I see your reference to Matthew 7, but those verses have to be qualified somehow in light of the fact that the the Lord of the harvest (in the parable you cited) does not even trust the reapers (the angels) to know with certainty who the tares and wheat are. After all, they ask the Lord if they should remove the tares that were sown and He says no, since they might uproot wheat instead. Personally I think those verses in Matthew 7 don't do nearly the work that they are made to do in supporting this idea. My interpretation (which is based on what Jesus says in context) is that He is specifically talking about how to identify false prophets; He is not making a general statement about how to identify true and false Christians.
Fair enough.
Do you think you have a gift of discernment? Can you see someone who claims to be Christian, and does not show any evidence of sanctification as being true in their claim.
I understand that you believe that, but if you can believe that Peter was regenerate when he denied Christ three times and emphasized it with cursing, then you aren't too far from accepting the possibility of a genuine believer having a change of mind about Christ.
So you believe Peter was regenerate before the death and resurrection of Christ, that He lost that regeneration for a short period of time and had to be born again, again.
Peter was powerless at that point:
Luk 22:31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat,
Luk 22:32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
I didn't use the word "sheep." I used the word "saved." It's easy for you to claim you were a sheep before you heard the gospel because that aligns with your assumptions about election. But were you saved before you even heard the gospel?
Why won't you accept what I say. I believe I have always been one of His sheep.
You think you can go between being born again and not being born again freely based on your choices.
That would be just more self-glorification.
I suspect that the switch-a-roo suggests the following: "sheep" has relevance for the doctrine of election, whereas "salvation" has reference to the doctrine of the atonement.
Not what was inferred at all. This is you making up stuff. to fit with what you want to force onto others.
I believe that from my birth to to the day when God revealed the truth of Jesus Christ to me that I was not regenerate. I was however a sheep that heard His voice, and follow Him.
Election and atonement are not the same thing, and this OP is about how/when the atonement is applied, and the Bible clearly speaks of salvation as something that happens when we believe the gospel, not before.
election and atonement is obviously not the same thing, and no one applied such apart from you.
When is the atonement applied? What a curious way of stating something.
When Jesus dies on the cross, He atoned for the sin of those who will be saved and those saints like Abraham etc.
He did not atone for those who die apart from Christ.
I don't think you're acknowledging the fact that we both have the exact same problem in explaining how the atonement becomes effective.
I don't have a problem with that. I know exactly how and when the atonement became effective for me. I shared my testimony and made it clear.
Perhaps you are confused because you believe you can walk in and out of salvation as you choose.