There are many doctrines that we do not know about, and some of them I am also just learning right now. But they are not really necessary and I believe that a Christian doesn't need to know all of them because most of these doctrines are actually devices by the enemy. But we must be fully grounded in the truth so that we may be able to test each of these doctrines when they come around.
I am confident that we have the Holy Spirit in us and so we know the truth. What we know cannot be wrong because we know whom we learned them from. It may be that we know only a few things, but these few things always align themselves to the truth because we have received them from the Spirit himself.
The teaching that “once saved always saved” really doesn't hold and the doctrine easily crumbles at the words of our Lord in the beginning chapters of the book of Revelations:
Rev 2:5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
Rev 2:10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
Rev 2:16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
Rev 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
Rev 3:11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
Rev 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
And a final warning is found in the book of Hebrews:
Heb 6:4-6 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, (5) And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, (6) If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
We know for ourselves that even now we can still fall away from grace if we choose to. But we don't do that for fear of God. And the Bible warns us that for us who has tasted the truth already, if we should fall again, there will be no repentance for us anymore because we cannot crucify Christ a second time.
Yes, we also adhere to the principles of predestination and election. But a point of disagreement between other Christian denominations is the manner by which God exercised it. Others believe that election is purely an exercise of God's determinate counsel. But election is not based on God's determinate counsel but on foreknowledge. And the exercise of God’s foreknowledge is different from the exercise of God’s determinate counsel. Foreknowledge basically is just knowing a thing before it actually happens. I have another post about this:
I believe that the other view that election or salvation in general is according to God's exercise of His all sovereign, overruling power is Satan's indirect attack to malign the character of God. And there are Christians who have fallen into that trap.
Although God is all sovereign and He is well able to do as He pleases, He does not exercise it whimsically especially when it comes to salvation. Indeed God said He will have mercy in whom he will have mercy, but the Apostle Paul made it clear when he invoked this that he was arguing as a man because of the infirmity of their (the Roman church) flesh, and in a sense making it only for purposes of argument. And again, if we really know God, His character is hardly like that. God is merciful to anybody who would come to Him with a pure heart, for instance in the gospel of Mark:
Mar 7:25-29 For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet: (26) The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. (27) But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. (28) And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs. (29) And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.
Concerning Jacob and Esau, we know from Scripture what manner of man was Esau, and considering God's foreknowledge, God knew what manner of man Esau will become. But this was not expressly provided to us in the Scripture. But even though accepting it is a case that God chose Jacob without any other consideration but his own all sovereign will, it is an isolated case where God exercised it. And God did exercise His sovereign will in many other instances, but again is He always like that? Is God's character like that? Like a bully who does things by his muscle?
Indeed this doctrine is an indirect attack on the character of God. The Bible simply describes the character of God in this manner: God is love.
Indeed many a false doctrine is come around but these things only teach us one thing: that we should grow in knowledge so that we may be able to answer them that incite controversies.
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