Bible Beats

The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: (2Pe 2:9)

The view that a person can lose their salvation is a heresy invented by the Catholic Church, expressed by excommunication; and its design was for the purpose of wielding great power by means of subjugation of the masses. The Reformation addressed and corrected many of the errors taught as dogmas under the Church of Rome, but the heresy of fleeting salvation was not singularly dealt with in detail to the extent that it would be kept from resurfacing in Protestant thought. Granted, there are a few scriptures in the New Testament that, taken by themselves, can be confused with an affirmation of the error once dispensed with. These scriptures suffer from common, and simple, misunderstandings of the text; and can be easily addressed.

The first passage used to support fleeting salvation is from Paul’s epistle to the Hebrews. As the name conspicuously reveals, it was written to Jewish believers about many things pertaining uniquely to them, among other things. One of the topics was Jewish professing Christians who had never been born again, and did not really receive Jesus Christ as Messiah:

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, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 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. (Heb 6:4-6).

The falling away spoken of here is to apostatize, and by so doing they were practically crucifying the Lord anew, and were as bad as their brethren who did. Some may protest, however, that the alliance here spoken of is too strong for any but the formally converted. Nay, but we have for reference one Simon Magus, a devout and religious man who also renounced his former practice and believed and was even baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. He was also a partaker of the Holy Ghost in that he “continued” with Phillip in his ministry wherein he witnessed “the miracles and signs which were done” that included the casting out of unclean spirits and the healing of those who were lame or had the palsy, and he tasted of the heavenly gift as his whole city experienced “great joy” at these things (Acts 8: 5-13).

Certainly Simon could not want for the way of truth to be more brightly illuminated to him, but thus enlightened he still had an unconverted heart. For though he continued for a time, his unregenerate spirit gave him away; he sought to buy the gift of God with money, and then Peter assessed him in no uncertain terms. Peter informed Simon that he was actually still in the bond of iniquity, in gall and bitterness, had no portion of the grace of God, and had better repent and pray for forgiveness or else he was to be damned, having the same chance of entering heaven as his money did (Acts 8: 19-23).

The second scripture that is used to support fleeting salvation is found in the second epistle of Peter: “Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness” (2Pe 3:17). The idea of the passage (the chapter, and the epistle) is steadfastness in the faith and adherence to the word, or sound doctrine, as spoken by the prophets and the apostles; in the face of apostasy (i.e., scoffers, v. 4; and the willingly ignorant, v. 5). The misrepresentation and misapplication of the scriptures was in earnest at the time, as Peter notes in this chapter regarding the abuse Paul’s epistles were undergoing, and he encourages them to endure:

And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. (2Pe 3:15-16).

The Gnostics and others were putting the scriptures on the rack and torturing them out of shape, and perverting there meaning. The same easy scholarship and shameless didactical misadventures spawn the same misinterpretations and confusions that abound today. It is demonstrated in Peter’s second epistle that Peter also said some things that are hard to be understood, but not impossible. In this case of incorrectly equating losing steadfastness with the loss of salvation, the proof verse is simply taken out of context; so much so, that the entire chapter of seventeen more verses has been, for the sake of study, redacted.

Are there people who leave the faith? By the droves! Former church members turn up as animal rights activists, environmentalists, and other assorted practicing pagans. The question, however, is not whether they were in a church, or small group, or other religious organization. The question is: where they in the faith? Obviously, the answer is no. How, wonder the simple and offended and doctrinally confused saints, could this be. Fortunately, John had to answer this question many years ago, and his answer still holds today:

Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. (1Jn 2:18-19).

When John wrote his answer to the saints, they were being reviled and hurt by those who had left their fellowship and started other sects. They were preaching a new holiness supposedly obtained by becoming sinless, and they were expressing open hatred for the saints they had separated from(1Jh 2:9-11). John wrote to them that to reaffirm the right fellowship on which they could depend (1Jn 1:3), and so their joy would be rekindled (1Jh. 1:4). He countered the false brethren’s claim by reminding the saints that: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1Jo 1:8). We will always be sinners in need of our savior, and our foremost assurance that we are secure in our salvation comes from Him.

We have it on the authority of Christ Jesus that eternal salvation is the only kind of salvation He gives, and it is both non-transferable, and non-forfeitable:

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (Jn 10:27-28).

A saint cannot be unborn. Nicodemus understood as much when he stumbled at the prospect of being born again; he understood it in the natural only, and that such a reversal entailed retrograding to a state before birth, an impossibility (Jn 3:4). It is a natural law that cannot be violated, and the same is true in the spiritual law of the second, or spiritual birth. To ensure it, the new birth is transacted by the impartation of the Holy Spirit as an earnest deposit in the redeemed possession:

That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. (Eph 1:12-14).

The seal is indelible, permanent. The permanency of God’s seal is also attested to by the irrevocable anti-seal of Antichrist; that he will use to seal the damned unto the day of perdition:

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. (Rev 13:16-17).

Those who receive the anti-seal will be receiving the brand of Hell, and:

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. (Rev 14:10-11).

The time of Antichrist is fast approaching. The Lord is coming for his saints soon. As far back as the first century church, Paul had to exhort the saints by the coming of our Lord, and our gathering together unto him, that they be not shaken in their understanding, or troubled in their spirit either by public instruction or by any of the forged epistles that were circulating containing errors (2 Th 2:1-2). Today, the field is many times more overgrown with the wild tares of apostasy. Indeed, we are witnessing the apostasy, but they are going out from us to prove they were not all of us. No one is losing their salvation. Always search the scriptures to see whether a thing be so (Acts 17:11); and be not afraid, but do exploits in His name.