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Lastly, you didn't answer my question, which is fine... in regard to what you tell a covenant child who you have instructed from his/her earliest days that Christ has atoned for their sins and who never comes to faith. What do you then tell that now adult? that Christ didn't die for their sins?

Pilgrim,

I thought my answer was clear enough with my reference to 1 John, but let me elaborate in more detail. We might say that they denied the Lord that bought them. "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them... And man shall follow their pernicious ways..." 2Peter 2:1

Obviously such weren't truly "bought" by the blood of Christ. However, they were regarded as such and the apostle speaks as if they were prior to denying the faith. Whatever your interpretation of the verse is, the same strictures apply to any pastor who pronounces 1 Corinthians 15:1-3 to even only professing believers. There's no getting around it, unless you refuse to say that Christ died for anyone person in particular.

In His Grace,

Ron