"Therrington"
"You fail to understand what eternal life is. Once a person accepts Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, they can never be lost. Even if they later fall back into sin. The Lord will not allow His children to stay there; He will either correct them or they will die prematurely. Also, if a truly saved person later turns back to sin they will never be happy or have any joy while they are living this way. Look at Lot. His life was tragic, yet the Scripture says, "And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:" 2Peter 2:7. In spite of his wickedness, God delivered him from Sodom.
"While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled." John 17:12."
"Guest"
"It is impossible for one of God's choosen to be eternaly lost. He or she can be lost in time and will suffer in time for their sins. God choose his people before the world was and no man can pluck them out the father's hand. I am a man - I can not be eternally lost if I have been choosen from the foundation of the world. Men are not saved eternally by confessing their sins. Men confess their sins because they are saved eternally. Men are re generated by the work of God not by the work of their selves or some other person. Being a church member does not give us a home in heaven neither does non church membership send us to hell."
If what you say is correct, then what need have the righteous to live by faith "from first to last" (Hab.2:4; Rom.1:16-17; Gal.1:6-9?
And would you please explain 2Pet.2 to me? Based on the NIV translation, to whom does the "you" refer at the end of the first sentence of verse 1 and to whom does the "they" refer at the begining of the second sentence of verse 1? Furthermore, what does God (Jesus), through Peter, then go on to say about the "they" in the rest of the chapter?
If the "you" refers to the Body of believers out of which the "they" (false teachers) came, "even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them" (verse 1), this surely must mean that they were formerly true believers since as members of the Body of Christ they would have stuck out like a sore thumb if they tried to pass themselves off as believers in the early Church (Acts 5:12-14) and there is no way that the Body would have allowed them to teach unless they were mature believers (1Tim.3 esp. v6)?!
Also, "Therrington", on what basis do you traduce Lot's character by referring to him as "wicked" since the Scriptures do no such thing?
Furthermore, what about Judas Iscariot the "son of perdition" who, along with the other 11 deciples, was given by the Father to Jesus but yet was still lost (Fr. perdit) so that the scriptures might be fulfilled? (As one of the pastors at a Church I once attended during my earlier walk as a Christian once preached: "Usefulness in God's service is no guarantee of holiness in God's sight!")
Food for thought?
Yours, in His service,
Simonline.