QUESTIONS SERIES: What do you say to someone who has lost a loved how is a non-believer?
First of all, I would say that no one truly knows a person’s spiritual state before God. There have been many stories of people who have not bothered with God all of their lives. Then, during their final moments on this planet, they asked Christ to save them. Just as Jesus saved one of the thieves on the cross beside him hours before his death, he can do the same for someone who truly repents and asks Christ to save them – even just before they leave this life. So, we just don’t know each person’s spiritual condition.
QUESTIONS SERIES: What is the most important thing for a new believer to do?
Perhaps the best thing for a new believer to do is to engage right away in what we call – The Spiritual Life Process. All too often, people begin a new relationship with God – and then drift and never fully engage in their new Christian life.
The Spiritual Life Process is a biblical approach to help new Christians begin to live life the way God intended. It’s spiritually mature Christians passing on life with God to others.
It starts off with KNOWING. Knowing is the starting place where new believers begin to learn the basic teachings of the Bible and start to build a spiritual foundation. This is crucial since there is a lot of confusing information out there about the Bible. In this step, a new believer learns to read, interpret and apply the Bible for themselves.
The next part of the process is LIVING OUT. Once a new believer is grounded in the basic teachings of the Bible, they learn to live out Christ in them wherever they go: with family, at work, with friends, with neighbors, etc.
Next, is CULTIVATING your spiritual life with God on a daily basis. A new believe stays close with God and others by engaging in spiritual practices such as prayer, Bible reading and study, worship, silence and solitude, serving, fellowship, etc.
The fourth step in the process is EXPERIENCING. As a new believer engages in KNOWING, LIVING OUT and CULTIVATING, the result will be that he or she will experience what is known in Scripture as the “fruit of the Spirit” in their lives on a daily basis – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness and self-control. Perhaps nothing matches living life with God and experiencing the fruit of the Spirit.
Finally, the process would not be complete if we stopped here. The Bible tells that we need to be involved in PASSING ON the life that God has given us to others (Matthew 28:19-20; 2 Timothy 2:2; Romans 10:14-17).
As a new believer enters into this process, they will truly begin to live life the way God intended.
QUESTIONS SERIES: If it’s all God’s will, do we have any control over our lives?
This question touches on a spiritual area that is often misunderstood. Do we have the ability to make free will choices? Or, is God completely in control of everything – to the point where we don’t have free will? The premise may stated as – either God predetermines all or he is not in control. What does the Bible say about this?
The Bible tells us that God gave human beings the power to make some choices – such as moral choices and also some spiritual choices. For instance, John 1:12 says, But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name.
The word receive connotes a spiritual choice that we make to receive God’s offer of life with Christ. Receiving God’s offer of salvation to humankind is a choice. We can accept it or reject it.
We’re not free to make any spiritual choice that we want. For instance, we’re not free to choose to become God or even divine. He is the creator and we’re created beings.
Some have said that if we’re really free to make some moral and spiritual choices, then that’s contrary to God’s grace. But God’s grace is never forced on us (Eph 2:8-9). His grace works persuasively in our lives – but God never forces himself on us.
Furthermore, the Bible tells us that God knows omnisciently what each person will do (1 Peter 1:2 “according to his foreknowledge”; Romans 8:29). But that foreknowledge that God has doesn’t interfere with the free choices that he allows us to make.
A good example may be as follows:
The Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys are playing a game. But, you’re busy and you can’t watch it live so you taped it on TiVO. You know the outcome of the game – who won and what happened.
Now, you’re watching the taped game. You already knew the details about the big play of the game – a 50 yeard touchdown by Clinton Portis. But you watch it happen again on the TiVO taped broadcast of the game. On this play, you see Clinton Portis gets the ball and he goes right tackle for the 50 yard touchdown.
Here’s the thing. You knew what he was going to do … where he was going to run – but, as you watched that tape — Clinton Portis still had the freedom to choose to go right tackle or left tackle. He chose to go right. Your foreknowledge of what he would choose to do didn’t interfere with him to make that choice. It’s the same thing with God. He knows what our choices will be – he’s already seen the tape of complete time — from eternity past to eternity future – but that foreknowledge doesn’t interfere with our freedom to choose.
There are some times when God will intervene in human affairs and control things in a way that he wants. But, that still doesn’t negate his basic free gift of choice that he gives us.
QUESTIONS SERIES: If you pray to be saved but fall away from the church, are you still saved?
This fourth question in the list from our Open Forum service on 8/2 is one that can cause a lot of anxiety in the hearts and minds of Christ-followers.
Unpacking this questions means dealing with two things: 1) What evidence should be present in a Christian if they are truly born-again or saved? 2) When someone becomes born-again and experiences salvation, can he or she ever lost it?
