"Of course, Nicodemus could be regenerated, but not before the Holy Ghost was outpoured. He brought spices for the body of Jesus. He was no doubt among the regenerated Jews in the Book of Acts."

Can you please answer my question about losing your salvation. If you can say that a Christian can never lose his salvation and is eternally secure and that there is nothing you can do to keep it or lose it then I will extend my apology to you.

Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born of the Spirit, how could he then be born-again if technically he couldn't be regenerated.

Do you believe that Christians can lose their salvation? Cheryl over the years that I have known her here has said yes. She and I have had fought several bouts over that issue.

What say you?

-------------

I know on which ground I stand. I've proven from scripture that faith is a fruit of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. I have proven from scripture that a corrupt tree cannot produce good fruit. I have proven to you that only the Holy Spirit can produce spiritual fruit. But you refuse to admit that only a regenerate man can have the fruits of the Spirit when he does not have the Spirit.

You on the other hand refuses to acknowledge that faith is given by God. You refuse to acknowledge the sovereignty of God. You refuse to acknowledge the power of Satan and the bondage of sin and its impact on the human will. You refuse to acknowledge that it takes the power of God to break those bonds of slavery to sin and trust in the power of your freewill to set you free.

I'll ask you one last time.

If then faith is a fruit of the Spirit, can an unregenerate man produce fruits of the Spirit when he does not have the Spirit.

I proved that to you in (Mat 7:17-18) "Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, *** neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.***"

A corrupt tree, the unregenerate man, cannot bring forth good fruit, the fruit of the Spirit.

It says exactly what I said, faith is a fruit of the Spirit. I am adding nothing to it.

Yamil, I'll ask you the same question I asked JD.

Is faith a fruit of the Spirit or not?

(Gal 5:19-23) "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20. Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21. Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, ***FAITH,*** 23. Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."

An unregenerated man cannot produce fruits of the Spirit because he has not the spirit of Christ.

If the Holy Spirit then is the empowerment, then would you agree that for one to have saving faith, he must be given that power or that enabling?

John 1:12 "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:"

To be able to receive Christ willingly or to even believe on his name, they would have to be empowered or given the ability to do so.

How did they receive this empowerment?

Joh 1:13 "Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

Is faith a fruit of the Spirit and can one who does not have the Holy Spirit, one who has not been born again, produce spiritual fruit?

That is a flat out lie JD. There is only one regeneration, and that is the renewing of the Holy Spirit. You can only be born-again once, not like the Arminians like Abigail and the other Cheryl who believe that you can lose your salvation and have to be saved again and again. Until then one who does not have the Spirit of Chist cannot produce fruits of the Spirit, which includes faith.

Both the words "grace" χαριτι and "faith" πιστεως are in the feminine gender and although the words "it is" is in italics, the pronoun "it" is in the neuter gender, so grammatically it cannot be referring to either "grace" nor "faith" as being the gift in this passage, but it implied that salvation if the gift of God. But we do know for a fact that according to Gal. 5:22, faith is a fruit of the Spirit. It is not a fruit of the natural man.

You completely misinterpreted my point.
Yes we should weep over the sins of the unconverted and desire their salvation. Why do you think men like Jonathan Edwards, Asahel Nettleton and George Whitfield preached so hard on sin. They had a broken heart for the unconverted.

Problem is that those like JD who teach that being under the bondage of sin is not really in bondage and it is but a simple matter that the freewill of the lost sinner can conquer and save yourself. He believes that those who are under the bondage of Satan doesn't need to be freed by the redeemer in order to repent and believe the gospel and be saved.

Those will not even weep or show remorse for their own sins in repentance.

JD thinks that sinners who love darkness rather than the light that they by their own power and freewill come to the light, have their evil deeds exposed and just embrace the Savior like nothing ever happened.

These like JD take sin so lightly and its power, that is why they don't preach repentance to the lost, but easy believism because it makes their evangelism numbers look good to the soul-winning conferences and maybe their preacher will get his picture in their periodocal.

That is just a sample and the reason why there are so many false believers in the Arminian Baptist churches in this country. They do not view sin as a bondage and a slave to the human will.

When one is a slave, he has two options, either the master has to release him or another one has to purchase him. He cannot just get up and quit his job and move on. He is under the power and control of the slaveowner, in this case Satan and sin.

Jesus came to ransom his soul and redeem him from the bondage to Satan. In JD's theology, one can break the chains of sin himself by his own power and in his own strength by his own freewill come to Jesus for salvation.

He has not realized his own helplessness, he has not realized his own depravity and as long as he refuses to do so, he will not seek for the mercy and grace of God, salvation is not of the Lord but of man and he is still lost in his sins. I know these are strong words and will offend most baptist.

OTH
Rev 1:5 "And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, *** and washed us from our sins in his own blood,***"

You have not answered the question.

Can one who is under the bondage of sin and the power of its grasp free himself by his own power and have faith to serve another master?

Or does he need to be freed from the power of sin's grasp to serve a new master.

Who does this freeing, God or yourself?

Nothing philosophical about it. It is a simple straightfoward question that can be answered with a simple yes or no.