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SOME OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED Some say Christ gives eternal life. If we can lose it, it would not be eternal. The Bible teaches that eternal life is strictly conditional. God has created man a free moral agent, with the power of choice for life or death. Man will live his God given allotted time here on earth if he lives by the laws of physical life. This being true, God has given man the right to forfeit physical life if he so desires. This can be done by committing suicide or violating the many rules and laws for safety of this physical body, and life. Man has power to forfeit his physical living any moment he so desires. The laws of spiritual life is likewise conditional which will be considered in detail later. There is a common statement often stated by those who believe in the Calvinistic theory of eternal security. “If once born you cannot be unborn.” This is true physically, but not spiritually. We are exhorted to compare spiritual things with spiritual (1 Cor. 2:13). The consideration of a physical birth is in order here. A physical birth is the bringing forth of life in a physical form, a beginning, or origin in a fleshly body. It is a law of the physical that we are not born to be unborn, this is a physical impossibility, but we are born to die physically. This will happen when the laws for physical life cease to function, or are not in proper operation. Physical death will never happen as long as all the laws for physical life are fully and properly adhered to and functioning. Did you ever hear of anything being born that could not die? Certain conditions enacted will forfeit life spiritually and physically. A dead child belongs no longer to the parents, likewise, a sinning individual belongs no longer to God. He is spiritually dead. When God forgives and saves from sin he gives eternal life, and no man can take it away. “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” “My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand”—John 10:28–29. This reveals what God does in the way of salvation is eternal in nature, and that one cannot take away another’s salvation, but it does not teach that the one possessing it cannot forfeit this spiritual life, or ceases to have the power of choice, and is unable to act at will. The Bible says, “The soul that sinneth it shall die”—Ezek. 18:4. Man loses spiritual life by sinning which means dying. When a man sins, or dies spiritually he will be blotted out of the book of life. “And the Lord said unto Moses, whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book”—Exodus 32:33. “Behold therefore the goodness and the severity of God: on them which fell severity, but toward thee goodness; if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou shall also be cut off”—Rom. 11:22. This makes it clear that it is possible for the soul to sin after being born again, converted, and saved. It also teaches that it is possible for a believer in Christ to fall from grace, be cut off, and lost forever. When one disobeys God, he will be blotted from, or have his part, or name taken out of the book of life (Rev. 22:18–19). God’s work makes it clear that “whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire”—Rev. 20:15. Always keep in mind the spirit of Christ entering the soul is the birth, and the birth is the soul receiving the Spirit of Christ. The continual abiding of Christ in the soul is strictly conditional on the part of man. If man lives by the standard of his word, and the laws of spiritual life He will remain. If one manifests disobedience and sins, Christ is grieved, and will depart from that soul. When Christ departs, his Spirit departs for He is the Spirit. When His spirit departs the birth departs. Bear in mind it is impossible to have spiritual life, when the life-giving Spirit is gone. When this condition exists the soul reverts back to its former state, which means separated from God, lost, and is as though it had never been saved. Another thought to remember, God or Christ never relinquishes the power of choice, or freedom to act in accordance with His word. To state when he once moved into the soul of man that he was unable to move out would say, when a believer accepted Christ, Christ would forfeit all His rights of the power of choice, and be powerless to act according to His divine plan as revealed in the Scriptures. This means he ceases to be deity, and the all-powerful God, and Savior the Bible speaks so much about. To say that all trespasses, past, present and future are forgiven when one trusts in Christ is gross error. Salvation does not destroy man’s free moral agency, nor make a machine out of him. But leaves him the power of choice. He can choose evil and fall from grace, the same as accept Christ and choose grace.
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