Can I lose my salvation?

By Ron Graham
“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out…” And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing… Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. John 6:37, 39, & 47.
As we read and study our Bibles, there should be a voice speaking to us, reminding us to take in the full council of God. Too many Bible teachers will take one verse out of Scripture and build a doctrine on it. Even though that scripture is qualified by other scriptures and the teacher has drawn an erroneous conclusion, the wrong interpretation is still taught as truth. The controversy over “once saved, always saved” is one of those doctrines.

Can we, once we’re born again, lose our salvation? Jesus says, “All that the Father gives Me I will not lose or cast out”. Jesus reconfirms verse 37 using verse 39. Then He puts a cap on it with verse 47. Christ is sending a clear message to all who have turned their lives over to Him, that once justified the born again believer cannot lose their salvation. God the Father draws us to God the Son, and God the Son tells us we are in His hands. Nothing can separate us from Him.
The following verse is used often by some Bible teachers to establish doubt about the notion of once saved always saved. “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” Philippians 2:12. Paul is not advising the Philippians to save themselves that would be works. All he’s saying is don’t be satisfied with just being saved, there is much more to do now that we’re saved.

How To Be Certain Of Your Salvation

(Written by Geoffrey Grider)

While the entire Bible stresses certainty and assurance, there’s one section of Scripture that stakes out this theme as its central focus—the letter of 1 John.

“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” (1 Peter 1:23 (KJV)

EDITOR’S NOTE: As we have been discussing lately, the Bible teaches the eternal security of the born again believer in Jesus Christ. Today we present for your consideration 5 main markers from Scripture that accompany your salvation,  from Dr. David Jeremiah’s book “Ten Questions Christians Are Asking“.

As we carefully read through 1 John, we notice a five-fold argument for the assurance of salvation—five of the birthmarks of the Christian.

God’s Plan in a Nutshell

(Written by Jack Kelley)

You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were blameless in your ways until wickedness was found in you (Ezekiel 28:12, 15).

There is nothing in the Bible to tell us when the angelic realm was created. However, Job 38:4-7 speaks of the angels shouting for joy when God laid the Earth's foundation, so they had to have been created before earth existed. Neither is there a mention of the timing of Satan’s rebellion.

All we know for sure is it had to have preceded Genesis 3, when the serpent convinced Eve to disobey God. Satan was already God’s adversary by then, although there's no mention of his rebellion in connection with the creation. For this reason, I’ve concluded it also happened before the creation story begins.

Is There a Second Chance?

(Written by Jack Kelley)

If you believe as I do that the Bible teaches the rapture of the Church will occur before Daniel’s 70th Week begins then you’ve no doubt wondered what will happen to those among your friends and family who will miss it. Will they get another chance to be saved?

 

Those Who Are Perishing

For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendour of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness (2 Thes. 2:7-12).

Becoming who we are!

(Written by Jack Kelley)

If you like, you can think of this as a follow up to our study titled OK, I'm Saved.  Now What? Having shown that once we became a believer all the sins of our life were forgiven at the cross, and the Lord not longer counts our sins against us, we now turn to the logical follow up question.  How should a believer respond to such an incredible gift?

Paul devoted much time to describing the appropriate response to the free gift of eternal life and it's summed up in his admonition “Only let us live up to what we've already attained” (Phil 3:16). By the wording he used we know this is not something we do to achieve or maintain our salvation. He said we've already attained that. We do this as an expression of our heart felt gratitude for having been given the gift of eternal life.  Make no mistake here, as unbelievers we were surely destined for the fires of hell.

Ok, I am saved. What now?

(Written by Jack Kelley)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: The old has gone, the new has come! (2 Cor. 5:17).  Only let us live up to what we have already attained (Phil 3:16).

These two verses summarize all that the New Testament has to say about life after salvation.  Once we're saved, God sees us as a new creation.  Note the use of the past perfect tense in these verses; the old has gone, the new has come, we have already attained.  We  don't make ourselves into a new creation, we have been made into a new creation.  It's not a process we undertake through hard work and self-sacrifice.  It's not even something that happens over time through careful submission to the prodding of the Holy Spirit.  It has already happened.  Hebrews 10:12-14 clearly states that the Lord's once-for-all-time sacrifice has made us perfect forever. (Has made, not is making, or will make.)

