Who are you to judge the sincerity of the heart of another person???
Who are you to say a person was insincere when he confessed Jesus and was always damned to begin with?
Election means a person is saved or damned before he was born and no actions or thoughts (good or bad) from the person can change his fate.
Your arrogance is unbecoming
Lamar, I am not claiming to read anyone's heart. Scripture itself gives us the standard by which a person's profession is to be evaluated.
You ask:
“Who are you to judge the sincerity of the heart of another person?”
I don't claim to know the secret motives of another person's heart.
God alone searches the heart.
But Scripture does require us to distinguish a genuine profession of faith from a life that ultimately manifests apostasy.
Jesus said:
“Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
—Matthew 7:20
John says:
“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us.”
—1 John 2:19
Notice John's conclusion.
He doesn't say:
“They were saved and then lost.”
He says their departure
manifested that they were not truly of us.
That's not me claiming to read their heart.
That's Scripture interpreting the evidence of their perseverance—or lack thereof.
You actually stated the Calvinist position correctly
You said:
“Election means a person is saved or damned before he was born and no actions or thoughts (good or bad) from the person can change his fate.”
I would qualify that slightly.
Election itself is eternal, and God's electing purpose is not based upon foreseen works or human merit.
Paul says:
“For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand...”
—Romans 9:11
So yes, God's electing purpose precedes the person's birth and does not originate in his works.
But that does
not mean his subsequent actions are irrelevant to identifying whether his profession is genuine.
They simply are not the
cause of God's election.
That's an important distinction.
Election doesn't eliminate perseverance—it guarantees it
Jesus said:
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
—John 10:27
And:
“And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish.”
—John 10:28
Christ doesn't merely elect His sheep and then leave their final condition uncertain.
His sheep hear.
His sheep follow.
His sheep have eternal life.
His sheep never perish.
Likewise, Paul says:
“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
—Philippians 1:6
So perseverance is not a human contribution that earns election.
Perseverance is evidence of God's saving work.
And that's exactly what I said
I did not say:
“I can look into someone's heart and know exactly what they were thinking when they professed Christ.”
I said that if someone ultimately lives in
final, unrepentant apostasy, Scripture gives us grounds to conclude that their profession was not genuine.
John gives us precisely that kind of conclusion:
“They went out from us, but they were not of us.”
And Jesus says:
“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
—Matthew 7:21
A verbal profession by itself does not establish regeneration.
Jesus even describes people who say:
“Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?”
Yet He says:
“I never knew you.”
—Matthew 7:23
Notice the wording:
“I never knew you.”
Not:
“I knew you, but you became unsaved.”
This is also why your accusation of “arrogance” misses the point
I'm not assigning someone's eternal destiny because I personally dislike their behavior.
I'm applying the biblical distinction between:
profession and
possession,
and between:
temporary profession and
persevering faith.
We cannot see the secret decree of election.
We cannot see regeneration directly.
But we can observe someone's confession and conduct.
And Scripture tells us that a person's continuing fruit matters.
John says:
“He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.”
—1 John 2:6
And:
“If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.”
—1 John 2:24
The point isn't that perseverance
earns salvation.
The point is that perseverance
manifests genuine salvation.
So here's the distinction
Election:
God's eternal choice is unconditional and precedes our works.
Regeneration:
God gives spiritual life.
Conversion:
The sinner genuinely believes and repents.
Perseverance:
The believer continues in faith.
Final apostasy:
When someone finally abandons Christ and remains in rebellion, Scripture gives us grounds to question the genuineness of the original profession.
That's not reading God's secret decree.
That's reading the person's
fruit in light of Scripture.
And if you want to argue that someone can be genuinely regenerated, justified, and eternally saved while finally and permanently denying Christ, then the burden isn't on me to read their heart.
The burden is on you to show where Scripture teaches that Christ's sheep finally cease following Him and perish.
Jesus said the opposite:
“My sheep hear my voice... and they follow me... and they shall never perish.”
So no, Lamar, this isn't about arrogance.
God alone knows the heart. Scripture, however, tells us what a genuine saving work produces—and it also tells us what final apostasy reveals.
