Tuesday, 28 October 2008

• REALLY a Christian?

  "I would say that most American Christians aren't even Christian." (source)

  "If it was our responsibility to make sure that we got saved, then certainly we could lose our salvation.  However, it's not, never was, and never will be, thanks be to God!" (source)

  "I don't think it's a question of if we can lose it [salvation], but if we ever truly received it." (source)

  "If someone is soundly saved in the first place they can not lose their salvation. The Holy Spirit will keep them." (source)

  "Salvation is about BELIEVING. You can't "unbelieve" so how could you lose your salvation?" (source)

  "Anyone who says "I'm saved" and then goes and does things that are clearly against scripture and are not repentant and harden their heart - were never saved in the first place." (source)

  All of these quotes have something in common: the belief that there are "christians", and then there are CHRISTIANS.  There are those who were "really" saved and remain so their entire lives, and there are those who only thought they were saved when in fact they were not.  As with all beliefs, there can be found scripture which supports this viewpoint:

  "Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’" Matthew 7:22-23

  I never knew you - it sounds pretty straight-forward.  And yet it's not.  I'm going to stick my own neck out here, and use myself as an illustration.  I used to be a Christian.  For 21 years I was a Christian (17 if you don't want to count the 4 years it took me to learn the English language well enough to be able to say the "sinner's prayer").  So was I "really" a Christian all my life?

  No!  A real Christian wouldn't be able to resist the hand of God.  I must have been unbelieving, reasisting the pull of the Spirit, hardening my heart.

  Except, I did believe.  I had faith even after I left the church, even right up to the point where I realized there was no God.  My faith was so strong, it took an entire paradigm shift for me to be able to finally lay it down.  And isn't that what salvation is - justification by faith through grace?

  "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ... Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Romans 5:1-2, 9-10

  "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus... For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Ephesians 2:4-6, 8-9

  "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified." Romans 8:29-30

  "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one." John 10:28-30

  Assming there is a God, that Jesus was his son, and that the Bible is divinely inspired, these verses show I am unable not to be saved if God calls me.  Did he then not call me?  Did he turn a deaf ear to my pleas for salvation?  Was he toying with me before such time as he hardened my heart (as he did with the king of  Egypt in Moses' day)?  Even more importantly, how could I not have known I was not saved, if in fact I was not, when I believed with all soul (so to speak) that I was?  To answer this last question, we must first know what salvation looks like, and how it is identified.

  "But what does it say? 'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart' (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  For the Scripture says, 'Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.' ... For 'whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.'" Romans 10:8-11, 13

  "Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.  But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.  You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!" James 2:17-19

  "Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked." 1 John 2:3-6

  Here we go from "public confession of faith", to "faith-inspired works", to "perfect obedience" as evidence of salvation.  But which is it?  Is claiming salvation enough, or is a blameless lifestyle required?  Or is it some sort of compromise between these 3 verses, some sort of Cerberus?  No wonder believers have difficulty knowing who is "really" saved and who isn't.  Only God himself could possibly sort this mess out!

  "So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, 'Surely the LORD’s anointed is before Him!'
  But the LORD said to Samuel, 'Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.'" 1 Samuel 16:6-7

  If even a prophet of the Lord cannot tell, what great arrogance is it for anyone else to claim to know who the "real" Christians are!  The simple fact is, you don't know.  You can't tell me how real or fake my salvation was.  You can only make an educated guess, based on what dogma you have already accepted as fact.  This brings me back to the main question, of whether or not someone who has left the faith was ever really a Christian to begin with.

  "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame."  Hebrews 6:4-6

  The Scriptures themselves acknolwedge the existance of those who were legitimately in Christ, and have now departed.  I affirm this, that I was as true a Christian as there ever was, and am now not.  But after "partaking in the Holy Spirit", how could I have "snatched myself out of  the Father's Hand"?   Isn't that impossible?  Jesus himself promised us as much!

  I have much more to say on the subject that I don't have the time or space to include here today, so I'll draw this to a close.  There are many irreconcilable differences between the authors of the New Testament texts on what Christianity is all about, what it looks like, and how permanent it is.  My conclusion then is that "real" Christianity is meaningless.  There is no difference between "real" Christians and people who only think they're Christians.  There is no divinely inspired scripture.  There is no salvation.  There is no God.

   

  Oh, and to all the Christians out there who are going to tell me the true reasons I left the faith, I've heard it all before.

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