The reason I fell away from the Roman Catholic Church when I was in my teens was not because I did not believe in Jesus. Believing the story about Jesus being the Savior of mankind seemed like the only possibility to me for as long as I can remember. I fell away from the Roman Catholic Church because I did not believe in their requirements for salvation.
In any honest analysis, the Catholics teach salvation through your own efforts and obedience to their church along with your own perseverance in their teachings until the end. How Catholics are to do that is fully laid out in their church catechism. Getting to salvation in Roman Catholicism is a convoluted self effort and the Bible does not support their claims. Most Catholics do not see any conflict because most of them never read the Bible. It seems to me that the fear of hell keeps more Catholics in their church than any love for Jesus.
I believed in Jesus as a young boy, but I also believed in Santa Claus because lying adults influenced my thinking. Young minds have to grow and learn to distinguish truth from fantasy. For that reason, I do not believe that early childhood conversions are valid. These false conversions are the reason that most children of Christians reject their faith before they are twenty.
I have heard some early childhood converts as adults say they never doubted what they were taught, but after listening to the denominational dogma they spout, I wondered if they would today believe in Islam had they grown up in it. It is almost as if keeping the dictates of their denomination is what makes them a Christian. Many of these think their salvation comes from being true to the denomination or church that they identify with. Do they have anything more than religion?
The gospel (good news) most clearly taught by John and Paul, is that Jesus paid the full price for the sinful fallen nature of Adam’s descendants through His sacrifice on the cross. Anyone believing in God’s righteousness to redeem mankind through Jesus will be saved.
The gospel of John is clear about the way of salvation. You need hunt nowhere else to get the message that salvation comes by believing Jesus. Those pointing to obscure passages elsewhere to try to refute this truth, do so because they never learned understanding. They often cannot discern the difference between receiving salvation and how saved people should strive to live afterward.
In the gospel of John Chapter 3, Jesus sets the proper order for salvation by telling Nicodemus that nobody enters the Kingdom of God unless they are born of the Spirit. Jesus compares the Holy Spirit to wind. It invisibly goes wherever it pleases. God apparently only saves those created to be saved. These people will hear the Gospel and believe.
In Chapter 3 verse 18 of John Jesus said, “he that does not believe is condemned already“. Only believers will be saved out of this fallen world. The verses that follow are saying that evil people will not come to the light and be saved because they love darkness. They are of their father the Devil. The darkness in the world is why the world is condemned already. Those that love the fallen world will never be receptive to the gospel because they are of the evil one.
John 5:24 says, those that hear the words of Jesus and believe in God has everlasting life. You cannot lose the life given to you by something you later do or don’t do.
5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
Notice the passage says that those hearing the words of Jesus and believing God are already given eternal life. It does not say they get that life after baptism, or after doing whatever your religion says you must do to obtain eternal life. Those adding anything further to salvation are contradicting the very words of Jesus. The Temple veil was ripped in two after Jesus paid the price for sin showing that the way to God was no longer veiled. The way to the Father is through Jesus (Mt 27:51).
The 3,000 souls added to the Church on Pentecost because they heard the gospel and believed, did not later lose their salvation because they were not living out a lordship salvation lifestyle. There are many examples in the book of Acts that make it clear that people were saved when they heard the Gospel and believed. There is no suggestion in Acts that any of those that heard and believed were false converts. The false converts came in later when worldly people joined with established churches for their own worldly reasons.
John 6:37 clearly says that all the Father gives to Jesus will come to Jesus and He will not cast any of them out. Jesus also makes it clear that some are not of the Father. Obviously the Father is not giving everyone on earth to Jesus. If the people were of the Father, they would hear and trust in Jesus. The fact that many people do not believe Jesus proves that all people are not of God.
One of the great errors some Christians are teaching is that all humans are made in the image of God, and all can be saved, if the gospel is just somehow adequately explained to each of them. The wording in Genesis actually suggests that man was created to be imagers of God. Once Adam and Eve fell into sin and knew evil they could no longer be the imagers of God that He created them to be.