EVIDENCE THAT YOU’RE A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST:
In John 14, Jesus gives us the clear evidence of a follower of Christ: If you love me, you will obey what I command (John 14:15). Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him … Jesus replied, ‘If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me’ (John 14:21, 23-24).
The evidence of a true conversion or a true born-again experience is the willingness to obey the teachings of Jesus. No one is perfect except Christ and we all sin from time to time (If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us - 1 John 1:8). So, we know that Jesus wasn’t talking here in John 14 about being perfect. Rather, he was referring to the basic heart of a follower of Christ. For example, when we realize that we’re doing something that is contrary to the teachings of Jesus, we readily change our ways or thinking – and readily embrace that teaching – asking for God’s help to live it out in our lives.
What are the teachings of Christ? The whole New Testament contains the teachings of Christ to us. Again, no one is perfect – but, the main thing is … Are we fully surrendered or fully willing to do what God wants us to do? The evidence of this heart condition in the life journey of a genuine follower of Christ will be seen in the life-change that Jesus and the New Testament mentions.
That life-change also means that there will be a sensitivity to sin once it happens. The Bible gives us a great promise that we can go to Jesus and confess our sin to him – and repent of it – when we do mess up and do wrong.
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One (1 John 3:1).
How long should a follower of Jesus feel bad about their sin? About 10 seconds! That’s how long it takes to confess it to Christ and experience his restoration of a clear conscience before God.
ONCE A PERSON IS TRULY BORN-AGAIN, CAN HE OR SHE EVER LOSE THEIR SALVATION?
In short, the answer is no. The Bible tells us that we cannot lose our salvation. The following are some key passages of Scripture that tell us this:
1. God accomplished what he wanted to through our salvation so it’s permanent for the Christian and cannot be lost.
And those He predestined, He also called; and those He called, He also justified; and those He justified, He also glorified (Romans 8:30).
2. All of the spiritual blessings that we receive when we are saved depend on God – and not us – so they can’t be reverses by us.
~ We receive eternal life when we are saved. It isn’t “eternal” if we can lose it.
For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
~ Receiving eternal life is a gift from God. And, if we can’t gain salvation by “good works” we can’t lost it by doing “bad works.” (John 10:28; Ephesians 2:8; Romans 6:23).
~ When we are born-again or saved, we become part of God’s own possession.
The Good Shepherd doesn’t lose His sheep (John 10:28-29).
God’s seal on our lives can’t be erased (Ephesians 1:13,14).
~ When we are born-again or saved, we are “in Christ.”
A part of Christ’s “Body” can’t be taken away (1 Corinthians 12:13).
We cannot be lost after we are hidden in Christ (Colossians 3:3).
Nothing can separate us from Christ (Romans 8:38,39).
~ When we’re born again or saved, we’re forgiven of past, present and future sin (Colossians 3).
~ When we’re born-again or saved, we become a child of God (John 1:12) so nothing can keep us from being his child – forever.
These are just a few reasons that we’re eternally secure once we are saved.
QUESTIONS SERIES: Why is the Bible an authority on God’s Word?
The deeper question may be – Is the Bible a book of the words of God given to humankind? Or, is the Bible merely a work of the words of men about God? If it’s truly from God himself, how do we know that?
First of all, the Bible claims to be God’s words to humankind. The testimony of the Apostle Paul verifies this idea. Paul was the apostle chosen by Jesus to unveil the deeper things of the early church to the world (Ephesians 3).
Paul said that All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). The words “All Scripture” refer to the Old Testament and by inference to the New Testament too. For instance, at or around the writing of his second letter to Timothy, Paul mentions that people were accepting his letters as the authoritative word of God to them. And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe (1 Thessalonians 2:13).
Secondly, if the Bible is the very words of God to us, then it should stand out as something profoundly different than any other book. It would stand on its own – apart from all other books. If it’s just a collection of writings from men about God – then it would be like any other book.
In Josh McDowell’s book, Evidence That Demands a Verdict, he lays out the Bible’s uniqueness. He said that if the Bible is God’s words to us, it would have to have the following characteristics:
1) It would be widely distributed so man could attain it easily
2) It would be preserved through time without corruption
3) It would be completely accurate historically.
4) It would not be prone to scientific error or false beliefs held by the people of that time.
5) It would present true, unified answers to the difficult questions of life.
The Bible is the only alleged divine writing that can claim all of the above statements. No other alleged divine book compares to the Bible.
For the other evidence to validate the Bible as God’s words to us, click here and read the blogs entitled: Faith On Trial: Part 3, How do we know that the Bible is God’s Word to us?
Also click here for more external evidence (i.e., evidence outside of the Bible that validates it as from God himself) – The Bible – Ancient Treasure.
For a blog on how important fulfilled prophecy is in reference to validating the Bible as the words from God to us, click here.
If you want more information on this question, visit Josh McDowell’s site and his answers to this question (click here).
