It is claimed that no matter how completely he may afterward abandon himself to drunkenness, thievery, adultery, profanity, or any other sin even if he should die while practicing one or all of these sins-there is not the remotest possibility that he will be lost..
He may lose his fellowship, but he cannot lose his salvation.
According to this teaching, being born again does not necessarily lead to discontinuance of sin.
The instant a man believes in Christ and by faith accepts Him as Savior, he receives eternal life.
This being the case, no amount of subsequent sinning can deprive him of this life.
If a man dies in his sins, he is not damned; instead he is believed to go to be with Jesus!
A leading champion of this theory has written: “God wants a clean people. And they can be if they will humble themselves and confess their sins. To refuse to do so is to invite the judgment of God in weakness and sickness, and persistent unrepentance may result in the Lord taking them home, and then they will face the judgment seat of Christ.” But on this very point Jesus said, “You ... shall die in your sins: whither I go, you cannot come.” John 8:21.
1 once heard a preacher deliver a radio sermon on the prodigal son in which he emphasized that the prodigal “never ceased to be his father’s son.”
1 once heard a preacher deliver a radio sermon on the prodigal son in which he emphasized that the prodigal “never ceased to be his father’s son.”
--Meeting him after the broadcast and knowing him to be a believer in the once-saved, always-saved doctrine, I said, “This son wasted his living with harlots. Suppose he had died while living that way?”
--His unhesitating reply was, “He would have gone straight to heaven.”
--Holding the doctrine he did, he could not consistently answer otherwise. The problem is, How can this view be made consistent with Scripture? John said,
“There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defiles.” And Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Q: And what of the claim that the prodigal son “never ceased to be his father’s son,” even while wasting his living “with harlots”-as the elder brother charged?
“There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defiles.” And Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Q: And what of the claim that the prodigal son “never ceased to be his father’s son,” even while wasting his living “with harlots”-as the elder brother charged?
A: Jesus gives the answer in the parable of the prodigal son, when He quotes the father as saying, “This my son ... was lost, and is found.” He was his father’s son; but he was a lost son. The same can be said of all who have turned back from Christ into the practice of sin. They are lost sons. If they die in that state, they certainly will not be taken home for cleansing; the only cleansing for sin that has ever been provided is the blood of Jesus Christ.
Had the prodigal continued in his sinning, he would have continued lost. Says the Scripture, ‘Whore mongers . . . shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” And Paul said plainly that adulterers shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9, 10.) This would have ruled the prodigal son out, had he died in his sins.
The once-saved, always-saved believers
class such as “carnal Christians.”
AllenWalker
