Eternal Security

[Guest]

Some of you may have received or read this devotional lately. For those who haven't, consider this:

Eternally Secure

Rom 8:38,39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Our salvation is secure

regardless of circumstances

regardless of what authority figures say and do to us

regardless of time (present and future). For if we have been saved, that fact will never change.

regardless of any created thing (which includes ourself since we ourselves have been created)

Now in particular there those who would say that while no one nor anything can change our salvation status, we can decide to depart from the faith and thus lose our salvation status. In fact that never actually occurs in that perseverance is one of the effects of being born of God and thus John could say what he did in 1John 2:19 and 1John 3:9. But even here in this passage the doctrine of Eternal Security is validated. For notice the phrase "neither present nor future". Thus the salvation status of the elect is independent of time, which is the "eternal" in "eternal security". Once saved, always saved, because nothing in the present nor in the future can separate such a person from the love of God. Furthermore it says "nor anything else in all creation". Well isn't the individual themself part of the creation? This again validates the point that even the individual themself, having been saved, cannot do anything that would cause them to lose that salvation status.

By analogy some Christians view their relationship with Christ as an Old Testament marriage in which divorce annuls the marriage. But not according to the New Testament, which says, "A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives." 1Cor 7:39 And again, "by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive." Rom 7:2 And thus the vow of the Christian marriage is "till death do us part", not "till divorce do us part." And thus even if the elect hypothetically wanted to divorce Christ, they don't have the legal right to do so. There is no way for the elect to annul their marriage to Christ, even if they wanted to. And thus our glorious destiny is certain. For God makes the rules and has eliminated any possibility that those who are have been saved should be lost. "This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing." John 6:39a

For more on eternal security, go here.

[PeterH]

Parker1, There might be a major flaw in your argument. The marriage supper has not taken place yet so I would put our status as Christians as betrothed to be married but not yet married.

How do you account for Hebrews 6:4-6?

NLT

⁴ For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened

[OneLight]

As long as your heart is for the Lord, nothing can remove you from Him. This I completely agree with.

[Fez]

As long as your heart is for the Lord, nothing can remove you from Him. This I completely agree with.

Ditto!

[Guest]

Parker1, There might be a major flaw in your argument. The marriage supper has not taken place yet so I would put our status as Christians as betrothed to be married but not yet married.

How do you account for Hebrews 6:4-6?

NLT

⁴ For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened

[PeterH]

Parker1, First let me say I do agree with you that we are eternally secure in Christ. And I pushed you to make sure the point that 1 John 2:19 makes was in your argument. I always like to include all the text around scripture to make sure that I am not taking it out of context.

1 John 2:18-27

NLT

¹⁸ Dear children, the last hour is here. You have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and already many such antichrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come. ¹⁹ These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us. ²⁰ But you are not like that, for the Holy One has given you his Spirit,^[e] and all of you know the truth. ²¹ So I am writing to you not because you don

[OneLight]

Parker1, First let me say I do agree with you that we are eternally secure in Christ. And I pushed you to make sure the point that 1 John 2:19 makes was in your argument. I always like to include all the text around scripture to make sure that I am not taking it out of context.

1 John 2:18-27

NLT

¹⁸ Dear children, the last hour is here. You have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and already many such antichrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come. ¹⁹ These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us. ²⁰ But you are not like that, for the Holy One has given you his Spirit,^[e] and all of you know the truth. ²¹ So I am writing to you not because you don’t know the truth but because you know the difference between truth and lies. ²² And who is a liar? Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Christ.^[f] Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is an antichrist.^[g]23 Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

²⁴ So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father. ²⁵ And in this fellowship we enjoy the eternal life he promised us.

²⁶ I am writing these things to warn you about those who want to lead you astray. ²⁷ But you have received the Holy Spirit,^[h] and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit^[i] teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.

This teaches us that the people that were once "on fire for the lord" but now deny the Father and the Son are antichrist and never belonged with us. It also tells us that those who are filled with the Holy Spirit ( ie truly saved) are in fellowship with the Son and the Father and will enjoy eternal life.

Then how do you answer your own question pertaining to the scripture in Hebrews you provided?

I must also add that there is a lot more in those verses then what you state. Read verse 24 again. The word "If" brings a choice, one that we must make daily. If we choose not to continue, we will then have no fellowship with the Father.

[other one]

From past experiences with this subject, it would be prudent and save a lot of posts if everyone would agree on what being saved is. This subject always boils down to those on the eternal salvation side say that people were not saved in the first place and differences in what salvation really is tends to create a lot of confusion.

[PeterH]

Then how do you answer your own question pertaining to the scripture in Hebrews you provided?

I believe that the people described in passage in Hebrews I provided were never really saved. I believe that the author of Hebrews was trying say that it is impossible to be saved twice. I am not saying though that a Christian can't stumble in their walk then repent and continue in fellowship. I am saying that I believe that people that once said they were Christians then deny Christ even to their death bed were never saved to start with.

[Guest shiloh357]

Parker1, First let me say I do agree with you that we are eternally secure in Christ. And I pushed you to make sure the point that 1 John 2:19 makes was in your argument. I always like to include all the text around scripture to make sure that I am not taking it out of context.

1 John 2:18-27

NLT

¹⁸ Dear children, the last hour is here. You have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and already many such antichrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come. ¹⁹ These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us. ²⁰ But you are not like that, for the Holy One has given you his Spirit,^[e] and all of you know the truth. ²¹ So I am writing to you not because you don