Enough faith?

Hi, Benjamin.

Sounds like you have a good approach. I'm sure it will work out fine with your friend as you bathe your approach with prayer. Let me share a couple of approaches I've used for teaching assurance of salvation.

First of all, I sometimes use Rom. 8:38-39 to teach that once we are trusting in Christ, we are kept by His love, and not any thing nor anybody can take us away from His love. This passage pretty much covers it all. I might say, "Can the Devil take you away from God's love?" Nope, of course not! Or I might say, "Can you yourself take you away from God's love according to these verses?" Nope.

If there is a child nearby I'll illustrate this by asking the child to take a coin out of my closed fist. Of course the child can't, so I point out that God has infinite power, so no one can take us out of His hand. John 10:27-29 is also great for this.

My second approach can be done also with John 10:27-29, or with any other verse that speaks of us becoming God's children, such as John 1:12. I'll point out that once you are in a family you can't get out. You can't change your genetic makeup even if you run away from home and change your family name!

My God bless and help you.

 

I hope it's ok if I add something here - it sort of sounds like he is trusting in his amount of faith for his salvation. We have faith that God will save us, but that faith is because we have read the Word of God and we believe what's written in there. It's not a blind faith that gropes around looking for something to grab onto and hoping something's there in the dark. This is a faith that comes by the hearing of the Word of God.

However, once we've trusted in Christ, called on His name, placed ourselves in His care, then even if our faith wavers we are saved. My salvation is not dependent on my keeping up hope in my heart, or in my sincerity......after all, would I still be saved if I got Alzheimer's and forgot all about God? Yes.....so our faith is not what's keeping us saved...it is Jesus Christ and Him alone.

 

Hi, bapmom. Well said.

Interesting that you should mention Alzheimer's and faith. My father died with Alzheimer's, and by then he had forgotten almost everything. But when Mom checked him into the hospital for the last time, she asked him what to put under "religion" on the form. He said, "I don't have a religion, I have a Savior!" Then while in the hospital before being moved to hospice care, he kept trying to hold services for the other patients, using a magazine as a songbook and Bible.

Faith is a function of our heart, and not our brain. Alzheimer's can attack the brain and in that way the mind, but it can't touch the heart!

By the way, how is deputation going? Praying for you.

 

what a great testimony! Thank you for sharing it.

deputation is starting slow and yet with a bang. lol Richard needs to get his schooling going first and he just found out today that he has to take a few more classes then he'd first anticipated, but he'll be able to do the correspondence while on deputation.

our prayer card keeps getting messed up, so a man in our church is going to help us out with that.

and we are working on the possibility of getting an RV for our family to travel in. Please pray about that with us, as that is our (well, my) largest concern right now - we need to be able to live somewhere here pretty soon, and an RV is our most likely candidate.

Thanks for asking and I appreciate all your prayers! :godisgood:

 

Here in this statement by badmom is a great truth!
" However, once we've trusted in Christ, called on His name, placed ourselves in His care, then even if our faith wavers we are saved. My salvation is not dependent on my keeping up hope in my heart, or in my sincerity......after all, would I still be saved if I got Alzheimer's and forgot all about God? Yes.....so our faith is not what's keeping us saved...it is Jesus Christ and Him alone."
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I understand the motivation for helping new converts. I have pointed people to John 10:27-29 myself.

But I think we're on very dangerous ground here. It's a short step from giving them scripture to help them understand grace, faith and assurance--to trying to convince a doubter that he's saved. I don't think we should ever do that. We simply cannot know.

There are two ways to look at it. A believer who becomes concerned about his salvation must be saved because unsaved people don't show that kind of concern.

And one who doubts his original salvation experience may be exactly right, and to try to talk him into assurance would be actually condemning him to believe a lie.

I k now several people, including three deacons and several members of my family who've been through this. For all of them, it was not a question of doubting their salvation; they were dead certain they were lost.

Two approaches can work, I think. One, treat doubters as lost until they give their own testimony of God's saving grace.

Two, if some are doubting their orginal conversion experience, don't try to take them back there. Tell them, "I'm not concerned about 10,20,30 years ago. I want to know where you are right now. Do you love God? Do you trust him as your Savior and confess him as Lord, right now." Their answers will give you the clues as to where to go next.

I repeat my concern. We should not ever risk trying to talk a lost man into thinking he's saved.