Part

Are They Part of Us?
"They went out from among us, but they were not of us; for if they
had been of us, they would have surely remained with us, but that they
might be made manifest that none are of us, (1 John 2:19 Darby
Translation).
This is the verse from which many denominations came up with the idea, "Once
saved, always save," they took it from this sentence participle, "They went out from
among us, but they were not of us;" and that goes against all literary rules. Because, if
you will read the verse before this one, ... well, let me quote it for you.
"Little children, it is [the] last hour, and, according as ye have
heard that antichrist comes, even now there have come many antichrists,
whence we know that it is [the] last hour," (1 John 2:18 Darby
Translation).
Allow me to give you an illustration: Here we have a family named Clark, they
are a good and upright family. The Clarks had one son, but could not have any more, so
they decide to adopt. They adopt a little boy named Sam, they adopt him when he is 8
years old. Mr. Clark and his son, Josh, teach Sam to be a Clark and to do honor to the
name Clark. So, as Sam Clark grows up he acts like and lives the Clark lifestyle. Sam
find a poor lost boy and brings him home, the boy lives with the Clarks and is taught to
act like a Clark. He acts like a Clark as long as he is around the other Clarks, and he
seems to like being a Clark. When the boy grows up he leaves the Clarks. He wages a
verbal war against the Clarks because he hates what they do. Sam talks to the boy, who is
now a man, "Why are you doing this? I thought you were a Clark."
Was the man ever a true Clark? Do you think the man ever even asked to be a
Clark? Mr. Clark would never deny a plea for adoption.
To Sam's question the man answers, "You fool, I was never a Clark!"
Do any of you remember the Wako, Texas incident, the incident with David
Koresh? Well, a while ago I saw a movie about what had happened. The man's name was
not David in the beginning, he changed his own name when he got prideful. But, anyway,
he started out as a true believer in the Lord, he was in a Bible study talking to his paster
and his wife. It was pride that got in the way and made (I forget his real name) David to
go against everything that he had learned about being devoted to the true God.
Dude got so prideful in his dealings with God that the devil was able to use that
pride and intervene. So, the devil got him to thinking that he was the one whom God had
chosen to lead people in the rapture, and that only he had the proper words of truth. He
went out from the church in California were he was a part of them. The devil got in his
way and grabbed him by the ear; and the devil took control at it's own will because Koresh
didn't stand up to it.
And Jesus answered and said to him, "Get behind Me, Satan! For
it is written, `You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you
shall serve,'" (Luke 4:8 New King James Version).

---

As you well know, this is not talking about being a part of a local church, but
being a true Christian. There are antichrists all around who are sitting in the pews of local
churches posing as Christians. But God knows the heart. Those people might even
confess that Jesus is Lord, but not believe it.
Or, when a paster asks, "How many of you would like to receive Jesus as savior?
Just raise your hand." Then the paster prays and nothing happens. No one confessed
Jesus as Lord, but someone made an assumption that they were saved. So, who decided
that these people were saved, or made you think that they were saved?

---