I have a friend who was an Evangelical street preacher, until he took up with a woman, and after he had a child with her, he became an atheist, because he couldn’t reconcile the teachings of the Bible with his lifestyle (unmarried but having sex and raising a child).
If he had died before he had met this woman, when he was still an enthusiastic Evangelical, preaching the Word of God on the street corners, would he have been “saved,” or not?
It’s one matter to be a Prodigal son, who knows he is living in error, … and another matter to claim to be a believer, who later says Christ is illegitimate.
No OSAS disciple will ever sincerely DENY Christ with any conviction. This street preacher had only a ‘theoretical’ knowledge of Christ … which never matured into an abiding faith.
He describes the experience as being similar to believing in Santa Claus and really, honestly thinking that Santa Claus is real, to later finding out that it was only a story. He really did sincerely believe in Jesus, and he has since
changed his mind. People do that, you know.
But if he would have gone to Hell if he had died while doing his street ministry, what warning would he have had, of that? How could he have gotten himself “saved,” since he was already convinced that he was “saved,” at the time?