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Reply to "Saw This On Facebook -- Supposed Top 10 Christian Cliches!"

Contendah, my Friend,

 

You tell me:

 

The chapter begins (v.3) with an address to "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling." Thus there is absolutely no question about whether saved persons (“Christian believers,” to employ your preferred frame of reference) are being addressed here.

 

Does Paul consider these "holy brethren" to be saved unequivocally, unconditionally, without any concern that such "holy brethren" could lapse into a condition that could separate them from their first love and cause them to depart from the God to whom they committed their lives and souls when they first became Christian believers?  Verses 12-14 powerfully suggest otherwise.  Thus I reproduce them below in whole from the KJV:  Note that this warning is addressed to “brethren” (v. 12), there being absolutely no doubt that the persons addressed are the same as those “holy brethren” of v.3.

 

Have you ever addressed a church group, i.e., a local fellowship?   Did you begin with, "Brothers and sisters (i.e., brethren)"?   Would you declare upon your soul that ALL the people in the audience were truly believers?  Or could some of them have been attending that church -- and still not yet be believers?

 

How many pastors and speakers have you heard begin a message in a church fellowship, "Brothers and sisters. . . "   Was everyone in that congregation a true believer -- or could some have been only social believers?

 

The same thing with Paul.  He addressed a group which he believed to be all believers.  But, was everyone a believer?   Keep in mind that shortly after Paul left, often false teachers jumped right in and started preaching false doctrines.

 

So, when we read of Paul:

 

12. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.

13. But exhort one another daily,. While it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

14. For we have become partakers of Christifwe hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end....”

 

Could he have had that same thought in mind -- that although he addressed the group as brethren -- that some in that group might not yet really be believers -- and those could be led astray and have a hardened heart?   Something to consider.

 

My Friend, you are so intent upon proving Bill Gray wrong -- that I believe you lose sight of the big picture.

 

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

 

Bill

Last edited by Bill Gray

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