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Many people alive today - and under the condemnation outside of the gospel of the form "The wages of sin is death" Rom 6:23 -- will one day accept the gospel and be saved.
Actually no iot is not
There is nothing new to consider again. I already thoroughly covered Hebrews 3:8-14 in post #111, #114 and #159. The word "we" in Hebrews 3:14 does not prove that everyone in this large group of professing believers must all be genuine believers who have become partakers of Christ. The verse presents perseverance as proof of having become a partaker of Christ and not as a condition for becoming a partaker of Christ. In other words, holding fast until the end reveals who was a true "partaker of Christ" from the beginning.
I agree. When Paul and others address "the Church" he is addressing them all as a set of "Nominal Believers," some of whom have embedded their Salvation within them by trusting wholly in Christ and some of whom who have begun the process of accepting Salvation without fully embracing it within. God knows the difference, ie who is "Persevering" and who has not fully crossed that line.
So the proof that one was chosen to be saved is because they preserver to the end. They persevere to the to the end because they were chosen to be saved. This is known as circular reasoning.
That doesn't make much sense to me? If you believe in complete free will then you have to explain how you know a significant number will be lost and a significant number will be saved? If this is purely random, based on free human choice, wouldn't it logically lean in one direction or another in any significant amounts?
Only God knows the numbers of the saved and the lost. Jesus says that many go on the broad way and few on the narrow way but that is all He had to say about that.
No, it is by the choice of whom or what you will submit to. The basis for all judgement is what you love (See John 3:19)
God reconciled the entire world to himself not counting man's sins against them. (see 2 Cor 5:19-20) Yet each man needs to reconcile themselves to God in order to recieve salvation. (See Verse 20) It was God's desire that all should be saved (See 1 Tim 2:4) Jesus was given to all people. (1 Tim 2:6) So to reiterate what makes the difference: It is what or whom we love as stated by Christ and recorded in Jogn 3:19
Free will occurs when the son sets you free and you will be free indeed. (See John 8:34-36) Until then you are a slave to sin. However, if once you are set free, you are not chained to that freedom you can exercise it by choosing to fall away from it. (See 1 Tim 4:1, Rev 4:2-5, 2 Peter 2:20-22)
Go dlives in all time. He is the beginning and the end. He can observe the choices men make before they make them. This does not mean that he forces everything to be His way. He can and does on occasion but time and chance happen to all.
God's eternal word has stated that it is His will to give men free will and God's word will not fail. The light that came into this world lights every man but some love the darkness more than light and make a choice to not submit to it.
In the book of Revelation God promises to Save a Great Multitude. It is true, generally, that relative few actually obey God. Sin tends to tempt and to draw people into darkness, and so most, perhaps, fail in the mission God would have for them.
The question becomes: while we are a slave to sin are we still incapable of doing good? Are we still incapable of repenting and receiving Christ? I think the "bondage of the will" involves our inability to please God while we choose to go our own way. But people are given, by God, to be able to repent even while they are sinners.
Actually, you *become* free by choosing to repent while you're still a sinner! You cannot be saved without choosing to abandon the Lost condition you are still in! How can you choose to be saved if your will is bound when you are a sinner?
Thanks for your thoughts--a lot of them are truly Christian. But we're dealing with some difficult matters. Thanks for indulging me--I freely admit the truth likely extends well beyond my ability to fully comprehend.
We are incapable of understanding anything spiritual as Paul states in 1 Cor 2:14 Now the natural man doesn't receive the things of God's Spirit, for they are foolishness to him; and he can't know them, because they are spiritually discerned. However, once they have been enlightened by the Spirit they can choose to accept or rehect God. And some do as Hebrews 6:4-6 explains, 4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen[c] away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
I haven't said otherwise. What I'm saying is that Natural Man in his Lost Condition can still choose to repent, which does take place by the incoming Word of God. That is, God initiates any good action that Man, even in his Lost State, can respond to.
Exactly. In regard to "tasted" the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, they may have tasted in such a way as to give them a distinct impression of what was tasted, yet they still fell away. Inherent in the idea of tasting is the fact that one might or might not decide to accept what is tasted. For example, the same Greek word (geuomai) is used in Matthew 27:34 to say that those crucifying Jesus "offered him wine to drink, mingled with gall; but when he tasted it, he would not drink it." We do not merely taste, but drink into one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13)
No; read post #568.
