Scripturally there are many warnings regarding testing ourselves if we are in the faith; having a root of bitterness grow in us; and otherwise falling away along with what seem like iron clad promises of being sealed in the Spirit; never dying and other promises that make the "once saved always saved" a reality and not just a cliche.
For those listening to this post; it indeed may be unnecessary to go any further reading this and no doubt many subsequent posts on the matter and it may be basically a way for me to gather some thoughts on the matter. The issue as many of you know is those who we thought were believers and become fully "deconstructed"; the popular term for basically shipwrecking our faith.
The easy answer which I suppose many are content with and have no struggle with as I do is that if someone does this they never believed in the first place. This has to be balanced of course with those who have a "Prodigal son" sort of experience; quite common today with testimonies online apparently in particular.
The issue here seems to be weighing God's promises and life experiences with those we know and love making objective realism harder. There are those on each end of the spectrum here; who will either pigeonhole someone as a nonbeliever the first time they sin (likely due to unforgiveness); or tolerating repetitive sin or worse a lifestyle of sin accompanied by no evidence of spiritual fruit in someone.
The idea of TRUST is a crucial concept; and we must therefore trust God in our own walk as well as that of others as to whether they remain on the straight and narrow or are just temporary passers by whose heart turns them back to the wide road leading to destruction. I will take the suggested methodology and just make a passing reference to a certain verse describing a canine that returns back to something rather unpleasant coming from its mouth. It is; admittedly hard to sugar coat such dire life or death matters
Scripturally there are many warnings regarding testing ourselves if we are in the faith; having a root of bitterness grow in us; and otherwise falling away along with what seem like iron clad promises of being sealed in the Spirit; never dying and other promises that make the "once saved always saved" a reality and not just a cliche.
For those listening to this post; it indeed may be unnecessary to go any further reading this and no doubt many subsequent posts on the matter and it may be basically a way for me to gather some thoughts on the matter. The issue as many of you know is those who we thought were believers and become fully "deconstructed"; the popular term for basically shipwrecking our faith.
The easy answer which I suppose many are content with and have no struggle with as I do is that if someone does this they never believed in the first place. This has to be balanced of course with those who have a "Prodigal son" sort of experience; quite common today with testimonies online apparently in particular.
The issue here seems to be weighing God's promises and life experiences with those we know and love making objective realism harder. There are those on each end of the spectrum here; who will either pigeonhole someone as a nonbeliever the first time they sin (likely due to unforgiveness); or tolerating repetitive sin or worse a lifestyle of sin accompanied by no evidence of spiritual fruit in someone.
The idea of TRUST is a crucial concept; and we must therefore trust God in our own walk as well as that of others as to whether they remain on the straight and narrow or are just temporary passers by whose heart turns them back to the wide road leading to destruction. I will take the suggested methodology and just make a passing reference to a certain verse describing a canine that returns back to something rather unpleasant coming from its mouth. It is; admittedly hard to sugar coat such dire life or death matters
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