razzelflabben
Contributor
why didn't you include these passages and talk about them? Ephesians 1:14; 2 Corinthians 1:22; Romans 8:16; 2 Corinthians 5:5...seems to me that scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit is our guarantee of salvation and if He is at work in our lives we have confidence and can be without doubt that we are saved.( 10 ) : ” CAN YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE SAVED ? “
August 24, 2017gigoboy777 Leave a comment
You hear people all the time, with great spiritual pride , say that they KNOW that they are saved with no doubts whatsoever , and that if you have any doubts , there is something wrong with your faith ! Well is it possible to know that you are saved without any doubts whatsoever ! The bible says that we are saved by grace through faith : EPHESIANS 2 ( 8 ) : ” For by grace are ye saved THROUGH FAITH ! ” Well just what exactly is faith ? : The bible’s definition : HEBREWS 11 ( 1 ) : ” Now faith is the substance of THINGS HOPED FOR , the evidence of THINGS NOT SEEN . ” So FAITH IS HOPING for something that we as yet CANNOT SEE , but we are believing that it will be , without any actual visual physical evidence of it, but only the evidence of THINGS NOT SEEN , which of course is not real evidence : So we ultimately have ONLY HOPE ! : ROMANS 8 ( 24&25 ) : 24 : ” FOR WE ARE SAVED BY HOPE , BUT HOPE THAT IS SEEN IS NOT HOPE , FOR WHAT A MAN SEETH WHY DOTH HE YET HOPE FOR IT ? ” 25 : ” BUT IF WE HOPE FOR THAT WE SEE NOT , THEN DO WE WITH PATIENCE ” WAIT FOR IT ” : OBVIOUSY HOPING IS NOT KNOWING ! For example : Did the great Saints of God all through history know that they were saved , or did they also have to operate by faith , hoping and believing that they would be saved at some future time , without any real present visible proof : HEBREWS 11 ( 13 , 27 , & 39 ) : 13 : ” These all died in faith , NOT HAVING RECEIVED THE PROMISES , but having seen them afar off , and were persuaded of them . ” 27 : ” BY FAITH he forsook Egypt , not fearing the wrath of the king , for he endured as SEEING HIM WHO IS INVISIBLE . ” 39 : ” And these all , having obtained a good report through faith RECEIVED NOT THE PROMISE . ” None of these great men of God received the promises , right unto their deaths , but OPERATED SOLELY ON HOPE AND BELIEF of things they believed would come : THEY DID NOT KNOW : THEY BELIEVED ! If we had absolute present visual proof of our salvation , it would be no big accomplishment to stick with the Lord, anybody could do that : But the fact that we only have hope makes it far more difficult to hang in there with the Lord to the end , like brother Paul says 1 TIMOTHY 6 ( 12 ) : ” Fight the good FIGHT OF FAITH . ” and 2 TIMOTHY 4 ( 7 ) : ” I have fought a good fight , I have finished my course , I have KEPT THE FAITH ! ” HE DIDN’T KNOW FOR SURE WITHOUT DOUBT , as he says : HE HAD TO FIGHT ALL THE WAY TO KEEP HIS FAITH , his belief , fight against the doubts , and he kept his faith with only hope : THE SAME HOPE THAT WE ALL HAVE TO SUSTAIN OUR FAITH : HEBREWS 6 ( 18&19 ) : 18 : ” To lay hold upon THE HOPE set before us , ” 19 : ” WHICH HOPE WE HAVE AS AN ANCHOR OF THE SOUL . ” Is there anything that we can do to increase and strengthen our faith ? : ROMANS 10 ( 17 ) : ” Faith cometh by hearing , and hearing by the word of God ” If we study the word of God and read where all God’s true people also had to operate by hope and faith alone : This strengthens our faith also ! Of course there are many who teach the false teaching that we are saved here and now , but the Bible says : 1 PETER 1 ( 13 ) : ” Hope to the end for the grace that IS TO BE BROUGHT UNTO YOU AT THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST ” : NOT NOW ! and 1 PETER 1 ( 9 ) : ” Receiving THE END OF YOUR FAITH even the salvation of your souls . ” : NOT NOW BUT AT THE END OF YOUR FAITH ! Further scriptural evidence that our salvation is not by knowing but only by hope : TITUS 1 ( 2 ) : ” In HOPE of eternal life . ” and TITUS 2 ( 13 ) : ” The HOPE of eternal life . ” and 1 THESSALONIANS 5 ( 8 ) : ‘ For an helmet the HOPE of salvation . ” There is only one verse that seems to say that we can know that we have eternal life and this is of course 1 JOHN 5 ( 13 ) : ” That you may know that you have eternal life . ” Yet this same brother two chapters earlier in 1 JOHN 3 ( 2 ) says that we can know that we shall be like God , but in the very next verse , talking about the same thing says : that WE ONLY HAVE A HOPE OF THIS : 1 JOHN 3 ( 2&3 ) : 2 : ” We know that when he shall appear , we shall be like him . ” 3 : ” And every man that hath this HOPE in him purifieth himself . ” So we can see that when John says we can know something he actually means THAT WE HAVE THIS HOPE ! So applying this understanding to 1 JOHN 5 ( 13 ) , when he says that we may know that we have eternal life , this would mean that we actually only have a hope of this as he said in 1 JOHN 3 ( 3 ) . The fact that the rest of the scriptures all say that we have only hope clarifies what exactly 1 JOHN 5 ( 13 ) really means , and it is a widely misunderstood verse which those that are unlearned and unstable wrest, 2 PETER 3 ( 16 ) . So the answer to the opening question of this study would be : NO WE CANNOT KNOW THAT WE ARE SAVED HERE AND NOW , BUT WE HAVE TO OPERATE AS ALL GOD’S PEOPLE THROUGH HISTORY HAVE OPERATED , BY FAITH , WHICH IS ONLY HOPE OF SOME FUTURE THING , WHICH AT PRESENT WE CANNOT VISUALLY SEE , SO WE HAVE TO FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH , BELIEF TO THE END OF OUR TIME HERE, AFTER WHICH IF WE KEEP THE FAITH , THEN WE WILL RECEIVE THE PROMISE : THIS IS ALL BY FAITH : NOT KNOWING : BUT FAITH !
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