Q A
&
You have questions we’ve got answers
What is the doctrine of predestination and
eternal security?
The Seed and the Root… Examining Spiritual and Temporal Salvation
C
College students and campers have
professed faith in Christ because
they had been emotionally stirred
by a dynamic speaker and for a time
seemed to be saved. Sometime later
they confessed that they no longer
believed in this “Jesus thing.” Some
had been convinced by intellectuals
that religion is a hoax. Others hurt by
professing believers have therefore
rejected the faith they once claimed.
therefore does not last.
protected from or escapes certain
worldly pollutions; 2 Cor 7:14.
Because of the presence of his wife
he may refrain from certain profane
language, or behavior but deep
within he has not been transformed.
The pig that is washed is not really
changed from within, as to its nature,
so that it returns to the mud; 2 Pet
2:22.
Repentance that comes from above
is a definite gift that comes directly
from God, Lamentations 5:21; Psalms
80:3; 2 Tim 2:25. God hears the
genuine cry of a sinner and delivers
him, Rom 10:13. This repentance
does not emerge from the intellect,
feelings or will, is not soulish but
spiritual. God does something
supernatural with the believer’s Many people walk with religious
people and their outward habits
Where can we find answers to these ‘spirit’ (which is subconscious).
change for a time, but they never
troubling situations? Jesus declared
In the parable of the sower, seeds experience genuine transformation
to His Father, “Your Word is truth!”
that produce fruit (some, thirty, in their spirits, which only comes
John 17:17
some sixty, some a hundred) do not from God. John declared that any
Every perfect gift comes from God lay on the surface, but take deep man born of God cannot practice sin
above, Who is perfect, James 1:17. root. (Luke 8:11-15; Mark 4:3-8)
because God’s divine sperm (Greek.
Wisdom from above has its source
Repentance from God leads to faith, spermata) remains in him; 1 John 3:9.
therefore in God but wisdom from
which itself is a gift from God, Acts The seed and the root determine the
beneath is earthly and its source is
20:21; Heb 6:2; 2 Peter 1:1, which fruit, Matt 7:17; Prov 12:3,12. Trees
the devil, James 3:15-17. Without a
endures every testing and pressure planted by the devil are rooted up;
doubt spiritual things last; temporal
and remains firm. Thus saving the those planted by the Lord are called
things fade away with time, 2 Cor
soul, Heb 10:39; 2 Tim 2:18. But trees of righteousness and produce
4:18. As a result, those who are
repentance that comes from man’s fruit, Matt 15:13; Isa 61:3.
spiritual always compare spiritual
intellect, emotions or will collapses NOTES
things from above with spiritual
under pressure, is temporary and I believe, therefore, in neither
things from earth and make wise
cannot be sustained, John 1:13; Luke Calvinism or Arminianism, but that
choices to glorify God, 1 Cor 2:13.
8:13.
the truth lies somewhere in between
The Bible clearly reveals two types
True repentance and faith deliver those doctrinal extremes. Calvinism
of repentance: one from above,
the individual. A genuine experience teaches that God predestined some
which results in a change of mind
in the spiritual realm will lead to to eternal salvation and some to
(Greek. metanoen) and another from
spiritual and eternal deliverance, eternal damnation. Arminianism
beneath, an emotional experience,
because the W ord is well-rooted. teaches that the will of an individual
like the remorse that Judas
What Jesus genuinely begins, He determines their eternal destiny.
experienced (Greek. metamelian) 2
finishes; Heb 5:9; Phil 1:6. But others By faith plus human effort and
Cor 7:10; Matt 27:3.
experience the Word in the soulish willpower an individual accepts
A true believer in Jesus Christ realm, receive it gladly, having no Christ as Saviour, but by his own
therefore has a genuine change deep root; Luke 8:13. Many follow strength he must keep himself in the
of mind towards God, sin and self. Christ in the sensory realm, but hands of God. Salvation therefore
rests upon the individual’s strength
The counterfeit experience of never know Him in the Spirit.
to overcome temptation.
repentance appears the same, but
The Word, like salt, in a Christian
the Word has not really transformed
wife sanctifies and preserves an Under both extremes, very weird
the inner man; his contact with
unsaved husband. He is temporarily things often occur. Continued on pg 34
Christ is superficial and his change
April - June 2018
SHARE | MAGAZINE
|
5