Fifty Reasons Why A Saved Person By Jeff Paton Each point is a statement of proof by one who believes that these verses establish that a saved person can never be lost. My response in kind will be brief and concise. This will not answer every question someone has about these proof-texts. In most cases, these assertions of Eternal Security are answered in greater detail in other articles on this site. Because of this, I leave the reader to research the issue further on their own. As you read each "proof passage," ask yourself, "Does this say that a believer cannot lose their salvation?" "Does one have to presuppose that Once Saved Always Saved is true in order to make the passage say that 'A saved person can NEVER be lost?' " "Does one have to read Eternal Security into each verse in order to get Eternal Security "out of" each verse?"
For the BELIEVER, not the one who once believed, or presently has a fruitless, non-saving faith. The Scriptures never promise these things to those who cease to remain, abide, and continue in the faith, or to those who cease to believe! Thank God that the inheritance is imperishable! We know that it will be there for genuine believers! But don’t miss it! It is there through faith (v.5), not unbelief! The inheritance is incorruptible, not our possession of it!
There is no Scripture verse in Heaven or Earth that says that we cannot break God’s seal! Must they prey on the ignorance of their readers to get them to believe something the Scriptures never say in order to prove their point? Ephesians 4:30 warns us not to grieve the Holy Spirit, the very One who is our Seal. There is no purpose to a warning if there is no danger! Maybe they should take off their theological glasses long enough so they can stop seeing things that are just not there! Hogwash! There is not a single reputable translation of Scripture that says “until the day God redeems His body." There is no meaning of sealing "until" the day of redemption! Those theological glasses that they are wearing are putting words and meaning where there is none! We are sealed “for” the day of redemption. Any Greek Lexicon will prove it, and any reputable English version will too! The context of the passage is to the twelve disciples and not to the whole world. It was written to believers, not to those who cease to believe. To apply a promise to those the passage never intended to include is the only way to rescue this false doctrine! Nothing in this passage guarantees or states the impossibility of falling from the faith. Another theological interjection!
“For the Lord loves justice, And does not forsake His godly ones” (NASB). “Saints,” or “godly ones” is who the promise is for. He preserves the faithful, not the unfaithful! There is no promise in Scripture that God preserves the unfaithful! Of course, this passage says nothing of the sort! No child in life or spirit is ever “unborn.” Such language is not in anybodies vocabulary except for those who wish to invent a pathetic argument! People do not become “unborn,” they die! They can die both physically, and spiritually! Where? Must the whole argument for Eternal Security rest in what the Scriptures do not say? Apparently so! Nothing within this passage speaks to the issue at hand! Foolish theological interjection! And as the verse continues, "to good works!" Not for sin and unbelief! This proves more for the cause of holiness and the power of God, and nothing for some invented theory of Eternal Security! You seem to miss the statement that goes before this! “The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed.” Paul’s hope was not based on faith in some false doctrine, but in the fact of the power of God to continue to deliver him from evil deeds. This passage is personal, and not a universal promise to all who ever had a scrape with grace! We can apply this to genuine believers who have the holiness that is wrought by God. No universal promise of Eternal Security here… except in the minds of those who read it into it!
