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I was listening to your mp3 bible study in Mark about the parable of the sower. I was saved (I believe) when I was 14 years old, I had no support system as I was the only family member that believed, and all my friends were non-believers also. I have been living as a defeated Christian for years, I have always longed for Jesus’ return yet I have never until recently read the bible or even heard of OSAS. Is it possible that I was the seed that fell on rocky ground? I have lost interest in many of the things I used to enjoy, all I do now is study the bible and your bible study mp3’s.

I have a question about post-church salvation. I think I agree with your view about OSAS being only for the church, I wonder how it would be possible for tribulation believers to maintain their own salvation. Isn’t it impossible in any context? Will the Holy Spirit be helping them keep up their strength?

I agree with OSAS, and I concur with the reasons you state. My question, therefore, is for clarification, not to be argumentative. If it is my sin nature, not I that offends after Salvation, why must I continue to confess and ask for forgiveness when I transgress? (I do, and I will continue, but I’m just curious about the logic.)

As a follow up to OSAS and Galatians 5, is it possible for a believer to voluntarily surrender his or her salvation? I have a brother-in-law who got saved and left the Catholic church many years ago, then recently returned to Catholicism because now he believes he has to have the sacraments to be saved. Other members of the family believe he may have lost his salvation. How can I explain to them that he has not?

The recent question “what makes the narrow path hard?” brings up an interesting issue for me. If someone is saved by understanding only God’s Grace can make it possible for them to be saved, then falls into the grace/works mindset that is so common in today’s Church, have they left the narrow way, and will they end up being lost?

Thank you for your insight that must be God-given. My parents were instrumental in my spiritual growth, and are very knowledgeable. However, they belong to a church that doesn’t recognize Israel’s rebirth as prophecy fulfilled, don’t believe OSAS, the bodily resurrection, the rapture…I could go on. They (my parents), however, do believe these things. When asked why they stay in that church, they say, “there are many people within that church that believe as we.” I believe that they remain because they’ve gone there for so many years. Should they leave that church for one that adheres more closely to scripture? Thank you.

I concur that the work of the Cross was and is sufficient to remove the stain of sin in any and all souls, but what happens with those repetitive sins that are not repented of (turning away from)? OSAS gives argument to the devil’s claim in Job that Job only does it because he has no choice. God did protect his life that he might repent and be forgiven for it, but it would have been Job’s choice to do so.

I believe salvation will come at the end of this life and no being can forcibly take that hope from you, but life is your profession of faith in Christ. Faith is action not mental acceptance. James ask the question “Where’s your faith if you are not living it?” Can a belief that shows no trust save a person? How can you claim to wish a person well while you, having what they need, will not give it to them?

When God called me into the ministry of the Gospel, He did so from Isaiah 58:1, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” It is not my desire to prove you wrong and myself right but that it is only the righteous (obedient, sometimes through repentance) that will inherit the kingdom. If I am wrong then we have not lost anything, but if I am right, then some will loose everything.

Here’s another follow-up to “OSAS And Unanswered Prayer.”

You listed four things that you believe can prevent believers from being delivered from their afflictions, putting a very fine point on the issue:

1. Lack of faith, 2. Unconfessed sins, 3. Subconscious feelings that we deserve to be afflicted, 4. Secret desire to remain where we are.

My questions are these:

1. If we have a subconscious feeling that we deserve to be afflicted, does God hold this against us? (if so, why?). Your answer seems to imply this.

2. If we are held responsible for things of which we are not conscious, how do we recognize this and “repent” of it?

This is a very serious set of questions for me as I am very introspective, know I cannot fully understand what’s going on inside me, so it would seem that I am doomed to a life of (mostly) unanswered prayer.

Re: 2 Tim. 2:11-13. I believe in eternal security. Even when we stumble and fall, God will be faithful to his word. But I know many commentaries try to make it sound like if a Christian denies Christ, Christ will turn his back on that Christian. Even in Matthew, Jesus says is someone denies Christ, Christ will deny him before the father. So what is this “denial” referring to since we are eternally secure in Christ?