The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Saved and NOT know it ???

Let's not shut the door too quickly else you might be guilty of shutting out some of whom are "bruised reeds", i.e., they are of a tender spirit and/or who have been wrongly taught about the nature of assurance, of which they may be woefully lacking in their life as a whole or perhaps due to a period of sinfulness; a closeness to God is missing. David experienced the latter did he not? And if one would have asked him if he knew assuredly that he was "saved", he just might have answered with a good measure of doubt. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/idea.gif" alt="" />

We are allowed to speak generally of the fixed number of the elect according to God's eternal election and predestination and consequently the elect are going to be saved infallibly. But we are not warranted to speak of the elect as "saved" in any sense before they are regenerated and are actually united to Christ by faith. For it is ONLY those who are in Christ who are "children of God", adopted on the basis of Christ's shed blood being applied to them, aka: justification. Secondly, it serves no purpose to speak of an "eternal salvation" in regard to the elect, albeit again their salvation is certainly fixed in stone as it were, since we as mortals have no absolute knowledge of who the elect are. And even after true conversion, can anyone be 100% absolutely infallibly sure that someone else is of the elect? There are many who profess to know that they themselves are "saved" but who are destined to perdition. (cf. Matt 7:21f; 13:1-52; et al)

So, yes, whatever God has decreed in eternity will infallibly come to pass in time. But until it actually happens in time, it cannot be said to exist. If it will be of some help, we can say that everything which exists originated in God's "mind" from eternity. He didn't sit around and layout several possible scenarios of how the universe should look and function and then choose one which for some reason appealed to Him most. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/giggle.gif" alt="" /> But it would be wrong to say that you or I or any human existed from eternity. That we would exist is true because it was the will of God to be so. But our actual existence is not infinite but finite else we would be God. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

In His grace,