The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Perseverance - real life and Scripture

As Calivinists, how can we explain it when our fellow believers eventually denounce the faith?

Are we compelled to simply say "They must never have believed"?

It seems like an a logical weak-point, an 'explaining away' of reality.

Thanks all for any insight you may have.

We should say what Scripture says. The two most notable on this topic are the following:

1Jn 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

Mat 7:22 On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?'
Mat 7:23 And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'

False professors who eventually fall away are described in Jesus' parables as tares among wheat and bad fish among good. Notice that in the parable of the sower, it's only the seed sown in "good soil" that produced grain. Seed planted in the other soils appeared to be viable, but all died-off before producing "fruit."

If I may, at times of extreme duress or melancholia,it may be possible to lose sight of the beneficence of God.This,better than anything else, underscores the importance of maintaining an earnest,consistent supplication for HIS discernment.
Such lapses are not to be looked upon as that which delineate reprobation,as we all have sinned and come short (as per Romans 3:23).I maintain that none living,dead or yet unborn has any gauge to determine that (Romans 8:33)and any who claim to have insights like these are committing apostasy...PERIOD.
Perhaps this person who has "renounced" the faith has come under circumstances that have no discernible connection to fairness;hence the spiritual capacity to properly put it into perspective has been temporarily arrested.....Quite honestly I was down that road myself several years ago.
In retrospect I was handed Divine favor;as the quality of life I now enjoy would have been impossible for me to obtain had Providence dealt me a more "favorable" portion then.