* If we have been enlightened to a sin and then return to that sin is there hope for our soul?

Comments by Joan Boney:

We read this is Hebrews 10:

 23  Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)

24   And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:

25  Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

26  For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins

Also the apostle Peter said:

2 Peter 3

20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

***

A Catholic man was having sex with a woman outside of marriage.  His wife was a lesbian and they divorced.  This Catholic man would have sex with women and then confess his sin to a Catholic priest and then have sex again outside of marriage.

Can he be forgiven?  

I would say, "Yes," because I don't think he was born again, therefore not enlightened by God to sin of fornication.

Another example:

The man who was our Bible teacher when I attended Word of Faith was secretely having sex with women outside of marriage.  This man was going to bars and women would proposition him and he would also "chase" women for sex.  

None of us in our Bible class knew this was going on.

But a woman who owned a coffee shop mentioned his name to me.  I revealed to her that he was my Bible teacher at the church I attended.  She said to me, "Oh.  He is such a terrible influence on my boyfriend."  

I was terribly shocked.  Here was a worldly woman telling me that our Bible teacher was a terrible influence for her boyfriend!

Then she mentioned Don's girlfriend.

None of us knew he had a girlfriend.  He was living a life at church and a life in private.

This is terrible.  We have one life and that is a life in Christ.  And we live openly and honestly before all.

I went to Don and asked him about this "girlfriend".  He tried to be evasive.  

I then point blank said to him, "Are you having sex with this woman?"

He replied, "Of course."

I said, "You know the Bible as well as I do.  I can have no more to do with you."

He replied, "That's right."

I could no longer attend his Bible classes.

Is there any hope at all for this man?  He was definitely enlightened to the truth of God concerning fornication.

There is one possible way for him.

Paul said:  

I Corinthians 5

It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.

2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.

3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,

4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

I did learn later that this man who had been our Bible teacher could no longer have sexual intercourse.  I assumed his flesh had been destroyed by Satan.  That gives me hope for the salvation of his spirit in the day of the Lord.

(I doubt that he is still living for he was older than I am and I am 83 now.)

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