Mark

Craig,

Re your illustration.

1. Why say he must do x, y, z if someone else can actually do it?

2. Again this is an assumption. A) that a famale false teacher existed. B) she was married and the ‘they’ refers to the husband (what if she was a widow?), C) we are dealing with eternal salvation (according to Cheryl) not someone’s health problems, D) would a doctor really say that she will be healthy if they do… or would he/she say, “Betty, you need to eat healthy if you want to get better”.

I’m not sure we are on the same page here. Let me emphasise the fact that this is eternal destinies at stake. Can we be so hap-hazard just to assume that someone else can bring her out? Can we assume that this is just a hypothetical situation about someone’s eternal destiny?

If we are going to allow this to actually speak about salvation, i think we all need to face the fact that this is a serious verse with serious consequences requiring serious conditions to be met.