Eternal Security?

One of the most popular doctrines that's taught in the modern church is the doctrine of eternal security. What does it teach? It teaches that once a person has been born again into eternal life--or "saved"--by faith in Jesus Christ, they can never lose their salvation.

But is that biblical? Concerning the last days on earth preceding His return, Jesus Christ said something very provocative. He said this:

At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Matthew 24:10-13)

What did Christ mean? He clearly meant that in the end times, evil will multiply exponentially across the world, and many people will lose their faith and drop out of the church. However, those who remain faithful to God in Christ will be saved. Saved from what? Saved from God's judgment and eternal damnation.

Why would Christ have issued that caveat if folks can't lose their salvation? That wouldn't make any sense. But in fact, people can lose their salvation. And Christ revealed that tragic reality in his prophecy concerning the end times.

And so, where did the doctrine of eternal security come from? It comes from a lukewarm, comprised church that doesn't want to serve Christ as Lord. An increasing number of professing Christians want the eternal life that Christ promises to everyone who puts their faith and trust in Him, and confesses His name.

However, they don't want to give up the old life of sin that brought them under God's condemnation. As the famous evangelist A.W. Tozer once said: Many people want to take Christ as their Savior but not as their Lord. Tozer accurately pointed out that you can only follow Christ as Lord and Savior. You can't follow Him any other way.

During his travels throughout the ancient gentile world, the apostle Paul continually emphasized in his epistles (letters) to the early churches that salvation and eternal life are precious and can easily be lost if a person willingly compromises his or her faith with the world. To the church at Ephesus, he wrote this:

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them. (Ephesians 5:3-7)

Paul preached that message to the Christians. If that message was addressed to the unbelievers, then he denied the cross by promoting a gospel of works-righteousness salvation. But that's not what he did. He warned the early believers that if they returned to their former life of sin, they'd forfeit their salvation.

To the early church in Corinth, Paul delivered a similar message:

Do you not know that evildoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

Later in that letter, he told the Corinthians this:

For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. 

Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.

 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:1-13)

That's pretty clear, isn't it? Paul warned that salvation can indeed be lost by willful rebellion against God. Maintaining salvation isn't a matter of works. Rather, it's a matter of obedience. And a significant part of that obedience is keeping God's commands and rejecting evil. It's just that simple.

Paul also delivered another relevant prophecy concerning the end times. It concerns false doctrine. Here's what Paul wrote:

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

That prophecy applies to those who reject biblical truths to embrace the eternal security doctrine.