Chapter 6
Seven Arguments
Continual Faith in Jesus is the condition for salvation and without it, we have no salvation. We can have Faith at one point and cease to have Faith at another. It’s up to us to either stay in the security of Jesus or live dangerously in sin. Because we are in the last days, and demons are deceiving the Body, doctrines like OSAS have sprung up among Christians.
The rationalization of OSAS starts with the assumption of its validity, and then scriptures are put with it to justify that assumption. This is just plain sad to see Liberals twist scripture to justify a doctrine they’re more comfortable with. Even though I believe the point has been made about our conditional security and the fact that we can lose our salvation, I decided to grab the most common biblical arguments for OSAS and smash them with the Word.
1) “I’m sealed by the Holy Spirit”:
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:13-14 NIV).
First of all, the Strong’s Greek Dictionary defines “seal” as:
From G4973; to stamp (with a signet or private mark) for security or preservation (literally or figuratively); by implication to keep secret, to attest:—(set a, set to) seal up, stop.
In the early Bible days, people would create documents called “scrolls”. After they finished writing, they would roll up the piece of paper, and seal it with a wax-based signet. The signet was a circular stamp with a logo on it; a signature of the author and origin of the document. Once the document reached the reader, the reader removed the signet (the seal) and read the document.
Liberals will use the Ephesians passage to claim eternal security because of the seal of the Spirit. But their assumption is that the seal cannot be broken or removed, or that the Spirit is permanent. David pleaded with God to not take away the Spirit (Ps 51:11) and the Bible commands us not to grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph 4:30) by remaining in sin. I believe the Spirit will leave us if we decide to stay in sin. He is not permanent and has conditions, just like salvation. The condition is our willingness to be guided and controlled by him. The Holy Spirit is holy; he’s not going to abide with sin. There is no mention that he is permanent in the entire Bible. We are either in sin or in Christ; we are either in the flesh, or in the Spirit.
In the Ephesians passage, the Holy Spirit in us is described as a deposit for our souls; in which God will later pay, in full, at the end of our lives. This scripture is clearly saying that we haven’t been paid in full yet. If we were without-a-doubt going to Heaven because of the seal of the Spirit, the Bible would read, “we are paid in full by God”, but it doesn’t.
Taking into the consideration the rest of the Bible, the Spirit was given to help us live as Christ lived and confirm in us that we belong to him (Romans 8:16 NIV). Frankly, one day, years ago, after reading Romans 8:16, the Spirit told me I was not of his and that I needed to repent of my sins. Now if it was the devil talking to me, he wouldn’t have told me to repent; so I know it was the Spirit. This was a point in my life when I was beginning to come back to God and my helper began to speak to me again. I know, for certain, that he was not in me, but was simply warning me, so that I could let him back in.
Once again, there’s no mention in the Bible that the deposit (the Spirit) is non-refundable if the product (us) is faulty. And once again, we must stay in Christ for security and allow the power of the Spirit to work in us to produce fruit. If we are in sin, the Holy Spirit is convicting us, urging and encouraging us to be righteous. But the sealing of the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean we are eternally secure.
2) “I’ll never perish, because I’m a Christian”:
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone 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 My Father’s hand (John 10:27-29).
Liberals use this scripture to validate Eternal Security, claiming that Jesus said, “They shall never perish”; and they assume it applies to anyone who calls themselves a Christian or follower of Christ. But look closely at the condition for eternal life. Eternal life only applies to the believer as they hear the voice of Jesus and follow him. And notice the words “hear” and “follow” are in the present tense, not the past. Therefore, those who presently hear and follow the voice of Jesus have eternal life; not those who “heard back then” and followed for a time and stopped; not those who heard and didn’t follow at all; but those who hear now and follow now; these are the ones who can be labeled true sheep of Jesus; and these are the ones who have eternal life because of their active Faith. In other words, if we are obeying Jesus right now, we have eternal life right now and shall never perish. But if we don’t follow Jesus, we don’t have eternal life.
The part about being secure in his hand falls under the same condition of hearing and following. Liberals often include that the “no one” Jesus referred to encompasses everyone including themselves, and that there is no sin that would remove them from the clutch of his protective hand. But their argument assumes that we have lost our free will to leave Jesus, and that sin is no longer offensive once we climb into the big hand of Jesus. This isn’t true. To be in sin is to be outside of Jesus, this is what separated us in the beginning and continues to separate us now, unless we are cleansed in the blood through confession and repentance. We will always have free will to walk away from God; if we didn’t, we wouldn’t be human; we’d be robots.
The word “snatch” refers to an outside source which tries to take us by force, like Satan. We can rest assured that we will be protected if we continue to hear and follow the voice of Jesus. As sheep, we can be lured away by doctrines of demons and evil men (wolves), but they cannot take us. It is up to us (in our free will) to make the decision to stop following Jesus and start following demons and wolves; these are the things that try to snatch us from Jesus; but they can’t, if we continue to hear and follow Jesus. This scripture was written for our assurance, so that we can know that: if we hear his voice and follow it now, we indeed are his protected sheep and have eternal life.
