The Nevers we are Promised in His Word
There is a new crop of errant teachers and their followers who have either never believed in eternal security, or they are convinced (through lack of understanding a few difficult passages), that salvation can be lost or forfeited or walked away from. We see videos by false teachers speaking of ‘Christians’ being in hell. No person who is His will ever end there. Be sure you KNOW you are His. Start here first.
Some accuse people by saying OSAS is the ‘doctrine of demons’. But I submit, that for them to say we are not eternally secure, is to call God a liar, and THAT would be demonic. It is another gospel (2 Corinthians 11:3-4; Galatians 1:6-10). The witness of God is greater than your witness, so I will believe Him (1 John 5:9-13).
The resurrection of Christ is our guarantee that we too will be raised again from the dead. He is the firstfruits of many. The seal of the Spirit, which will NOT be removed until the day of redemption (our resurrection), is not up for discussion (Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:30) — it is a fact.
Disputing this is not a new thing. People have been questioning what He has said, adding their twist to it, like the devil did in the beginning when he asked, “yea hath God said?”
The Bible tells us that believers shall:
NEVER BE FORSAKEN
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Hebrews 13:5
I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. Psalm 37:24
See also: Psalm 37:28; Deut 31:6
NEVER PERISH
…and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. John 10:28
See also: John 3:15-16
NEVER BE LEFT
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Hebrews 13:5
NEVER HUNGER
And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. John 6:35
NEVER THIRST
Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:13-14
NEVER BE LOST
And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. John 6:39-40
NEVER SEE DEATH
Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. John 8:51
NEVER COME INTO CONDEMNATION
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. John 5:24
See also: Rom 8:1; John 3:18; Rom 8:34
NEVER DIE
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. John 11:25-27
See also: John 6:47, John 6:50-51, John 8:51
Are You Certain of Where You Would Go if You Died Today?
NEVER BE PLUCKED OUT OF HIS HAND
and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my 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.
NEVER BE CAST OUT
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. John 6:37
NEVER HAVE A CHARGE AGAINST ME STICK
Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Romans 8:33
NEVER BE SEPARATED FROM HIS LOVE
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 thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
For I am persuaded, that
neither death,
nor life,
nor angels,
nor principalities,
nor powers,
nor things present,
nor things to come, (Really Ponder that, no future sins either)
nor height,
nor depth,
nor any other creature,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35-39
Nothing, No One, No How, No Way!!!
Before you say, “Yeah, but…”, I want to ask you dear friend; How many different ways does He need to say it for you to finally believe Him? He is not a man that He should lie.
This free gift is eternal life. How do you go about making it temporary? You believe your experiences before you believe God’s Word? You believe others before God’s Word on the subject.
God’s Compassions Never Fail
We are told in Lamentations 3, that God’s compassions never fail. We are His children, we need to remember that and stop listening to those who say, ‘yeah but’. Jesus says NO ONE can snatch us from His hands, and they twist the wording to say they can walk away. NO ONE means not one person. Not you either. God’s compassion on us as our Father will not fail. He is mindful that we are but dust. He has removed our sins as far as the East is from the West (it never changes how far apart they are). And the cross happened 2000 years ago. And all of our sins were paid for on His Cross then (Col 2:13-15).
He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our guilty deeds.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him.
As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our wrongdoings from us.
Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.
For He Himself knows our form; He is mindful that we are nothing but dust.
If you can lose salvation, there is not a person alive that could keep it. God’s standard is perfection. Not even one lie will make it into His kingdom (Revelation 21:27). Consider reading and praying about these passages above. The only way you will die in your sins, if you do not believe in Him and His Word. Obeying the gospel means to believe it (Romans 10:14-16). Won’t you finally believe Him?
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Amen and amen. It. Is. Finished. ” One and done ” . Jesus, THE Ransom payer – THE one and the ONLY. (John 19:30, Hebrews 10:10-14) ” For there is NONE OTHER name under Heaven, given among men whereby we must be saved. ” (Acts 4:12) …. Simply NO other name, NO other savior, NONE.
Amen and amen. It. Is. Finished. ” One and done ” . Jesus, THE Ransom payer – THE one and the ONLY. (John 19:30, Hebrews 10:10-14) ” For there is NONE OTHER name under Heaven, given among men whereby we must be saved. ” (Acts 4:12) …. Simply NO other name, NO other savior, NONE.
David, thank you so much for your comment. Made me smile. Maybe I’ll have to do one on NONE. 🙂
Love in Christ, hope you and your family have a wonderful year ahead (Lord willing).
