Paul's Passing Thoughts
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Paul's Passing Thoughts 
I’m not sure what exactly there is to doubt. Salvation? Orthodoxy makes it clear that salvation isn’t guaranteed, even to the “saved”. So what’s the doubt? It’s not like it matters anyway. If you aren’t saved, it’s cause you are an evil worm. If you are, it’s in spite of the fact that you’re an evil worm. So either you will experience hell as yourself or heaven as some kind of proxy for God’s Self. In either case, YOU qua YOU won’t get anything of any value at all in the end. Heaven is for God and hell is for you is all the doctrine amounts to. Period.
So sick.
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But don’t forget the church’s get-out-of-election-free card; viz, “the power of the keys.” If the elders say you are saved, you are saved…period. Your former BBF CJ Mahaney noted that is this way (being a church sycophant) we “keep ourselves in the love of God.”
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I look at it differently. Our actions and behaviors are irrefutable “facts”. That is all we can judge in others around us. But people are told not to judge that because “we are all (saved) sinners”..
The focus solely on faith (alone) makes that impossible. So when the charlatans proclaim great faith coupled with what passes for knowledge in that world, people are supposed to ignore behavior/actions. Of course many “actions” were deceptive like Mohlers Neo cal totalitarian church takeovers by pimply faced SBTS students. But they became known. Not sure why all that wouldn’t produce doubt.
James states it. Hebrews 10 states it. 1 John explains it. It’s also embedded all through scripture.
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Church’s single perspective on the law makes it impossible to know your motives for doing good. So, every good work carries with it the morbid introspection of what really motivated your actions. Self-justification, or love? If the law and its condemnation are ended, if righteousness is apart from the law, the only motive left is love…which fulfills the law. Any observation of works flowing from a flawed view of law will not produce assurance.
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When they write and read books like Trusting God, they might have a doubt problem. If you really believe and have been born again, what is there to doubt? Knowing you have a full inheritance and assurance of everlasting life is part of the package. I’ve had doubts about people and circumstances and my own human frailty, but never a doubt about God or His promises. The church that does the Trusting God study will not preach a Know-So Salavation.
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Clearly, whether Catholic or Protestant, salvation is unfinished and a “race of faith” to obtain “final justification.” Church and assurance are mutually exclusive.
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I think the determinism produces doubt. On one hand people are told their heart is deceitful so they should not trust themselves to know anything for sure. On the other, there is no way out of the deceitful heart, total depravity circle here and now. So they look to the philosopher king (pastor) for guidance and “election”. It’s a self fulfilling prophecy. There is no ‘individual’ or self governing involved. Yet, they think they are. It’s bizarre.
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Truly bizarre, but I think in the end it boils down to being a church lackey for the best possible assurance.
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I just meant that we are supposed to accept the cognitive dissonance that tells us that he (or she) who is totally depraved can somehow be saved. How can he who is existentially wicked ever appreciate the goodness that is salvation, even if he were given it? Man either isn’t saved because he is infinitely evil or he gets it but can’t actually experience it because his wickedness completely taints it. Like, is there really any practical difference between giving and not giving a man with no hands his own pair of gloves? So why should a Christian doubt that which he can’t possiby receive in any relevant way in the first place? If you accept orthodox metaphysics, you are as far away from salvation as it can get. Doubt is meaningless. You aren’t getting salvation. YOU don’t matter. Just obey.
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“Obedience” and working hard at “the means of grace” found only at church. Assurance comes as a result of the elders commending your hard work at self-depravation and proclaiming you saved. It’s in-your-face works salvation under the guise of faith alone.
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I must say that CJ was a master at manipulation with respect to your point, Paul. Boy, if CJ thought you were something special, then you just knew God loved you better. Not that you’d admit it…at least not in word. In deed…well, let’s just say that the arrogance and self-adulation of the “inner circle” could be seen from outer space.
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