False
Teachings on Eternal Security
For
most people, their understanding (or lack thereof) of what the Bible teaches
about salvation comes from two main systematic
theologies (systematic confusions): Calvinism
and Arminianism. Without going into all the confusing
arguments about eternal security that are propagated by these two systematic confusions, we can just go to
the Bible and through an inductive
methodology (by gathering the parts to get the whole) and find out exactly
what God says and what God does when He gifts believers salvation whereby they
are “born again” into the New Creation.
From those Bible facts, we can gather what God says, not what Augustine
of Hippo, John Calvin, Theodore Beza, Jacobus
Arminius, or John Wesley say. The
endless and pointless arguments about eternal security all come from the false
presuppositions and logical illogic
of these two main bodies of systematic theologies (systematic confusions).
These arguments about eternal security are more of those endless yaw-but conversations that go nowhere because that is where they
start. They start with systematic confusion and end in systematic confusion.
Let it
be emphatically stated, the Bible gives dogmatically overwhelming evidences and testimonies that IF a person is “born again” of the Spirit of God into the
New Creation, that person’s salvation is eternally secure in that new
existence. To believe in anything else
is a manifestation of extreme confusion.
Theological confusion results
from Biblical ignorance and is corrected by Biblical instruction. The difficulty is when people are so
confirmed by their ignorance that they will not hear and receive Biblical
instruction. Instead, people with
doctrinal presuppositions are programmed to argue against the obvious. Always remember, FALSE DOCTRINES ARE JUST
OTHER FORMS OF IDOLATRY!
There are two Bible texts that dogmatically
confirm the eternal security of a “born again” believer IF he has been
truly “born again;” II Corinthians 5:14-19 and Colossians 2:6-12. These are not the usual texts used to
establish the eternal security of a truly “born again” person. However, they are the most emphatic and
dogmatic texts. First, as you read II
Corinthians 5:14-19, notice that the surety of a believer’s redemption is
CONNECTED to RESPONSIBILITIES in how their new life is lived (verse 14). “If” a person is “born again” (verse 17),
that person “should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which
died for them, and rose again” (verse 14).
This “if” of verse 17 is the hypothetical of context
that continues throughout the rest of the epistle known as II Corinthians;
“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye
not your own selves, how that Jesus
Christ is in you {in the Person of
the indwelling Spirit}, except ye be
reprobates {only unbelievers are given
over to reprobate minds; Romans 1:28}” (II Corinthians 13:5)? The “if” is hypothetical not conditional!
“14
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if
one died for all, then were all dead: 15 And that he died for
all, that they which live should not
henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose
again. 17 Therefore if
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are
passed away {as a result of being ‘born
again’ into the New Creation ‘in Christ,’ in the operations of God’s immutable
promises, all that connects the ‘born again’ believer to the first creation has
already positionally perished with
the first creation, aorist tense}; behold, all things are become {perfect
tense; as a result of being ‘born again’ into the New Creation ‘in Christ,’ in
the operations of God’s immutable promises, all that connects the ‘born again’
believer to the first creation has already once-for-all forever positionally
happened} new {kainós; regenerated}. 18 And all things are of God {only God can provide this New Creation},
who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the
ministry of reconciliation; 19 To wit, that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them;
and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” (II Corinthians 5:14-19).
II Corinthians 5:17-19 clearly teaches the
absolute security of a believer IF that believer has been “born again”
of the Spirit of God. To be
perfectly clear about this, if Paul believed a believer could lose his
salvation by living carnally as these Corinthians believers were doing, why
doesn’t he just come out and clearly say, “If you people do not stop this
carnality, you will lose your salvation.”
The fact is, there is no where in Scripture where anyone even hints at
such a possibility.
Nowhere is this absence of warning or proclamation
regarding losing one’s salvation more obvious than in I Corinthians 5:1-6. There, Paul exposes a member of the church as
living in fornication with “his father’s wife” (step-mother; I Corinthians 5:1). The local congregation is told “[T]o deliver
such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (I
Corinthians 5:6). The point is that even
though this man was living in carnal “fornication as is not so much as named
among the Gentiles” (I Corinthians 5:1), there is no mention, or warning, of
the possibility of him losing his salvation.
Instead, the text teaches his life (“flesh”) would be taken prematurely,
while his “spirit” (soul) would still be saved at the resurrection of believers
“in the day of the Lord Jesus.”
