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Certainty and Belief: Difference between revisions
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:''A Christian who is defined by unbelieving doubt, whether intellectual or marked by lifestyle, is in a precarious position. The Bible, God’s holy Word, describes how a tree is known by its fruit. If the fruit of our lives is that of questioning God at every turn with our mouths or our choices, what does that say of our roots? Are they in God? Are we tapped into His great source of grace and peace and belief? | :''A Christian who is defined by unbelieving doubt, whether intellectual or marked by lifestyle, is in a precarious position. The Bible, God’s holy Word, describes how a tree is known by its fruit. If the fruit of our lives is that of questioning God at every turn with our mouths or our choices, what does that say of our roots? Are they in God? Are we tapped into His great source of grace and peace and belief? | ||
:''I leave the question hanging because I cannot answer it for you. Christians, saved by grace, go through terrible times of rebellion, apathy, and other sorts of spiritual malaise. Some people oversimplify this and gauge others’ salvation entirely by what can be seen in their actions or lifestyles. That simply doesn’t work. Some people look like saints and have hearts full of hell (what Jesus called “whitewashed | :''I leave the question hanging because I cannot answer it for you. Christians, saved by grace, go through terrible times of rebellion, apathy, and other sorts of spiritual malaise. Some people oversimplify this and gauge others’ salvation entirely by what can be seen in their actions or lifestyles. That simply doesn’t work. Some people look like saints and have hearts full of hell (what Jesus called “whitewashed tombs”<ref>Matthew 23:27</ref>). Others live like hell but are fighting internal battles back toward Jesus. Only God and the individual know where the person really is on the belief-unbelief continuum. Only God can rightly determine who is saved or unsaved. This is one of the greatest mysteries of the Christian life. God has not given us this to know. | ||
:''Fruit is always the miraculous, the created; it is never the result of willing, but always a growth. The fruit of the Spirit is a gift of God, and only he can produce it. They who bear it know as little about it as the tree knows of its fruit. They know only the power of him on whom their life depends.<ref>Barnabas Piper, Help My Unbelief: Why Doubt Is Not the Enemy of Faith (Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook, 2015).</ref> | :''Fruit is always the miraculous, the created; it is never the result of willing, but always a growth. The fruit of the Spirit is a gift of God, and only he can produce it. They who bear it know as little about it as the tree knows of its fruit. They know only the power of him on whom their life depends.<ref>Barnabas Piper, Help My Unbelief: Why Doubt Is Not the Enemy of Faith (Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook, 2015).</ref> | ||