Throughout
life, we have to make choices. Some choices are relatively
straightforward. Others are very much more difficult. Some choices don’t
affect the rest of our life very much. There are, however, choices
which affect the whole of our life. There is one choice which is more
important than any other - Choosing the Lord Jesus Christ as your
Saviour. Those who refuse to choose are ‘double-minded’(Psalm 119:113).
They can’t make up their mind. They know that they should be following
Christ - but they are still ‘in love with the world’. They are ‘lovers
of pleasure rather than lovers of God’ (I John 2:15; 2 Timothy 3:4).
Make your choice. Say to the world, ‘Away from me, you evildoers, that I
may keep the commands of my God’. Say to God, ‘I have decided to obey
Your laws until the day I die’ (Psalm 119:115,112).
A response to a comment by G. R. Osborne on Berkouwer’s understanding of the doctrine of final perseverance
In his contribution to Clark Pinnock (editor), Grace Unlimited (1975), G. R. Osborne states that Berkouwer, in Faith and Perseverance, pp. 9-10, “speaks of the time less ness of the doctrine of final perseverance, founded on ‘the richness and abidingness of salvation” (p. 188, emphasis mine). This single-sentence comment on Berkouwer’s view hardly gives a fair indication of the type of thinking found in Chapter 1 of Berkouwer’s Faith and Perseverance - “Time li ness and Relevance” (pp. 9-14, emphasis mine). Berkouwer insists that “the living preaching of the Scriptures, which offer no metaphysical and theoretical views about … ‘permanency’ as an independent theme in itself, does nothing to encourage ‘a continuity which is … opposed in any way to the living nature of faith” (p. 13). Berkouwer stresses that “The perseverance of the saints is not primarily a theoretical problem but a confession of faith” (p. 14) and that “The perseverance of the saints is unbreakably connected wi...
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