There are numerous Scripture texts where the reality of a person being “born again” is questioned and
doubted (“if”), but nowhere in
Scripture is there even a hint at someone being able to surrender salvation or lose
their salvation. Where would there be a
better place to deal with the possibility of carnal believers losing their
salvation than in the Epistles of First and Second Corinthians? Yet, there is no mention of this possibility
and no warnings about losing one’s salvation.
In fact,
just the opposite is true. Believers are
challenged to examine if their faith is genuine (II Corinthians 13:5). That is the “IF” of II Corinthians 5:17. Our natural tendency (illogical logic) is to look at a person living in some kind of
habitual sin and judge him by assuming how a person living like that can be
“born again”? Let me answer the question
simply; Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, king David, king Solomon, Samson, Peter; ad infinitum, ad nauseum. We can question
someone’s salvation but can never know their heart (Jeremiah 17:9; “who can
know it”). Are you sure you are “born again”? This is a legitimate and loving
question to someone living in sin. That
is the assurance question asked repeatedly
in Scripture. The assurance question asks,
“Are you SURE you are “born again”?
The assurance
question is the purpose of the Epistle of First John (I John 3:19). The foundation of the Epistle of First John is
what we might call the Fellowship
Foundation Principal. There is much
talk about the fact that salvation is a relationship with Christ. However, there is little conversation about
what that relationship looks like or how it is defined doctrinally. This
“fellowship” relationship is a working intimacy!
The emphasis
of I John chapter one in the Fellowship
Foundation Principal is that those who are truly “born again” children of
God will long for “fellowship” with God. Those who are genuinely “born again” and
understand the relationship available in the Fellowship Foundation Principal will be very careful about their
Bible study (II Timothy 2:15) and how they live what they learn from the Bible,
so they need “not be ashamed.” To understand what it means to be “born
again” is to understand a person is “born again” into the most intimate
relationship with another Being that could ever possibly exist. To understand what it means to be “born
again” is to understand that this new relationship should NOT be a one-sided
relationship. The “born again” believer
is to love God the way God loves him.
The “born again” believer should want to know God as intimately as God
knows the believer in whom He dwells.
The second greatest Scriptural testimony to the
eternal security of a truly “born again” believer is Colossians 2:6-12. This text describes what happens POSITIONALLY
in the operations of God and the eyes of God the moment a believer is truly
“born again” of the Spirit of God.
Notice again, as it is in II Corinthians 5:14-15, that the believer’s new spiritual birth connects him to new spiritual responsibilities about
living within that new spiritual
existence called “the new creation.”
When reading Colossians 2:4-12, we must be aware
of the repetitions of the phases “in Christ,” “in Him,” and the twice use of
the phrase “with Him.” The words “in Christ” refer to the New Creation into which all believers
are “born again” when they receive the gift of salvation. This is the meaning of the phrase “in
Christ,” or any derivation of that phrase, whenever it is used in
Scripture. “In Christ” is a whole new spiritual existence that demands a new kind of living. However, the text describes the “faith {faithfulness} operation of God” in what
God has ALREADY DONE positionally when He promises a believer the gift of
salvation in being “born again.”
Understanding the eternal security of a “born
again” believer is understanding what God HAS ALREADY AND Irreversibly DONE in your
salvation.
“4
And this I say, lest any man
should beguile you with enticing words. 5 For though I be absent
in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order,
and the stedfastness of your faith in
Christ. 6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the
Lord {by grace through faith}, so
walk ye in him {by grace through faith;
i.e., ‘the just shall live by faith’}: 7 Rooted {perfect, passive} and built up {present passive} in him, and stablished
{present passive} in the faith, as ye have been taught
{aorist passive}, abounding {present
active} therein with thanksgiving. 8 Beware {present active imperative} lest any man
spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after
the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ {Gnosticism, Mysticism, and Legalism taught salvation was a process
where salvation is achieved instead of an event where salvation is received}.
9 For in him
dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily {in the theanthropic union of
humanity in Jesus as the ‘first born’ of the New Creation}. 10 And ye are complete {plēróō ; finished, fulfilled; the perfect tense means this is an
already once for all forever accomplished reality} in him {the idea is
that whatever has happened to Christ spiritually has already happened to the
believer spiritually and positionally}, which is the head of all
principality and power: 11 In
whom also ye are circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the
sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: 12 Buried with him in {spiritual} baptism, wherein also ye
are risen with him {in
spiritual baptism; of which both completed aspects are to be understood and
communicated through water baptism} through
the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead” (Colossians
2:4-12).
The great struggle of ministry/discipleship is
persuading people, who profess to be “born again,” to do what “born again”
people know they should be doing, but never do.
