will not disinherit us. With earthly families, although our children may be disobedient, needing chastise ment and correction, they are al ways our children. Nothing can change that. This is why Jesus said, "Ye must be born again." What ever our condition of the moment, it does not change our standing in our relationship to the Lord. We are still His children. If we sin, of course we should immediately con fess our sins knowing that Cod is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse us from all unrighteous ness, restoring us to full fellowship with Him. We are saved because of who Christ is and because of our personal relationship to Him. Q. Modesto, Calif. "How can a soul burn forever without burning up?" A. Never forget that our view is always finite, while Cod's is infin ite. If the Lord can bring fire to a burning bush, without letting it be consumed, He can certainly take care of a soul, seeing that it is not consumed in the eternal fires of hell. To be "salted with fire" means to be preserved with fire rather than being consumed. We all know that fire produces the most intense and excruciating pain a human can experience. The hell fire spoken of is to a spiritual being what a phys ical fire is to a physical being. This is the condemnation of those un saved men and women who have rejected Christ as Saviour. God has ordained that it will be a condition in which the body will not be con sumed but will endure throughout all eternity. We may not like to think about this fact but it does not lessen the reality of it whatsoever. This should show to us the com plete horribleness of sin in God's Page 19
confuse "backslider" with "apos tate." The former, according to scriptural testimony, is one who at some time in his experience fully trusted in the. Saviour. Then, because of the temptations of this world or some other reason, he falls away and may even grow cold and indifferent to the truth. He is certainly not loyal to the Lord. Peter is a good example of a backslider. He was not an apostate because there had been that initial definite transaction of faith. Judas would be of a different category altogether. As an apostate all he ever had was an outward relation ship. As a matter of fact, Scripture never records that he ever called Christ "Lord." The passage in He brews does not concern itself with backsliding. It deals with the sub ject of apostasy. We know this from the fact that there was no personal commitment, no giving over of one-self to the Lord Jesus Christ. The believer does not sin without remorse. He receives the truth, not merely the knowledge of the truth. By also reading verses 28 and 29 we find that this man has trodden under foot the Son of Cod. No true believer would ever be guilty of this. Q. San Francisco, Calif. "Can we know for sure that once we are saved, Jesus will accept us into heaven, even if we have sin in our heart and have not asked for for giveness?" A. Keep in mind the important truth that when a person becomes a Christian he is a new creation (II Corinthians 5:17). Once we are born again we can never be un born. We will never be "un adopted" from Cod's family. He
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