Posted on 06/07/2024 6:01:49 PM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal
One of the most false and cutting accusations launched at the belief that the Bible teaches a person cannot lose his or her salvation when truly born again (John 3:3) is: “If you believe once saved, always saved, you are saying people can live any way they want without fear of punishment.” Or so the line of condemning criticism goes.
The absolute assurance of eternal security, of course, engenders no such thought within the mind truly regenerated by the saving power of Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches that the Lord convicts His children in their spirits, and that habitual, unrepented-of sin will result in severe penalties–even physical death, in some cases. The Heavenly Father’s patience is longsuffering, but it is not infinite.
A person who is a child of God cannot sin without severe repercussions if repentance isn’t forthcoming. But, that person will never be kicked out of God’s family. Never.
A kindred sort of accusation is thrown at those who believe in the pre-Trib view of Bible prophecy. The pre-Tribulation view, of course, is the one those of us here believe God’s Word teaches. It is the view that Jesus Christ will call all who are born again to Himself before the Tribulation, which is the last seven years of history leading to the Second Advent (Rev. 19:11).
The angry diatribe against the pre-Trib Rapture view–by even genuine Christians, in many cases–usually goes something like this: “People like you, who believe that the Lord is going to rapture them before the Tribulation, think you can live however you want, because you think and teach falsely that you are going to be rescued before God’s judgment and wrath fall, no matter what.”
The non-Christian accusers have their own version. It goes something like: “Christians who believe like that don’t care anything about making the world better. You even hope for things to get worse and worse. You wish for earthquakes, famines, pestilence, war in the Middle East, and for Armageddon to hurry up and get here so you will go to your pie in the sky, and watch the rest of us get ours.”
Although the first criticism is absolutely not true, I have to admit that, regarding the second, too often I’ve sensed–even heard–such sentiments from some of those who believe in the pre-Trib rapture. And, it is entirely the wrong attitude for the Christian to hold. There are no excuses for wanting the Christ-rejecting world of nonbelievers to be the recipients of God’s judgment and wrath. It is only by God’s unfathomable grace that every one of us isn’t headed into that time of unprecedented horror.
No matter how–to use Lot’s King James Version word–“vexed” we becomes by the debauched, debased actions of the lost world around us, our job as Christ’s children–His representatives here on earth–is of a completely different nature than wanting to see them “get what’s coming” to them. The changed nature produced by being born again into God’s eternal family should make you and me do just the opposite of wanting them, in our vexation, to get what we see as coming to them.
The Christian whose spirit is attuned to the Holy Spirit’s desire for the lost doesn’t want to see them “get what’s coming to them” either during the Tribulation or upon death. Rather, we want to do all within our power to keep them from having to go through the coming time of God’s judgment and wrath. That’s what Christ’s Great Commission to His disciples before He ascended to sit at the Father’s right hand is all about, you see. That is what God’s love–love that those who have Christ indwelling them possess–is all about. (Read Matthew 28:18-20.)
In the same vein, that’s what Bible prophecy is all about. Prophecy given in God’s Word has purpose–profound purpose. Bible prophecy has at its center the commission from the Lord to forewarn of God’s judgment and wrath to come upon all who oppose Him–the Lord of Heaven and Creator of all things. It is not the hatred of God for the lost people of this fallen planet that drives prophecy. It is the love of God that powers His prophetic Word. It must be the Christian’s desire, therefore, to study Bible prophecy and put forth those forewarnings out of a spirit of God’s love, not through an anger-filled abhorrence of those who are lost.
Christians who do study prophecy–and they seem to be few these days, I’m sad to have to say–are often heard wondering about when Christ will call the Church (born-again believers) in the Rapture. Everything seems so ripe for His plucking His people from this sin-darkened sphere.
Nothing and no one can change God’s timing for His next catastrophic intervention into earth’s history. It will happen exactly on time, as He has determined since before the foundation of this world. However, we might as believers look to ourselves for the Lord’s–often in our view–delay in calling us as outlined in 1 Corinthians 15:51-55 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
The Apostle Peter gave the heart of the reason Christ hasn’t raptured His church: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
The purpose of Bible prophecy is to show the love of God to a lost and otherwise doomed world. God is not willing that anyone should perish (die in his or her sins), but that all should come to repentance (accept Jesus Christ as the one and only sacrifice for sin that God will accept).