The real problem is simply that
no one can motivate spiritually dead
people to do the things that require spiritual
life to do them. EVERY genuinely
“born again” person has an INWARD motivator
that wants the will of God done more than anything else in this world. However, even if a person is “born
again,” just because God has breathed spiritual
life into that person does not guarantee that spiritual life will flow from that person. Spiritual
life is the gift of the Person of the Spirit of God in His indwelling
presence. However, spiritual life in the gift of the indwelling Spirit is not
evident apart from the fruit of the
Spirit through the filling of the
Spirit. Therefore, one of two
problems exist when professing Christians
do not do what they are commanded to do:
1. These
people are not “born again” and are just living as minimally as possible under peer pressure according to what they
think is expected of them.
2. These
people are living by the will-power
of their own “flesh” never knowing or experiencing the enabling power of the indwelling Spirit of God because they have
NEVER fully surrendered their will to His.
It would be highly advisable for EVERYONE to
answer these two hypotheticals about the reality of why professing Christians
just never get around to being totally surrendered to the Lord in which they
profess to believe. The honest
reality is our churches are filled with people who have prayed a prayer or walked an aisle
and then told by some incompetent hack
that, “You are now saved and eternally
secure.” Then, when they never grow
spiritually, never do anything for the Lord, never have any desire to bring
others to Christ, have to be reminded every Sunday that it is Sunday, and live
in their secret sins, they come forward in the church services wanting assurance
of a salvation about which they have
no peace. Then, the same incompetent hack is quick to teach them
eternal security and never confront the obvious – they have never really been
“born again.” The same incompetent hack is afraid to ask the
most obvious question, “Are you sure you
are “born again”?
The opposite
side of this theological coin is the bizarre
idea that since a person is “born again” and eternally secure in his salvation,
he can live any way he wants to live. The point is that IF he is saved, he can live any way he wants to
live, BUT God is going to do
something about that kind of nonsense. God
has two ordained means to deal with His “born again” children who decide they
want to rebel against the will of God and live according to their own wills -
local church discipline and divine chastisement.
First, God
has ordained local churches to deal with these kinds of people, who decide they want to rebel against the will of
God and live according to their own wills. God has commanded every faithful believer to rebuke,
reprove, and use the disciplinary actions of their local congregations to
recover and restore backslidden believers.
Local churches are congregations of “born again” people who have created
an accountability group where every initiate is to be held accountable by
every other initiate to live a
sanctified lifestyle. Initiation into
this sanctification accountability group
is water baptism. Keeping a local church
pure of false doctrines and keeping believers pure from false living is the
responsibility of local church congregations; i.e. the sanctified accountability group.
“1
I charge {assertive challenge to act}
thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ {as witnesses of faithfulness or
unfaithfulness to responsibilities}, who shall judge the quick {those ‘born again’} and the dead {in trespasses and sin; the lost} at his
appearing and his kingdom; 2 Preach the word; be instant in season,
out of season; reprove {admonish, tell a fault}, rebuke {forbid an act or censure an action; to censure means to express extreme
disapproval}, exhort {to call near or alongside; the idea is to
restore someone to fellowship through calling him to walk in the truth with you}
with all longsuffering {the willingness to bear the injuries another
causes you} and doctrine {the Bible
as a scalpel, not a slaying sword}. 3 For {disciple and discipline because}
the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their
own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned
unto fables” (II Timothy 4:1-4).
Four Irreversible Operations of the Spirit at
the Moment of Salvation
Regeneration
If a person has been “born again” and
could lose his salvation, he would also need to be “un-born again.”
Indwelling
The instant a person puts faith in Jesus Christ
for salvation, the Holy Spirit indwells
him. If he could lose his salvation, the
Holy Spirit would have to un-indwell
him. Hebrews 13:5 says that He will
never do that.
The Baptism of the Spirit
The instant a person puts faith in Jesus
Christ for salvation, the Holy Spirit makes the believer a part of the “body of
Christ” (I Corinthians 12:13, i.e., the New Creation). If we could lose our salvation, the Holy
Spirit would have to un-join us from
the “body of Christ” (remove from the New Creation).
The Sealing of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is said to be the believer’s seal of redemption (Ephesians 4:30). If a believer could lose his salvation, he
would have to be un-sealed. This would deny Ephesians 4:30 (compare Romans
8:14-23).
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Numerous studies and series are available free of charge for local churches at: http://www.disciplemakerministries.org/
Dr. Lance Ketchum serves the Lord as a Church Planter, Evangelist/Revivalist.
He has served the Lord for over 40 years.
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