I can answer that for you. If you truly never repented, you were never a Christian. Repentance (and subsequent sanctification process), is an outflow from saving faith.

https://www.ligonier.org/guides/faith-and-repentance

What about the below scenarios that I posted earlier? Christians live these situations out daily. So they were never Christians even if they accepted Christ as their Savior?

Whether I am father that loses my temper with a child once or all the time, a rebellious teen-ager going through a year-long phase that wants nothing to do with my parents authority, an ongoing bad attitude with supervisors at work, an addiction to alcohol, or bitterness in my heart of being hurt in church......


Repenting is repenting? Sin is sin.....1 pinhole leak, an open manhole, or a 20 foot gash can sink a sub- a leak is a leak. These can all be an individual and/or ongoing unrepentant continuous lifestyles- correct?

👍

Jwalker, I’m afraid you just aren’t comprehending what Bill was saying. I tried to explain it to you but I think you just keep getting hung up on the way he worded the sentence you keep quoting. And with text, things can be miscommunicated pretty easily.

I think you are taking “shouldn’t worry” as “it doesn’t matter”. He is using “shouldn’t worry” to say “don’t let the question of how you are going to stop sinning stop you from becoming a believer” because the stop sinning part will happen through sanctification. And a non believer probably doesn’t understand what that is. They should come just as they are, and not worry about how they are going to stop sinning. That will happen as they grow as disciples.

Does that make sense at all? I hate to see two believers go at each other over a misunderstanding.

No, because that person must surrender, turn from sin, and turn toward God to become a Christian. That is repentance.

So you live for the Lord as a Christian with a through a life of sanctification, go through a season of growth through the Holy Spirit, yield the fruits of the Spirit, live for the Lord fully….and then turn to a life a sin for whatever reason (think David, the prodigal son, fill in the blank)….and never repent for going wayward….

Repentance and sanctification are the only ways to restore your relationship with the Lord?

Dubie I believe that person will go to heaven.

I'm not sure if you're genuinely asking or if you already have a previously held belief on this? A genuine, born-again Believer is regenerated (1 Corinthians 5:17) and justified (2 Corinthians 5:21). They are "sealed" with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13). We are saved AND sealed. We are preserved as Saints. David was a "man after God's own heart" and he was also a type of Christ (read throughout 1 Samuel). He still sinned and practically the majority of the Psalms were recorded as evidence of his repentance.

Sanctification doesn't mean we are sinless, but it certainly means we are being conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). We sin less and less but are moved to repentance when we do. It is possible to lack repentance for a time, but we will eventually be moved toward repentance just like David, given time.

That's not what you described in your original post and is a different situation. The bible talks about "sin unto death' . The taking of the life for the saving of the soul, so to speak. Using your example of David, had he not repented, God would have taken his life but not his salvation. Also David says later after repenting.. God restore to me the joy of your salvation. He didn't ask for his salvation to be restored, just the joy from it, because unconfessed and unrepentant sin will take joy from a believer of Christ.

At the end of the day, no one else knows your heart. Only yourself. Can people be deceived into thinking they are something they aren't ? Sure, I was. Do people struggle ? Sure, I still do. But instead of telling people who are backslidden that they are "OK" and "Everything is alright , you are just human" ... which can be destructive.. We should instead be telling people the biblical remedy.. But again, no one but yourself and God knows your heart.

The ideal situation would be for anyone who is a Christian that is backslidden or struggling to confess that sin to God and have the fellowship with Him restored. Also, it's ideal to "examine yourself" in an honest and genuine way to see if you are really a Christian. If someone does this and comes to the conclusion they aren't a Christian,, it's just a matter of turning to Christ in genuine faith and surrender to Him. Put the flag in the ground and mean it. Change direction "repent" and move forward.

carnal christianity is definitely a thing. Paul dealt with it in his letters to the Corinthians. he called them brethren meaning they were saved but he wanted them to experience the fullness of their salvation like bpi described. 1 cor 6 19/20 what? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you,which ye have of God,and ye are not your own? for ye are bought with a price,therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. Jesus died and rose again not only to set us free from the penalty of sin but also the power of sin.

Yes. Without the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives sin win continue to win. It’s only when the Holy Spirit changes us from the inside out that we have the power to break the chains of sin in our lives.

1 Corinthians 5:5

excellent verse Kyle's.

That was precisely what the Lord had in mind for me a little over 15yrs ago. I hadfell out of a tree a few months earlier and should have died that day. The Lord said he wouldnt catch me again. I had been neglectful in my duties as a father. Not that my son wasnt taken care of, as much as a drug addict could take care of a child. My wife now was lost, we were living in sin and i was leading all of them down a path to hell, and i had been saved for quite some time. I had never grown as a christian and some things had happened i had blamed on God, and it was all down hill from there. Theres no doubt in my mind my life had a expiration date. I figure if i hadnt submitted and gave my life to the Lord, i would have died soon. My soul was safe but my flesh was filthy and God was getting fed up with it. If you believe theres nothing to 1 Cor 5:5, i can promise you according to the word of God and my personal experience, it is a real thing. No telling how many lives have been shortened because of this.

^^^^ Aman and Aman

I love your testimony people may argue over stuff but it is easy to tell when a man loves the Lord. My wife says I have cheated death several times. One of them came with a warning and I knew it

Kyles, i figure any christian should be able to look at their life and see the bible in it. God made us some promises. If you know the Lord, some of the results of those promises should show up in your life, not you personally, but anybody. The bible gives a pretty good picture of a relationship with God. Its all over it. And all of it is still available, the word says "i am God, i changeth not", right? It also says he is no respector of persons, ive always thought that means he will treat everyone the same, or according to the same rules anyhow. I do have a really good testamony, but its not all good. Some of it was hard and it hurt. Other times it was like he opened the windows of heaven and dumped blessings on me. But hes been there every step of the way. I guarentee you he has never left or forsaken me.

You are correct we all fail. But you don’t hide your light under a bushel. Pretty sure you know what that means lol