Cold Feet And "Once Saved Always Saved"
Greg Lauer from A Little Strength has an excellent article tackling what many of us presently struggle with: cold feet in regards to the rapture and also the assurance of our salvation. Very much worth reading and carefully considering. Read the full article here.
Thank you Gary for letting us know about this article, studies like that are very much needed! The notion of the *eternal security* of the believer (aka OSAS) is under ENORMOUS attack! (I’ve noticed that for a good while.) Same goes for the thought that ALL born again believers are included in the rapture! It could be disheartening when I find otherwise good pre-trib prophecy sites that hold partial-rapture and anti-OSAS views. It is very sad that pro-OSAS and anti-partial rapture prophecy websites (and ministries) seem to be the minority.
ReplyDeleteThank you. There seem to be a surprising number of professing Christians who have set out to establish their own righteousness rather than submit to God's (Romans 10).
DeleteWhat amazes me is that the official doctrine of many of these churches is Protestant/Sola Fide, yet their pastors and members reject the Gospel in practice.
True. :/ Many of them also believe that God Himself makes us sick to make us "better" Christians through sickness and all kind of sufferings. This is another awful and -I believe so- false doctrine that is so widely spread within the Church. Scripture tells us that God has already chosen to see us blameless and perfect in Christ (the way we will be in eternity). We will be completely perfected at the Rature/Resurrection. We are still sinners with a sin nature, daily confession of sins is important to maintain our earthly fellowship with Him (which can be suspended by sins while our union with Him is eternally secure), striving to live a life pleasing to Him out of gratitude is important as well but the Lord is so loving and so merciful beyond our current ability to really get it, He is the One who makes lemonade from our lemons and not the other way around. (The apostle Paul actually prayed for believers to have the ability to understand and to learn about the fullness of the love of God.)
Delete(grammar correction: "at the Rapture")
DeleteThanks for the mention! I am truly humbled. I honestly felt led to write this, because I have interacted with several people recently who seemed to be mature believers who leaned strongly toward a pre-trib Rapture, yet were just eaten up with doubts about their salvation.
ReplyDeleteSome are toying with the idea of a partial Rapture (something I addressed in an article a little over a year ago), but some are getting trapped on the heartbreaking treadmill of doubt about their salvation. Satan is pulling out all the stops to put as many believers as possible in the hurt locker and render them ineffective in their witness. After all, it buys him time--at least in his mind.
I read Gary's excellent piece on this subject while I was actually working on my article, and that just served to confirm to me that this is something that some folks out there need to hear right now.
PS If anyone is interested in taking a look at what I wrote about the partial Rapture, you can view it here:
http://www.alittlestrength.com/articles/2016/1603-rupture.htm
Nice work, gentlemen—Gary and Greg. Keep fighting for the faith once and for all entrusted to the saints (Jude 3)!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this! We'd love for you to share it on DailyPS! We currently have a poll asking (yes or no) on the question, "Once Saved, Always Saved" - This would go great with the conversation! Here's a link: https://dailyps.com/once-saved-always-saved/
ReplyDeleteThanks again!