FreeGrace2 said:
It sure does when the issue is fellowship, not relationship.
Chew on that one for a while. Do you understand the difference between the two?
Are you now saying the parable is about salvation?
No, of course not. I wish you had answered my question. Maybe you don't, given your response to my question.
The difference between relationship and fellowship is this:
The relationship between parent (God) and son (believer) is permanent. Just like the physical relationship between fathers and sons.
However, fellowship deals with the state of the relationship. If a child gets sideways with his father, there is no fellowship.
Given Psa 66:18, how can a believer have fellowship with the Lord when they have unconfessed sin in their lives? God is not listening to them. That's about loss of fellowship, not loss of relationship.
The problem is that too many people can't distinguish between relationship and fellowship.
And that lost dead people are saved?
I explained that. in the parable the father described the fellowship with his son as dead and lost. Which it was.
Until the son confessed his sin and repented and got up from the pig sty and returned to the father.
If one considers the parable to be about salvation, then Jesus was teaching how to save yourself by your own means.
iow, the prodigal "came to his senses" and got out of the pig sty and walked back to the father. That's all human effort.
So the parable cannot be about salvation.
If people would apply the Berean method of Bible study, they wouldn't be so easily led astray by faulty teaching.
The Bereans "searched the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul said was true". Now, instead of "Paul", put in your fav Bible teacher and see how much they agree with Scripture.
There is simply no way to conclude that Jesus was teaching about salvation or loss of it.
Instead, it was all about confession of sin and repentance. Which is exactly what the prodigal did.
Luke 15-
17 “When
he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!
18
I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father,
I have sinned against heaven and against you.
19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’
Red words in v.17 notes that he FINALLY got around to actually thinking things through.
Green words in v.18 refer to repentance, or a change of mind and going back to where he came from.
Blue words in v.18 refer to his confession of his sin.
I included v.19 to show that the prodigal went too far in his conclusions. He requested a demotion from son to servant. And my point is that the father didn't let him get that out. In the middle of the son's confession the father interrupted him so he didn't get to say v.19, even though he intended to.
I believe that Jesus was teaching that what the son wanted to say to the father is stupid and doesn't need to be said.
20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet
v.20 shows the father's response to his son's repentance by coming back.
v.21 is the son's confession and acknowledgement that he WASN'T worthy to be called son.
v.22 shows the father's interruption by the "but".