thank you for clarifying!! I agree with you. there is a danger in over-stressing OSAS. it’s a needed sentiment for those who truly want to please God and are worried about their salvation. that type of person NEEDS to hear about the fact that God has them covered. that type of person will go on to feel more confident in following His word, knowing He will refine them, and they will do their own part in this refining.
the Bible’s individual verses speak to us at diff times in our lives. as a new Christian, it made no sense to me to be told I’m saved once I ask for Jesus to enter my heart. I couldnt genuinely pray for it … it sounded bogus. with my state of heart at the time, with that supposed prerequisite, how would I ever become a child of God? that was my genuine concern for a long time. the fact that if it was real, I still wasn’t able to believe, and my prayer attempts didn’t feel real. following the directions didn’t work in my heart.
still, some said to pray for it anyway. but if I could only ask with a non-genuine heart, feeling like I’m writing a list to Santa Claus, how would my supposed salvation stick to me at all?
one-size-fits-all does not seem therefore to be a good approach. so I agree, there is danger in over-stressing certain things. in the end, if someone really cares about God deep down, they will be found by Him. no matter what ideological errors they pick up along the way or anything else.
I do not want licensure to keep on sinning. indeed there are many folks who don’t grow in their relationship with God, they get stagnant, and for someone to press into them that they are already saved, done deal, is not good direction. so I appreciate that you want to prevent people from thinking it’s fine to be stagnant or anything related to that.
it brings me right back to the fact that if someone wants to be stagnant, they will latch on to OSAS, their heart was not genuine anyway.
those who have genuine hearts, are probably more like I was, like at the very least, they will be questioning HOW that works, instead of just accepting or rejecting it.
in the end, I agree with pretty much everyone that has spoken on this… only, I don’t get why it became a bit contentious. now that I know it’s not a denomination of its own, I don’t see how it went downhill. I didn’t read the whole convo either. but thank you for clarifying the discussion and your position. now I will understand once and for all what it means when I see people discussing this.