3) “ ‘Nothing can separate us from the love of God’, not even me”:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:35-39).
This scripture is similar to the latter part of the last scripture they use to support Eternal Security. Once again, this scripture only applies to us if we are obedient followers of Jesus. If we choose to go our own way, we separate ourselves. Paul’s list refers to circumstances or external sources but he never mentions sin or us on this list. Jude 1:21 warns us to “keep ourselves in the love of God”, he wouldn’t have warned us if we couldn’t be separated from God. In John 15:10, Jesus says, “If you keep My commandments you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love”. Therefore this scripture of protection against separation from the love of our God is only applicable if we obey God’s commandments. Sin and rebellion are not in keeping the commandments and therefore will separate us from the love of God.
4) “Destruction of flesh for the saving of the spirit”:
Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 5:5).
In context, verses 1-8 of 1 Corinthians chapter 5 describe Paul’s response to the knowledge of an unrepentant, fornicating Christian who was apart of the church of Corinth. This man was having sex with his father’s wife (1 Cor 5:1). Paul was flabbergasted at the fact that the people were indifferent to the seriousness of this sin and their failure to discipline and remove the man from the fellowship (1 Cor 5:2).
In verse 5, Paul instructs them to deliver the man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Paul was telling them to excommunicate the man because his continued behavior would screw up the rest of the church (1 Cor 5:6-7). Away from the believers and the protection of God, the devil would “teach the man a lesson” (so to speak), and he may realize his sin, repent, and come back to God, and be saved in the end.
I don’t believe the “destruction of the flesh” refers to actual death, but rather the destruction of this man’s sinful nature of sexual immorality. The God’s Word Bible translation renders verse 5 more clearly:
Hand such a person over to Satan to destroy his corrupt nature so that his spiritual nature may be saved on the day of the Lord (1 Corinthians 5:5 GW).
I believe the devil’s attacks would destroy the man’s physical and mental inclinations toward this sin, to the point that he’d realize that his defeated situation was his fault because he was out of the hand of God, separated, floating in sin and should make the decision to repent.
When we are outside the protective hand of God and playing in sin, all kinds of things will go wrong, and I believe some of it will be orchestrated by the devil, in which God won’t protect us from; after all, the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). Perhaps the immoral man’s girlfriend (his father’s wife) would break his heart and leave him for another; maybe he’d catch a STD, or his own father would discover them in the act and beat the snot out of him; then he’d realize the hard life of disobeying God and return. But notice the words “may be saved” (1 Cor 5:5); there was no guarantee that this man would return to God and be saved; but the excommunication was done to keep the church clean, and for the man’s own good; that he may be saved.
Liberals like to use verse 5 to support OSAS, claiming that even though the man was in sin, and given over to the devil (and even claiming that the “destruction of the flesh” meant actual death), that the man would still be saved when Jesus returns. But this isn’t true, for the wages of sin is death. For that man to continue in sin until death would result in his departure to Hell, not Heaven. I heard Liberals leaders call this man a “reprobate” and say,
“If you get too bad, too hard-headed, and plain unrepentant, God will just kill you; but you’ll still go to heaven, you’ll just lose some rewards.”
That is complete crap! God is clear about fornication of any kind: we will not inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9). The point of Paul’s response in chapter 5 was to instruct believers how to deal with fornication within the Church. To allow that man to stay among the brothers and sisters would give the appearance that God is OK with sin, and it would likely stumble others to fall into the same sin (1 Corinthians 15:33). When I look at churches today I see a direct violation of God’s instructions.
5) “But my name is written in the Book of Life and it’s permanent”:
Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20). And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life (Philippians 4:3).
Liberals will say that since they’ve become a part of God’s kingdom, their names have been written in the book of life, just as Jesus informed his disciples. They say that their names cannot be removed because they’re permanent, therefore, they are eternally secure. Adam Clarke’s Commentary of the New Testament for Luke 10:20 explains the history of the custom of writing the names of citizens in a public register book:
“This form of speech is taken from the ancient custom of writing the names of all the citizens in a public register, that the several families might be known, and the inheritances properly preserved. This custom is still observed even in these kingdoms, though not particularly noticed. … It appears also probable, that when any person died, or behaved improperly, his name was sought out and erased from the book, to prevent any confusion that might happen in consequence of improper persons laying claim to an estate, and to cut off the unworthy from the rights and privileges of the peaceable, upright citizens. To this custom of blotting the names of deceased and disorderly persons out of the public registers, there appear to be allusions, Exodus 32:32, where see the note; and Revelation 3:5; Deuteronomy 9:14; 25:19; 29:20; 2 Kings 14:27; Psalm 69:28; 109:13, and in other places.”
