Originally Posted by Newman
Silly me, I know. hairout Ok, help me out then. Maybe this is just semantics (maybe we agree but just speak differently) because I don't see how the parable of the sower proves that the people Peter is talking about were never saved. confused If those people are like the seed that fell on thorny ground...well...that seed actually became a plant with roots. True, it was eventually choked out by the thorns (ie. the pollution of the world) but we don't say that it was never a plant. It surely was.

Hey Brian I'll let Pilgrim handle the Peter verse because I admit that's a toughy from our POV.....

but for the parable of the sower....

God prepared the soil and planted the seed.... so the good soil represents the elect Christian that gladly receives the Word of God....while the plant in thorny ground was never prepared by God so even though it grew and may have responded to the Word for a time the plant would never remain because there was never any good soil (no regeneration)....so it was a plant but it was never God's plant...make sense?

The mercy of God is necessary not only when a person repents, but even to lead him to repent, Augustine