Jesus is the very image of God (2 Co 4:4). Jesus came to redeem what was lost in His creation. He took on a human body, paid the price for sin, and then rose His human body from the dead as the image of God. Descendants of Adam must become one with Him to be risen imagers of God. This is the way we get back to our created role. The Bible talks about there being wheat and tares on the earth. The tares are the sons of the evil one. They are Satanic plants. The tares will never come to God to be saved.
Parsing the difference between wheat and tares on earth is difficult, but here is my take on the analogy. I think wheat are the people created by God to become the sons of the light. The wheat also can be called sheep or lost sheep. All of them will come to hear and believe the voice of the One who planted them. Some wheat will grow strong and add to the harvest and other wheat will not grow much and will add little. The tares on the other hand, look like the wheat God planted, but they are satanic counterfeits.The tares also are called goats. Tares are satanic plants only fit to be gathered and burned. The tares can imitate what God planted in most every way except tares thrive in darkness. They hate the light. They are ever learning but never able to come to the truth.
One of the reasons unbelieving friends and family members may not come to mind in eternity is that we will learn that they were never part of God’s plan. They grew among us and just acted out a role programed by the Devil. It’s like an alien human race was planted among what God planted. The big question is how can you tell the difference? The wheat will receive the Light, but the tares want darkness. Given enough room the tares will grow and try to block out all light coming from God. The tares have an alternate demonic reality and they will not receive the truth. Just look at the Satanic world system that we are living in.
Wheat can be choked out where tares flourish. As tares take over the field they show their true colors. The prime example of that happening in the fallen world in these last days is every facet of leftism. Many Christians teach we should not be involved in the political affairs of the world, but any true Christian should know that tares will continue to grow and try to choke out the wheat until the harvest at the end of the age. It is the leftists in these last days that are trying to get authoritarian control over the whole world, and it is the leftists that are warring against God’s people. We should not be giving up ground so tares can grow.
In support of what I am saying, Jesus said to those that would not believe. He who is of God hears God’s words, therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God (John 8:47). In this passage and many others, Jesus was clearly saying that many of the religious leaders are sons of he Devil.
I hate to break the news to western churches, but many of their leaders are tares brought in as hirelings. Where in the Bible does it even suggest that churches should take in hirelings right out of Bible colleges and instantly make them pastors and elders? Many believers in the West do not go to church or participate in church programs because churches have become unbiblical worldly institutions. Many “church leaders” are worldly people and not even a member of the true Church.
Jesus presented Himself to the religious leaders of His nation but they rejected Him. And it is the religious leaders of the past and of our time that reject the simple gospel of salvation. They pose as great spiritual figures and experts of theology, but they reject what Jesus actually taught in the Bible about how people are saved. Many religious leaders just want to put others under their bondage. The vast majority of Christendom is now under the control of those peddling considerable false theology. I came out of the false theology of Roman Catholicism to see false theology come to dominate Protestantism and now even many of those calling themselves Evangelicals or Pentecostals.
John 6:36 could not be any clearer. Jesus said, “all that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” He also says in verse 39 and 40.
This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
What is it about this passage that religious leaders fail to understand? God draws people to Jesus and Jesus saves all the Father gives Him. It is clear from this passage and many others, that there is no way the saved can be lost, and there is no way anyone can be saved through any effort of their own.
In John 6:47 Jesus says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.” This life already is given to those that believe in Jesus. It is not something you get from obedience or persevering until the end like many are teaching. Everlasting life comes to those that believes in Jesus, period. Those without understanding often misapply passages confusing sanctification with salvation.
John 10: 26-27 But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
How than can religious leaders say Jesus will tell Christians to depart from Him and that He never knew them because they were not doing enough good works (Matt 7)? In context this judgment is not talking about the judgment of Christians. It is talking about about the judgment of Pharisaical leaders expecting to get in through doing the law, keeping traditions and good works. Theologians believing in Dominion Theology and Replacement Theology often take prophetic passages like these out of context because they have no understanding of the prophetic scriptures. They most often also do not believe that believers have eternal security.
