continuum fabri rursus

(rursus= again)





That week (it was spring break) that Graydon and I and Ryan's family visited was very interesting. We had the fun times with the videos, commercials, and chairs. We also had an awesome time, when one night I dreamt that Graydon and I were swimming straight down in water near a dock, and kept going, and at some points I was leading and others he was leading, and Ryan interpreted it to be about Graydon's friendship with me, one of us leading at one point, and the other at another point. For the rest of my high school years, that was generally true, especially in regard to our accountability relationship and sexual purity.




The other very interesting thing that happened that week was meeting this woman who Ryan said was awesome and very helpful to Affinity's inhabitants. Her house was a few minutes away from Affinity. For the first hour or so, she fed us milk and brownies, which were delicious. She was a grandmotherly woman, respectable and kindly. After that, for another hour or so, we sat down to discuss the Bible. It was more her teaching us. It was all good and edifying, until we got on the topic of "Once Saved, Always Saved" (i.e. the question of losing your salvation). The Robertsons and I had discussed this a little while ago, and I had demonstrated that, if a person is truly saved, they cannot lose their salvation. But she disagreed. She said that you needed one verse from the Old Testament for every verse you had from the New Testament, and the Old Testament, being the Unfulfilled Law, often talks of works of the law in regards to salvation. But Hebrews clearly demonstrates that Old Testament Believers were saved only by faith, even though all they had was the Law and the yet-un-met promise of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. So she was wrong.

But... for some reason... she sounded... right. We weren't idiots. We were Bible-reading, praying, church-involved Christians, who spent great deals of time in fellowship. We were deceived. It was like there was a cloud that hovered over our minds, dampening our understanding and alertness to Biblical clarity. We really shoud've clued in that this lady was not teaching legitimately when she told us about healing her dead cat, with a blue beam of light. We believed her. It sounded right. It sounds insane now, but it was as if... all there was was to believe her.

It was my first personal encounter with spiritual warfare: demons of deception. In the car on the way from her house, I apologize to the Robertsons for advocating Once Saved, Always Saved. I shouldn't have apologized. Scripture makes it clear.

We all realized over the passage of a few weeks that we had been mistaken in listening to her teaching. I thank God that we did not remain deceived, but that He rescued us from Satan's lies.

We parted that week, encouraged and hopeful of the Lord's work in Ryan's life.