Not By Works

That is correct. The gift is offered to all but not all accept.
One has to accept the gift, or they remain lost and unsaved.

Someone will probably want to call that a work. It is not

God will never leave you, forsake you, or stop you if you decide to turn and walk away.

John
6:66 From that [time] many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
6:67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?
6:68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
6:69 And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.
6:70 Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?
6:71 He spake of Judas Iscariot [the son] of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.

Apostacy happens.

NO, counterfeit faith happens in their HEADS, and not in their Heart.

1 John 2:19 (NKJV)
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.

There was a member here formerly who told us that she went to bed one night a
nonbeliever and awoke a believer. I believe she said it was basically the same for her hubs.

It certainly was not that way for me

I went through quite a protracted battle coming to accept the Truth of God's Word

God will never leave you, forsake you, or stop you if you decide to turn and walk away.

John
6:66 From that [time] many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
6:67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?
6:68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
6:69 And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.
6:70 Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?
6:71 He spake of Judas Iscariot [the son] of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.

Apostacy happens.

CORRECT!

John 1:12-13 (HCSB)
12 But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name,
13 who were born, not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

NO, counterfeit faith happens in their HEADS, and not in their Heart.

1 John 2:19 (NKJV)
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.

God will never leave you, forsake you, or stop you if you decide to turn and walk away.

John
6:66 From that [time] many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
6:67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?
6:68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
6:69 And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.
6:70 Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?
6:71 He spake of Judas Iscariot [the son] of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.

Apostacy happens.

Apostacy happens in the heart.

1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would [no doubt] have continued with us: but [they went out], that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

Apostates are not of us. They are hell-ward bound.

Only God knows the "heart" of a person. He also told us there would be wolves in sheep's clothing among us. So many wolves in today's world. I also believe what someone means as an evil act, God can turn into good.

I did also. I think I prayed the sinners
Prayer about 50 times before I truly knew what it meant to trust Christ and just received him.

Totally agree.

Romans 8:28-30
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

My mother threw me out when I was 14.
I was fostered by a Christian family whom I knew from the Boys Brigade.

Not long after the fostership the foster father started to sexually abuse me.

Won't go into the details but I say what my mum did was evil and what my foster did was evil and as you can imagine this led to my life being messed up big time which had consequences for me as result.

It took God 30 years+ to work good.

I was at my foster father's death bead and sorted out his estate.
My mum and I have been reconciled

So now what was an evil act towards me God has turned into good.

As a result he his now using me to walk with others that I walked in and suffered.

I came to realise that God started to work good when I was willing to forgive. When I was the process of starting to work good began. It was a long long process.

For me the key is forgiveness.
One of my favourite quotes I read.

"To forgive is to set the prisoner free, only to realise the prisoner was you"

Makes me very sad that that when people quote v28 leave it at that.
It comes across as saying God will make what happened to you good but infact you cannot make it good, God does not make evil good but uses the evil that happened to us good for us.

As we see in

Romans 8:29
29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

As I said above forgiveness is the key, this leads to healing to release in order to

Ephesians 2:10
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Those who did evil against me their sins were forgiven on the cross.
Who am I not forgive?

Apostacy happens in the heart.

1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would [no doubt] have continued with us: but [they went out], that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

Apostates are not of us. They are hell-ward bound.

yes, I read your post, I just responded to a few of your examples, and stated that all the examples you gave would fit.

as you admit here, Jesus died for all, hence right there your examples do not fit, because in your examples. The gifts were not for everyone but only for the select people you mentioned.


again, belief is not a work it is a state of mind,

So now my salvation is based on my state of mind? I guess I need to pray that I don't get dementia or Alsheimers. Or have a nervous breakdown. Or become brainwashed.

Now, I do believe that once saved, my state of mind becomes more like Christ & less like the old me.

I would suggest that the brethren here would search for the scriptures for the subject of servanthood, because Jesus taught it.

You either have faith in Christ or you do not

Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.