Originally Posted by SouthernHero

Rich Lusk is a friend of mine and one of the nicest guys in the world, and has written some good books. I am certainly not FV however. One of my biggest concers with the FV is thier corporate / personal justification and more specifically the losing of that justification:

They would say that being baptised, being a church member and partaking the sacraments unites one to and gaines one the benefits of the covenant (granted, the FV definition of covenant tends to get convoluted and complex, to say the least), then you are to grow in grace and continue to be ministered to by the church (sacraments, corporate praise and worship, liturgy, etc.),

But what happens then (as we've all seen, sadly) people fall away, they denounce Christ and the church. Then they die in that state. What happened here? Presbyterians say that they were never truly saved to begin with, which is a mystery of the Lord, since they had so many signs of the covenant and apparent blessings from the Lord. The FV says that they were elected unto the covenant, tasted the covenant and was % 100 a part of it, but then after being saved here, fluctuated in a hazy removal of personal regenerating grace and fell away as a covenant breaker, ultimately a non-elect, despite their previous state as justified in the church.

I hope that I am being honest as to the FV belief here. I could never adopt any belief system that preaches even a roundabout way to lose your salvation. I'll also never get over their sympathies with rome. But I certainly wouldn't call Rich Lusk a heretic.