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Can you be an “ex-Christian”?
When you hear somebody describe themselves as an “ex-Christian” or “former Christian,” what’s your reaction?
http://gospel.com/blog/index.php/2009/10/29/can-you-be-an-ex-christian/
Topics:
Ex-Christian, Former Christian, Abandon, Doubt, Questions And Answers, Q&A
All Topics
that once you have God he will never leave you. that one day you will return to him.
i believe that no one or situation can take you out of God’s hand however, I believe that if a person turns their back on the Lord continually that they can themselves take themsleves out of God’s hand. In essense they can not so much as lose their salvation as throw away their salvation.
My response is that they either were a Christian, and still are, or else they were never a Christian in the first place.
For Danny, and anyone else who shares his opinion, I refer you to what the Bible says in Romans 8: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The amazing ability to throw away a saving relationship with Jesus Christ would fall under the “any other” portion of that passage.
On the other hand, it is possible to have run in Christian circles without ever actually becoming a Christian. For example, in Hebrews 6 the Bible says, “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”
The Bible says there are two options for responding to such a situation. Validating someone as a so-called “ex-Christian” isn’t one of them. Ever.
–Mike
Salvation is a BIRTH into the family of God. You canNOT be UNBORN. It is “elementary my dear Watson.” If you don’t “rightly divide” the Word you will come up with this non-Church Age doctrine.
You can be an “ex-Christian” but you CANNOT be an ex-child of God.
You can be an ex-christian, it is very possible, Read Romans 11:13-21 also 1 CCorinthians 9:24-27 where Paul himself feared being a castaway. The phrase once saved always saved is a deception from the pit of hell!
I think that Paul was clear. We can be ex-christians but I do not think that once you are a non-believer that you can not be brought back. God’s mercy endures forever and is anew with every new morning as it claims in His word. We become ex-christians through unbelief. Read below. Wild olive branches are the Gentiles and the natural branches are the Jews.
Romans 11:17-23
17If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” 20Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. 21For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
22Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. 23And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
http://www.reigningimmortal.com