(Hebrews 3:6) “But Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.”
How often have I said in the past that I shall not enter heaven, how many times have you had similar thoughts. My younger brother reminded me that whilst reading my book he took some foot-notes at around the age of 14 and last night He asked me a question, he asked, “Do you believe once saved always saved?” Most of you should know my stance on this by now, but for the sake of clarity let me make it clear. A true repentant born again believer who has received the spirit of Christ who has been called by God, before he was born and before he had done neither good nor evil, if it is a true conversion without mans interference in using schemes like the alpha course, or a marketing technique they have adapted from the worldly wise, if it is God that opens their eyes and out of blindness miraculously have been given sight for them to see, if they who once where dead but now have found life, then I do believe a true convert cannot lose their salvation. Why you may ask? God never fails when He has determined to accomplish His purpose, He never has and He never will! The reason He may have asked me this question is possibly to give himself an excuse, a licence to sin, he is now 18 years old and is about to venture abroad and taste life, he is leaving home officially for the first time and I pray that God would work with Him and save his soul. Please remember to pray for him if you have it on your heart his name is Ryan.
The reason he asked me this question was that in his annotation he had made a note of the fact that I specifically made mention that if you are once saved that you could lose your salvation. Yes, I have changed my view on this. How and why, must be the next question! Well it was a struggle for a while, wrestling with scriptures all over that spoke about what seem to be contrary to this, but with a careful study it became a lot clearer, and with the help of other giants in the faith and there understanding. These were some of my initial concerns! God called a people out of Egypt, with some of them travelling through the Wilderness for 40 years, and some never entered the Promised Land. They had all begun the journey, they had even painted their door posts with lambs blood so that the angel of death would passed over them and not killed their first born like he did throughout the rest of Egypt. They were actively involved with God's people and with Moses. It was a similar account with Lot’s wife, she was saved out of Sodom and yet she disobeyed and looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. I could make reference too many similar examples, but never once is she (lot’s wife) mention in scripture as being righteous. She may have been included in the rescue operation but the focus in reference is all around Lot and not her, until she doubts and is turned into a pillar of salt.
There are warnings in the book of revelations to most of the churches, and serious ones at that! Here is one of them; (Revelation 3:5) “The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.” I remember even quoting this verse to prove that you could lose your salvation and it was from the pulpit. At first glance it would appear that your name could be in the book of life and then scratched out of it. But all it says is that it confirms if we walk in obedience that our names will never be scratched out of it. So to the conquerors, they will be clothed in white garments. Who then will be the conquerors? All those that God has called and chosen; the Jacobs but not the Esau’s even if they did grow up in the same household. Now enough speculation let me use scripture to back this up; Ephesians 1:4-11, (1Corinthians 1:1) “Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,” and so on and so on...
Salvation is a work of God and it is about His will, it has always been that way and forever will be. When we say we have the power to lose our salvation, we enter into a very dangerous realm. In other words we say that God does not have the ability to save us, because of something we did or didn’t do, this is a very serious indictment! We move from the security of His protection and begin to walk in unbelief, because of sin invariably; we do the work of the devil by undermining our God’s sovereignty, let us never be found guilty of this charge and if you have been as I have been, please God forgive us of this implication.
I would like to draw to a close with an illustration depicting the brilliance of God almighty; throughout time Billions of people have been born and millions through time have been called and chosen by God, they have received the spirit of God and they all will end up in heaven. Take ten million people, born in different eras all through history with different culture and different challenges, and then consider the book of life which was penned before the foundation of the world, in other words before creation. (Revelation 17:18) “...And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.” Over a period of 6 million years maybe a little more, consider the brilliance and the praise God would receive and will obtain when all make it to heaven without one ever being lost. Men hushed, principalities silenced and the only true God exalted and praised for His wisdom and sovereign ability to accomplish His will, even when all may seem to be against Him. Nothing will and can ever oppose or stand in the way of our great God, He will be praise and we will praise Him, for His mercies endure forever, for all those who belong to Him. Yes there will be goats amongst the sheep, there will be true believers amongst counterfeit believers, and there will be tares amongst the wheat. It was meant to be this way, it is part of God’s plan and His will. As we remember when the book of life was penned, before creation, look who now enters the kingdom of God! (Revelation 20:15) “And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” Is our God brilliant, He is more than that, He is gleamingly far above any word I can find to describe Him, He goes by the name of great Jehovah! This is the God I serve!
