The Italian Reformed scholar Girolamo Zanchi once made the distinction between a serious fall and a total fall. He argued that the Bible is replete with examples of true believers who truly fall away, who fall into gross sin and, on some occasions, protracted periods of impenitence. This is a serious fall. An example is David, who remained impenitent regarding his sin with Bathsheba for more than a year before he was brought back to repentance and renewal of his faith. So, the question is not “Do people fall?” They do fall. Each and every Christian is subject to the possibility of a serious
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