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ES Q and A
Got questions about eternal security? Here's a few to start; more to be added as they come in.
Date: 8/24/2005 2:05:21 PM ( 19 y ) ... viewed 3452 times Q: Jesus' sacrifice only pays for sins you committed before you got saved; every sin after that time must be confessed and repented of or you will be lost. What if you die before you repent?
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A: This turns salvation by faith into salvation by works. It is nonsense to think you only get saved by faith the first time but must maintain it by works (see Galatians 3). And if every sin means a loss of salvation, then Jesus' sacrifice was a complete waste of time, because we all sin, even after placing faith in Jesus. Jesus didn't just make a down payment on sin, he paid it in full! ("It is finished!" is a legal, financial term). See also Hebrews 10:12-14, Phil. 1:6, 1 Cor. 1:8, Romans 11:29, 1 Peter 1:3-5, Jude 1 and 24.
Q: Okay, but what if a believer stops believing? If eternal life depends on faith, then what happens if faith is lost?
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A: Who is it that maintains our faith? Us, or the Holy Spirit of God? Does Jesus "buy us a ticket to heaven" and then say, "You're in now, but if you ever stop believing I let you in, you're out"? There is no way to PROVE that anyone ever truly had the Holy Spirit in them and then wanted to throw Him out.
Q: Doesn't the Bible have examples of people who were saved but lost faith, such as in Mt. 7:21-23 about the "sheep and goats"?
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A: Look carefully: Jesus said he NEVER knew the goats; they were never saved. Look also at 1 John 2:19, which says that if they had been one of us, they would have continued, but the fact that they left us proves they were never one of us. And Hebrews 10:26-27 has the phrase "after receiving the knowledge of the truth", not that they were born again. They heard the gospel but then rejected it. Likewise for 2 Peter 2:20-22; those people knew the "way of righteousness" but did not accept it. They are described as "pigs" and "dogs" who appeared to be "washed" but whose nature had remained unchanged. We can all relate to people who joined churches and "turned over a new leaf", staying clean for a time, only to throw it all away and fall into a lifestyle more evil than they had been in before.
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"And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life." (1 John 5:11-13)
(thanks to http://www.gospeloutreach.net/es6.html [as of Aug. '05] for many references and commentary)
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