And as the passage continues with a condition ....... "THROUGH FAITH!" It is astonishing how Eternal Security advocates conveniently leave off the condition! Rebellion and continued sinning is not faith! God only "keeps" as long as the condition is met. And he lost Judas anyway! (Jn. 17:12). God will not violate the freedom that He has given man! “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.” James 2:17. Paul is arguing the point that works cannot merit salvation, and James is arguing that one cannot be saved by a fruitless faith. They are not in opposition in any way. Nowhere is it said by Paul, or the Scriptures, that works cannot affect salvation! You have the choice; you can believe your theories, or you can believe the Bible! The Bible never says that sin cannot affect salvation!. 18. HIS FAITH IS COUNTED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS! Romans 4:5; It is faith which brings salvation to a believer. And, it was not a fruitless faith, for, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?” James 2:21. True faith brings forth good fruit. A faith that brings forth bad fruit is not a saving faith (John 15). Works, or working for the purpose of gaining salvation voids grace. Works that result from the fruit of salvation validate faith, but do not attempt in anyway to merit salvation. The Bible says otherwise! “Keep yourselves in the love of God!” (Jude 21). The passage from Romans 8 deals with the security of the believer who remains “in” Christ, and no other. It speaks of external forces that attack the believer, but some may see these afflictions as giving the impression that God is punishing them, or that they have fallen out of the grace of God. Paul is saying that the love of Christ is with the believer regardless of the great persecution that they may suffer. Nothing is said about an impossibility of being separated from Christ because of rebellion and sin! It is not speaking of loss of salvation, but the separation from Christ’s love! Sin is not an external force, it is a personal choice. Nothing in this verse promises the apostate any security! And sin is the work of man! So what?!!!! This proves nothing! God does not force salvation on anyone! God is able. This does not promise in any way that God will keep an apostate against their choice! I have nothing to fear, God is all-powerful, and will not lose His grip on me, or His promises to me as long as I do not cease to trust Him. This promise is to believers, and not to those who once believed. The promise is only to those who have a present tense “belief.” It is not to those who started in the faith, and thereafter faltered. Only the one who believes right now has the promise of "no condemnation." The promise is only to the “sheep.” The sheep are defined by the verse. They (present tense) hear and follow the Shepard. Those that continue in sin are not hearing, and are certainly not following the sinless Shepard! They are not by definition what Jesus calls “sheep.” They are not sheep, and they are not benefactors of the promise that they shall never perish! They are only secure in as far as they continue hearing and following, that is what the text says! The verse is dealing with people coming to Him, not believers staying in Him! All this is saying is that no one who comes to Him should have any fear that they would be turned away. No mysterious lucky lotto of fate that leaves the majority of people abandoned without hope. The Gospel is truly to whosoever will. To him "WHO LOVES GOD!" As the passage says. Not to those who abandon, forsake, or continue in rebellion. Willfully walking in sin is not loving God! Who is a believer? See #23. Who is in His hand? The sheep! Who are the sheep? See #23. Really? So your saying that no one can get saved? If a sheep cannot become a goat, then a goat cannot become a sheep! This passage says NOTHING about it being impossible to revert back to their old state. It speaks only of the security of those who are hearing and following right now. Do you really believe that this statement is teaching Eternal Security? God is always merciful, but that has nothing to do with any mythical doctrine of irrevocable assurance, or salvation without faith! God's mercy was there before anyone ever had faith, but that doesn't mean they were saved before faith just because God's mercy endures forever! Nothing of irrevocable salvation is stated, or even implied in this verse. God says, “He who sins is of the devil” (1 Jn. 3:9). “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). GOD CANNOT LIE! This passage has nothing to do with a doctrine of Eternal Security! There is not a single passage in all of Scripture that says all future sins of the believer are gone! The Bible tells us that only sins past are atoned for (Romans 3:25; 2 Peter 1:9). The atonement is a provision that is available through our Advocate if we sin. This again, has nothing to do with any promise that all believers will never fall away! Those that are believers, or died as believers, will see Him in all His glory.
