Again, not what I said. At no point did I say that every sin and bad behavior is based on how close one is to God. I have even gone out of my way to state that sometimes it is just based on bad choices. Not every sin or bad decision is because "the devil made me do it". Swaggert, Bakker, and Freeze may have sinned so spectacularly because the whole image was a sham to begin with and they were never as close to God as they made it appear. Regardless, all Satan can do is put something in our path or try to divert us to another path. We still make a choice of whether to go down that path or not.
I'm not sure how I could explain this any more clearly. Satan does put things into paths of Christians to discourage them or divert them away from their pursuit of God. I have witnessed this in my own life as well as the lives of others I care about. This effort of Satan does in some cases intensify when one is in a period of strong growth and pursuit of God to try and prevent this growth and pursuit of God. This does NOT mean that every bad behavior or sin is brought on by Satan knocking someone off of their pedestal. Sometimes we are just stupid and make bad choices. Sometimes the person who appeared to have it all together and had a great fall from grace was never that close to God to begin with and has made bad choices that are just now coming to light.
AlCoDog was right on with his mention of Screwtape Letters. That book directly deals with the topic that I'm trying to discuss here and is a great read that I would recommend to anyone.
Christ scorned the accusers with "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone"... calling out their hypocrisy.
But he also told the woman "Go and sin no more"... meaning she wasn't off the hook to go back to her lifestyle. He didn't mean that she was expected to become sinless perfection. But with forgiveness comes the expectation that we will not continue in the same path of rebelliousness.
I have seen no uptick in interest by "satan" as I have grown closer to God in my life.
YYou can lose your salvation as a result of your lifestyle not being in accordance with His commandments.
You can't, as the Bible is clear that the "once saved, always saved" doctrine is false. You can lose your salvation as a result of your lifestyle not being in accordance with His commandments.
There needs to be repentance in order for forgiveness to be given, which is the point that i believe the BSU gentleman was making. We can't make blanket statements about forgiving someone unless they have shown a clear turning from whatever it is that they need forgiving of.
I've seen a few posts asking about Pinelake and Southern Baptists in general, which includes me. The Baptist Press published this yesterday which includes a prepared statement from Pinelake. I do wish they had talked to pastors who are not close friends or allies of Hugh, just to give it some balance. I don't necessarily think a non-OM pastor would have said much different, which would have made the message of repentance and forgiveness that much stronger IMO.
The Bible is clear that all sin is equal in the eyes of God.
1 John 5:16-17If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.
Serious question.
How do you reconcile this statement.....there needs to be evidence of repentance in order for grace to be fully given
With...once saved always saved
Can someone more familiar with such things explain this quote to me?
"The closer a man is to God, the greater the temptations and the pressures are," Cooper said
This isn't necessarily true. I have a friend who confessed to his wife the Ashley Madison stuff, they rebuilt their relationship and then like 6 months later the list is made public and he was/is public scorned because of it. Just wanted to point out to be careful of saying "none of these"It IS amazing that none of these so called 'good' Christians repent BEFORE they get caught.