Messianic Prophecy In The Old Testament

(Written by Jack Kelley)
In the time after their sin and expulsion from the Garden Adam and Eve must have felt incredible despair. They had experienced life both before and after the curse, the only ones to do so, and had first hand knowledge of the difference. And what a difference it was. Even the part of it we can relate to had to have been devastating.

For example suppose that one day you were the resident manager of the world’s richest and most luxurious estate, with all of its comforts and privileges, and the next you were a poor hardscrabble farmer, at the opposite end of the economic and social structure. And that was just the beginning. How about no longer being immortal, no longer one with your Creator in spirit.

The Nature Of Post-Church Salvation

(A Bible Study by Jack Kelley)
Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Matt 24:12-13)
In the debate over the timing of the Rapture, one point is often overlooked. And that is that the terms and conditions of salvation during the Great Tribulation are vastly different from those during the Church Age, and therefore couldn’t be meant for the same group. In both cases salvation is by faith alone, but that’s where the similarity ends. This presents another argument for Church Age believers being taken before the Great Tribulation begins.

Life's Most Important Choices

(Written by Jack Kelley)
Recently I've been asked about witnessing to “unsaved believers” as one writer called them. I usually refer to them as Christians-in-name-only. They call themselves Christians and do some things that make them appear to be Christians. They go to Church, make regular contributions, sign up for volunteer service projects, even teach Sunday School, but they're not born again. Being born again means you know you're a sinner in need of a savior. You believe Jesus died for all your sins and have asked Him to be your Savior. According to Jesus, people who are not born again will be denied entrance into the Kingdom (John 3:3) no matter how “good” they've been on Earth.

Very few Christians-in-name-only have actually refused to be born again, they just don't think it's necessary. They were taught that they're saved because they were baptized as infants, or because they belong to a certain church or denomination, or because they try to live a good life. They're relying on what someone has told them instead of learning what the Bible says. With all the necessary resources at their disposal, they've staked their eternal destiny on the opinion of someone who might not be saved himself rather than do their own homework.

Who is able to stand?

(Written by Matt Leasher)
As the Age of Grace that we are currently living in draws nearer and nearer to a close and the lateness of the hour becomes more relevant to those of us who have our eyes on heaven and the coming of the Lord, we can’t help but be concerned about those that do not know their Savior and are living for the world and for themselves. Almost every saved Christian has some unsaved friends and family that do not accept the truth of the gospel and whom they know will be left here on earth to have to endure the soon to come Tribulation period that Jesus has clearly warned us is sure to come before He physically returns to Earth to set up His Kingdom, (see Matthew 24:3-31, Mark 13:3-27 & Luke 21:7-28).

The Book of Revelation lays out much of the horrific details of this forthcoming history-ending period. The actual beginning of the Tribulation itself begins in chapter 6 with Jesus (referred to as the Lamb), opening the seals of the scroll and beginning the seven seal judgments. Since Jesus is Lord, (see Hebrews 1:8), this is therefore the beginning of the wrath of God upon a Christ rejecting world. The first four seals are the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. The fifth seal is the cry of the martyrs and the sixth seal is of cosmic disturbances upon the earth. All of these seal judgments seem to happen very rapidly in succession because at the end of the description of the sixth seal it says:

And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Revelation 6:15-17)

We see from the last verse that it isn’t until the sixth seal that the folks hiding themselves in caves have realized that the wrath of God has begun! We know that the Church is gone at this point because “God has not appointed us to wrath”, (1 Thessalonians 5:9), and it clearly states that “the day of His wrath has come”, but it is the very last phrase of that verse that also reveals the absence of the Church where it asks the sobering question ­– “who is able to stand”?

There are some similar Old Testament prophecies about the dreadful Day of the Lord in the last days that are almost identical to Revelation 6:15-17 asking the same question of who will be able to stand? They are Psalm 76:7, Malachi 3:2 and Nahum 1:6. All of these verses imply that it will be impossible to stand at the time of God’s fierce anger. As I mentioned above we are still living in the Age of Grace. God is incredibly merciful and gracious to us even though the world continues to wax more and more in wicked opposition to Him. God has been longsuffering and patient but the inevitable day of His wrath is coming.

