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Daniel of Doulogos Name:Daniel
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian.
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Saturday, March 03, 2007
On Revelation 22:19
Tree of life?  I thought you meant the life of a tree!
and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. Revelation 22:19 [ESV]
Clearly this text =must= prove that you can lose your salvation ...right?

I mean, the wording here seems inescapable! How can God take away your share in the tree of life, and in the holy city unless you have a share to be taken away?

Is this verse the nail in the coffin of eternal security? I don't think so.

The language is pretty specific, but no more specific than what we read Christ saying in Luke 8:
Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away." - Luke 8:18 [ESV]
When we read the alternative accounts of this passage in Matthew 25:29 and Mark 4:25 we see that they do not add the telling "what he thinks that he has" in describing what is taken away. Matthew and Mark simply say that what he has will be taken away. Now, perhaps Matthew and Mark were just careless, or maybe they really didn't agree with Luke, or maybe Luke simply was guessing - but, because I believe God is in control, I am convinced that they meant the same thing Luke did, but didn't think the distinction was all that important to make.

So did these men actually possess a share?

I don't think so.

John makes it plain, the gnostics started out as "Christians" but began to add to God's word things that were not there, and to take away the truth that was there in order to do it. In doing so they went out from orthodoxy and into apostasy demonstrating that they were never genuine in the first place.

So in the one sense, these "branches" that once seemed to be grafted into the vine showed themselves to be bearing the wrong kind of fruit, and because they were they were cast out of the vine - not because they were once genuine and then became disingenuine - but because they were not genuine, and had never truly been genuine. They demonstrated the false nature of their faith by the fruit they produced.

If anyone adds lies to God's word, and removes truth from it - being a pastor, or a church member isn't going to save them on Judgment day - because on that day the counterfeit nature of their faith will be manifest to all. What they seemed to possess (eternal life) will be "taken away from them" - at least, that is how it will seem to them.

Also just an aside. Here is the real global warming story.

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posted by Daniel @ 2:56 PM  
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