Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Course 6 Week 2 Roger's Topics

Roger, you may post your initial comments and answers to questions here.

13 comments:

roger said...

Hey, I am reading Robert Shank's book entitled "Life in the Son". I will be studying chapters four, five, and six this week. Chapter 4 is entitled: "Can Eternal Life be Forfeited"?, Chapter Five, " What Saith the Scriptures?" and Chapter Six, "Shall Never Thirst." Should spark some discussion this week. God Bless

roger said...

In chapter four titled "Can Eternal Life Be Forfeited?" Bro. Shank defines "perseverance" as "once in grace always in grace", or as he calls it "unconditional security". So can eternal life be forfeited? Bro. Shank uses the parable of the sower to argue this point. The sower went to sow. Jesus explains; Matt. 13:20 "But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon(immediately) with joy receiveth it." Matt. 13:21 " Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended". So can eternal life be lost? If not what does rededication mean?

Dr. Randy Carney said...

Roger, one of the things that impressed me most from this book is the discussion of conditional security and opposed to undonditional security. The rest of the book discusses the "bottom line" condition.

As for rededication, my take on that could work in two ways: One would be that if a person grows slack in their commitment, they need to renew therr dedication. That would not necessarily mean they are lost--just in need of getting serious again about serving.

The second, of course, would be where a person seemed to have the claim of the condition for salvation and then they didn't have that claim. In that case, they would need to again express their acceptance of that condition. That would be a re-dedication.

The claim that salvation is conditional does not, however, remove the idea that salvation is by grace through faith. (Hint to Sean and Tyler, whose curiosity may be piqued by this, the "condition" for salvation is mentioned in Ephesians 2:8,9.

Tyler Owens said...

In Revalation 3:5, Jesus tells the church at Sardis that, if they straiten up, He will not "blot out his name from the book of life." Does this mean that Jesus will "blot us out" if we fall away? I have been taught all my life that we can lose our salvation. Another verse that comes to mind is Hebrews 10:26. In order to keep people from falling away, we need to spend as much time as possible to disciple them that we can.

sremery said...

This subject itself is one that seems to seperate Christians. A person can say its one way by quoting a certain scripture, and another can do the same to argue it. No one has been able to completely prove it one way or the other. Which makes me picture Satan sitting back and laughing because it seperates us. I try to remember Jesus saying the greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all your heart and soul, and your neighbor the same as yourself. And that all the rest hangs on this. I guess when I think about it after reading that, I conclude that if we are worried about justifying our salvation, something else is amiss. I know everyone has thought about this in one way or another, and I might be off track in the direction this discussion was going, its just what I think of on the subject of once saved always saved.

Dr. Randy Carney said...

Guys,

Bro. Roger will know what I am going to say here when I mention Dr. Bob Jones, Sr.

[Talking about salvation], he used to say, "Well, some say you can get it and lose it. Others say you can get it and not be able to lose it. (Pause)

"What I want to know is; 'Do you have it?'"

To me, the issue is more important whether salvation is conditional or uncoditional than some of the other discussions along this line. I believe Bro. Shank makes a compelling case that it is conditional.

Tyler Owens said...

Good posts, guys. Sean, I agree with you one hundred percent. There are some other subjects that separate christians as well. I am not going to get into those. I would like to see more unity between believers. Surely there is more we agree on than what we disagree on.

sremery said...

I'm not sure what your meaning conditional or uncondtional? I would have to say that being saved is conditional because you do have to "do"(believe) something to receive it. But I've also heard that God's love is uncondtional. Can a person believe, and then not believe?

Dr. Randy Carney said...

About a person believing and not believing, that is a debate, but it would seem possible. And, yes, Sean, believing (saving faith) is the contition.

My point is that assurance is only for believers, regardless of what it may have looked like what a person did in the past. If it looked like a person believed, and later he rejects the idea of salvation and outright rejects Christ as savior, I would say that it is a dangerous thing to try to say that he is O.K.

roger said...

Well guys I think the security is conditional. Bro. Shank uses "John 15:1-5". If we abide in him(Christ) then he will abide in us. This sounds like a work in progress or am I not getting the idea here.

sremery said...

I think so too. I cant think of any particular scripture to back this thought, but in reading the Bible and other commentaries I think that God wants a relationship with us. And the only way it can be real is to let us choose. So if by the time our last breath comes we are choosing to have nothing to do with Him, He only gives us what we want. Now that still leaves open the debate on what "believing" is at that time. That is only God's decision, and when I think about that, I think about when God was going to punish Israel for Davids mistake and David has God choose the outcome, because he knew who would be more merciful. Why would you not want to believe in a God like that.

roger said...

In chapter five, Bro. Shank quotes this passage of scripture,John 10:28,29,"Jesus said,I give unto them eternal life:and they shall never perish,neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me,is greater than all;and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand". This is probably the most used passage that supports eternal security, and to some extent sounds logical, but what's to say that in our own fleshly, self-loving way we turn our back to God. Would we still be secure? I'm sure God would still love us, but in my opinion we in fact have plucked ourselves out of God's hand. Food for thought, have a blessed night.

Dr. Randy Carney said...

Bro. Shank does two things: He gives grounds for increased assurance, but then he clarifies passages like what was mentioned. He does remind us our assurance of being In Christ. If we don't have a basis for saying we are in Christ, we don't hav a basis for assurance.