You did not answer my straight forward question however: How do reconcile 'working out your salvation with fear and trembling' with 'For by Grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works lest any man should boast.'
Let me be clear here. The CoC position is NOT that anyone ever EARNS salvation, which you are seemingly attributing to the CoC. If the 'preacher' you ascribe this heresy to was actually was teaching this, he must not have read his Bible much. (Which, BTW, is the hallmark of the CoC - the Bible is the ONLY authority.)
Another point: the CoC congregations are all independent of one another. Are you an authority because you were briefly associated with one congregation 42 years ago?
As has been pointed out earlier in the thread, there can be several congregations in a single town that have each come to different conclusions about a subject but are each "Fully convinced in their own minds" after a careful study of God's Word.
So, Ruy, I don't care what some crackpot said 42 years ago. I'm asking YOU the question. How can God's infallible Word (You DO believe in inspiration, don't you?) say we have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling AND say that we can't be boastful about being saved because we had nothing to do with it?
HMMN?
**** The CoC position is NOT that anyone ever EARNS salvation, which you are seemingly attributing to the CoC. If the ‘preacher’ you ascribe this heresy to was actually was teaching this, he must not have read his Bible much. ****
The preacher was at a different church and not Mabelvale CoC. People in the area often went to both churches so he was a bonafied CoC preacher.
And he often quoted these words...”Faith + Works = SALVATION!”
As for working out “your faith with fear and trembling” is simply keeping the faith and not being distracted. If it meant earning your salvation then it would contradict all Paul had taught.
“there can be several congregations in a single town that have each come to different conclusions about a subject....”
Then how can there be consensus on what CoC doctrine really is. No wonder the several CoC churches here do not care to associate with each other as each considers itself the “only true church”.