Common Pitfalls That Cause Disconnection from Christ in Christian Life

Sources

1. Hebrews (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Hebrews 6:6: If--Greek, "And (yet) have fallen away"; compare a less extreme falling or declension, Gal 5:4, "Ye are fallen from grace." Here an entire and wilful apostasy is meant; the Hebrews had not yet so fallen away; but he warns them that such would be the final result of retrogression, if, instead of "going on to perfection," they should need to learn again the first principles of Christianity (Heb 6:1). to renew them again--They have been "once" (Heb 6:4) already renewed, or made anew, and now they need to be "renewed" over "again." crucify to themselve”
2. Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 4: Tertullian IV, Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen — BOOK I. (part 3): or sword? (as it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.) Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us."[1] And secondly, when laying down another series of causes which naturally tend to separate those who are not firmly grounded in their religion, he says: "For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any ”
3. 2 Thessalonians (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on 2 Thessalonians 2:3: In these words the apostle confutes the error against which he had cautioned them, and gives the reasons why they should not expect the coming of Christ as just at hand. There were several events previous to the second coming of Christ; in particular, he tells them there would be, I. A general apostasy, there would come a falling away first, Th2 2:3. By this apostasy we are not to understand a defection in the state, or from civil government, but in spiritual or religious matters, from sound doctrine, instituted worship and church government, and a holy li”
4. CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 57: your mind must be alternately ruled by diffidence and hope; as if we were to imagine Christ standing at a distance, and not rather dwelling in us. We expect salvation from him—not because he stands aloof from us, but because ingrafting us into his body he not only makes us partakers of all his benefits, but also of himself. Therefore, I thus retort the argument, If you look to yourself damnation is certain: but since Christ has been communicated to you with all his benefits, so that all which is his is made yours, you become a memb”
5. CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 84: “one God, one faith, one baptism” ( Eph. 4:5 ). Nay, when he tells us to be “of one accord, of one mind,” he immediately adds, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” ( Phil. 2:2 , 5 ); intimating, that where the word of the Lord is not, it is not a union of believers, but a faction of the ungodly. 6. Cyprian, also, following Paul, derives the fountain of ecclesiastical concord from the one bishopric of Christ, and afterwards adds, “There is one Church, which by increase from fecundity is more widely extended to a ”
6. Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 5: Augustine — Anti-Pelagian — CHAP. 15 [XII.]--THE ONE SIN COMMON TO ALL MEN. (part 2): they themselves allow), unless they have received the grace of Christ before they die, but also alienates from salvation and everlasting life, which cannot be anything else than the kingdom of God, to which fellowship with Christ alone introduces us.”
7. Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 5: Augustine — Anti-Pelagian — CHAP. 56.--NO ONE IS RECONCILED TO GOD EXCEPT THROUGH CHRIST.: Taking into account all the inspired statements which I have quoted,--whether I regard the value of each passage one by one, or combine their united testimony in an accumulated witness or even include similar passages which I have not adduced,--there can be nothing discovered, but that which the catholic Church holds, in her dutiful vigilance against all profane novelties: that every man is separated from God, except those who are reconciled to God through Christ the Mediator; and that no on”
8. theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Third Part (Tertia Pars), Of the Defects of Body Assumed by the Son of God, Art. 4: Article: Whether Christ ought to have assumed all the bodily defects of men? I answer that, As stated above (Articles [1],2), Christ assumed human defects in order to satisfy for the sin of human nature, and for this it was necessary for Him to have the fulness of knowledge and grace in His soul. Hence Christ ought to have assumed those defects which flow from the common sin of the whole nature, yet are not incompatible with the perfection of knowledge and grace. And thus it was not f”
9. 1 Corinthians (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on 1 Corinthians 6:15: Resuming the thought in Co1 6:13, "the body is for the Lord" (Co1 12:27; Eph 4:12, Eph 4:15-16; Eph 5:30). shall I then--such being the case. take--spontaneously alienating them from Christ. For they cannot be at the same time "the members of an harlot," and "of Christ" [BENGEL]. It is a fact no less certain than mysterious, that moral and spiritual ruin is caused by such sins; which human wisdom (when untaught by revelation) held to be actions as blameless as eating and drinking [CONYBEARE and HOWSON].”
10. CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 99: and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body” ( 1 Cor. 11:27 , 29 ). For men of this description, who without any spark of faith, without any zeal for charity, rush forward like swine to seize the Lord’s Supper, do not at all discern the Lord’s body. For, inasmuch as they do not believe that body to be their life, they put every possible affront upon it, stripping it of all its dignity, and profane and contaminate it by so receiving; inasmuch as while alienated and estranged from their brethren, they dare to mi”