In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple…Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” –Isaiah 6:1, 8 (NIV)–
As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” –Acts 9:3-6 (NIV)–
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. –Colossians 2:8 (NIV)–
Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. –Psalm 127:1 (NIV)–
There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death. –Proverbs 14:12 (NIV)–
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William Gouge, Building a Godly Home, vol. 1 (RHB, 2013).
You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! –Matthew 23:24 (ESV)–
I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves! –Galatians 5:12 (ESV)–
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Jehoram’s intestinal breakdown could have come from being stabbed in the gut by a sword and developing ischemic colitis. Although it could also be caused by dysentery or food poisoning.
Dante, The Divine Comedy, Volume 1: Inferno (Penguin, 2003), pp. 280-285.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. –John 10:27-28 (ESV)–
He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness. –Psalm 95:7-8 (ESV)–
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Taken together, the two books below by Corner and Shank are possibly the most comprehensive Wesleyan-Arminian treatments of conditional security. They respond thoroughly to the popular “once saved, always saved” Bible verses, often used by Southern Baptist pastors to teach that unconditional eternal security is the lived reality of salvation. The ridiculous Baptist concept that a backslidden and relapsed alcoholic, atheistic, agnostic, drug addicted, porn addicted, wife beating, raping, murdering, business idolizing, criminal, habitually lying, gratuitously cussing, gang member, who might also be a homosexual, burglar, child molester, and sex offender involved in satanic ritual abuse will be saved from Hell and definitely go to Heaven, simply because he really believed in Jesus once before in his life and got baptized a long time ago. Yes, there actually are Baptist pastors who believe in this. Not all of them are like this, but many of them do believe like that. It makes you think twice about attending and tithing to just any Baptist church. They think this belief makes man look humble and that it glorifies the kindness, grace, and mercy of God. This is the main problem with all of Calvinism when its pulled into one focal point. The pastors of the following denominations would take sides with Corner and Shank against the Baptists: the Free Will Baptist Church, Church of the Nazarene (conservative ones), the Christian and Missionary Alliance (conservative ones), the Free Methodist Church, the Wesleyan Church, the Pentecostal Holiness Church, Assemblies of God, the Southern Methodist Church, the Global Methodist Church, Church of Christ, and Church of God (Cleveland).
Daniel Corner, The Believer’s Conditional Security (EO, 1997). 800 pages.
Robert Shank, Life in the Son (Bethany House, 1989). 400 pages.
