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Originally Posted by HERn
The Lord said the first will be last and the last will be first. To me death is like a filter, the only thing that passes through is sanctified character. My guess is that Ravi’s had all the praise, honor and glory he’s going to get. But I think he’ll fall flat on his face when he realizes the great cost his Lord suffered for salvation of his miserable ego-inflated soul. (But what do I know, I’m a “once saved always saved” Baptist kind of guy. I’m open to other views).
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Regarding this, I just want to comment a little (hopefully without being divisive), as I have been thinking about the OSAS vs. Lordship Salvation debate a fair bit since leaving the LCs. I find that mostly people seem to use those two views as clubs to bash each other on the head a lot, at least online (not accusing you of that, just stating a fact, with the comments section of any arbitrary Christian Youtube video as evidence). The conclusion I've ultimately come to is that I think BOTH things are true and we believers do a terrible job of representing that a lot of the time. God is able to save eternally and I feel His eternal salvation is fully effective... in those who ARE actually saved. On the other hand it's clear from other Biblical passages that not only will many who thought they were saved not actually be saved ("Not all who say to me 'Lord, Lord'..."), but that the Lord can retract the grace He would have given if a believer "eats and drinks with the drunken" and "beats his fellow slaves"... what does the Lord promise about such people?
Quote:
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Matthew 24:48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says in his heart, ‘My master will be away a long time.’ 49 And he begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50 The master of that servant will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not anticipate. 51 Then he will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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Cutting someone to pieces and assigning their place with the hypocrites... is that salvation? Hm, I dunno, I'm not a theologian, but whatever it is, we should be afraid of it. What Ravi did seems like a textbook case of what the Lord is illustrating here.
I also think there's a big problem any time we say God "can't" do something... like we are trapping God into some kind of verbal "gotcha". "God you promised me salvation, now I can do whatever I want and still be saved!"... well... I don't know about that, but I think that's a pretty terrible attitude to have. (Again, I'm not saying AT ALL, HERn, that this is your doctrine/thinking, but I want to point out what I think is a major problem among Christians today, especially in America - a total lack of the fear of God and a pious heart. For me at least that is what I perceive to have been a major characterization of MY Christian past, that in spite of "believing" I didn't fear God enough to be serious about certain things, and I'm thankful that He has put me through some situations and also that he's shaking things up on the national stage to show us that fear of God is legitimately necessary and we shouldn't take the Bible lightly and think He's just a God who oozes love and kindness and good stuff without having a righteous side).
So OSAS, don't know, Lordship Salvation, don't know... I think those are both just selective doctrines that focus on specific verses of the Bible and leave out others. Better to just be a Bible-believing Christian and walk in the fear (and love) of God, as we are encouraged by John, the Lord Himself, and many others...