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Is
the believer secure?
Yes; without question.
But a more important question that needs to be
asked is, What is a believer? From Strong’s
concordance, the word “believe” means to have
faith in, to entrust to, to commit to, to put in trust
with. The
Amplified Bible adds the words “cleave to,” and
“adhere to” which means to stick like glue.
None of these imply a momentary belief.
John 15:1-10 contains the word “abide” ten
times! Abide
means to live, dwell, remain, and take up residence.
Verse 6 says, “If a man abide not in me, he
is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men
gather them and cast them into the fire and they are
burned.”
I John 2:24, “Therefore, let that abide
in you which you heard from the beginning.
If what you heard from the beginning
abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in
the Father.”
What
is a believer?
A believer then, is someone who continues
to trust, abide and adhere to, and in that state, he
is secure. A sin cannot make one lose his salvation as
long as he is trying to quit.
Repent quickly and go on. My brochure on
Holiness will help you on this subject.
…
to the end
Ten verses specifically tell us to endure or
hold firm to the end, and we will be saved. Matt.10:22, 24:13, Mark 13:13, I Tim. 6:14, Heb. 3:6, 14,
6:11, Rev. 2:10, 25-26. If something is in the Bible
even once, it is important; but if it is in there
numerous times, it’s vital.
We should take it very seriously!
Seventy
verses!
Yes, there are seventy (70) verses in the Bible
that warn us to be steadfast, stand firm, be faithful,
continue, abide, and hold fast. Some of these express warnings and real fear.
Here are a few of them:
I Cor.16:13, “Be on your guard; stand firm in
the faith.”
II Cor, 11:3, “I am afraid that just as Eve
was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds
may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure
devotion to Christ.”
Gal.1:6-9, “I am astonished that you are so
quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace
of Christ, and are turning to a different gospel.”
I Thes.3:1-8,
(Paul worried) verse 5, “lest by some means
the tempter have tempted you, and our labor be in
vain.” (8), “… if you stand fast in the Lord.”
II Pet. 1:10, “My brothers, be all the more
eager to make your calling and election sure, for if
you do these things, you will never fall.”
II Pet. 3:17, “…be on your guard so that
you may not be carried away by the error of lawless
men and fall from your secure position, but grow…”
Luke 21:8,
“Take heed that you are not deceived, for
many will come in my name… ”
John 8:51, “If a man KEEP my sayings
he shall not see death.”
Rom. 11:20-22, “If you CONTINUE in His
goodness, otherwise, you also will be cut off.”
Calvin’s
position
John Calvin is the man who began the doctrines
known as total depravity, predestination, and eternal
security. The foundation doctrine to all these is the
absolute sovereignty of God. I have written brochures
called The Sovereignty of God and Predestination
to go with this one.
The following information is from a book called
Life in the Son, by Robert Shank.
Calvin’s response to those warning verses was
that these numerous passages do not prove that falling
away is possible.
On the contrary, they insure that we won’t
fall away. But
he also said that for these warnings to accomplish
this, they must be regarded with heed and real fear of
apostasy. But
Calvinists’ teachings and preaching are designed to
quiet any fears that
may arise, and smooth over these solemn warnings, even to the extent
that they lose any value whatsoever.
And
those who preach these warnings with real conviction
are accused of being confused and doctrinally unsound,
and of not believing in salvation by grace! One has to
ask, “If there’s no ditch at the side of the road,
why have a sign?”
Can
a backslider be lost?
There are two verses that need examination.
They are Heb. 6: 4-8 and James 5: 19-20. The first one says, “It is impossible for those who were
once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift,
and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have
tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the age
to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to
repentance, since they crucify again for themselves
the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.”
I have heard some Calvinists point out the word
tasted and claim that it proves these people
weren’t actually saved.
Let me refer you to Heb.2:9 which says that
Jesus tasted death for every man.
Now, please notice that these (in Heb.) were
not only saved, but filled with the Spirit, and
effective for God with the power of the Holy Spirit!
So now let us look at the Amplified Bible for
the words fall away.
“If they then deviate from the faith and turn
away from their allegiance …”
This seems to be saying that if a person has
been filled with the Spirit, and then decides he
doesn’t want to follow Jesus anymore, he can never
be brought back.
This is serious! Can you see that?
The
second of those two verses, James 5:19-20, says,
“Brothers, if any among you (believers)
wander from the truth, and someone turns him back, let
him know that he who turns a sinner (believer) from
the error of his way will save a soul from death
and overcome a multitude of sins.” This is plain,
isn’t it, that we should try to bring back wandering
and erring ones?
What
is death?
Notice
the word “death” in the above verse. Let’s
examine what that word means. Eph.2:1, “And you He
made alive, who were dead
in
trespasses and sins …” and verse 5, “even when
we were dead
in trespasses …” Col.2:13, “And you, being dead
in your trespasses …” I John 3:14, “We know that
we have passed from death
to life…” Each of these use the word dead to
mean our condition without God before we were
saved. Now Rom.6:23 says, “The wages of (persistent
and continual) sin is death…”
That agrees with the James verse above, which
leads us to conclude that if
one persists in a life of sin, he can again
become unsaved.
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