In conclusion, doubting one who has often said, “I fear I shall never enter heaven.” Fear Not! All the people of God shall enter into heaven, why would we fear death, and for when have we ever feared going home. God is in control! So feeble and weak one, fear not if the spirit of God has elected you to His household. Some may say, and then we have licence to sin so that grace may abound, but no God fearing saint would have this mindset, who would deliberately want to go and bite the hand that feeds it. “No one else shall have thy portion, it is reserved in heaven for thee, and you shall have it ere long, for there shall be no vacant thrones in glory when all the chosen are gathered in.”
What kept the children of Israel out of the Promised Land? (Hebrews 3:19) “So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.”
Believe God and trust in His ability and not your own inabilities, it is all About Him and His will and we the children of God are the benefactors of His grace. If you have the spirit of Christ then you belong to Him and God will treat you as a son, even if you need to be disciplined. What father does not discipline his child? The spirit of God will enable you to believe! It is all about His mercy, not our abilities or else we would have something to boast about. (Romans 3:27) “Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.” So faith removes the temptation of boasting far from us. (Hebrews 3:6) “But Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.” So we may boast, but only in our hope in Him and His ability to get us home!
Signing off
Tyrone
7 comments:
Hi Tyrone
The doctrine of eternal security as taught clearly in John 10, based on the power and ability of the Shepherd and of the Father is undeniable. However, the term once saved always saved, although correct, has been abused by the anti-nomianism (lawlessness)and cheap grace gospel of our day where people are told they are Christians because they have walked an aisle, prayed a prayer ot signed a certificate etc etc. As you state Salvation is a sovereign act of an Almighty God who raises the dead to Life. It is not a merely mental, decisional process. The new birth is a miracle of God and unless one has been "born from above" one cannot "see" the kingdom ie have faith and then "enter" ie repent and follow.
Therefore it would be better to term the doctrine the "perseverance of the believer" ie no perseverance, no assurance of salvation. We persevere because HE perseveres in us. We work out our salvation because it is He who is AT WORK in us.
Many warnings in scripture must accompany this truth. A tree is known by its fruit. One can put no trust in a "decision" made if the life accompnaying it doesnt bear the fruit of an overcomer and perseverer. This is what you should stress to your brother and others who have been brought up believing a free-will, man-centred gospel where man in the ultimate determiner of salvation. The Apostles (emphasis on capital A) didnt preach the "allow Jesus to be your saviour" and "invite Him into your heart" gospel.
Rather, they pointed to man's universal guilt and called all people everywhere to repentanace and faith. Those who gladly received their difficult message followed declaring Christ as their LORD. We need to get back to the foundational God centred gospel message of the Apostolic age. All else fills the church with false converts and then wrong teaching to try and compensate for it.
God Bless - let us persevere.
Tyrone, as you know, I understand and respect your views on this important issue. I have a very good friend and brother in the Lord, whom I met in Sunday School at an early age. He was brought up “Plymouth Brethren” and held to the Reformed or Calvinistic view that you have presented in this Blog. I have never subscribed to this view, but he and I have debated these issues for many years, he still has his persuasions and I have held to mine. We are still very good friends and brothers in the Lord. I mention this because, this debate usually gets very heated and relationships can be broken because of it, which I don’t believe to be the Christ-like approach and would not wish to tarnish any brotherly love, by disagreeing.
As I understand it, God’s sovereignty, His Will, His grace, His love, His salvation are beyond our complete comprehension and so I agree with much of what you have said about this. However, God through Scripture has made it abundantly clear, that in His Sovereign will, man’s choice is very important to God. God gave the newly created and perfectly righteous Adam a choice in the Garden of Eden. This establishes a very important foundation, as to how God intended (in His sovereign will) to deal with man. God also gave Israel a choice ... “choose you this day whom you will serve” (Josh 24:15) God still gives us a choice in the New Testament.