This passage has nothing to do with the individual believer apart from their participation in the Body, the Church. The Body, the Bride of Christ is glorified and predestined. If one fails to continue in the faith and the Body of Christ, this verse has no application to them. The seed is incorruptible, not the persons possession of that seed! See the previous verse to see who this applies to! “ Seeing ye have PURIFIED your souls in OBEYING the truth through the Spirit unto UNFEIGNED LOVE of the brethren, see that ye LOVE ANOTHER with a PURE HEART fervently.” This cannot possibly describe those that continue in sin and rebellion. They are not pure, they are not obeying, they demonstrate that they do not love the brethren nor God. They do not have a pure heart, and are thereby excluded from being possessors of this incorruptible seed. The “saint,” and not the “sinner.” You finally got one right! Colossians 3:4 says this applies only to those who have made Christ their life, not excuses and sin! Security is “in” Christ. One cannot live in rebellion and be “in” Christ at the same time. More hogwash! The passage says nothing of the sort! It is speaking about freedom from the power of sin. Freedom from the oppressive slavery to sinning! Paul describes this further, “But now being made free FROM sin, and BECOME SERVANTS to God, ye have your FRUIT UNTO HOLINESS, and the END everlasting life” (6:22). And, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness” (6:16). Jesus prays for the believer, He does not believe and repent for the unbeliever! Jesus prayed for Judas, and Judas was still lost. (You can’t lose that which you never had!) (Jn. 17:12). This is not a promise but a statement towards those who “fellowship in the gospel FROM THE FIRST DAY UNTIL NOW” (v.5). Because of their faithfulness, Paul thought it was “meet” for him to think this of them! (v.7). No Eternal Security here, or anywhere else in Scripture! Have you continued from the first day of your conversion until now? Will you always continue? If so, then it would be fit to have the same confidence in you!
The provision of redemption is eternal. There is no promise here that any man is guaranteed to have eternal possession of it. The redemption of Christ would be eternal whether anyone ever believed it, or accepted it, or was ever saved by it!
You said it! The SAINTS life! Not the unbelieving REBELS life! Christ is not the Author of sin! Notice that He also shows what proof that one is a believer in the following verse. “Make you PERFECT IN EVERY GOOD WORK to DO HIS WILL, WORKING IN YOU that which is WELL-PLEASING IN HIS SIGHT, THROUGH JESUS CHRIST” (Heb. 13:21). God does not covenant with so-called “sinning saints.” “Keep yourselves in the love of God” (v.21). The verse says that Jesus is “able” to keep you from falling, not that He is going to force it upon you! Christ is able, if you continue to “Keep yourselves in the love of God.”
One verse does not speak for the whole of Scripture. This passage shows the contrast between the wages of sin and the gift of eternal life. It says nothing of how to get saved, and it has no conditions, because it is not an appeal to repent or believe. It does not void the Scriptures that assert that one must have faith in order to be saved; it has a condition. A gift is free, but it can be thrown out, trampled, and disowned. Being a gift has no bearing on an unconditional Eternal Security. The impossibility of rejecting this gift, or "losing" it, is not asserted by this passage.
No passage in Scripture says this. There is no transfer of character. The word “recon” or “counts” as righteous is a better translation and meaning. You can no more impute wisdom to a fool than you can impute bravery to a coward. God does not work in myths, but in realities. And…. What does that have to do with proving Eternal Security? A leach sucks off the life of the body, and a cancer eats away at it. It may appear to be part of the body, but it is a destroyer, and invader. Christ's body is not a putrid mass of rotting sinful cancer called unbelief! Jesus said, "Wherefore if thy hand or foot offend thee, cut them off" (Matthew 18:8). In those that repent and believe, and continue in the faith, enduring to the end. This passage says nothing about Christ having to finish the salvation that someone had a start in, and chooses to abandon along the way. Eternal Security must be assumed in order to make the passage say that Jesus must finish that which He began. Predestinated to holiness/conformity to Christ’s image, and not to heaven! (A person has a free will before salvation, and none after? Foolish, and unbiblical logic!) See #33. Peace with God; no promise that they could never be lost! This is without a doubt true, but this verse is no foundation to teach the lie that one cannot lose their salvation! See point #1.
None of the passages that are given as proof state that salvation cannot be lost. If such a doctrine were true, why would God shroud it so well that no one could see it? Wouldn't He have at least two or three passages that state this proposition overtly? I encourage those that have an interest in investigating this subject in greater detail to pursue the issue further on the Eternal Security web site. For a more thorough examination of the errors of the false doctrine of Eternal Security, see: ETERNAL SECURITY: A Biblical perspective
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Fifty Reasons Why A Saved Person Can NEVER be Lost And A Brief rebuttal of Each Point
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