What a glorious way to begin a new year, being reminded of His faithfulness! Thank you, sister!
Dear Gracefolk Ministries:
You and I know that there are so many trying to finish in their flesh. Or never believed Him in the first place. I am so thankful that He finishes me, and that I am kept by His power. Love in Him.
Hi Holly,
I appreciate your website and it continues to be a blessing! Thank you!
Related to some of the “nevers”, I have a question from my morning bible study. Today me and two other young believers discussed If salvation can be lost. I believe we are all three brothers in Christ – we believe the gospel. And I believe they believe the real one, too — not one of the modern accursed falsehoods. However, they claimed they felt the Bible taught salvation could be lost. Normally, I think that’s a disqualifier for believing the gospel.
But, unlike 99% of people who claim it’s a work’s related issue, these two basically made the claim that someone can truly believe the gospel, and then truly reject it later. They claimed just like you could repent (metanoia) unto salvation, you could also repent out of it.
I had never heard this before, and frankly didn’t consider it possible. I was fairly unprepared for discussing that possibility, as most people against OSAS are essentially fruit inspectors and Lordship Salvationists.
I used my testimony where I told them upon converting to Christianity, I felt my life had backslid so far that, frankly, only the Spirit of God dwelling permanently within me could have kept me from not believing and repenting out of it. Although I don’t know how true that is.
More importantly, we discussed biblical evidence for each view. These were the verses that were of unique interest for their position:
A. 2 Peter 2:20-22
B. Matthew 24:13 (“endure unto the end, the same shall be saved”)
C. 1 Corinthians 15:1-2 (“Believed in vain” — they felt fairly confident in my reply and negated this one)
D. 1 Corinthians 9:26-27 (“Cast away”)
E. John 17:12 (Jesus said he kept those “that thou gavest me” but the son of perdition. — Is this a true exception to the rule? or is this a model for us)
F. Romans 11:11-24 (The grafted tree)
We also used Dr. Charlie Bing’s GraceNotes for some help, but they weren’t fully satisfied with all the explanations. And, frankly, I didn’t know how to rephrase properly to address their concerns.
Any help with interpreting any of these verses would be appreciated! Any help with addressing their question about truly believing and then unbelieving would be appreciated!
Thank you Holly, and God bless you!
Matt
Matt, hi, thanks for asking these great questions.
I think the best way for these friends, is to get them to answer the passages/verses that are in great multitude for Eternal security, against these few hard to understand passages. How will they answer those?
I read both ‘Full Assurance’, ‘Eternal Security’ and ‘Holiness, the False and the true’ (books and also free Pdf’s online by H.A. Ironside). He discussed some of the things he learned wrongly, but one of the amusing things was, ‘it is impossible to renew them again to repentance’ (Heb 6). And if it spoke to what they believed it did, then they couldn’t be saved again.
Your friends’ problem I believe is several-fold.
Evidently, they don’t believe eternal life is forever. This makes God a liar, because His promise is eternal life (John 17).
They must not believe His work was finished (it is finished) back when He said it was (over 2000 years ago).
They must not believe Him when He says that His Spirit seals us until the day of redemption (which is our resurrection, the rapture).
They must believe they can snatch themselves out of His hand.
They must not have asked themselves the question of how they can undo things God has supernaturally done. There just isn’t Biblical backup for that.
What are they believing Him for?…
Consider some of the verses of things He has done, that they’d have to undo here: https://redeemingmoments.com/eternal-security/
Matt – I figured I’d make my response two part, or it’d be enormously long 🙂
A. 2 Peter 2:20-22
In context, the ‘they’ are ‘false prophets’. They were among the believers, all the writers of the NT warned against them. Paul said they come from among us. Vs. 17 says,
These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. (hell)
These are also cross referenced in Jude, Verse 13 calls them ‘twice dead’. They’re called ‘clouds without water’ (the Living Water). They were never born again, they did not believe. They were around goodness, or the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit in the church. They heard the truth, but the difference is they are recognized apart from the believers. As John said, they went out from among us, because they were never of us.
B. Matthew 24:13 (“endure unto the end, the same shall be saved”)
This speaks to a certain time period (the last 7 years of Daniel’s 70th week prophecy). Being ‘saved’ does not speak to eternal life, but their physical life. Those believers who are in the Trib, and endure until the end will be delivered out alive. It speaks to Israel because He still has a plan for them, and they yet have to live in their land, and have physical descendants in it.