The truth is that all that the Father draws come to Jesus and they receive eternal life. However, not all saved will live lives on earth pleasing to Jesus. Many build on the house of God with straw. Their works will be burned up but they will be saved. The saved should strive to build with something valuable because such works determine eternal rewards and eternal positions of authority. Nevertheless, those given eternal life have that life regardless of the material they build with. Being disciplined by God and appearing before the judgment seat of the saved for what they did in their bodies, should be what keeps believers up at night, not whether or not they are saved.
Theologians and Christian leaders need to stick with scriptures understood in proper context. They should not be twisting scripture to make it conform to theology taught to them. The way of salvation is clearly taught well over a hundred times in scripture. We are saved by belief (trusting faith) in Jesus period. Read the gospel of John without the distortion of preconceived theology, and nothing could be clearer. Believers persevere because they are saved, not because aberrant teachers say perseverance is required to be saved.
Hey, real good article.
I thought about a few points as I was reading. Let me zero in on one of them.
You know how James & Paul seem to say opposite things on faith and works? Some say Paul came later to correct James & some say its the other way around.
How do u know that you have saving faith?
God of course can look into our hearts & see if our faith is a genuine faith He doesn’t need our works for that. But on the other hand how can others know or how can we know ourselves? That our faith is the saving kind? That’s what James I guess is referring to.
If I have saving faith my faith will produce some kind of works within me.
Faith plus nothing, period. But that kind of faith produces works, my work is for free I don’t expect to earn anything from them. If I’m thirsty naturally I’m going to drink something, drinking something doesn’t qualify me for being thirsty just demonstrates that I’m thirsty.
People like to point to James for justification of a works religion, faith + works = Justification. People have a hard time placing works in it’s proper place, I hear it all the time.
This was my thought as I read. I also read some nonsense that Martin Luther added “plus nothing” to ‘faith plus nothing’
Amen to this article. Here’s my other thought. Our job is to give the evidence as in Apologetics but not to try to persuade them, the Holy Spirit will do that part if a persons heart isn’t too cold.
Hi Bill,
James does not conflict with anything that Paul taught. James was talking to already saved Jews. Some saved Jews were claiming to be of great faith but their deeds did not demonstrate such faith. You are correct, James was saving that saved people demonstrate faith to others by doing works of the Spirit. Faith claimed that does not produce good works is dead faith. It accomplishes nothing.
Hi Don,
They compliment one another, James & Paul but some people seem to think it does. I’ve heard of people that are atheist make that argument in order to say the Bible contradicts itself.
I watch Frank Turek’s program once a week, Cross Examined. I think it was this program or another that atheist use that argument.
yea but great article. Thanks Don.
Hi,
This past Wednesday I lost my mom. I am conflicted as to whether she was saved or not.
This sentence from the above post is comforting:
“One of the reasons unbelieving friends and family members may not come to mind in eternity is that we will learn that they were never part of God’s plan.”
Don — I (/we) appreciate your ministry and I pray you continue to sow forth.
Blessings, Craig
Amen and Amen! We have a family member who ,every chance they get,tell us once saved always saved is not in the Bible.What a miserable life that must be for a believer……….if they are a believer.According to her,I probably lose my salvation a hundred times a day.
The longer I am saved,the more I have come to believe that I didn’t have a thing to do with my salvation.God had to give me the faith to believe in the first place.I know what a depraved,lost sinner I am and even saved,I am capable of sinning to the uttermost.That old sin nature cannot be cleaned up or killed and it never gives up.Thanks be to God ,that Jesus saves to the uttermost.
Thanks ,Don,for teaching the truth of Gods word.
“One of the reasons unbelieving friends and family members may not come to mind in eternity is that we will learn that they were never part of God’s plan.”
WOW. For years I have tried to understand how I would cope in Heaven and the future Universe without so many lost loved ones – family and friends. Any way you look at it, its sad they wont be there, but your point above makes a whole lot of sense. Thanks Don, Mike.
Hi Don,
It may have been a couple of years ago that you said, The Bible doesn’t say to pray for someone’s salvation.” I don’t recall where you said it but you did and it stunned me. It also caused me to begin thinking on all these things you just wrote about. I came to the same belief.
