Can I lose my salvation?
Many religions that teach that a person is saved by their own efforts,
also teach that you can lose your salvation by not maintaining good works or by
committing sins.
On this basis it is
dreadfully upsetting
and troubling
for many people as they realize they could lose their salvation because of
their negligence or the suddenness of temptation.
At these moments, it would mean they become
children of the devil and should they die at that time, they would be cast into
hell for eternity. Such people also know that their hearts are deceitful and
don't deserve heaven and the mercies of God.
This view is further supported by 240 New Testament
scriptures that seem to show a person can lose their salvation.
Well ... can I
or can’t I lose
my salvation?
********************************
AREN'T THERE VERSES
THAT SHOW I CAN LOSE MY SALVATION?
Unfortunately, many Christians see every
verse in the New Testament as applying to them. This can't be done. Let me
explain. Every verse in the King James Bible is inerrantly and infallibly true,
but we need to remember that every verse falls into one or more of the
following categories:
1. It IS HISTORICAL
2. It IS DEVOTIONAL / INSPIRATIONAL
3. It IS DOCTRINAL
Now some verses fall into all three
categories and some only into one. For example a verse on Jewish genealogy in
Chronicles or Kings would be #1 but not necessarily #2 or #3.
RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE
WORD OF GOD
No Christian would think that they would have
to be circumcised to be saved - this is Old Testament, but when they read
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount – “blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see
God” - they go into `works mode' to purge themselves to be acceptable to God.
(Catholics have a field day here).
Christians will see God because they have trusted
the work of Jesus for salvation - not the purity of their heart.
ARE THERE TWO CRITERIA
TO SEE GOD?
No! Jesus was a Jew, who came for the pork
abstaining, temple attending, Sabbath observing Jew. Jesus at this time was
preaching faith and works to the Jews.
He was preaching the Kingdom of Heaven (the
1000 year millennial reign). For Christians saved by faith, this doesn’t apply.
We can get into a mess when not “rightly
dividing the word of God”.
For example - everyone in the following
chapters - Matthew 1-27, Mark 1-15, Luke 1-23, John 1-19 is under Old Testament
Jewish Law and commandments as given to Moses.
Not one Christian pops his head out of the
bushes!
CULTS AND HERESIES
All cults and heresies (Catholics, JW's,
Mormons, SDA’s etc) build their foundations in Matthew, Hebrews, James and Acts
1-10.
They ignore the Pauline Epistles where
Christian doctrine is found, as being of lesser importance.
ALL ERROR IS BASED ON BIBLICAL TRUTHS THAT HAVE BEEN MISPLACED.
LOSS OF SALVATION
Now the verses that refer to losing salvation
are those addressed to Jews and Gentiles in the Tribulation.
Salvation in this time will be by faith and
works - not by faith alone. This is why believers will have to endure to the
end - meaning their death! (Matthew 10:22)
DIFFERENT TIMES -
DIFFERENT SALVATIONS There are different periods used by God to save people
different ways:
1.
ADAM AND EVE:
saved by “obedience by sight” (God was present on earth, no faith
needed)
2.
OLD TESTAMENT JEWS:
saved by “faith in God + works”
3.
CURRENTLY:
saved by “faith’ alone” in the work of Christ
4.
THE 7 year TRIBULATION: (this time of
‘Jacob’s Trouble’ will be a Jewish dispensation on earth) saved by “faith in
God + works”
5.
1000 YEAR REIGN OF CHRIST:
saved by “obedience by sight” (Christ will be present on earth, no faith
needed)
CURRENTLY - the FAITH ALONE AGE Suppose you
have rebellious children who turn away from you - they still are your children.
Fellowship with them may dwindle to zero but the relationship of son ship is always
there!
So it is with God. Christians will backslide,
turn away from God, sin and do all sorts of horrible things.
What Is God's response?
The Bible says that He chastises those who He
loves and the ultimate chastisement would be death at God's hand and to be
taken home to heaven.
But the Christian isn’t judged for his sins -
Jesus did that at Calvary!
He may lose rewards for lack of works but
once a man is born again, he can never become unborn!
Once you are a son you never lose your son
ship.
If it were possible to lose our salvation,
we’d all be falling in and out of heaven 10,000 times a day.
LOSS OF SALVATION?
1. How would you know if
you’d lost it?
2. What would cause you
to lose it?
3. How could you get it
back again?