So what does it mean to not be able to stand at His coming? Most all of the verses where this is used it is referring as to being able to stand before Him in judgment. God is so holy and righteous that no sinful man can stand in His presence. Ezra 9:15 exemplifies this:

O LORD God of Israel, You are righteous, for we are left as a remnant, as it is this day. Here we are before You, in our guilt, though no one can stand before You because of this!”

On Broadway

(Written by Ron Graham)
Bright lights, adult theatres, jumping hot spots for socializing (among other things), fast cars, high rollers lots of fun and excitement to be had “On Broadway”. Now that’s the life, huh? “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:” Matthew 7:13.

There’s a Broadway in every town, in every community, in every nation. And I’m not talking about the street called Broadway, although many have become trapped and lost on that street. No, what I’m talking about is the Broadway Jesus speaks of as a particular path that each of us must choose to walk or avoid. It’s actually a simple path to follow. That’s why so many end up there. Fun, thrills, games of all kinds. A plethora of perversions and distractions from the woes of life can be found “On Broadway”.

What is the Broadway? It’s interesting when we look at the Greek word it actually means spacious, there seems to be no limitations on just how many people Broadway will accommodate. Any decision we make or any path we take which opposes Jesus Christ is the Broad-way that leadeth to destruction, and that my friends is just a simple fact.

There are many cults circulating the globe which teach their followers concepts that are diametrically opposed to God’s inerrant word, and those teachings culminate “On Broadway”. When someone says “There are many paths that lead to Heaven”, that’s Broadway. “All religions claim their own path to Heaven, Christianity is no different,” that’s Broadway. “I’m basically a good person; God won’t send me to Hell”, Broadway. “I don’t believe in God, or Satan, or Heaven and Hell”, okay, everybody say it together, Broadway.

Even in Christian colleges there are those who conspire with Satan to lead their students to Broadway. Anyone who teaches contrary to God’s word is conspiring with Satan. Satan, the father of all lies, invented the lie “…ye shall not surely die ” Genesis 3:4. In other words he called God a liar. That is precisely what we see happening whenever a pastor or college professor tells their parishioners or young impressionable students God didn’t really mean what He said. I’ve received letters from students confirming this to be the case. Be careful where you send your children for a Christian education. Many Christian colleges have successfully robbed that name from God and are currently well entrenched on Broadway.

A dear sister in the Lord recently wrote to me about the co-pastor “a woman” at her Church who line item vetoes verses from God’s word which she doesn’t like – Broadway.

Many Christian denominations come close to Broadway because they won’t recognize Israel’s legitimate claim to the land God gave them. “The Church has replaced Israel in God’s eyes”, that’s Broadway. God never reneges on a covenant. Those covenants He made with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David are binding. Refusing to accept the truth of those covenants and thinking the Church has now replaced Israel in God’s eyes is just another way to call God a liar – Broaaadwaaay.

“Jesus is not God” – Broadway. “Jesus was a good teacher but He didn’t die on a cross or arise from the grave”, do you get the feeling Broadway’s filling up fast? Are we beginning to see why the Broadway is so easily followed yet so destructive? And why Jesus says many will enter thereat? There are so many lies infiltrating the minds of men that over time the truth of God’s word becomes diluted, and of non-effect.

“Beware 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.” Colossians 2:8. The word “spoil” above actually means to give place to. In other words, when man gives place to the doctrines of men instead of adhering to God’s word – Broadway.

Today we see many doctrines of men being adhered to in the church. One which is a sure path to Broadway is by adding to the sufficiency of the cross. This concept, in effect, is saying Jesus didn’t pay the whole price for my sins so I must perform my own works, such as being baptized to complete the process, or I must speak in tongues, or be a member of a certain congregation… these doctrines of men (lies) go on and on. Instead of being saved by grace through faith, according to man’s doctrines , faith alone just won’t do. This lie will lead people away from believing that through faith in Jesus Christ are we saved by God’s grace. Ultimately many who go to Church to find the truth only find Broadway.

When believers in Christ fail in their assigned task of spreading the Gospel of Christ, Satan will take full advantage of that failure, and he has. Besides all the Christian cults, and demon possessed professors, many of our Christian leaders are vacillating when it comes to standing firm on the word of God. When the scriptures are allegorized, marginalized, or even discounted as mere fables by pastors and teachers, Satan gets elevated. This very real satanic promotion has and will in the future lead many to – Broadway.