The last church I went to the Southern Baptist preacher told us, “When you get to heaven if any of your family are missing it will be your fault.” Nice huh?
There is one thing I’m not clear on. What are the good works that count with God?
Hi Caitlin,
I don’t know where I said that. The Baptist preacher you encountered was an abusive idiot.
The good works that count with God are works led by the Spirit.
Hello Don:
Thank you for the article, the simplicity of your writing, made what can be made to be complicated more easily grasped and understood. I have a question about Caiitlin’s comment, “The Bible doesn’t say to pray for someone’s salvation”. Does that fact (I do not remember ever reading an admonishment to pray for anyone’s salvation) and given the scriptures set forth in your article mean we should not pray for the salvation of others, or as we often do, for a revival?
Thank you … Bev
Hi Beverly,
I will answer your question with a question. Do you think God would answer a prayer asking that God save every person in the world even though His word makes it clear that not all will be saved? We should pray that people hear the salvation message. God will save those He predestined to hear and believe. A revival that attempts to get out the good news so people can hear, believe and be saved is in God’s will. Presenting the good news and acting out our faith is also what we should be doing toward family members and loved ones.
Wow Don you sure opened up a can of worms! How mankind’s free will and God’s sovereignty work together is maybe the most challenging concept in all of the bible imo.
On one hand the bible teaches that we are not just mindless preprogrammed robots with zero choice in the matter.
Yet it is clear God predestined some to salvation while leaving others in their sin. It’s a very interesting thought provoking topic.
Hello 🙂
I know that it’s not the main theme of the article, but I was confused about that sentence of unbelievers not being a part of God’s plan, and some comments here that we shouldn’t pray for their salvation (and maybe I just didn’t understand it correctly, as english is not my native language, so I apologize in advance).
Sadly, what we can know for sure is that not everyone will make it to heaven. But rather than these people not being a part of God’s plan (the “alien human race”, as stated in the article) they just rejected being in the God’s plan.
I believe there is this potential of being saved for everyone, otherwise the verses in 1 Timothy 2 (“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for ALL people… This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants ALL people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth”) and 2 Peter 3:9 ( The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that ANY should perish, but that ALL should reach repentance) would not make sense to me.
Yes, only God can reach and change hearts, not our effort, and He knows in advance who will be saved eventually. But I don’t think our prayers are useless. Besides sharing the message with our loved ones (which we surely do, even when we are mocked)and acting out our faith, this is the only thing we can do. Pray for everything and be anxious for nothing… Praying gives my grieving heart a bit of hope.
Anyway, I want to thank you, Don, for another interesting article. Since I live in a Catholic country, I myself was blinded for a long time. I don’t have anyone in my life with whom I could talk about end times and rapture, so Internet is the only place where I can have a sense of community 🙂 God bless!
Hi Don,
I’m kind of confused. You say that “God will save those He predestined to hear and believe. A revival that attempts to get out the good news so people can hear, believe and be saved is in God’s will. Presenting the good news and acting out our faith is also what we should be doing toward family members and loved ones.” If they’re predestined, won’t they at some point, through someone, come to know the Lord no matter what I might say or do? Is there no turning someone around from a life of disbelief or bringing someone to Jesus Christ who is in a religion that doesn’t believe in Jesus Christ? Isn’t it all just futility if certain people are already predestined? In other words, I could be talking til I’m blue in the face to people who will never be saved. This is quite an interesting topic as I don’t think I’ve ever understood or heard things quite this way.
Hi Adriana, It is the Bible that teaches predestination. God foreknows who will be saved and He also knows how each person He pedestined to be saved will hear the gospel of salvation and trust in Jesus. You might want to strive to be that tool of God to turn someone around. Otherwise God will use someone else. People do get blue in the face because they cast their pearls before swine quite often. What really motivates them to keep doing that? Do they really think that those that hate God will listen just because they are able to give them the gospel?
Hi Zuzana,
Good points. God clearly wants all people to come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved. That is the very reason He sent Jesus into the world. However, God knows the Tares will not come to Jesus because they are of their Father the Devil.
