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ETERNAL SECURITY This doctrine teaches that if one is saved he will be eternally saved and cannot be lost. Many honest Christians believe this, but it is dangerous in that it is gross error, causes believers to become careless, and backsliders to be eternally lost. 1. If the doctrine is true, we must admit the following facts. Man, after he is saved is no longer a free moral agent. That the devil has been a fool, ever since the Garden of Eden, in soliciting believers to backslide. That we Christians are safer than Adam and Eve. God said to Adam and Eve, “But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die”—Gen. 3:3–4. Adam and Eve disobeyed God, partook of the forbidden fruit. The results, “So He (God) drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life”—Gen. 3:24. If God would have ever allowed or tolerated sin, it would have been in the beginning. It further means that Christ and New Testament writers are guilty of folly in warning the Christians against falling. That God will condone sin in a Christian while condemning sin in a sinner. 2. God’s part of salvation is eternally secure for us. Christ made one eternal atonement for sin. “And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him”—Heb. 5:9. Christ’s death made possible an eternal relationship between God and man. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”—John 3:16. The life imparted by the Spirit is eternal in essence, but not eternal in that it is impossible to forfeit it. “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God: that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God”—I John 5:11–13. The Holy Spirit which effects our salvation, is eternal in nature. “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”—Heb. 9:14. God had made an “everlasting covenant” with his people “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant”—Heb. 13:20. Christ built a Church that “the gates of hell cannot destroy.” “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”—Matt. 16:18. Note all of this is on God’s side, and has nothing to do with man’s will in the matter. 3. Salvation to us is eternal if we cooperate with God’s plan. This little word “if,” meaning on condition. In formal usage, if is used to express conditions. Notice carefully the voice from God’s word. The nature of the original creation reveals that man was created a moral being, with the power of choice, and freedom to act according to his will. One is not a moral being if he cannot fall from grace. First man, Adam, was put on probation, meaning a testing period. God told Adam, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”—Gen. 2:17. This proves that life was given to man on condition of obedience. Life is promised on conditions we come to God and forsake sin. “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, and call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and he will abundantly pardon”—Isa. 55:6–7 If we repent. “I tell you, nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish”—Luke 13:3. If we confess. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”—I John 1:9. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth, and forsaketh them shall have mercy”—Prov. 28:13. Man must pray. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved”—Rom. 10:13. Believe, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house”—Acts 16:31. If we continue. “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God; on the which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness, otherwise thou also shalt be cut off”—Rom. 11:22. “And you, that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind, by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. “In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy, and unblameable, and unreproveable in his sight. “If ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister”—Col. 1:21–23. If it remains. “Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father”—I John 2:24. If we abide in him. “Abide in me, and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. “I am the vine, ye are the branches; He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing. “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned”—John 15:4–6. Jesus places strong emphasis on continued spiritual life, and relationship with him is conditioned on our abiding in him. This means we have power to forsake him and be lost if we so desire. If we follow. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me”—John 10:27. “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be; if any man serve me, him will my Father honour”—John 12:26. Note how Jesus stresses the condition “if.” Not compulsory, but voluntarily. If we abound. “For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ”—2 Peter 1:8. If we hold fast. “But Christ as a Son over his own house; whose house are we (Christians) if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end”—Heb. 3:6. “Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown”—Rev. 3:11. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death”—John 8:51. Note carefully; all of these “ifs” teach that if we do not meet these conditions we forfeit the divine life in us. This union to be eternal must be alive and continuing and not a mere once-for-all affair that we can presume upon.
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