Quote:
Originally Posted by Raptor
I´m having a hard time understanding your definition of "false believer." Let me use other terminology; from this point of view, there are only 2 kinds of people in the world: in the New Testament during the age of grace, we have 1.) those who have been regenerated, who have received the life of God, they are sons of God. And 2.) those who do not have the life of God, who are not regenerated, they are not born again.
So I see a "true believer" as a born again, regenerated son of God. A "false believer" is the same as an "unbeliever;" he is not born again: they could be bad people or good people, religious, gamblers, abusers, classical piano players, football stars, murderes, tares, presidents, scientists. It does not matter; they were never born again.
A tare does not have the life of the wheat; it might look and act the same, but in its essence, it does not have the life of wheat. That is the difference. So the foolish virgins cannot be tares, they are wheat. They have the life of God.
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I see your viewpoint of categorizing in these two ways. Ultimately, that is what happens - those who believe and have been regenerated, who are sons of God will be with Him for eternity, and those who don't, who have not been regenerated, who are not sons of God will not be with Him for eternity. Totally on the same page with you.
Where I am making a distinction, is that here on the earth some of those "unbelievers" are gamblers, abusers, piano players, footballers, etc,
out in the world. They are out in the world and freely admit they don't believe in God, or want nothing to do with God. They don't claim to know Christ, they don't profess belief in Christ, etc.
However, some of those "unbelievers" are those same kinds of people, but mixed in among the believers
in the church. They call themselves believers, they associate with and join in gatherings of churches. Some of them even lead congregations, or appear to. They claim to know Christ and profess belief in Him. They enjoy the benefits of, or take advantage of, the Christian community but without true love for Christ. The Bible speaks of these. This is what I mean when I say "false believer".
1 John 2:9
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness.
Titus 1:16
They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
Luke 6:46
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?
Matthew 15:8
“’These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
Matthew 7:15
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
2 Corinthians 11:13
For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.
Jude 1:4
For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
2 Peter 2:1
But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.
Acts 20:29-30
I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.
This is why in Matthew 18, if a "brother" refuses to hear after three times of being shown his error, Jesus' instruction is to treat him like......a gentile or tax collector and put him out of the church. We treat them like unbelievers. We remove them from the church. They were in the church, but showed themselves (by their unrepentant and hardened heart even in the face of one person, numerous people, and then the entire church showing them their sin) to not really be part of the church. If in putting them out of the church they show godly sorrow and genuine repentance, they are welcomed back in because their actions and attitude show them to be genuinely saved. (e.g. see the immoral sinning believer in 1 and 2 Corinthians as an example).
Anyway, that's all I got on that topic.
Trapped