C. 1 Corinthians 15:1-2 (“Believed in vain” — they felt fairly confident in my reply and negated this one) – as I’m sure you know, this just speaks to an ‘if’. ‘If’ He had not risen from the dead as some false teachers were trying to convince the Corinthians, they all had believed in vain.
D. 1 Corinthians 9:26-27 (“Cast away”)
Castaway is simply saying here in the race in this lifetime, he continues it, so as not to have been barren or unfruitful in this lifetime (see also 2 Pet 1:5-9).
E. John 17:12 (Jesus said he kept those “that thou gavest me” but the son of perdition. — Is this a true exception to the rule? or is this a model for us)
All that believe on Jesus are given to Him, which is why in John 6:37 He says He will never cast us out. Two verses later, He says of the ones who are given Him, He will lose nothing. In John 10:28, He gives us eternal life and says we’ll never perish. In 10:29, notice it shows once again, we are >given to Jesus and no on is able to pluck us out of His hand. Another one is in Col 1:13 which states once we believe were are placed into the Kingdom of His dear Son (or Son of His love depending on translation). The reason Judas wasn’t given to Him was because Judas never believed on Him. In John 6 it says some of His disciples stopped following Him, because they didn’t believe and also would betray Him (Judas-vs 64). Contrasted to that were the ones that remained, and Jesus asked them if they would stop following. Peter said, we have believed and know you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that He had the words of eternal life. But Jesus said, one of them was a devil (Judas).
F. Romans 11:11-24 (The grafted tree)
This one is easier for me since I’ve come to understand nations are addressed here in chapters 9-11 — mainly Israel, but sometimes Gentiles. To the entire population of Israel were the promises made. But those individuals that did not believe, they would be cut off. This is a form of speech they would use all throughout the Old Testament. The Jews would be familiar with this speech. Same with the Gentiles as far as being cut off. When we were grafted into the promise of the blessing, it was nationally. All who never believe will be cut off from the promises.
Hope this helps somewhat, just my thoughts. You can also try secureforever.com (Pastor Tom Cucuzza) and I know that Yankee Arnold has dealt with some of these passages likely on youtube. Try also Jesse Martinez of Bibleline on youtube.
God bless you for caring, and I pray your friends might come to see. I had a friend who was staunchly lose your salvation, and my eternal security article came out of a conversation with her when I kept asking, can you un-do this?
Hello, Holly. My name is Steven. I’ve been reading your blog for a few years, but have never commented until now. I am a recovering Lordship Calvinist, and my story’s a long one which I won’t go into here, but you’re one of the teachers God led me to in order to help clear the fear and confusion from my life. Thanks to Him and people like you, I now know what it is to REST IN HIS FINISHED WORK. The peace I have now is unlike anything I ever knew before. So thank you, Sister.
I wonder if I could ask a favor of you. Would you be willing to pray for the salvation of my friend Vladimir, and for my parents’ salvation? Sadly, they won’t really listen to me on these matters anymore, but I know God can send someone they will hear. I ruined my own witness to them because of my days in the Lordship/Calvinist camp, and now I have no credibility with them. I will regret that for the rest of my life. But it would be an absolute TREASURE to me if you and others would pray for their salvation, that God would help them see their NEED, the CONSEQUENCES if not, and the FREENESS and COMPLETENESS of God’s offer to them through the FINISHED work of our Savior. It would mean SO SO MUCH! Bless you and your work!
Dear Steven, what a wonderful comment to come see today, I am so glad you decided to comment. I apologize for the wait, because of the types of comments that sometimes come through, they are all moderated until they are seen.
I know the Lord guided me to others who shared the truth in love and earnestly contended for the faith once delivered. I thank the Lord for them and the truth of His Word. Yes, I pray for Vladimir and your parents, that the Lord might soften their heart. Never give up, but yes, pray for laborers in the harvest knowing it matters. Pray in faith that it will happen. Don’t underestimate the power of honesty regarding that time of legalism, humbling ourselves to others, sharing how we were wrong is a start.
This is a link of a letter I wrote to a friend who was going to undergo surgery. An agnostic, one time the sun was setting and I commented on the beautiful palette God paints from every night, ever-changing, and he got angry and asked, “Can you ever talk about something besides God?”
I was thinking and quiet for a moment, and he came back with a second barb, “Oh, so you’re not going to talk to me now.”
So I prayed and said gently, “No, no, that’s not it. I was just thinking, He is so much a part of me, I will have to think about what I say before I say it. I’m not trying to shove God down your throat, but He is a lot of who I am, so maybe you just don’t like me?
