Thanks.
What would you classify yourself as? Would you go with the early church group? Or some other non-listed group?
I tend to agree with the Early Church Fathers.
I feel they were the closest to Jesus and knew what He was talking about.
Some of them knew one of the Apostles...Like for instance Ignatius.
Could you imagine asking JOHN the Apostle questions!!
What a blast that would be.
He could do this.
As to doctrine I'm Protestant,,,mainline of today.
I don't care for reformed theology...I have many reasons why.
But any Christian that is following our Lord is a brother to me and I don't think doctrine should separate us,,,as many on this thread believe.
Sorry, I got caught up in a chat...
I wanted to post the following for you.
See if you agree with Perseverance of the Saints.
I mean, I know it's right....but what do you think?
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
from post no. 86,226
OSAS:
Once Saved Always Saved teaches that once a person "accepts" Jesus, whatever that may mean to him... he believe to be saved forever....NO MATTER what he does in his life, or what type of life he lives.
IOW, he could murder and still be saved...he could not ask forgiveness of sins, and still be saved (as a habit not forgetfulness).
This is an extreme view and is not supported by the N.T. teachings of Jesus, Paul, and the other writers.
ETERNAL SECURITY:
Eternal Security is a biblical theory; however, there are conditions involved and some refuse to accept those conditions and thus get it mixed up with OSAS.
The N.T. speaks about eternal security. We can be eternally secure in Jesus IF we ABIDE in Him, and CONTINUE to abide in HIM, and IF we follow His teachings which is why He came to us...to teach us how to get to heaven.
This is why the N.T. is full of conditinal words such as: IF, CONTINUE, ABIDE, DWELL, BELIEVE in the present tense, do not FALL AWAY, PERSEVERE,,,,etc.
PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS:
Perseverance of the saints is a calvinistic theology and is a bit more complicated.
This teaches that God will keep his elected secure and they cannot leave their faith.
This is because God has elected them to be saved and so He will keep them saved.
However, John Calvin did teach that in order to be sure that one is saved he must have the love and willingness to do works. Also, it's difficult for a calvinist to be sure of their salvation because, after all, how could one know for SURE that God chose them? What if they stop doing good works?
This means that only at the END of their life, can they truly know if they were really saved.
This is where the idea comes from that if one DOES LOSE their salvation, it's because they never had it to begin with.
Unless a person really does some studying on the above three doctrine...they will get them all mixed up with each other till their belief no longer makes any sense and they have, in effect, created a belief all their own.
For instance. some that believe in OSAS also believe that is one falls away it means they were never saved to begin with....this idea, instead, comes from Pers. of the Saints...and so all 3 get confused with each other.
I would hope that this would help those reading along to understand the differences and to know better what they believe.
I believe in Eternal Security.