. It is true He keeps His elect, but that does not make osas true as they teach, it means that the elect WILL bare fruit and they WILL stand by faith to be saved because that is what HE formed them to do, and their baring fruit shows forth who they- the elect- are.
This is true. OSAS or "once saved always saved' isn't necessarily true the way the contemporary Christian world presents it. You are by no means "once saved" for doing any of the following:
o) Reciting the "sinner's prayer"
o) Raising a hand in church
o) Filling out a card at church
o) Walking the aisle at church
o) Responding somehow at church while emotions are running high due to the organ pulling your heart-strings and the choir repeatedly singing "Just As I am"
What's worse is, many "evangelists" or Christian websites will
promise their audience eternal life if they would only repeat the sinner's prayer much like repeating the words of a mantra. That is blasphemy. (a mantra is a mystical phrase that "does something" after you quote it)
You don't need to give someone the right words to say when they are truly convicted by the God of Heaven. They
know what to say before a Holy God. They
know they are guilty before God's law. They
know that they need to confess sins, turn from sin, and put their trust in Jesus.
This is what the Holy Spirit does, and He does so when, where, and how He pleases, like the wind blows (John 3) He will crush your conscience and bring you to repentance.
Rather than the phrase "once saved, always saved", a more Biblically accurate statement would be "once saved,
kept saved", or "
if saved, always saved"
The people that profess to be saved, or were told they were saved, aren't necessarily saved, but rather the children of God, the elect, are kept saved, by Him, till the last breath, and will never completely fall away from the faith.
also calvinists say God is soverign but they do not believe Him to soverignly lead them and take care of him and keep his promises to us in their lives. They except no miralces, no provisions, no deliverances that were all provided by jesus and they listen to no dreams which God gives or prophesies etc... so they have cut off the Spirit of God from speaking directly to them inside and along side His word, and from providing the promises that were given to us already at the cross.
I disagree with this statement. First of all, you don't need to be a Calvinist to deny the things you put in your paragraph. You simply need to be a regular Christian that believes in one of the "5 Solas" -
Sola Scriptura.
Sola scriptura teaches that Scripture ALONE is the revelation of God, and the highest authority. Any outside source of so-called revelation is not to be trusted. Experiences are not to be trusted. Dreams are not to be trusted. Feelings and emotions are not to be trusted. Other books that claim to be Divine, such as the Mormon books, are not to be trusted.
The Bible tells us that the heart is wicked and deceitful above
all things. (Jer 17:9) ALL things! That means you deceive yourself more than anyone or anything else in the universe. We deceive ourselves more than satan does. Personal feelings and desires, however sincere, are to take a back seat to scripture.
God is True, and His word is not only Truth, but
the only truth in this universe. Jesus Himself declares this (John 17:17) Therefore, to rely on extra-Biblical sources as a source of "truth" is to actually rely on shaky ground at best, a lie at worst.
The Bible alone is the source of God's revelation and will. The apostle Peter declared that the written scriptures were
more sure than hearing Jesus' audible voice from Heaven!!! (2nd Pet 1:19) That's pretty serious business.
Paul warns us in Galatians 1:8-9 that even if an
angel from heaven were to appear to us and preach to us, it takes a back seat to what the Apostles have taught and preached, (and consequently, recorded in Scripture)
1 John 4:1 says "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world."
How do we try the spirits? We go to the standard by which to try them - the Bible of course! Therefore, the Bible is where all authority and truth begins and ends.
Furthermore, to think that God is giving extra-revelation today (in the form of dreams, feelings, experiences, or any other form) is to contradict or deny the warnings in scripture which do not allow for such a thing.
Deut 4:2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.
Revelations 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
Don't add to it, don't take from it. It stands as it is: the perfect and complete will of God in written form.
PS. For those that inquire, the 5 Solas are as follows:
1 Sola scriptura ("by Scripture alone")
2 Sola fide ("by faith alone")
3 Sola gratia ("by grace alone")
4 Solus Christus ("Christ alone")
5 Soli Deo gloria ("glory to God alone")