Jesus died for all. And Jesus will save all that trust in Him. All anyone has to do is believe and be saved but those blinded by the Devil cannot. I am sure God did not want Satan to rebel, but it happened anyway because Satan has free will. God does not force anyone to trust in Him and He foreknows who will and wont. He wants all people to be saved but He is not going to force anyone to believe. If you take praying for people to be saved to the logical conclusion. Prayers determine the salvation of everyone in the world. If you think prayers influence salvation why not pray that everyone in the world be saved? Obviously God is not going to listen to that prayer because your prayer would take away the freewill of others.
By the way, the context of 1 Tim is talking about praying for rulers so rulers will not hinder people trying to live a Christian life. God wishes all leaders would be saved so the Church will not be hindered.
I just stick to Romans 10:9 If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that the Father raised Him from the dead you will be saved.
Seems simple enough but most people will never be able to do these two things. This is in stark contrast to the teaching found in most churches today as most follow Billy Graham’s model of Universalism.
No guarantees: https://www.biblestudytools.com/blogs/mark-altrogge/12-promises-every-parent-should-ask-god-to-fulfill.html provide some scripture to give us hope for our family members who are presently lost. I am not sure our love for family members can be dissolved with the alien human race programmed by the devil theory. I have heard many testimony’s by pastors who have prayed for a list of lost individuals that most all came to believe before dying. I will continue to pray for a list of family and friends who state they do not believe. Scripture states the Satan has placed scales over the eyes of unbelievers to keep them from the Truth and Praying for our Father to remove these scales and turn hearts of stone to flesh gives me hope for their salvation.
Hi Stephen,
Those scriptures are more in the line of raising up your children in the way they should go. However, most Christians in the West now let government raise up their children in the ways of the satanic world. Then they wonder why their children go the way of the world just like most of the offspring of Israel did.
As I said in the article, If you really believe God will save those that you pray to be saved why not pray that everyone on earth be saved? It seems to me that anything less would not be in God’s will if people are actually saved through the prayers of others.
Anyway, praying for people to hear the gospel is in the will of God, but praying for the salvation of people with freewill without also in some way working to get them that good news falls short. You certainly can hope for and pray for your children’s salvation, but remember their salvation actually comes by their hearing the Gospel and believing.
Do what you think God is telling you to do, but I don’t think our hope for anyone changes the outcome unless it helps them see.
Hope breeds eternal.
There’s a world of difference between praying for the world to be saved to our individual family members to be saved.
God invites us to be personally involved so that the Holy Spirit can work thru us & in us. No different than the workings of evil working thru & in heathens. Humans are and always was an integral part of spiritual warfare. Battles are fought & won behind the scenes and we are part and partial of them.
Among the Crowns we receive are the soul winning Crown. Yes God can save ppl without humans but He permits us to get involved for His Glory sake and our sanctifying process. “Flesh and blood is employed as the mediate or second cause of it.”
Reading sermons in the 1700’s by Jonathan Edwards helped me to grasp of the inner workings of the Holy Spirit.
http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=article&aid=3429
God’s Sovereignty in the Salvation of Men: (27th down this list)
http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=category&cid=102
God Glorified in Man’s Dependence: (Mid 20’s down the list before 27th)
“It is of God that Christ becomes ours, that we are brought to him, and are united to him. It is of God that we receive faith to close with him, that we may have an interest in him.”
“It is God that pardons and justifies, and delivers from going down to hell;”
If any of us have a desire for the Holy Spirit to breach a hardened heart of a loved one than there’s a good chance that its a divine desire. I don’t see God disagreeing w/ you there.
I approach the Holy Spirit like this… ‘Father if there’s any opening in one’s heart do find that gap or if no opening at this time please so make one so that Your Spirit may approach that hardened heart.’ Believe it in faith it will happen your loved one may go thru something to break that hardened heart even if it has to be in the tribulation.
Craig P.
My condolence for your Mom’s passing. That hurts.
Hi Bill B,
Of course God works through Christians to get out the gospel to people. That is the role of the Church called the great commission. I guess Christians should start with their own friends and family but you do not get out the gospel to them by just praying for them. Unless perhaps, if the words you are praying is the gospel and it is heard by them and they are convicted.
