Not By Works

I don’t think walking away is necessarily apostasy. Some have walked away and returned by the Grace of God. Temporary lapse. I am one, praise Him. The Lord is my Shepherd.

A temporary lapse is better than a temporary profession.

Totally agree. I was one as well.

With him I shall not want.

NO, in my opinion, you are the one that has sadly TWISTED SCIPTURE around, too where, I cannot tell if you have even been Born Again.

With most Christians, I can tell that they are Born Again, because of their KINDRED SPIRIT, especially on this THREAD. You do not have that at all, so I must question if you have ever been Born Again ? ? ?

I know that eternally-gratefull is a true brother of mine, because he has always presented a KINDRED SPIRIT.

Philippians 2:1-2 (NIV)
1 If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion,
2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

Philippians 2:19-21 (NASB)
19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition.
20 For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare.
21 For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus.

Romans 16:21-24 (YLT)
21 Salute you do Timotheus, my fellow-workman, and Lucius, and Jason, and Sosipater, my kindred;
22 I Tertius salute you (who wrote the letter) in the Lord;
23 salute you doth Gaius, my host, and of the whole assembly; salute you doth Erastus, the steward of the city, and Quartus the brother,
24 the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

I go to a non-demnominational, conservative evangelical type of Church, and we BELIEVE and Teach Born Again as a critical part of SALVATION. AND no we are not Charismatics.

Please explain what your church teaches about Born Again and how you know it is REAL?

How come their is no kindred spirit between my Theology, and Yours?

Could this be the Problem ? ? ?

1 Corinthians 2:13-16 (NIV)
13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:
16 "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

It makes perfect sense. Maybe not to you. But to those who have been touched by gods spirit and experienced his love. Your nit going to all of a sudden say you no longer believe

When someone never lets you down you do not stop losing faith

You only turn into an Antichrist (non believer). If you were never truly saved to begin with

Again you have to read John’s words. They were NEVER if us. Never means never

Actually it is true
he posted the Greek definition
sometimes we need to do that. You call it dazzle dazzle. Most of us call it studying to show ourselves approved

QUESTION ?

Do you believe in a Genuine Prodigal, when they supposedly walk away, IS THE HOLY SPIRIT STILL IN THEIR HEART ? ? ?

I certainly DO, and continues to work on that HEART, to get them to RETURN.

Prodigals WILL ALWAYS RETURN.

Apostates WILL NEVER RETURN, because they did not have the Holy Spirit in their Hearts.

How do I know?

The Decision has already been made!

2 Timothy 1:9 (HCSB)
9 He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.

Revelation 17:8 (ESV)
8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.

Romans 8:28-30 (HCSB)
28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.
29 For those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.
30 And those He predestined, He also called; and those He called, He also justified; and those He justified, He also glorified.

1 Corinthians 2:13-14 (NIV)
13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

He makes perfect sense to me.

Sometimes they need to do that. Rather often, actually. Hmmm.

I think it depends on how you read it

It is impossible

what is impossible

To
Me it says if they fall away it is impossible to renew them to repentance

That would tell me if a person could fall away. They could never be re-saved. They would be lost forever. Why?

It would take Christ to be crucified again for the sin that caused their loss of salvation. Hence saying a person can fall away puts him to open shame

I was a prodigal son for 5 years

A lot of us have brother!

Yes. The Holy Spirit is an eternal gift. And the Prodigal returns.

Many of the false
Teaching I learned growing up were deeply engrained in my heart. No one could convince me to change my view

That is until I started to study the Greek and had no more excuse to fail to repent of that belief

I could have put out my hands in pride and say they need to do it and remained
Blind to a lot of truths. Or humbled myself like i did

I thank God I humbled myself

I was for over a decade. God is long suffering and patient...I spent other years as a flickering wick and a bruised reed, but He never gave up on me.

Yep
sadly there are some that would say if you died before you returned you would be lost

What were you immediately preceding that?

A walking taking believer in Christ and long time member of my local church

I was a child of God. Who because of a circumstance in my life and the legalism I was brought up with in which I could
Not live up to because my wife kicked me out of my house to
Move her boyfriend in. Chose to walk away instead of being judged

I thought I had apostasized and was unsavable. That was a lie straight from hell.

Yes, I believe that if you live in sin for 10 years without repenting and die in your sinful lifestyle, you will indeed go to hell. Jesus' blood is not a free RC indulgence. We have wandered far from sound doctrine on this sad day!

That’s a horrible circumstance about your wife. That would be a severe test for anyone and anyone would at the very least struggle mightily (and that’s the very strongest) As far as legalism, that was one of the reasons I fell. When we put ourselves under law/ legality, falling is inevitable. I learned this the hard way, sadly, more than once.

Something about our nature makes us suceptible to this trap.