How you can KNOW you are a Christian or not
Dr. Harley Howard
1st John 2:3-5
3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his
commandments.
By this we know now, in the present, that we have come to know
him, in the past, with the evidence that we know Him now, in the
present, if, we are presently keeping His commandments.
Now this verse and the breakdown of the verbs in the verse, makes
for some rather earth shattering implications on the professing
Christian Church today that we all better take heed to. Since what
John said was, and is, the absolute truth, then we had better
examine the verse in the light of what is said, rather than an opinion
or some experience on our part. John states with absolute
knowledge and an unchanging certainty that our so-called
conversion experience in the past is only valid if conversion is
demonstrated in the present. Our so-called profession of being
saved in the past is only valid if there are PRESENT evidences of it
being demonstrated in the life of the one professing to be a
believer. This means in all simplicity that if you point to a time or a
place or some experience in the distant past as a means to justify
your professed Christianity, yet, in the present, you have no
evidence that the conversion is genuine, your experience in the
past is also invalid. This is exactly what John is saying in this verse
and what he said is absolute and true today. The sole evidence that
John gives for the reality of any genuine conversion, past or
present, is the believers relationship to the commandments that
Christ gave to His followers. You can know and do know right now,
right this second, that you are truly a believer or not. You can know
this second whether the experience or the professed "coming to the
Lord" in your past, was genuine or counterfeit or not, by the present
test of obedience to the commandments of Christ. This statement
on the part of John is absol ...
Dr. Harley Howard
1st John 2:3-5
3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his
commandments.
By this we know now, in the present, that we have come to know
him, in the past, with the evidence that we know Him now, in the
present, if, we are presently keeping His commandments.
Now this verse and the breakdown of the verbs in the verse, makes
for some rather earth shattering implications on the professing
Christian Church today that we all better take heed to. Since what
John said was, and is, the absolute truth, then we had better
examine the verse in the light of what is said, rather than an opinion
or some experience on our part. John states with absolute
knowledge and an unchanging certainty that our so-called
conversion experience in the past is only valid if conversion is
demonstrated in the present. Our so-called profession of being
saved in the past is only valid if there are PRESENT evidences of it
being demonstrated in the life of the one professing to be a
believer. This means in all simplicity that if you point to a time or a
place or some experience in the distant past as a means to justify
your professed Christianity, yet, in the present, you have no
evidence that the conversion is genuine, your experience in the
past is also invalid. This is exactly what John is saying in this verse
and what he said is absolute and true today. The sole evidence that
John gives for the reality of any genuine conversion, past or
present, is the believers relationship to the commandments that
Christ gave to His followers. You can know and do know right now,
right this second, that you are truly a believer or not. You can know
this second whether the experience or the professed "coming to the
Lord" in your past, was genuine or counterfeit or not, by the present
test of obedience to the commandments of Christ. This statement
on the part of John is absol ...
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