RickReads
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- Sep 27, 2020
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It was a spurious belief in the first place or else he would not have permanently fallen away. IN CONTRAST with the good ground hearer. Mark 4:8 - But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred. Luke 8:15 says, But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience/perseverance.
*See the difference? All genuine believers are fruitful, yet not all are equally fruitful. Those who produce no results at all, but instead fall away before faith is firmly rooted and established were not truly converted. It happens all the time. People come to church and hear the gospel, then make an emotional response accompanied by a shallow, temporary belief, then may last anywhere from 2 months to 2 years, then leave church never to return. I have witnessed it myself on multiple occasions.
So the rocky soil represents a person not properly prepared in heart so the seed planted ends up with a lack of "root" (lack of being firmly planted, or established) and good soil represents a person properly prepared in heart who having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keeps it and bears fruit with patience/perseverance.
That no root, no fruit, lacks moisture, withers away = saved is laughable. Faith without works is dead = spurious belief. (James 2:14-18)
The thread is big and I couldn`t find the appropiate post but the contention has been that because the seeds germinated into a living plant it means they all had salvation at one point.
I don`t think that works because the seed is the word, the seed = the gospel. The plants don`t represent salvation, they represent growth in the knowledge of the gospel.
The ground represents the heart, The ground has to be the place where the salvation occurs. Only the good soil (believe in the heart) produces salvation.
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