Think about it: Do people with hearts of stone ask God to give them a different kind of heart?

Ezekiel 36:26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

He promises: “I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me” (Jer. 32:40).

On the other hand, it is entirely possible for someone to have a keen interest in Christianity (say a prayer, be a member of a local Church and even be involved in Christian ministry) and never be a genuine Christian in any way at all.

How do we know that? Well, because 1 John 2:19 explicitly says that! In referring to those who had once served alongside him in ministry, the Apostle John writes, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.”

I don’t know how John could have been clearer on the issue. According to him, those who leave the faith never truly were in the faith. John did not conclude that such a person was eternally safe because they had prayed a prayer one day long ago. No, for him, the fact that someone left the Christian faith showed that the faith they professed was never really possessed. They were never truly amongst God’s elect sheep. They were never a genuine Christian. Continue reading →