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why *sealed* doesn’t really mean *sealed* and why *guarantee* doesn’t really mean *guarantee*.

A seal or guarantee certainly argues against the OSAS argument that believers who fall away were never really saved at all. Are you claiming God cannot cut off branches that bear no fruit, though they were sealed and guaranteed as genuine at one time ? He does not save us against our will. We must obey him.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

A seal or guarantee certainly argues against the OSAS argument that believers who fall away were never really saved at all.

How?

If they weren't believers in the first place, they were never sealed with the Holy Spirit?

Just because some people go through the motions, doesn't mean they were saved. Even the demons believe and tremble. They certainly aren't saved.

Simply believing that God exists and wanting to go to heaven, and even working to go to heaven, saying all the right words, going to church, giving, doing, doing, doing, isn't going to get anyone anywhere.

It needs a born from above, born again, change of heart and life.

And when it happens, you know it. EVERYTHING about you changes. Anyone who hasn't had a point where they can look and see a point where they have had a God encounter that resulted in an inward change in thought, attitude, desire, etc, needs to consider whether they are really saved.

You cannot have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in your life and not know it.

He does not seal us against our will. When we repent and turn to Him and trust in Him, He does seal us as we will. HE is faithful even if we are faithless.

If it were up to us to keep our salvation, I doubt many would make it. And He knows that. That's why I'm grateful that HE seals us and protects that which I have entrusted to Him.

Read the passage again and you will see your answer.

>>” They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.”<<

>> Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief,<<

Those that “fall away” “have not known my ways”, and had “an evil heart of unbelief” to begin with. Also ” because of unbelief they were broken off”.

Paul said Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Scripture clearly teaches that those you would say “lost their salvation” never had it to begin with because they had ”an evil heart of unbelief”, they ”have not known my ways”, and ”because of unbelief they were broken off”. So your contention that they lost their salvation is in error.

>> Read the passage again and you will see that Gentiles who are grafted in through faith will be cut off if they don't continue in his goodness.<<

>>” Well; because of unbelief they were broken off,<<

Then he goes on to compare them to the Jews who were cut off because of unbelief. It still goes back to Paul’s answer to the jailer. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved”. Those who truly believe and are filled with the Holy Spirit will not revert to unbelief. God said those who are His can not be taken from Him. If you think that someone who was once His can be taken from Him whether it be by the person himself/herself (which is in fact Satan stealing them from God) than you have to deny the scripture that tells us no one can take them from God.