Nonsense. Nowhere in the Bible (or anywhere!) do we find the term, “a sure hope” – it doesn’t even make sense - it’s an oxymoron! The very meaning of the word “hope” conveys uncertainty , there is nothing “sure” about it.
Here’s something I’ve learnt over the years: When someone resorts to inventing nonsensical terms (eg, “a sure hope”) and twisting the meaning of plain and simple words of Scripture (eg, “hope”) to accommodate his doctrine, I know for sure that his doctrine is unscriptural and false .
The NT repeatedly (more than 20 times) describes eternal life as a “hope” for a reason, and that reason is that we don’t receive the certainty of eternal life until after we die and are judged by Christ. Until then we can have confidence in our hope, but it is still hope, never a certainty.
Oh, so you think these verses mean every believer will get to Heaven? If that is so, how do you reconcile it with Luke 8:13, where Jesus says some will “believe for a while”, but then later fall away into unbelief?
How do you explain Matt 7:21-23, where Jesus disowns certain believers who became “evildoers”? And how do you reconcile it with the fact that many Christians lose their faith and become atheists?
You fail to understand that the promise of salvation is conditional. When one becomes a believer, one receives a conditional promise of eternal life - one is not immediately granted an irrevocable ticket to Heaven - the ticket you receive on coming to faith is provisional and can be revoked. You are granted eternal life only after you die and are judged worthy by Christ.
Hebrews clearly states that believers can fall away and have their ticket to Heaven revoked and torn up:
4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
It is indeed using the word differently than the way the world customarily does. Assured Christians can hope for death, can they not? That is certainly a sure hope.
There is only one ultimate comfort, and that is being with the Lord. Some of the readers of that early epistle may have been martyred. What is the comfort Paul was referring to?
Hmmm… I was sure that wasn’t true… and then I couldn’t find it when I looked for it, not in any of the translations I found. Perhaps some people have written this into some obscure versions and they certainly claim that passages like Hebrews 6:19 and Titus 1:2 say a certain hope.
Not the way Dale is interpreting it – I agree. I might use the words “a certain hope” but that just means we are certain there is hope not that is a certainty rather than a hope. And that is why Hebrews 6:19 and Titus 1:2 should not be understood in such a way.
And when it changes from hope to certainty then faith upon which it is found changes to entitlement. It is what the man in Matthew 19 wants and what Jesus refuses to give to him. Thinking you have guarantees is the opposite of faith.
By seeing only what you want to see and hearing only what you want to hear.
I don’t think that is what it says, especially in light of and in conjunction with the other evidence already presented (and I’m not pretending to have been exhaustive – there is probably more). The author of Hebrews is presenting an impossible hypothetical – it’s an impossibility if someone does fall away that was truly in God’s family. He is not saying that could actually happen.
So there is still hope for ‘deconverted Christians’, [otherwise not, according to you.] [ETA]
Nonsense, for all the reasons already covered. You have not refuted any. Christians can indeed have confidence. In their powerful Father and their strong elder Brother.
I am confused. First of all, there is no question that God does command us to love others as we love ourselves. Second, I do not know of anyone who wants to come down with the Virus, or to spread it. I assume that this is the reason why at times a mask is required and you comply with this requirement.
But why do you make for yourself this rule.
Don’t other people have a say in how you act if it may put their health in danger.
Paul tells us that eating meat sacrificed to idols is not wrong, but Christians must be careful not to offend the consciences of weaker brother and sisters.
This seems to be judgmental. Jesus told us not to judge. esp. if we do not want others to tell us what to do.
That’s funny. My wife is glad to wear a mask when she goes out, because they help her severe sinus allergies. She is definitely ‘safer’ and less congested when she does. I wear one when I’m mowing.
And then there are all those in the Orient that routinely wear them because they are so unsafe.
The author of the Letter to the Hebrews was writing to Jewish Christians who were getting persecuted from all sides, from the Jews because they converted, from pagans because they were Christian, and possibly from other Christians because of anti-Semitism. They were considering converting back to Judaism because the government was not persecuting Jews and they might be reconciled with their families…
The answer the author of Hebrews gave them was not that they could not reconvert to Judaism, but they would lose too much if they did so. God does give us the ability to choose. If we decide we really do not want eternal life with God, we can say no thank you.
God’s gifts are unconditional, but we must accept them… God does not need us. We need God. He does not force to do anything, esp.to love God.
You know that is judging me for my statement, don’t you? Don’t worry, because judging is not forbidden. Only hypocritical judgment. 1 Corinthians 6:1-7, John 7:1-5
Example #367 of forcing an completely unnatural and woodenly literalistic interpretation onto obvious hyperbole in a text in order to establish a difficulty that otherwise simply isn’t there…?
John 7:1-5 (NIV2011)
1 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him.
