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Some people would have you believe that once you are saved you are always saved.
Oh, how I wish this was true. But it just ain’t. It just ain’t what the scriptures teach.
Instead the scriptures teach that we must be faithful until death
(
Revelation 2:10
).
Now this verse is actually talking about two different things concerning remaining “faithful unto death”.
1. At the time this was written, the Christians were faced with persecution and death, because of their refusal to deny Christ and bow down to Caesar.
(
Matthew 10:32-33
) Says:
Mt 10:32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
Mt 10:33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
And as a result of their continued steadfast faith, many Christians lost their lives in some of the most horrific ways to die.
2. The other meaning is that we must remain “faithful unto death” until we die of natural type causes. Living out the rest of our lives as faithful children of God.
How do I know this?
Because we have many other scriptures that teach this very thing.
So let us go to the word of God and take a brief look at SOME of these scriptures.
But before we do, we need to realize that this idea of remaining faithful is not a new idea, but an idea that the Bible teaches all the way through and it is sumed up in these two verses in the Old Testament.
(
Ezekiel 33:18-19
)
Eze 33:18 When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby.
Eze 33:19 But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.
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OK, here are SOME of the scriptures in the New Testament that show that we MUST remain faithful.
Paul, who wrote most of the books in the New Testament, also wrote about a concern that he had about himself and the ever present reality of the possibility of being saved and then becoming lost when he wrote in (
1 Corinthians 9:27
), "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."
So here you can see that Paul, even though he was an Apostle (Judas was also an Apostle), even though he could perform miracles, even though he had gone on missionary journeys, even though he had established churches (congregations), even though he had suffered for the cause of Christ, even though he had preached to others, and etc. Paul still realized the very real possibility of after doing all of this, he could still end up being lost.
--
Over in
(
Revelation Chapters 2-3
), is where the Spirit is telling John to write letters to the churches in Asia to warn them to remain faithful. So let us look at
Revelation 3:4-6
which is just SOME of what John was told to write for just a moment and there we see it tells us:
Re 3:4 Thou hast a FEW names even in Sardis which have not DEFILED their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.
Re 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will NOT BLOT OUT his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
Re 3:6 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
This passage teaches us that WE CAN defile our garments after they were once made clean (members of the church He is talking about here).
Also it tells us that our names CAN BE ‘blotted’ (erased) out of the book of life. (In order to blot out or erase something, it first has to be written down)
And in that statement, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”
Is an expounded statement to show that what is being said here is most definitely something everyone needs to pay attention too.
*********
So, Please, Please, Please, take a moment to look at SOME of these other scriptures.
Because of trying to keep these studies fairly short, and their obvious conclusions, and me needlessly repeating myself, I will just list them without going into separate explanations for each one. But I will be more than happy to discuss any or all of them with you if you just let me know by going to the ‘COMMENTS’ link on the right side of this page. And remember if you want our conversations (study) to remain private, then just say so in the comment, otherwise I will publicly post them so others can enter into the study as well. Because also remember that I also am continuely searching for the Truth as well, and if I am erring from the scriptures in anyway, it is your responsibility to let me know so I can reexamine my thoughts using God’s Holy Word, correct my error, and then teach others (
James 5:19-20
)
James 5:19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
James 5:20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
OK, with all of that being said, here are SOME of the other scriptures:
(
1 Timothy 4:1-3
), (
Galatians 5:4
), (
Hebrews 3:12-19
), (
2 Peter 3:17
), (
Hebrews 10:26-31
), and (
Matthew 13:40-42
).
And one final thought, in (
2 Peter 2:20-22
) the Bible tells us that to return back to living a worldly life after we had become a christian, that we would be better off if we never had became a christian to start with. BUT, if we never become a christian to start with, then what hope would we have? Answer = NONE.
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But still there maybe those of you trying to hold onto that idea of “once you are saved, you are always saved”. And once again, Oh, how I wish this was true, but it just ain’t. But people still try to come up with a few things to try and prove their opinion. Oh, how I wish they could.
One of the things they say is that, “‘God is love’, He loves us. He would not disinherit us. We are His children. It is just like when your children do something wrong. They don’t quit being your children and you don’t quit loving them. They are still your children. And neither does God quit loving us if we do something wrong. So He would never disinherit us.”
Yes, this is true. At least the part about ‘God is love’, and about ‘He loves us’, and about ‘He don’t quit loving us because we do something wrong’. But what about ‘He would never disinherit us’?
Oh, how I wish that all of this was true. But once again it just ain’t.
‘Have you not read’ in Numbers what God said when the children of Israel (His chosen people) were about to rebel and go back to Egypt because they believed the bad report of 10 of the spies. And how God was going to DISINHERIT them? (
Numbers 14:12
)
God WILL DISINHERIT us and we WILL BE eternally lost if we turn against Him by sinning.
Therefore 'WE MUST REMAIN FAITHFUL'!
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What do you think about this lesson ???
Go to the COMMENTS link and enter YOUR COMMENTS
so we can SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH together.
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