One wouldn't think this would be a 'questionable' doctrine in the Church of the Living God. But it is...for some. Brethren, there are Believers in the Church who sincerely believe that EVEN IF a person (who) USED TO profess to be born-again, (but who now) chooses to openly and publicly renounce (i.e. reject) Yeshua Christ as their savior...they would still be eternally saved because they USED TO believe in the Gospel of Christ! No! I'm not making that up! Now to be fair, there are ways to convince yourself (misusing) the Scriptures that a USED TO BE Believer...who's now an Unbeliever...will still be saved from hell when they die. However...IF you listened to part one of this series I explained the biblical meanings for the English words: believe, believing, believed and believer...and they all come from ONE Greek word PISTUEO. And that Greek word has nothing to do with USED TO BE a Believer.

DEFINITIONS OF BELIEVING

STRONG'S SAYS.... BELIEVE, BELIEVES, BELIEVING BELIEVED in the Greek means to have a mental persuasion by implication, to entrust (especially one's spiritual well-being to Christ): — believe(-r), commit (to trust), be committed unto 1, be put in trust with 1, commit to one's trust. 1a; to think it to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in of the thing believed; to credit, have confidence; mere acknowledgment of some fact or event: intellectual faith

VINE'S SAYS to believe,” also “to be persuaded of,” and hence, “to place confidence in, to trust,” signifies, in this sense of the word, reliance upon, not mere credence (i.e. not merely something you believed in the past.)

So in other words, the general definition of BELIEVE, BELIEVES, BELIEVING and BELIEVED clearly implies CONTINUING TO BELIEVE!

IT’S BIBLICALLY LOGICAL THAT IF A PERSON NO LONGER BELIEVESWHAT THEY NEED TO BELIEVE in order to be SAVED…THEY’RE NO LONGER A BELIEVER!

It's important to note that in the New Testament, "pisteuó" carries a richer meaning than simply intellectually believing at some point in time. The word implies deep trust and continued reliance. Hence, IF you stop believing you are no longer a believer. In John 6:47 you see: “Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who believes has eternal life.” This verse both make it clear that you have to BE A believer in order to have eternal life. In English the word “believe” is a friendly word. The big question is what does it really mean to believe in Him. As I said before, every time you see the words believe, believing, believed and believes (in the New Testament) they come from the Greek word pisteuo, which means so much more than just believing something in your head. It means “believe in, to entrust, to rely on, to cling to.”

Brother Bob