XII says Repentance consisteth properly of two parts one is contrition or terrors stricken into the conscience through the acknowledgment or recognition of sin the other is faith which is conceived by the Gospel and doth believe that for the sake of Christ sins be forgiven and comforteth the conscience and freeth it from terrors.
The Catechism of Heidelberg defines repentance as twofold the dying of the old man and the quickening of the new heartfelt sorrow for sin on the one side causing us to hate it and turn from it always more and more heartfelt joy in God on the other side causing us to take delight in living according to the will of God in all good works.
The Second Helvetic Conf teaches that repentance is a change of heart produced in a sinner by the word of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit and includes a knowledge of native and actual depravity a godly sorrow and hatred of sin and a determination to live hereafter in virtue and holiness.
Repentance say the Irish Articles 40 is a gift of God whereby godly sorrow is wrought in the heart of the faithful for offending God their merciful Father through their former transgressions together with a constant resolution for the time to come to cleave unto God and to lead a new life One of the Confessions embodies the whole in the simple declaration that true repentance is turning to God and all good and turning away from the devil and all evil Nearly all of the Protestant creeds contain similar definitions though with some confusion in many cases between repentance and faith on one hand and repentance and conversion as a consequence of faith on the other.” — THE WESTMINSTER SYMBOLS, pp. 482-83 by Edward D Morris D D LL D Emeritus Professor of Systematic Theology In Lane Theological Seminary, 1900
Thomas Watson, an old Puritan, said in The Doctrine of Repentance, “Two great graces essential to a saint in this life are faith and repentance. These are the two wings by which he flies to heaven.” “Christians, do you have a sad resentment of other things and not of sin? Worldly tears fall to the earth, but godly tears are kept in a bottle (Ps. 56.8). Judge not holy weeping superfluous. Tertullian thought he was born for no other end but to repent.” “It is a bad sign when a man on his deathbed bequeaths his soul to God and his illgotten goods to his friends. I can hardly think God will receive his soul. Augustine said, ‘Without restitution, no remission’. And it was a speech of old Latimer, If ye restore not goods unjustly gotten, ye shall cough in hell.”
When God begins to draw me to Himself, the problem of my will comes in immediately. Will I react positively to the truth that God has revealed? Will I come to Him? To discuss or deliberate over spiritual matters when God calls is inappropriate and disrespectful to Him. When God speaks, never discuss it with anyone as if to decide what your response may be (see Galatians 1:15-16). Belief is not the result of an intellectual act, but the result of an act of my will whereby I deliberately commit myself. But will I commit, placing myself completely and absolutely on God, and be willing to act solely on what He says? If I will, I will find that I am grounded on reality as certain as God’s throne.
In preaching the gospel, always focus on the matter of the will. Belief must come from the will to believe. There must be a surrender of the will, not a surrender to a persuasive or powerful argument. I must deliberately step out, placing my faith in God and in His truth. And I must place no confidence in my own works, but only in God. Trusting in my own mental understanding becomes a hindrance to complete trust in God. I must be willing to ignore and leave my feelings behind. I must will to believe. But this can never be accomplished without my forceful, determined effort to separate myself from my old ways of looking at things. I must surrender myself completely to God. — My Utmost for His Highest (The Golden Book of Oswald Chambers;1992, “The Drawing of the Father”)