Addendum to My Testimony of Freedom
Of course, even though we are no longer under the condemnation of the law, there are consequences for willful sin. Besides natural consequences, there is loving correction from our Father. However, there is no assurance of salvation until you understand how the new birth changes our relationship to the law.
There is no assurance of anything until you’ve been born again, period. Thanks, Paul.
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Without wanting to get too sidetracked into the ‘forfeit of salvation’ question, there is an interesting piece showing to my mind a blatant internal contradiction of calvinism over at Cripplegate at the moment: ‘Warnings with teeth’.
It seems to me that if you believe the P of TULIP the warnings of Hebrews and other places are simply redundant, and the article shows well the confused thinking on this as clearly as the famous question you put to John Piper showed his confusion. I also don’t find the interpretation these passages are a means to an end convincing.
Hebrews 6 was a major (but not the only) reason for my abandonning calvinism completely. Forfeiting salvation by loss of faith/apostacy is not a doctrine I am keen to embrace, and has huge implications, but we must take the warnings of scripture seriously and not make them fit a predetermined theological grid.
I have little doubt that much of the abuse – of authority, of children etc. – that has occurred in churches with a calvinist theology can be traced back to the false idea that once you have believed your salvation is unconditionally guaranteed regardless of what you do once you have embraced it.
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Cripplegate? One the millions of sites out there to avoid like the Black Death (plague.) Ugh!
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