I am forced to address you after reading your article if I may call it that. You are trying to make claim that it is absolute Biblical that “once saved always saved.” I am not versed as you are relative to the Bible, I am sure but for God sake stop, think and realize, when you reveal yourself “interpret Gods word to suit your purpose,” think of the many young converts and I emphasize young converts that you are leading astray in believing that its a peace of cake, just get save, sin how and when you please and hay! you are safe so to speak in the merciful arms of God. I need not try to highlight the many scripture verses that support the fact that one can loose there salvation. (backslide) I will just refer you to Ezekiel 18: 24 “But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All his righteousness that he has done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he has trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in them shall he die.” Stop encouraging the belief that it is easy to continue in the will and purpose of God. I am sorry I do not have the time to address you in detail. What I suggest is, that you create a page where one can exchange questions and answers.Brother I pray to God that you open God’s word and allow the word to correct all the doubts and questions that you may have. Do not be faithful to your religious doctrines. Be open minded especially when it comes to the word of God. Let me remind you there is a difference between religion and salvation, make sure that you make your election sure. Do not hang on to your interpretation because it is suitable to you and I warn you, you are messing with a very zealous God a God who gets very angry, so angry than man in himself can’t imagine. I am reminded of Charles Taze Russell the founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, I guess you know all this; He developed the organization because of the fact that he developed a terrible fear of hell so he used the Scriptures to console himself that there is good better best relative to the judgment and the kingdom. if you are not so bad there is a good place for you ,if you are very good there is the best place for you etc. I hope and pray that your belief that once you are saved you are always save is not your reason to console yourself that you can do your own thing and everything is going to be alright.
Jack Heckathorne’s Reply….
Dear George,The age old question. How many sins are too many sins?
Ask yourself this. Have you sinned since you were saved? If so, according to you, you are not saved. No sin is acceptable to God.
Not even one.All sin must be paid for by death and forgiven. Do you live a sinless life or do you think that God will overlook your little sins and not someone elses? Backsliding is not loosing your salvation. It is simply returning to the same sins after salvation. Do you realize that you are claiming that anyone who is saved must live an absolutely sinless life? Sin is forgiven at the moment of salvation. Jesus Christ paid the death penalty for sin. We are saved by BELIEVING in him, not by living a sinless life which is impossible. Only Christ lived the sinless life. We cannot because of our sin nature. SIN IS NOT THE ISSUE FOR SALVATION. All sin has been paid for. Your verse in Ezekiel is part of the ethical instructions for Israel and the Jews when they were in captivity. It refers to what we call the sin unto death. When a believer allows sin to rule his life there comes a point of no return. God will then allow the believer to die in his sins a long miserable death. However, this is only physical death.
You must put the Bible in context. There is a difference between physical death and spiritual death.
The Bible says that salvation is a free gift from God. “For by Grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. it is the gift of God not of works, lest any man should boast”.Eph 2:8-9. It also says that there is not a just (saved) man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. According to you that verse condemns the whole human race to hell. When a person believes that a person is saved by not sinning and lost by sinning he is totally ignoring the person and work of Jesus Christ on the cross. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.
The issue for salvation is not if we sin or not. we do, you do, I do, everyone does. God tells us that. We must understand the difference between time and eternity. Our position is “in Christ” when we accept him as savior for all eternity. In “time” our fellowship is temporary. When we sin we are out of fellowship with God and not controlled by the Holy Spirit, but retain our position in Christ. That is why John in 1 Jn 1:9 talking to believers as a believer says “If we (believers) confess our sins (in time) he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is what the believer is to do if he sins
If you will read my commentary “Repent What Does It Mean?” You will see that I have not said that we can sin how and when we please. There is divine discipline as a result of sin. However, don’t we all sin after we are saved? So, why are we not all loose our salvation. Don’t tell me that your sin is not intentional. All sin is intentional otherwise it wouldn’t be sin.
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“For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” (Heb 12:6-7) Notice that even in punishment God still loves us and we are still sons even though we sin as believers.I have studied the verses that people use to try an convince others that God will take away our salvation. I can tell you that They are either out of context, not referring to salvation, talking about the loss of rewards in heaven, mistranslated from the original language or not related to the subject of spiritual death. It is unfortunate that you believe that you can live a sinless life. My Bible says its impossible. My Bible says that we must be “made righteous.” To live with God in eternity we must have the same righteousness that God has. It is impossible to achieve this on our own. “As by one man (Adam) sin entered into the world and death by sin, so that death spread to all men for all have sinned”
For He (God the Father) hath made him, (God the Son) who knew no sin, to be made sin (paid the death penalty) as a substitute for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21). However, we are not automatically saved because Jesus took the sin issue away. We must believe in Christ to obtain Gods righteousness. “For with the heart (the thinking part of the soul) man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation…For whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:10&13).
You should stop and think that you are telling people in effect that they cannot be saved because to be saved in your words is to live a sinless life which the Bible says is impossible. Therefore, salvation is impossible. It is sin that we are saved from. Jesus Christ paid the price of death for our sins so that we don’t have to. He was our substitute on the cross. Would Jesus save us because we are sinners and then take it away because we sin?
“Ye are the children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.” Galatians 3:26
The sin issue was once and forever settled. Your sins are not an issue for salvation. Man is not condemned because of his sins. Man will be condemned because of his unbelief in Jesus Christ and because of his unbelief in Christ his sins, although paid for, are not forgiven and therefore he cannot co-exist with God in Heaven for eternity. Christ paid the entire price for your salvation and belief in Him is forgiveness. ALL sin is paid for past, present and future. That was the purpose of the cross. “Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world.”Perhaps you should learn what the sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit means.
He that believeth on him (Jesus Christ) is not condemned; but he that believeth not stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of Gods uniquely born Son.” (John 3:18)
Grace is a gift that we neither earn or deserve. We are saved by grace through faith. We are only condemned because we reject Jesus Christ.
Regards
Jack Heckathorne
GJCN