2 But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near,
3 Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do.
4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.”
5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.
1 Corinthians 6:1-6 (NIV2011)
1 If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people?
2 Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?
3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!
4 Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned in the church?
5 I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?
6 But instead, one brother takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers!
The problem is not judging issues in a dispute. The problem is judging the salvation of Christians because they do not agree with a political position like Right to Life.
Here you go again, putting a false spin on words of Scripture in order to accommodate your erroneous OSAS doctrine. Nowhere in the Bible the word “believe/belief” split into “intellectual assent and accepting certain ideas” – that is purely a false, unbiblical, man-made invention.
In other words, you’re admitting that your theology relies on twisting the meaning of words of Scripture.
I take your point and I agree with you. Thanks for pointing those verses out to me.
Nevertheless, a hope that is “sure” is still ahope – it is not a certainty, which is what you’re trying to argue. If you understood the Scriptures properly, you wouldn’t need to resort to twisting words of Scripture to mean something they’re not.
When those verses refer to the “hope” that is “sure”, they are referring to the promise of eternal life, which is sure. But the promise is conditional, which is the first reason the promise is repeatedly described in the NT as a “hope” and not as a certainty - the promise will surely be fulfilled, but only IF the believer meets the conditions. We can have confidence in our hope of eternal life, but we don’t know for certain if we will be granted eternal life until we die and are judged worthy of it by Christ – this the second reason the promise of eternal life is repeatedly described as a “hope” ad not as a certainty.
Now all you have to do is figure out what those conditions are, which shouldn’t be hard – all you have to do read your Bible (as opposed to reading false teachings invented by false teachers). You could start with James 2:24 – “a man is justified by works and not by faith alone” – the “works” are keeping the commandments of God.
Really? Pray tell, how did they manage to prophesy, cast out demons and perform miracles (Matt 7:22) if they were “self-deceived”. They could perform those supernatural feats only through the power of Jesus – in other words, at some point they were in Christ and Christ was in them. But they fell way and became “evildoers” (v.23), which is why Jesus ultimately disowned them (“I never knew you, depart from me”).
The moral of the story is, a believer doesn’t gain eternal life until they are judged worthy by Christ, which occurs post-mortem.
Elect, chosen, predestined and given to Jesus by the Father are not conditional words.
He Knows My Name ~ Francesca Battistelli
Spent today in a conversation
In the mirror face to face with
Somebody less than perfect
I wouldn’t choose me first if
I was looking for a champion
In fact I’d understand if
You picked everyone before me
But that’s just not my story
True to who You are
You saw my heart
And made something out of nothing, so
CHORUS
I don’t need my name in lights
I’m famous in my Father’s eyes
Make no mistake
He knows my name
I’m not living for applause
I’m already so adored
It’s all His stage
He knows my name
He knows my name
I’m not meant to just stay quiet
I’m meant to be a lion
I’ll roar beyond a song
With every moment that I’ve got
True to who You are
You saw my heart
And made something out of nothing
CHORUS
He calls me chosen
Free, forgiven
Wanted, child of the King
His forever
Held and treasured
I am loved
I don’t need my name in lights
I’m famous in my Father’s eyes
Yes, fair enough; I was wrong about that. But a hope that is described as “certain” or “sure” or “assured” or “unskakeable” in the NT is still a hope - it is not a certainty. The “hope” refers to the promise of eternal life, a promise that is conditional - which is why it is referred to a “hope” in more than twenty NT verses.
If the conditions are not met by the believer, then the promise is withdrawn and not fulfilled. Rev 12:14 and 14:17 tells us what those conditions are: Keeping God’s commandments and faith in Jesus.
Precisely. The false doctrine of OSAS requires its victims to twist the meaning of certain words and passages of Scripture and to ignore other Scriptures that contradict it.
There’s no getting away from the plain word of Jesus in that passage: “If you would enter life, keep the commandments” (Matt 19:17). In other words, Jesus is saying the promise of eternal salvation has conditions ¬– ie, keeping the commandments.
This conditional promise is what is preached in the Epistles and also in the book or Revelation – for example,
in Gal 5 and 1Cor 6, Paul warns believers that their sins can result in them not inheriting the kingdom of God;
“He who says ‘I know him’ but disobeys his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1John 2:3-6);
”a man is justified by works and not by faith alone” … “faith without works is dead” (James 2:24, 26);
the book of Revelation describes God’s people as those who keep the commandments of God and have faith in Jesus (Rev 12:17, 14:12);
In Rev 2 and 3, Jesus judges believers according to their works, by which believers are deemed “worthy” (Rev 3:4) of eternal life.
If you are merely going with the common, contemporary and conventional understanding of the word. But that does not sound at all like what Paul is saying, nor the author of Hebrews. Please read those passages again, not forgetting the other unconditional words I noted.
