4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. John 15:4-6 NASB
I had a Facebook “discussion” today with a fellow who claimed to have the same “theology” that I profess, but had posted an article defending the theology of Roger E. Olsen, a self-proclaimed defender of Arminianism. In his post he linked to this article. The longer the “discussion” went the more virulently this fellow defended Olsen, all those who claimed to be Christians, but were considered by me and most of you as “Liberal Christians,” and he also went on to include in there all “Open Theists.” He also threw out there how “helpful” it was for Christians to read the books by those we may not agree with to see how broad Christianity really was. As I sat down to put this post together I became convinced that I should write about the number one marker that reveals the authenticity of Christians. That is that genuine believers in our Lord Jesus Christ abide in Him and do not fall away. This falling away includes not pursuing after heretics and their false doctrines.