by Jeremiah’s use of the vine imagery to describe God’s judgment of Judah where he writes: “Strip off her branches, for these people do not belong to the Lord” (Jer 5:10). Some have found it troubling that people who have had some sort of connection with Jesus as professing believers are eventually severed from Christ. But this teaching is not unique to this text. John the Baptist instructed the religious leaders who approached him for baptism to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matt 3:8).