Another time he blurted out that he couldn’t just believe. I told him how could he believe something he refused to hear, and the Bible says that faith comes by hearing the Word (I didn’t quote it exactly, but both were loosely taken from Romans 10:14-17). Anyways, I wrote this thinking maybe he would go investigate, I don’t know if it might give you some ideas?
https://redeemingmoments.com/dear-john/
And maybe this on might also give you some ideas. We know it is a battle, and I think on it like sometimes we take a piece of ground, and sometimes we retreat a bit, but we kep praying and sharing and trusting God.
Love in Christ, Holly
https://redeemingmoments.com/2015/01/30/how-god-draws-all/
Thank you so much, Holly. You’ve no idea how much that means to me. Would you pray that God would send other workers to them as well? Maybe someday they will hear me out, but for now that’s not the case. Please pray that somehow God’s word will reach them. I’m worried sick over this. I fear nothing will get through to them. I’m so afraid my mistakes have sealed them in their unbelief, or that their own sins will keep them from wanting to hear the truth. I fear that the sin they see in my life will keep them from hearing, and I lose sleep and get physically sick over that. Vladimir especially is proud, and thinks he knows it all, and I know God resists the proud. And he loves his sin… I have so much guilt and pain, thinking that it’s all my fault. My sin and bad example have pushed them further away, and now they’re too far gone. I have nightmares that they die and go to hell, and I know it’s because of what I’ve done. Can God still reach them despite what I have done? Or will they never see now? Have I sealed them in their unbelief? I know you’ve said before that our side can keep others lost. Even now I feel like I need to throw up thinking about it. Please pray for me, too. I have believes the truth, but I’m still plagued with doubts about my own salvation from time to time because of lingering lordship confusion in my mind. I’m a mess right now.
Steven, you’re more than welcome, and I did pray for that. I know that worry, but remember perfect love casts out all fear. Sin is present in our life until we die (Rom 7:15-25). We know we don’t want to take sin lightly, we realize that we don’t want to sin that grace might abound.
Remember this, most unbelievers are going to love their sin. Sometimes people look at sin and miss sin in their own lives. It’s best to just be as honest with them as you are with me. You love them and worry about them. They are not sealed in unbelief. If Jesus told us to pray for laborers in the harvest, He didn’t tell us to do that because it was just busy work. So have faith and pray for them, trusting Jesus had a reason. Get into the Word yourself, so you’re ready with an answer for the reason of the hope that is within you.
Finally, cement in your mind that you’re saved because you believed His promises. Who He is and what He accomplished by His death and resurrection from the dead. He is not a man that He should lie, so we’re simply believing what He said is true for us.
How do we answer doubts? With ‘it is written’, just like Jesus did with Satan (Matt 4; Luk 4), so when you have doubts, look up all the Scriptures on eternal life and how we ar saved, how we are kept, who keeps us, etc.
Stay away from videos you do not know the people. Are you on FB? If so, look for the group called Christians Explaining the Heresies of Calvinism, Lordship, etc. This link should work.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/504466743023102
Steven, Holly makes a good point on keeping your distance from unfamiliar groups. Though I think there is value in understanding arguments from other groups, this is something that should be done cautiously and perhaps sparingly after getting growing in faith. I say this also as a bit of a reminder to myself as I sometimes get so deep into understanding how to fight bad doctrine that I almost need to reminded to ‘come back up for air’ as it were.
I pray with you that those in your life will hear the Gospel, just as I pray the same for those in my life. From how you talk about this it’s easy to see how much this weighs on you and, regardless of how much they may sneer initially, I imagine a part of them sees that sincerity. Don’t think they’re locked into their unbelief and beyond hope. As long as they’re still alive there’s hope, and ultimately all it takes is the smallest amount of faith in Christ to save.
And again, Holly is right on being reminded of the promises in scripture. I might add that it could be a good idea to leave yourself a few bookmarked notes pointing to passages that hold the comfort the most. For me I have a small piece of scrap paper in my Bible that literally read ‘For when nothing makes sense anymore – John 3:16.’ Sounds maybe corny or simple at first glance, but it was a reminder that helped to keep me sane at a couple points in the past year.
Holly, just wanted to say I’m keeping you in my prayers with everything you’ve been going through. God bless.
Gage, can’t say how much I appreciate the prayers. Nothing you said sounded corny. And I can relate to coming up for air. When I write an article and have to read a lot to then decide what stays in, I need time in His Word to get cleansed, to be washed off so to speak.
Good advice for him. Thanks for commenting. Love in Christ to you and yours.