The Bible is very clear that people will be justified or rejected based on what they did, not on something their parents did or did not do (Ez 18).
I can agree that God leads certain people to pray to open doors for those He already predestined to be saved. However, I do not think prayers can turn Tares into Wheat or Goats into Sheep no matter how much Christians desire that this happen for their loved ones.
There is no mention that Jesus even prayed for his unbelieving kin or friends to be saved. Some of them later saw the salvation of God in the crucifixion and resurrection and believed. Jesus just let those following Him but were skeptical to just walk away. He did not pray for them to accept Him as the Messiah because those that walked away were not given to him by God. He even said as much in the gospel of John.
None of the prophets and apostles ever mention praying for unbelievers to be saved. It is not found in the Bible, so where do Christians get such wishful presumptions?
Can there be 3 classes?
1. Wheat those GOD is going to save
2. Humans that have free will and can choose God or not
The saved wheat are making sure these individuals hear the message and now have a choice
3. Tares alien human race or just evil because of decision they made or blinded that will never be saved
Difficult to understand as this topic covers God Sovereignty and Man’s Free Will
Example Jesus called a few or saved a few to himself and then sent them out to the world to preach the world and the world is filled with humans who can make a choice and those that can not due to several factors.
Hello Don,
I agree that we cant turn a tare into wheat but from our finite perspective we cant know for sure who they really are but we of course can assume after observation of a lifestyle or actions.
Yes we present the gospel to our unbelieving family members & friends from our heart the best to our ability & understanding. Some ppl are more fluent & more patient in this task than others.
I keep working at it for my own presentation as led in each opportunity. I always think back and self improve wishing I could have that moment back but I file it for next time.
Jesus allowed free will to reign ppl were moved at all of His miracles just as ppl are moved today by a good story being told be it a romance novel or feel good puppy rescue, or a card trick performed on a street corner.
Probably about 25% of the people seeing Jesus in His day were converted the rest had a harder soil surface to no soil. There are those we all know that at some point as u alluded to that it becomes like casting pearls among swine due to them trampling our message underfoot. I just cast a prayer to them & turn it over.
Our family members that are tares (as we find out later) they will essentially be erased as if they never were then we wont know of them. Although they will still be in torment.
I don’t disagree to any part of this article it does make sense what u said that we need to be praying that they hear the gospel & hope they respond. How much do they tune out as compared to another who happens to be ready to fully hear it then Holy Spirit can move on them.
Thankyou for your insight in the difference of how we should approach these things in prayer.
Hi Jeremy,
Everyone can make a choice. There are those of God that chose to believe and be saved and those that chose to stay blinded because they are not of God. I do not see three classes of people in the book of John or the rest of the Bible.
Hi Don, as usual you KO me with your commentary and instruction.
“There is no mention that Jesus even prayed for his unbelieving kin or friends to be saved. … Jesus just let those following Him but were skeptical to just walk away. He did not pray for them to accept Him as the Messiah because those that walked away were not given to him by God. He even said as much in the gospel of John.”
Stepping back and it is so obvious that is the case – yet I never really saw it from that angle. You made the obvious….obvious!
As I try to witness to people and pray for them, two types seem to be my typical encounters – those that warm and open to the Gospel and truth (usually over a length of time), and another group that, in complete haughtiness, laugh and mock – the tares. In encounters with this group I almost feel a nudge in some cases to not bother witnessing – so odd.
This article and Don’s comments contain a whole other level of wisdom. In the previous article one of the great contributors – Brian – mentioned Don as being one of the top Bible experts out there. I agree 110%.
I believe anyone can believe and be saved. First John 2:2 And He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.
First Timothy 2:4 Who would have all men be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth. First Corinthians 15:1-4. Not everyone is going to believe, but whosoever will may come and drink from the water of life freely
Salvation is free to all. Works are for rewards or lack of rewards in heaven. No one is saved by works, but only by grace. Romans 11:6 But faith is not a work, and the only requirement for salvation. John 3:16-18
First John 5:13 These thing have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may KNOW YE HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.