Salvation, eternal life, righteousness, wisdom and sanctification are all offered to us in the New Testament IN CHRIST. Therefore our eternal security is in Christ and if we remain in Christ, by His grace, then your view is correct, we are eternally secure! BUT, God has not removed the choice from us that He offered to Adam. This is borne out by hundreds of New Testament Scriptures, including the one you have quoted, where the little word “IF” appears. “IF” is a conditional word. For example... “If you abide in me.. “ (Jn 5:7) also the verse you quoted, “But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.” (Heb 3:6) This is so clearly conditional.
The Calvinistic interpretation confuses “Foreknowledge” with “Predestination”. God by perfect “foreknowledge”, compiles the names in the Book of Life before the foundation of the earth, but not by predestination. God can also blot a name out of the Book of Life, as He says to Moses, “And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.” (Ex 32:33) Also the verse you quoted from Rev 3:5 “and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life” . Why would Jesus give that assurance if the Bible teaches that our names can never be blotted out of the Book of life?
Calvinism also fuels very serious doubts about our conversion, for example, I agree that salvation is all of God and by His grace alone, but if I run into a sticky patch in my Christian walk, my first reaction (as a Calvinist) is to wonder if I am really saved.
I’m sure you can write volumes of extracts from the “Spiritual Giants” who teach and believe in Calvinism and I can reply with similar volumes, but the real issue of Christianity is to grow to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
In Him, Malcolm
Hey my brother Malcolm whom I love dearly in the Lord, I appreciate the input; but as I have been on both sides of the fence I have thought long and hard on this topic from both point of views, I belief I was wrong and therefore if I am looking to lock hands with wisdom and treat her as a sister then when I am corrected I must acknowledge my fault and that is why I make my point so strongly. Like I said, it is something I have understood and I will not expect someone else to hold to my view if they cannot see what I see. That would be ridiculous and I would be trying to clone someone to believe something they didn’t. That would be making a false convert!
However, I am fully persuaded that God will be glorified in and through His sovereignty, it was only when I came to understand Romans 9 in the context of the text and receiving it for what it actually says, without trying to tiptoe around looking for loopholes that aren’t there and making a statement like this reference is to nations and not to individuals. But even if I excepted that theory it would have far more impact to the point Paul makes, instead of one person being damned by God nations would be damned and that is not because of their foreknowledge of choice on what they would do, that is not what the text teachers. It is clear that God made His choice before either of them was born; (Rom 9:11-13) “though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad--in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls-- she was told, "The older will serve the younger." As it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” Some say because Eau sold his birthright, that is why Paul makes this statement that is not what the text teachers! It is clear God made His decision before either was born and he stresses the point that they hadn’t been good or bad when God made up His mind. Paul then anticipates the next objection from his readers and look at what he then says; (Rom 9:14-15) “What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." Shhhhhhhh to men and their opinions is what Paul is saying, “let God be true and every man a liar!”
One question I will ask, can a man who has been born again lose His salvation? It would appear that is the view you would hold too. Let’s look at what the text in John 10 teachers; (John 10:27-29) “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never (not maybe or possibly) perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.”
When we make a suggestion and say that we can lose our own salvation as a child of God are we stronger than our Father, I pray that we would never even dare to suggest so an atrocity. This is the God we serve my brother, He is able and will accomplish even the weak, actually, especially the weak as He will be glorified even the more when they make it to heaven, so long as it is Him who has called, none will be lost! Look at this verse; (Hebrews 13:5) “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Can God lie, I think not! I rest my case brother, but one think I am sure of, there will be no boasting in heaven, no matter how subtle it may be, we will all realise that it is our great God in and through His beloved Son and our beloved Saviour that has begun salvation and completed our glorification from start to finish, yes with many of us making many bad choices along the way, but nevertheless our God will be praised. Your loving brother in Christ,
Tyrone
John 10
14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
19 ¶ There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings.
20 And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?
21 Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?
22 ¶ And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.
23 And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch.
24 Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.
25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me.
26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
30 I and my Father are one.
Thank you for your response Tyrone. Having debated these issues hundreds of times, I am less inclined to engage in a blow for blow discussion because it ends up being a futile exercise. Obviously if you take Jn 10, Rom 8 & 9, and Eph 1 exclusively and ignore much of the rest of the Bible, you do have a very strong case. But, you have to be a linguistic contortionist to get around all the conditional “IF’s” throughout the Bible and passages such as, Heb 6 and 10.
