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--Critical Perspectives
from the Word of God
This issue inflames many Christians who deeply believe that once one accepts Jesus Christ he or she is forever saved. Is this the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth and the apostles? The apostle Paul wrote in Romans that unless one receives the Holy Spirit (also known as the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Christ), he or she simply is not a Christian (Romans 8:9). For conversion, or as many state it "born again" or "begotten of God," we must receive God�s Holy Spirit which indwells us (vs. 9). The converted are the true children of God. So then, once converted does a person always remain converted or can one fall away?
Simply because we receive God�s Holy Spirit does not mean that we have given up our free will. God requires us to exercise free choice. We remain at liberty either to reject God, God�s way of life, and the law of Christ, or to obey him. Now a converted person is a saint, a holy one, who the apostle Paul says is a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1) who puts his or her faith to work through love (Galatians 5:6). Our duty, through the power of God's holy spirit, is to bring every thought captive to the will of Jesus Christ (II Corinthians 10:5). Or as the apostle John states at John 3:16-21 believers in Christ will practice truth.
Carefully note Hebrews 6:4-7. The writer of Hebrews, probably the apostle Paul, wrote that once a converted person truly falls away it is impossible, even for God, to renew him or her again to repentance. The intent of the individual is to no longer repent and obey God and receive salvation through Jesus Christ. The implication is that salvation is not a one time event but a process that lasts a lifetime. However, conversion is a one time event. Conversion occurs through God calling, repentance, and God's gift of the Holy Spirit. Eternal life is a gift from God which no human can earn.
Nevertheless, some, at one time converted and part of the people of God, rejected God and now await eternal death. Others will reject God in the future. The New Testament teachers that one of the conditions to life eternal is to remain faithful to God to death. Not doing so can result in a spiritual abortion. God loves his children and will do all he can to help us work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). The duty to allow God to perfect his work in us, however, rests upon us.
The teaching "once saved always saved" is a vicious heresy. It promotes the Satanic teaching that all one has to do is "believe in Jesus" and they have eternal life. It lulls people into thinking they have salvation while they live in sin. Nevertheless, eternal life does not come to the people of God until the time of the resurrection of the dead in Christ. Many coming in the name of Jesus Christ, who the apostle Paul said preach a "different gospel" (II Corinthians 11:4) and are "false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ" (II Corinthians 11:13), would empty Christianity of obedience to God. They misconstrue the new covenant and work evil by promoting the accepting of Christ and ignoring the duty of Christians to live a life of faith working though love (Galatians 15:6; James 2:26). They often do their work by taking some scriptures out of the context of all other scriptures and spinning them to teach a false gospel.
Make no mistake, the fate of the incorrigibly wicked is their destruction in a lake of fire (Revelation 20:13-14). This group includes both those who stubbornly rejected God�s way of life but were never converted and those who were once converted but exercising their free will decided to reject God and his ways. The writer of Hebrews asks: "How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and insulted the Spirit of grace?" (Hebrews 10:29). He says: "For in the case of those who have been once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put him to open shame" (Hebrews 6:4-6). With what result? He writes: "For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES (Hebrews 10:26-27). Malachi records YHVH as saying: "For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze...so that it will leave them neither root nor branch" (Malachi 4:1).
God makes it possible for us to succeed but he will not force us against our will to be his children and adopt his ways. This has to be a matter of our free choice and he has gifted us with free will. We suggest that you always seek to obey God. For some Christians meeting him is only one heartbeat away. God always extends his merciful forgiveness to us when we repent (I John 1:7-9).
Page last updated: 11/28/04 08:44 AM.
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