Matthew 7:21-23 are not saved because they are trusting in their works. They never did the will of His Father. John 6:40 And this is the will of Him who sent me, that all that seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
Ephesians 1:13-In whom ye also trusted, after ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, (First Corinthians 15:1-4) in whom also AFTER ye have believed, ye were sealed by that Holy Spirit of promise, unto the day of redemption. Ephesians 4:30. Second Timothy 2:13 If we believe not, (after we have believed) He abideth faithful, He can not deny Himself. His Holy Spirit that seals us forever. Second Timothy 2:19 Those with the Spirit are His by faith alone without works. Jesus paid our sin debt in full, and we can no longer be condemned. John 3:18
We can be chastened by the Lord even to taking our life early, but never loose eternal life. First Corinthians 5:5 This guy was sleeping with his fathers wife. He would only loose his rewards, not his salvation. First Corinthians 3:11-21.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the GIFT of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace ye are saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the GIFT of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. You can not boast in free.
Lots of false teachers preaching salvation by works. Romans 4:5 and Romans 11:6
Thanks for the space
Hi Jim,
I will agree that all people can be saved and I will also agree that anyone that hears and believes will be saved and will remain saved. It comes down to the issue of how everyone can have freewill when some are predestined to be saved. The Bible clearly teaches both truths.
I hope you are not arguing that there are not tares on the earth even through Jesus make it clear that there were; or that the tares planted by the Devil can become wheat? God refutes that when He masked His message to certain people so they would not see, believe and be saved. How else do you explain John 12:40?
Hey Don Great article when I read your article a verse came to mind Ephesians ch 2 vs 8&9 anyways I haven’t been able to visit your sight for a couple months and just wanted you to know I have visited other sites and yours is one of the best keep up the good work
What would that mean for the wheat before they came to the light? Were they living in darkness and deceived but yet attracted to the light at the same time? I’m curious to understand this some more.
Hi Christine,
The whole world was in darkness until the light of the world appeared. The vessels created to be saved saw the light of the world and received Him and He poured in living water. Cracked pots saw the light that came into the world but these vessels cannot ever hold living water. Keep in mind, that all analogies can only be taken so far. Study predestination as it is taught in scripture for more information.
Hi Don, you are sounding like a Calvinist. Believing that God predestined some to hell makes it hard to then affirm that it is simple belief that saves. It would then need to be being born one of the lucky ones ( the elect) and belief that saves,which is unprovable by scripture. There are some great youtube videos by Kevin Thompson that explain the verses in John. Thanks for your articles.
Hi Jennifer,
I am not a Calvinist. I am a biblicist. I do not think God predestined any soul that He created to hell. The Lake of Fire was created for the Devil and his angels and all associated with him. I am saying that the souls of the Tares do not come from God. The Bible says that Satan planted them.
The Bible clearly teaches both predestination and free will. Even so, not understanding how both can be true probably is because we do not know everything.
There are many teachings available that do a good job of trying to explaining everything from one’s own theology. Many of them teach on the same subject but come up with opposing views. The fact that these teachings exist does not prove who is interpreting scripture correctly. That often takes God given wisdom and proper understanding in the light of all written revelation.
Hi Don,
Thank you so much for your response. I will go back and read verses on predestination. I tried before and got so confused. I’m curious to learn how Satan has the ability to plant souls. That’s crazy! I recall the parable that Jesus talks about an enemy planting Tares but I don’t remember any other verses that talk about this.
Hi Christine,
You get confused on predestination because there are two conflicting major theologies that give their own explanations on the issue. The Bible teaches predestination but it also teaches freewill. How people spin those passages depends on which of the major theologies they are coming from. I think both theologies can be true on points and wrong on other points because they cannot get into the mind of God.
I am sure my explanation of the Tares existing in the field would be explained differently by others. So I could be wrong about Satan planting counterfeit beings.
It’s amazing for me to remember how God’s ways are not ours. This difficult subject reminds me of so many others like how Jesus is 100% man and 100% God. This dichotomy is true but difficult for me to grasp. It excites me to imagine learning from God for eternity. These topics remind me of this and other verses. Romans 11:33-34 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counselor?