4. If you died - would
you go to hell?
Prior to his conversion from Roman
Catholicism, the dilemma that drove Martin Luther (the great Reformer) to the
point of insanity, was “I must be internally pure all the time lest I die and
go to hell!”
Sin is sin in God’s eyes whether you’re aware
of it or not. Not being aware of a sin doesn’t let you off the hook.
Now, God is not so cruel to allow us to be
saved by faith alone, and then condemn us to faith + works.
The Bible says that our “righteousness is as
filthy rags” - not our unrighteousness. “Man at his best is vanity.”
We have no hope by ourselves and people who
think we can lose our salvation fail to understand what it means to be
justified by faith alone. They hold to Roman Catholic theology of “big and
little sins”.
TO LOSE YOUR SALVATION
DENIES TWO THINGS:
1. The saved man has
“sewer nature” till the day he dies. If loss of salvation
were true, who would God throw back? Would it be those with only 50% of their
“sewer” cleaned out or 99.99% clean? Where is the cut-off point?
2. God’s love shown
through the work of Jesus Christ. God wants us to
stick our ‘spiritual thermometers’ into ourselves for the purpose of knowing
our corruption, not to then set about getting rid of it ourselves.
We can never rid ourselves of our corruption in 999
trillion years, but God shows us Christ - who “Paid-in-Full”.
If you believe in the loss of salvation like the
Roman Catholics, you detract from the work of Christ at the cross by dwelling
on yourself and your own spiritual temperature.
A sewer is still a sewer despite air - freshener
and minus 4 spade-fulls! Luther said we are “at the same time righteous yet
sinful”!
TO FOCUS ON YOUR
INTERNAL
PURITY IS TO
SAY:
“MOVE OVER JESUS
- YOUR BLOOD IS NOT IMPORTANT AT ALL –
I NOW DOWNGRADE YOUR
WORK ON THE CROSS AND PROCEED TO DWELL UPON MY OWN TRINITY - ME, MYSELF AND I.”
NO MY FRIEND, YOU CAN
TAKE HEART FROM
THE FOLLOWING
SCRIPTURES:
1. All believers possess everlasting
life NOW. “...he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, HATH
everlasting life, and shall not come into comdemnation...” John 5:24.
2. All believers are
SEALED by God.
“...whereby ye are SEALED unto the day of redemption...”
Ephesians 4:30.
3. All believers are KEPT
by the power of God.
“Who are KEPT by the
power of God ...to be revealed in the last time.”
1 Peter 1:5.
4. All believers can have
KNOWLEDGE of eternal life. “... that ye may KNOW that ye have eternal life...”
1John 5:13.
5. All believers can have
CONFIDENCE.
“Being CONFIDENT ....
that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of
Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:6.
6. All believers are
SECURE.
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love
of God, WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD.” Romans 8:38-39.
7. All believers
shall NEVER perish.
“And I give unto
them eternal life; and they shall NEVER perish, neither shall any man pluck
them out of my hand.” John 10:28.
A STORY: “THE THREE
BARRELS”
An old preacher put it
this way: “Suppose you had three barrels - big, medium and little, and each one
sat inside the other, with the largest on the outside and the littlest in the
inside. In order to get to the little barrel, you’d have to smash open the big
and medium sized barrels first.
Now God is the big barrel. Jesus is the medium barrel and I’m the little barrel. My life is hid with Christ in God! Before the devil could get to me, he would have to tear away God and Jesus, and before he could do that, I would have already slipped away to Glory!”
IF YOU’RE SAVED,
THAT’S HOW YOU’LL STAY TILL THE RAPTURE OR DEATH - CONTRARY TO ANYONE’S FAULTY
INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURES.
Failure to understand this is failure to
understand - JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH ALONE!
IT’S CHRIST’S WORK AND
This
website’s front page is:
www.
STUDY THE
BIBLE 69s (STB-69s)
DID THE OT SAINTS HAVE ETERNAL SECURITY?
It has been said that all error and heresy comes from misunderstanding the blood. Like the tentacles of an octopus, many preachers and teachers in the past, have combated heresy by attempting to cut off the tentacles of heresy eg Mormonism, Roman Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Seventh Day Adventism and all the other “-isms”, BUT THEY HAVE IGNORED the ink sac in the head of the octopus labelled “THE IGNORANCE OF SHED BLOOD OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.”...
www.AustralianBibleMinistries.com