Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
I think this is where you got stuck. You don't see real faith as the scripture does. You continually discredit faith as "mere credence," which is probably due to one verse in James which says "even the demons believe."
"Mere credence" is not saving faith. No one here, or in the LC's for that matter, is saying this. Mere credence is closer to the situation of the tares, who outwardly look like real believers, but do not have eternal life within, and thus are not real "wheat."
You remind me of some extreme tongue-speakers. Since they spoke in tongues when they first got saved, they hold every one else up to that same standard. They see tongues in every verse of the bible, which just reinforces their stance.
|
Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as the assurance of things hoped for (God performed the ten plagues and parted the red sea, so he should be a trustworthy Guy we can base on assurance in) and the conviction of the unseen things (We have conviction in God's integrity so we don't have to trust in what we see).
Say a person believes Jesus is the son of God and died for his sins and has gone to church all their life by attending Tuesday night prayer meeting, Friday night small group and Lord's Day meetings. One day the beast government prophesied by Daniel has taken over his country and he is forced to renounce his faith or his children will be killed. He renounces his faith due to wanting to preserve the lives of his children and he lives out his life with his family in retirement conforming to the pagan culture that he lives in and dies. He figures that he is saved after all, because eternal life is not something that can be lost due to his earlier "faith". Is such a person going to heaven?