Thank you for this response.
It is interesting how this verse in matt 7 is quoted by so many to say that other group will be
rejected, because ........
In reality Jesus is just saying I care about those who listen and act on my words.
As a testimony I know what He means. It is not like His words are just go into the
street and walk along this line, good person, you are my friend, evil person you did
not do what I said, I will torture you forever.
Following Jesus's words changes you, you are no longer the person before.
So Jesus welcomes this new creation into His Kingdom, while those who built their
sand castle, and it has fallen have nothing, not knowing why or how it happened just
that it has.
So grounded in this reality it has been foundational to my life. It is hard to understate
how eternal Jesus's words are. God bless you
Yes following Jesus words changes us into a new creation. I pray that he will help me everyday to change into the person he wants me to be, because on my own I couldn't change. And my self effort alone cannot change me. This is why he says- watch and pray you will resist temptation, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. It is very possible to fall back into our sinful lifestyles again and do wicked works again, because the devil roams around the world looking to tempt Christians. This is why we need to be sober minded and ALERT, always aware of the devils schemes. What I have realised recently is that what is most important is the quality of my relationship with Jesus. Not the number of good works I do. When we have a close relationship with Jesus we want to listen to his words, and they are not a burden when we want to obey him. So I have alot of baggage I need to work through with the help of God and it may be a process. So my focus is Just to be close to God in my struggles.
The reason I believe that a believer can fall away it is stated in the bible and also It has directly happened to me through "my experience". I have had many times i have fallen into sin and I went back to my sinful lifestyle. This lifestyle was alcohol abusing- drunkenness.
I would do well for a while and then I would get all these temptations to drink and i gave into them and I became very sinful inside and with my behavior.
So I cannot believe while in my sin, I would go to heaven.
When I don't drink. I can see I want to Obey God more. I also see an improvement with my spiritual life and my mental health is alot better. I also got attacked by satan when I opened the door to sin.
The reason I drank was because of SIN yes but it has also been because of my mental health issues caused from things that happened to me in life. I was self medicating to try and forget my mental illnesses. They are social anxiety and panic attacks/low self esteem and I used to have depression. I got low self esteem from being bullied about my appearance growing up due to a jaw deformity, which is now fixed.
So according to OSAS a person like me was always "NEVER SAVED TO BEGIN WITH" .
So this is why I cannot follow such a belief like that. Because someone like me wouldn't ever go to heaven if that was true.
So with what I now believe is that I was saved to begin with when I fell away and I now have a "chance" of entering heaven.
So anyone struggling with the same issues that I have been dealing with know that you may "turn away" and were born again and you can come back to God, he will forgive you and hear your cries for help. But we must obey the words of God to have a changed life and spirit. And yes we Obey because we want to. It's a choice to love God, just like it's choice with every other decision we have in life.
I have also seen that living a sinful lifestyle "Not obeying God". Made me hate God and I also saw my bitterness towards God when I was doing things against what he commands. My heart went HARD like a rock and also I developed a distorted view of God as well when I entered back into my old lifestyle- previous to being born again.
So can you be born again more than once. I believe you can, because when you fall away you become spiritually dead again- I have seen this in my life.
So the reason i have these beliefs is not because I am self righteousness, it's because I have had "self" struggles.
So rather than directing comments at others, I will show my experience.
And we all have different ones.
And the reason people turn from conditional security is because they believe it's all about condemnation, because you keep failing to OBEY GOD. I have realised it's not self effort but effort in a our relationship with God. And that is spending time with him every day. Listening to his words and talking to him. If you fail and continue failing, you need to look back at the Situation and examine it, what thoughts have I thought today- were they in accordance with Gods word, was I meditating on worldly things. If we make mistakes we just need to repent and say sorry and God will forgive us. There is now no condemnation for those who walk after after the spirit and NOT THE FLESH. So we have to turn away from FLESH then we have no condemnation.
God bless youxxx
Hope you are well, will be praying for you.