nikolai_42
Well-known member
Thanks for your well-thought-out reply.
So, all of the many dire warnings about losing salvation,
not entering the kingdom, not entering the New Jerusalem,
not being in the Book of Life, etc.
are aimed at those in the churches who are not born-again?
I would answer "yes". Just as the Lord didn't turn around right away and tell the masses who followed Him because He multiplied loaves and fishes and said "You are false believers" (instead telling them something that they cannot stomach and making THEM turn away from Him), He appears to tolerate those who are not fundamentally committed to Him to be considered part of His church - and in dealing with them He does so on the basis of their shortcomings and failures that are had because they, in fact, are NOT born again. He tells the disciples to let the wheat and the tares grow up together so that, in the pulling up of the tares, the actual wheat isn't dislodged. In other words, there is a time and a place for separation of the sheep and the goats, but in scripture the exhortations and rebukes are in service of that ultimate winnowing. They have the effect of making clear the difference between those who are and those who are not Christ's. He doesn't have to make the final judgment of a man's spiritual condition before the end - but they, in effect, are showing the fruits of those who are not (yet?) born again. He chastises them in order to bring them to that place of being born again.
At least that's how I see it.
EDIT : Thinking a bit more on this after posting, Jesus indication that man's condemnation would not come from His own lips but from their words (and actions) tells me that they (in essence) judge themselves to be unsaved. Thus, in John 5:45 He says that Moses judges the Pharisees - that He won't accuse them to the Father. And in Matthew 12:36-37, our judgment is based on our own words (and actions). Not that we make up the law, but they will be used against (or for) us on judgment day. So one of the effects of the words of false professors of faith is that they claim much but in the end it will be those claims that the Lord will raise in judgment against them because (as I believe) they were never saved. Like He said, His words will be "I NEVER knew you..."
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