The Lord is “longsuffering.” The reason, I’m convinced, the Lord seems so “slack” to many in His coming is because those same people have neglected their duty to share the love of God with the lost–the lost whom God loves so very much that He sent His only begotten Son in order that they not perish.
It is well past the time for God’s people to begin investing in getting the message of the love of God to those who will otherwise not hear the warning of deadly things soon to befall this Christ-rejecting planet. Considering these times that so dramatically are signaling the coming Tribulation, Bible prophecy can and must be used as a productive tool for evangelism.
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Maranatha!
My counter to this is we've tried to make the world better. However, the message is being rejected. It's clear the message is being rejected.
They have made it clear they do not want to hear the message or follow the message.
I agree that this criticism is false. A truly born-again Christian will want to please God and live according to His word.
However, Scripture DOES teach that born-again Christians can fall away:
Hebrews 6:4-6:
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit,Verses 4-5 describe exactly truly born-again Christians.
and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,
if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
Verse 6 lays out the fact that they cannot return.
So--there is a legit criticism of OSAS, but most people do not hear it.
Your counter is 100% correct and exactly how I see it as well.
There has to be a point where the message is just not registering with anybody new and the declining returns amount to nothing.
You would be very hard pressed to find somebody alive today that has a phone who has never heard of Jesus.
+1
Yes it’s a good point, but the truly born-again Christian isn’t going to be allowed to “fall away” either.
God will run their lives over with His Conviction and shake them up accordingly.
1 John 3:6
Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.
1 John 1:8-9
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
&
Romans 8:38-39
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Everybody sins - Yes even Saved Christians, and daily.
1 John gives us the formula to continue to fight it.
And now I will be accused of “advocating for sin” (not by you).
You are so wrong! I have traveled through many parts of the 3rd world, there is such a profound lack of biblical knowledge or missionary work in many of the remote areas of the world.
live any way they want without fear of punishment.”
\/
we cant lose salvation
God is not an abortionist,
Moloch is the abortionist.
and no one can snatch us from Gods hand....
Jhn 10:28 - “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. .
...not even ourselves.
we CAN lose rewards though
2Co 5:10 - For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
so the carnal Christian doesnt get off
scott free
but loses rewards, but not salvation.
//
prophecy’s sole purpose is evangelism
Jhn 13:19 - “Now I tell you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe that I am He.
...
so why would prophecy end with Jesus and the disciples
as preterists maintain ?
no, these arguments against salvation and prophecy
are rooted in the kind of ear chopping pride
that peter exhibited and was rebuked for
Jhn 18:10 - Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was
Malchus
.
Jhn 18:11 - So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?”
its a sad thing , but stiff necks are not a new thing.
\/
and regarding this statement .... .
....if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
Verses 4-5 describe exactly truly
born-again
Christians. Verse 6 lays out the fact that they cannot return...
. it ignores 1 Corinthians 5:5,6
if a Christian cant be returned through repentance they are subjected to death
( but their soul is still saved )
1Co 5:4 - In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Co 5:5 - deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
\/
unfortunately , the stiff necks of the proud will not acknowledge these verses disprove their views.
why ?
pride is why
The other point is that God does not *let* us go without trying to keep us.
The verses about being sealed with the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption are pretty clear.
God doesn’t WANT people to go to hell. He wants them to be saved and come to repentance. Look at the lengths to which He goes and went to to save us.
Many of the verses people use to claim that one has to continue on in their own faith walk do two things.
One is that the verses are taken out of context and misapplied. The other is that it puts maintaining one’s salvation in the works category.
We are neither saved by works nor kept by works.
[there is such a profound lack of biblical knowledge or missionary work in many of the remote areas of the world.]
There is a profound lack of Biblical knowledge in America.
I know; I run into them every single day, it seems.
(BTW I agree about the rest of the world you described)
Great post! 👍
But do they know of Him?
That was my point.
Usually just a little trigger with a person who claimed to rise from the dead gets these superstitious people in the 3rd world going.
I’m not seeing it. They would rather stick to their own superstitions than seek out The One.
YMMV and it clearly does.
That said, the world doesn’t have much time left.
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