On the subject of once saved always saved ...
John 6:47 the word hath is present tense and means you posess it now. If you have eternal life now, and you lose is at anytime, how can that be eternal. Also "sealed with the Holy Spirit until redemption" verse in Ephesians 1:13-14 speaks of saved until redeemed. This does not mean that you have a license to sin. Why do you believe that you can lose your salvation? Does it say that you can remove the Holy Spirit? Does not this come down to who/whom is responsible for saving us in the first place. Thanks for taking your time to give me the scriptures references for you removing the Holy Spirit. Joe |
Dear Joe,
The fact is the Baptist doctrine of “once saved, always saved” is based on a passage of scripture found in John 10:27-29 which states: “No man shall pluck them out of My hand.” It does not state that man cannot remove himself which is an obvious oversight on the part of those who espouse this theology.
I cannot give you any one particular passage that indicates that you can remove yourself other than to point you to the fact that there were many in the Old Testament who were part of the family of God who, because of their actions, were cut off by God Himself; for example, Nadab and Abihu, Kora and Dathan and in the New Testament, Ananias and Sapphira.
The whole question has to do with the nature of sin. In Judaism, there are two categories of sin. One is the weakness of the flesh or “missing the mark” for which provisions were made for atonement. The other was the willful sin for which there were no provisions made for atonement. The person who committed that sin was simply cut off.
You might want to take a look at an article I wrote on the book of Job. It is Article #37 on our Web site that may shed some light on the subject for you. However, the fact is that there are no specific passages one way or the other. There are only assumptions based upon the information that we have in the Biblical text.
Best wishes, Roy |
