(December 12, 2013 at 2:41 pm)ChadWooters Wrote: Also, if Man cannot choose to repent, then why are the Holy Scripture filled with exhortations to do so?
Because it's part of the process of regeneration. Once it happens, it's a sign that a person has become regenerated. God has set up a process for it and describes it in scripture. Which segue ways perfectly into my next response...
(December 12, 2013 at 2:45 pm)MindForgedManacle Wrote: The short of it is that you can't even know that you've been saved. After all, God could merely be using your false sense of certainty to accomplish other things, despite you not actually having attained salvation.
I'll submit to that. There is no way I can know for sure. But, as I stated in the agnostic theist thread, there is no way I can "know" anything for sure. Nothing is 100% because I'm not omniscient.
I can have reasonable belief that I am elect based on the examples and instructions of the elect as described in the Bible.
Following those examples, one can deduce with reasonable certainty (relative to actual knowledge) that one is elect.
This also plays into the concept of faith. Faith is a gift from God to His elect, and it serves has a way a person can have that "knowledge" or 100%... because we can't reach that on our own. That has to be given to us by God.