What I do find helpful, is to look at the root of a doctrinal view point. I believe that Calvin based his interpretation on a philosophical definition of God’s sovereignty (which he no doubt, got from Augustine), which is prescriptive upon God. In other words, he believed that if God gave man a choice and responded to his choice, God would no longer be sovereign, which does not resonate with the total presentation of God in Scripture. God IS SOVEREIGN, as all would agree, and if He decides to give man a choice and respond to that choice, God does this within the framework of His sovereignty and never looses control or is ever threatened by man’s choices, as is clearly presented throughout the Bible.
If your current persuasions lead you into a deeper and more meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ, then His name be praised! But, if Calvinism equips you with clever intellectual arguments, that confuse your non-Calvinistic brothers and sisters then you have gained nothing.
Your brother in Christ, Malcolm
Hi Tyrone,
Why don't we leave the Calvinistic/Arminian argument for a while(only a while)and look at the following passages.These are "non-calvinistic" passages.
Psalm 101:6 6 I will look with favor on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; he who walks in the way that is blameless shall minister to me.
1 Timothy 3:8-10 8 Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. 9 They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. 10 And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.
1 Timothy 3:1-2 SV 1 Timothy 3:1 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,"
You will find the word "blameless" and "above reproach" in these texts.They specifically point to leaders in the church.They also seem to be timeless statements.Also note what follows directly after "above reproach" and you will understand the immediate context.
Now, we should be careful who we listen to. Especially when they are also self appointed.No church has sent them.(This is also a biblical concept by the way).
I am always astounded at how self appointed leaders can commit the most horrific acts and simply shrug it off as if nothing happened. Then they set up a facebook pastorate and a blogspot only to draw the uninformed after themselves.
Don't you find it funny how Frank Viola,George Barna and Leonard Sweet's theology and views are now being adored and punted as "TRUTH".In some of their core beliefs they are directly opposed to what we have been taught as the absolute "greater light".
We should be careful who we recognise as pastors or leaders especially when an established church got rid of them because of questionable behaviour.
Remember the legacy of Jimmy Swaggart,Mr Baker and Ted Haggart.
We do the church no favour by simply sweeping their "blameful" behaviour under the carpet when the Bible is clear on who should be appointed and who should do the leading. Scripture is not vague on the issue!
I would rather listen to leaders who are more honest with a transparent history of Godly behaviour and a blameless lifestyle.
Sadly this man's views are being imported to Switzerland and Nigeria. One only wonders if these "churches"/people know the history and legacy? I doubt it!!
You see, we get involved in debates and arguments with "leaders" that have been disqualified by scripture. Are we not sinning by doing this? Especially because we know there is a BIG skeleton in the cupboard!
"I mention this because, this debate usually gets very heated and relationships can be broken because of it, which I don’t believe to be the Christ-like approach and would not wish to tarnish any brotherly love, by disagreeing."
Sometimes our writer also become heated, something an "Apostle" should never do.
Read the following statement:
"Calvinists tend to be the most vehement defenders of their doctrine, to the point of dividing churches, alienating friends and family who still love and believe in the same Lord that they do."
Guess who wrote this. But didn's he split a church because of his actions(sin)! It is not easy to throw rocks when you live in a glass house!He and his compadres alienated many by calling names and making false declarations.
Have they admitted it? Have they been humble and apologised?
He also wrote this:
"Apartheid was mostly based on the Calvinistic beliefs of the NG Church."
If this statement is absolutely true without further, proper debate then I might as well say:
"Infidelity was perfected by Pentecostals"
As I said, they left us a huge legacy!
And it is ongoing!
If your current persuasions lead you into a deeper and more meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ, then His name be praised! But, if Pentecostalism equips you with not so clever unbiblical arguments, that confuse your Calvinist brothers and sisters then you have gained nothing.
Sound Biblical?
What I do find helpful, is to look at the root of a doctrinal view point. I believe that Attlee based his interpretation on a mystical definition of God’s sovereignty (which he no doubt, got from Mullan), which is prescriptive upon God.(Which Mullan got from Finney and which Finney got from Azusa Street)
All of us have influences. We don't deny that!
Do you?
Please expound: Acts 13:48 (NOT ON YOUR LIST)
Give us the opportunity to view your linguistic contortion.
Put it in context for all us confused Calvinists.
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