Q&A: Fallen Believers

Question: How do I know if my friend has tasted the Spirit and has fallen from the born anew state?

In Hebrews 6| 4 – 6, we are instructed that salvation is once and done. If one forfeits the salvation he cannot be renewed again in repentance.

5 And again in this passage he (God) said,

“They shall not enter my rest.”

6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,

“Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts.”

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. 9 So then, there remains a 👉🏻Sabbath rest for the people of God[1], 10 for whoever has 👉🏻entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may 👉🏻 fall by the same sort of disobedience.

[1] Joseph Barabas did not distinguish the people of God to be different for Jews and Gentiles.

The answer lies in the text above in verse 6: Did your friend enter the rest? Maybe he did or maybe he did not even know about such a step. The premises says the person may receive the Gospel (good news) and yet have loitered outside the entrance of entering the rest (sabbath) out of disobedience. Therefore, when these people confess, they must include in their words their disobedience to God.

The passage above distinguishes between four stages:

– Hearing the Gospel
– Entering God’s rest
– Resting from one’s work and efforts
– Salvation

It appears that the modern Church is muddled on this passage. Many congregations preach a false message that once you confess you are saved, circumventing the entering into resting, obedience to God through Christ and then the state of salvation.

Further we had a discussion on those who fall away. This group of people would be described by those who once tasted the Spirit and they rebel (apostacy). It is impossible for them to renew their repentance again.

The text in discussion was from 2 Thessalonians 2

5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked 👉🏻💥deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to 💥 love the truth and so be 💥saved.

11 Therefore God sends them a 👉🏻working of error (Gk. planay, Eng. astray), so that they may believe what is false, 12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

This coincides with the end times before the emergence of the son of perdition, commonly interpreted to be the 💩ntichrist.

That moment has arrived today in 2020.

By examining Romans 11, we only understand that it is the “other end” of the age of grace where the fullness of the Gentiles is over.

– – –

Romans 11

5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise 👉🏻 grace would no longer be grace.

7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The 👉🏻elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, 8 as it is written,

“God gave them a 👉🏻spirit of stupor,

eyes that would not see

and ears that would not hear,

down to this very day.”

Those in the apostacy (esp. you see on fb) have departed and rebelled from the true faith. Their eyes and ears no longer see and hear in a spirit of stupor.

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