We Can Never Be Lost Once We Have Been Saved

The result of many years of grace-Heaven teaching is the deep conviction in many if not most Evangelicals that once a person has been saved he can never be lost.

There are several verses in the New Testament that flatly contradict this position but Evangelical scholars and teachers use deductive reasoning, analogies, and sometimes the Greek language, to prove once a person truly is saved he or she can never be lost.

One problem that arises is that an unscriptural definition of saved and lost is employed and so we have error built on error.

Because of the Gnostic influence, being saved means the inner spiritual aspect of the personality enters the spirit Paradise at death, there to reside forever. Because of the unfortunate translation of rooms, or dwelling places, in John 14:2, as "mansions," we have the strong tradition that to be saved means we will go to a mansion in the spirit realm to live forever, apparently doing nothing of significance.

Wouldn't Satan love this—the whole Church in mansions in Heaven while Satan inherits the earth!

If salvation is defined correctly as removal from the person and behavior of Satan and placement in the Person and behavior of Christ, then we see the argument that a person once having known Christ can never be lost loses much of its validity. If to be saved is to be created in Christ's image and brought into untroubled rest in the Father through Christ, and to be lost is to be rejected from the program of transformation and union with God, then we have a solid base on which to proceed with our argument.

The Lord Jesus stated in the Gospel accounts that when He returns He will evaluate our service. If we have managed our Kingdom talents wisely and diligently we will be entrusted with rulership. However, if we have not managed our Kingdom talents wisely and diligently we will be led away into outer darkness.

We know this is true because the Son of God said so. The question is, can we be led away into outer darkness and still be saved? How would you like to be led away into outer darkness? Would you consider that you had been saved?

There seems to be three possible reasons why devout, intelligent Christian people would use every means at their disposal to prove the several passages that state those who do not serve Christ will nevertheless not be lost to the purposes of God:

They wish to keep on sinning in some area of their life and still not have to worry about going to Hell.

They are afraid with all their efforts they still may not meet God's standards and will go to Hell.

They think God is so loving He would never send them to Hell.

In answer may we say:

We cannot sin willfully and expect to receive anything but the wrath of God. We simply cannot disobey our heavenly Father willfully and knowingly and yet be admitted to the Paradise of God. There is no religious formula that guarantees salvation to the believer who is keeping some part of his or her personality from the will of Christ.

To be continued.