Great. Now show the verse that says one must continually believe in order to continually be saved. Or words to that effect.
Tibiasdad can't do it. Can you?
2 Peter 3:3His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5For this very reason, make every effort to
add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.
8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
10Therefore, my brothers and sisters, a make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
1) 3His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life
through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
One of the great and precious promises is necessarily that of salvation/receiving eternal life, for that is the entrance point of "participating in the divine nature" and of "having escaped the corruption of the world" . Thus, all of these promises, including salvation/eternal life are included in the words that follow. Furthermore, epignósis, literally, "contact knowledge" is evidence that there is a person experience of Christ with Peter and the churches he is addressing . These people are considered true believers!
2)For this very reason, make every effort to
add to your faith...(vs 5)
This is showing the necessity of additional elements that just the initial "belief" that initiates our participation in the divine nature. Faith is not a stand alone island in need of nothing to maintain it and it's effects.
3)
8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
The "for if" establishes another hypothetical potential with its "if/then" scenario. If these (see vs 5-7) are ever increasing in us, then we won't be "ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge (epignósis) of the Lord"! That is, our spiritual experience, vitality, or faith (one of the precious promises) in Christ, will be argos, inactive, idle, lazy, thoughtless, unprofitable, injurious (Strongs), or as the NIV says, ineffective. The "ineffective and unproductive" deal with both the spiritual vitality (being alive spiritually) and the progressive advancement in spiritual growth (sanctification, godliness) of our experience with Christ.
4)
10Therefore, my brothers and sisters, a make every effort to confirm your calling and election.
A simple question: If we are eternally secure at the moment we believe (and I assume that Peter would have understood this to be true), then why does Peter express the need to confirm (bebaios: firm, steadfast, enduring, sure, certain. [Strong]), it is used by Paul in Rom 4:13 and the NIV translates it as "guaranteed", so Peter is saying that in order for our calling and election sure, certain, guaranteed,
we have to do something!
Moreover
, "your calling and election" is reference to being saved, a child of God, and cannot be construed to refer to anything close to "rewards". Peter is saying unambiguously that what is being made certain is our salvation.
5) For if you do these things, you will never stumble,
Another "if/then" contingency: If you "add" (verses 5-7) "to your faith" and thereby "make certain, guarantee" that "you will never stumble"! (ptaió: I stumble, fall, sin, err, transgress [Strongs]).
6) 11and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Note that this is about a "rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ", not anything about things or
rewards of the kingdom. But more importantly, and to the point, it is a part of the "then" portion of "
For if you do these things, you will never stumble," and thus a contingency!
Doug