Is Repentance and Taking the Cross Necessary for Salvation?

[bearbear]

Originally Posted by Igzy

I believe the above verse is talking about their experience in this life, not in eternity. A person who knows the way of repentance and then rejects it will be haunted in this life. And because he has rejected the only escape he will have a much harder time finding his way out.

2 Peter 2:20-22 isn't the only verse take this one:

Hebrews 6:4-8
For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

How about these verses, well-known by LCers:

1 Cor 3:13-15

13 It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.

If works determine your ultimate salvation, then how can someone's work be burned yet he be saved? Hmmmmm?

bearbear, make no mistake, you are teaching salvation by works. That's your perogative, but at least call it what it is.

My Dad, an elder in a break-away LC kept bring this up to me. (By the way, he no longer believes in free-grace after I did Greek word studies with him) I've addressed this on my website:

Many also point to this verse as a guarantee of salvation. Catholics and kingdom exclusion teachers such as Watchman Nee and southern Baptists use this verse to support their doctrine of purgatory or a temporary period of discipline in outer darkness for unfaithful believers.

We agree this verse confirms that we are saved by grace and not works. Paul is trying to convey that if someone has truly repented but has no good works he will still be saved. One example is the thief on the cross next to Jesus in Luke 23:43. Because of this believer's sinful past, God must burn up his works so that he can forget them. This verse isn't saying the believer will be burned, but that the works are so that he may be saved.

Perhaps knowing that many would twist this concession to mean more than it should, Paul proceeds to warn in the next verses "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. (KJV)" so that believers would understand that salvation still requires holiness. If we say we believe but don't repent and instead defile our hearts through practicing sin, God will still cast us into hell.

The concept of purgatorial suffering in outer darkness preceding entrance into the kingdom of heaven simply isn't found in the bible. Hebrews 9:27 makes it clear that our only chance to repent is in this life and not after we die. Outer darkness rather than being temporary is for eternity given the finality of the Lord's words in Matthew 7 and echoed again in Luke 13 "Depart from me you workers of lawlessness, I never knew you!". We only have one shot and it's in this life!