Are you confident of your place in heaven? Or do you worry that you might somehow sin and thereby lose your salvation? What are your thoughts on this? I'm reading the monthly In Touch Ministry by Dr Charles Stanley and this is the question posed...and it made me think about with Easter approaching and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ at Calvary and our eternal security...I think there was an old thread on this a few years ago??anyway...I'll post his thoughts on this later...

I can't just sin and lose it, there is something to that eternal security. I do believe that I can reject it however, not that I would mind you! (Has to to with blasphemy of the Holy Spirit)

hmm... I'm still undecided. Yeah, there's eternal security, but there's also free will, responsibility, and a few other 'ilities... Either way, it's a conscious choice someone makes, otherwise it's not sin.

Are you confident of your place in heaven? Yeppers!

do you worry that you might somehow sin and thereby lose your salvation? Nope!

If I accepted Christ as my personal Lord and Saviour I am promised a place in Heaven. When I accepted Christ it was a a contrite and repentant person who knew that this new life began with a renewing of the mind. Also of putting off the old man and becoming a new man.

That people is a process, not something that happenes overnight. Yes. . .I can fall away and even grieve the Holy Spirit because of the hardness of my heart but I cannot lose that salvation. But I WILL lose rewards or blessings for not being obedient to Him and His Word.

And because I CHOOSE to grieve the Holy Spirit I will also be one miserable person.

Just my 2 cents. . .

Couldn't agree more with Trusting_Him... Salvation is there for us to claim it. It's like a hundred dollar bill that is practically ours to keep, but we only receive it when we open our hands to accept it. Same theory. Salvation is there for each for us, and by accepting this salvation through Jesus Christ, we are assured of our place in heaven.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Are you confident of your place in heaven? Or do you worry that you might somehow sin and thereby lose your salvation? </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">In the bible there is a person who was sinning and turned away from God and the Spirit left him for a while. (Although not sure where or who in the bible it was referring to.)

If we turn away from God and reject Him and live a sinful life, I believe the spirit could possibly leave us. At that point if we we're to die we would not inherit the kingdom of God as the Spirit of God would not be found in us.
(My belief is based on the foundation of that verse which I've been unable to find.)

Even though I know and believe the following verses, I'm still afraid if I were to turn away from God and live a sinful life, that I would surely die and go to hell. So yes, I believe we can lose or rather reject our salvation.

Romans 8:9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them are not Christians at all.)

Ephesians 1:14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us everything he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious God.

Ephesians 4:30 And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he is the one who has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">If we turn away from God and reject Him and live a sinful life, I believe the spirit could possibly leave us. At that point if we we're to die we would not inherit the kingdom of God as the Spirit of God would not be found in us.
(My belief is based on the foundation of that verse which I've been unable to find.) </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I've struggled with this often but because of recent events I finally decided in what I will believe.

Put it into the context of your children. Is there anything...anything that they can do that would stop you from loving them.

OK....now you have that thought in your mind...

Is there anything...anything that your children can do that will take away their status as YOUR child?

OK....with me so far

Eph 1:5 having predestined us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,

Joh 1:12 But as many as received Him, He gave to them authority to become the children of God, to those who believe on His name,

believe in His name occurs 3 times in John. It refers to not what He is called but to what His name stand for, mainly the Lord is Salvation.

To those that believe, to them is given the right to become children of God. As each person trust in Jesus for they are given the gift of eternal life with him in Heaven.

Now we as parents may draw away from our children to allow them to grow or suffer, whatever the situation calls for but we would never take our love or their status as our children away from them.

Just as God or the Holy Spirit may draw away from us for those same things...ie. to allow us to grow or suffer but that gift of eternal life is NEVER taken away from us. We may lose some of our benefits or treasures that God had planned for us in Heaven but not our eternal life.

What happens if we greive or turn from the Holy Spirit. Me personally...I think God throws up Hs hands in disgust and says, OK....you want to go it alone, it's yours...have at it.

Usually....and that is usually...after a period of struggle, sometimes intense pain and loss we finally realize what our true problem is and turn back to God.

Chapter 10 of "A Purposr Driven Life" covers this surrender aspect pretty good.

Just me tooting my horn on what I think...

These verses are where I get my "rejection theology" as it were. Blasphemy is defined as taking credit from one and keeping it or giving it wrongly to another.

Mark 3:29
But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin."

Luke 12:10
And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

If I were to reject the truth that the Holy Spirit raised Christ, who was wholly dead. Or any of the other miracles done by the Holy Spirits power. I flat will not get forgiven, ergo I will not go to Heaven.

(Now that doesn't discredit what others have said about basic sins and turning our backs on God and such)

OK...so let's ask another question here.

In Mark 3:20 Christ is talking to the "teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem", these people were not and had not accepted the teachings of Christ.

And evem most of Luke can be broked down into Christ techings as he warns others against the Doctrine of the Pharisees.

I'll have to dig deeper but I believe he was talking to unbelivers, those who had not accepted His teachings. In that case...then no, they will not go to heaven.

But...in this case...here today. Are we talking about one who truly repented and followed Christ at one time. . .or. . .one who had never known Christ?

hmmm... those people at that exact point in time may have been given a free pass. Jesus died for our sins, but hadn't yet at that point. Even from the cross He forgave because they didn't know what they were doing.

I think the discussion is about those who know and then reject. Those who don't know... I don't think they are responsible for what they don't know.

This is a question I have been dealing with alot lately - I have accepted Jesus, fallen to sin, and not led a Godly life at all times, so do my actions reflect that I have rejected the Holy Spirit?

No. What your actions reflect is your humanness and you just need to keep,praying and doing your best.

I believe that too (at least I am coming around to that view)

God doesn't expect perfection, there wouldn't have been a reason to send His Son to die for us then. King David was 'a man after God's own heart' yet he committed adultery and had someone murdered. Check out Romans chapt 6:
http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=ROM+6

Then go forward into chapters 7 and 8:

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">
28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

That's worth getting excited about

Thanks for the verses Allen

Unconventional - I will admit though sometimes I feel like I am not trying my hardest to keep from sinning - i.e., I may know what I am doing is wrong, but I do it anyway. Would this change anything about your post?

The fact is sin is wrong and repentence is difficult.

In most of the germanic languages I know, the word for repentence is really an amalgamation of words that, if translated directly, mean "to turn around." (German = Umkehren, Norwegian = Omvend). The implication here is that when we repent, truly repent that is, we turn away from our sin and do it no more.

Personally, and everyone here that has read my posts knows this, I think the concept of having a "born again" experience and thereby being "saved" for life is bogus. To have the "born again" experience means that we are simply on the path to true conversion. Without continuing on that path by striving to live a Christ-like life and truly repenting when we are in sin or error, we will never truly reach that state where our conversion is complete. While we can take confidence that through the atonement of Christ we can all be saved - we can only maintain that confidence as we strive to do all that he has asked us to do (i.e. avoid intentional sin and when we sin otherwise - repent). I submit that while we can be sure in the Savior's redeeming blood, we have no security with regard to ourselves and how we are living up to the covenant we've made with Christ - we only know that if we are living up to our end of the bargain, Christ's grace will be sufficient for our salvation. Personally, I'm going to keep working at it until I die.

Hey rustjs1 Here is an old devotional that I wrote on repentance. Just remember there is no guilt with conviction. In the definition of repent it is in much agreement with Joels post.

CLICK HERE