In Revelation 3:5, Jesus says,
“He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”
Taking into consideration the words of Jesus in the book of Luke 10 and Revelation 3, our names are written in the Book of Life signifying our place in the Kingdom of God, but this is based on the condition of “overcoming” as Jesus mentions. If we do not overcome, we shall not be clothed in white garments; and our names will be blotted out of the book of life. In other words, if we continue in unrepentance (behaving improperly) and die in those sins it will result in the loss of our inheritance. Our names will be blotted with a big black marker and no longer be in the book of life; therefore our names are not permanent. This means we must avoid sin and continue in Faith until the
end.
6) “We’re predestined to make it. I’m going to heaven no matter what”:
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified (Romans 8:29-30).
The Liberals define predestination as: “God’s divine decree foreordaining all souls to either salvation or damnation”. Because of this definition, they justify eternal security; claiming that God foreordained them for salvation and some for Hell; they don’t have a choice in the matter. The problem with this is twofold:
- The Bible clearly says in 2 Peter 2:9: “The Lord is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance”. Therefore, we have a choice to choose life or death. True, he knows our outcome, but our salvation or damnation isn’t chosen in advance by God, we ultimately make our choice by our actions.
- Liberals have made up their own definition for “predestination”.
A good example of predestination is: A father wants his son to go to Africa to spend time with the family, so he buys a plane ticket to Africa and gives it to his son. The father’s destination for his son’s visit to Africa was set up prior to, before, “pre”, therefore the word: pre-destination. The Strong’s Greek Dictionary defines the word “predestinate” (G4309) as:
To limit in advance, that is, (figuratively) predetermine:—determine before, ordain, predestinate.
The father decided, in advance, that he wanted his son to go to Africa. He bought a ticket beforehand. He limited the place to Africa, and determined and ordained (commanded) that Africa was the place his son must go. But just because the father makes a command doesn’t mean the son will obey it. The son could defy the wishes of his father. The son hasn’t lost his ability of free will and he doesn’t have to comply with the commands of his father.
Likewise with God our Father, who knew we’d exist before we were born, he predestined us to be conformed to the image of his Son so that Jesus might have many brothers like himself. This is God’s destination for everyone, but we don’t have to obey this command, we don’t have to take that route, we don’t have to be like Christ. The Father wants what’s best for us, but we have a choice; and like a hard-headed child we can disobey, go our own way, and reap the consequences of it. Therefore we are not automatically secure or saved just because God wants us to be.
7) “We both love Jesus; we don’t need to debate about ‘losing our salvation’.”
There’s no scripture for this one. I usually hear this after the Liberal becomes perplexed; without answers and unable to prove their doctrine. I agree that it’s pointless to debate if one can go to hell or not, when both sides have already made up their minds to disagree on the topic. But to say, “We both love Jesus”, isn’t true. If you preach a doctrine that renders obedience optional, you don’t love God. Disobedience is synonymous with a lack of love for God. As far as debating this topic any further with such a person, we should stop. It’s a waste of time. The real issue is a misunderstanding of Faith, and once we understand proper Faith, I believe we can begin to agree on this most popular topic.
“What is salvation? What does it mean to be ‘saved’?”
This is usually the next question I hear from Christians trying to wrap their minds around the true understanding of Faith in Jesus. Here’s a definition taken from the Strong’s Greek Dictionary:
| Salvation – G4991 soteria (so-tay-ree’-ah) Feminine of a derivative of G4990 as (properly abstract) noun; rescue or safety (physically or morally):—deliver, health, salvation, save, saving. |
Savior – G4990 soter (so-tare’) From G4982; a deliverer, that is, God or Christ:—savior. |
Saved – G4982 sozo (sode’-zo) From a primary word s?? so¯s¯ (contraction for the obsolete s??? saos, “safe”); to save, that is, deliver or protect (literally or figuratively):—heal, preserve, save (self), do well, be (make) whole. |
Here, we learn that “salvation” comes from the word “savior”: a person who delivers, rescues, and brings to safety; and “savior” comes from the word “saved”, which means to protect, preserve, make whole and heal. This is why God told Joseph to name his Son “Jesus” because he will save his people (Matthew 1:20-21). We can also recall the many accounts where Jesus healed and restored the sick and the dead; and we all know that he saves us from condemnation: for Jesus is salvation (Luke 2:29-30; 3:3-6).
So, to “be saved” means:
- To be healed of sickness, to be made well, to be made whole
- To be protected from the judgment of Hell
Salvation is both what Jesus is and what he does. So, when a person says, “I’m saved” they should say it with the understanding that they are joined to Christ, obeying God’s Word, and out of sin. No longer should people think “being saved” means: “I regularly attend church”, or “I said a prayer of salvation”, or “I pay my tithes”, or “I associate with Christians”, but rather, “I obey God (according to his standards) and I’m saved because of it.”
