Neo,

You made some powerful points, for instance:

Like prodigal sons, there are those among us who have squandered our inheritance on riotous living and joined ourselves to the children of this world.  We thereby have set ourselves up for a time of great famine and anguish over being separated from the Father.  When we are finally restored to His side, it will be to much fanfare and rejoicing – but make no mistake, we will enter the kingdom with no inheritance.  All that the Father has now belongs to the elder son, who was always with Him.

It makes me think of:

II John 8 Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.

Revelation 3:11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.

I Corinthians 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Another point you made:

In contrast to that, we should not be deluded that obedience to the Law will somehow make us worthy.

While the Law is crucial for identifying sin in our lives, it simply cannot produce righteousness in us.

Even if the Law succeeds in making us “squeaky clean” on the outside, it is absolutely powerless to change us on the inside. 

There was something you mentioned about Paul, regarding I Corinthians 9:27

Paul himself spoke of the possibility of becoming a castaway

This is in context of his describing his calling and ministry of preaching the gospel in chapter 9.

Then in line 24:

I Corinthians 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

  25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

Paul is speaking particularly of obtaining a crown, and in his case, his race is in context of the ministry he was called to, preaching the gospel.

If he runs as he described, he may receive a crown, but if not, he could be a castaway.

He would be a castaway from receiving reward, and hopefully not a castaway from continuing in the ministry,

but certainly not a castaway from eternal life, as that was given to him as a free gift by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Regarding the original question of the title of your letter, "When will we be counted worthy to escape?":

When so many of us first are saved, and as soon as we are given victory over certain gross, visible sins, we rejoice over those victories.

The gross, visible sins are like fornication, drunkenness, fighting, cussing, smoking, drugs, etc.

We all know these are wrong, hated by Jesus, and grievous to the Holy Ghost, especially after we are given victory over these.

But then as we continue to read the word of God and hear it preached, we discover all other kinds sin in our hearts, not so visible.

Some we struggle with for years, like described in Romans 7, like pride, judgmental, self-righteousness, un-forgiveness, gossip, stubborn, etc.

Many of these, we may even confess and repent often, sometimes within the same day.

Some may say that if we continue to do something after we confess and repent, then we never truly repented in the first place.

Yet Jesus did say:

Luke 17:3 Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.

  4 And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.

Why would he mention someone repenting seven times in a day, unless it can really happen?

So, I would like to consider your question from the other side, like: what would make us to be counted unworthy to escape?

From your letter, it seems that you are quite convinced that the gross sins, especially as you mentioned, sexual, make us to be counted unworthy to escape.

I think that many people would agree with you, particularly regarding someone who continues to sin unrepentant.

What about those who struggle, e.g. cussing, and they repent, but something happens, and they fall and sin again, but then they repent again?

Does their periodic stumbling make them to be counted unworthy to escape?

I know people who really believe that we all can and should reach a Wesleyian-style sinless perfection.

Although this is the desire for every Christian, most have realized that before the resurrection, we strive for this, but we all still fall short of it.

Then there are sins hidden in our heart, that later on in our Christian walk, the Spirit, eventually through the scriptures, reveals to us.

Prior to his revealing and convicting, did those hidden sins, of which we were still ignorant of, actually make us to be counted unworthy?

If so, good thing we found out about them before the resurrection, so we can then confess and repent.

Finally, what about Christians, who, perhaps towards the latter part of their lives, no longer live as they had, and perhaps would now be counted unworthy to escape,

but they actually die before the trumpet-blow of the resurrection?

Did they "get away with it", whereas others who are alive and remain, living exactly like them, do not, and are counted unworthy to escape?

So what happens to them? Do they not get reunited with their body at the resurrection, and remain without bodies, until some later time afterwards?

I used to believe in a works based salvation, and others like me, and even those who believe that we can lose our salvation, all had something in common.

We all continuously lived not knowing if we would ever make it, and all had a strong fearful doubt that we were not going to make it.

Yes, this did provoke us to "try a little harder, to do a little better", but it was never enough.

Especially horrible were the times we stumbled again in some sin, convinced in terror that we were again damned, and wondered if Jesus would ever save us gain.

That was not a very joyful way to live, perpetually unsure, and always try to merit enough, but always fearful that we could be one heartbeat from hell.

Hopefully a similar life of never really knowing if we were yet counted worthy to escape, isn't what many of us experience.

Do we fear that we might be still a little short of being counted worthy to escape?

Do we live in constant doubt of being one heartbeat from finding ourselves left behind in the tribulation?

With that in mind, at different times here at FiveDoves, I have asked about this very thing.

I have asked more than once, if anyone who comes to FiveDoves knows for sure if they are counted worthy.

No one ever answered this, so I then asked who knows of anyone else, that for sure is counted worthy.

As far as I remember, no one answered that either.

That really troubled me, because it seemed that all those people whom they know, including themselves, are walking in that constant gnawing of not knowing for sure.

So, if none of us seem to know whether or not we are counted worthy to escape, perhaps putting the question in reverse may be more helpful.

How can we know if we are counted unworthy to escape?

If that question can be more clearly answered, then we can definitely strive to not live like that.

It may be a much, much easier thing to answer, and a much, much easier target to aim to the proper side of.

Thank you for all you that wrote, and your obvious concern for your brothers and sisters

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