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Judgement and repentance vs. purification

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indianabob:
Great comment Dave,
Lots of good comments from many folks.
What it all boils down to is spiritual training.
When I was in the military service the purpose of our basic training was Unit Cohesiveness. In order to be able to accomplish the tasks given to the military unit we had to act as ONE.
The first step in the military is to break down individual thinking and convince the soldiers to act with confidence in the commands of those in charge who had the responsibility to carry out orders from the top.

Part of our training involved running a long course of obstacles and completing the course in the allotted time or doing it over again until we were successful. They didn't call it a punishment course or even a correction of poor habits course, rather it was called a CONFIDENCE course. It taught us that we were capable so long as we worked together and followed orders from the top. We learned to do our tasks the "military way".

In similar manner this life of OVERCOMING is to teach us to have confidence in our Lord and Master and in His having our best interest at heart always.

Make no mistake it can be scary and intimidating when we are asked, compelled or led to accomplish tasks that we have not believed we were capable of doing; and we aren't....apart from God.
But with God ALL things are possible.

So if I may be so bold to say stop worrying, if you were meant to be in the company of the Lord Jesus you shall be there. In my own humble opinion Jesus has not said anywhere in scripture, " if you don't like what I am asking you to do you can just quit....

No that ain't going to happen my friend. You will finish the course set before you whether you think so at this time or not. The Lord has said it plainly; John 6:39

…38"For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39"This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40 "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."…

So whether that applies to the first Resurrection or the next is not something we can know, but we can know that God's will shall be accomplished in us. Of that we may be sure.

Indiana Bob

Farlsborough:
As ever, thanks for the thoughts folks!

Just for clarification, this is not so much concern for myself. I have faith that God will deal with me with perfect justice. It is to the accusation/objection against UR: "if unbelieving people have their sin burnt out of them/are refined in the next age, they are not being saved by Jesus's righteousness alone."

I think the problem with this way of thinking is limiting God (I.e. "God CANNOT act in any other way than a binary - saved through Christ/not saved"), and also a slightly weird one-upmanship about sin that I've noticed amongst the reformed traditions... A standard response when they have no good scriptural basis for eternal torment is "...well I take sin seriously". A bit like Mormons who just KNOW Mormonism is true...!

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