For the last three and a half months, my husband, children, and I have been attending another church that does not believe "Once Saved, Always Saved."
We congregated with some genuine believers at the Baptist church who, unfortunately, had accepted areas of the Baptist doctrine without question, and who I hope will seek the Lord wholeheartedly regarding the Truth. We dearly love those at our former church, but we could not continue in false doctrine. We have since met believers at the other church who seem genuine in their love for the Lord. The pastor at our current church, I believe - after much prayer to the Lord- is a man who genuinely lives for and loves the Lord. I want to stipulate the two previous points in sincere love and concern before I continue with what I have observed in both types of churches - Once Saved, Always Saved & Endure Unto the End in Order to Be Saved churches.
During the five year span of attending a "OSAS" Baptist church, I think I can safely say that we in the congregation did not attend more than 2-3 services without hearing repetition of keynote phrases. In other words, on a continual basis, we in the Baptist church heard the following statements:
"You cannot lose your salvation."
"Don't let anyone tell you that you can lose your salvation."
"You are still eternally secure even if you begin sinning or fall back into sin."
"Once saved, always saved."
"You cannot lose salvation; you can only lose fellowship with God."There are a multitude of other quotes like these that I could include illustrating the same concept, but you understand my point.
Unfortunately, during many sermons at my former Baptist church, I would often hear great truth being spoken against sin, but almost every time, words used speaking against sin would be followed up with, "but no matter what, you cannot lose your salvation." It were as if Satan had been sleeping during most of the sermon, and then, he awoke to whisper in the ear of the preacher: "Remind the people that they can never forfeit their salvation", and on cue, the preacher would faithfully recite the words whispered in his ear by the great deceiver - the father of lies. And many in the congregation would, in unison, say, "Amen!"
At our current church, I have noticed the opposite to be true. In the Baptist church, the premise of their doctrine was drilled in our minds; whereas, the premise of a believer willfully leaving the faith in our current church is rarely spoken of. In three months, I have heard the pastor there say that a person can choose to fall away or leave the faith on only two occasions. At the most, the preacher expressed this idea in one to two sentences and then moved on to other, unrelated, topics.
Although I have been present during wonderful Spirit filled teachings at our current church, I am afraid Satan has subtly convinced many- not only in our church, but in other anti-OSAS churches, that they need not constantly remind and teach the congregation that there is an enemy who seeks to steal, kill, and destroy. One who seeks to weaken a believer in calculated steps until the believer willfully walks away from Jesus with only a hardened heart to show for it.
This concerns me for the people - for the believers. We must be vigilant and reminded frequently that there is an armor to wear and a shield of faith to bear... until the end.
Many in the church are drowsy or are altogether sleeping while the wolf prowls the premises. Satan will devour what is what is weak.
We must never cease reminding believers of this. Never.
May we not cease to teach that Jesus called believers to abide in His vine. To abide. He did not say that He would make us abide; no, instead, He called believers to willfully abide. IN Christ, we are safe. Outside of Christ, Satan can devour us.
Jude 1:21Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
Jude does not tell the believers here that God will keep them in His love. Instead, he exhorts believers to keep themselves in God's love.
Revelation 2:4Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Jesus is speaking to a church here - to believers - who have left their first love. Can one leave what one never loved? No. A choice has been made by these believers, and Jesus warns them to repent of such actions.
1 Corinthians 8:3But if any man love God, the same is known of him.
Anathema in the original Greek means to "ban or excommunicate - accursed."1 Corinthians 16:22If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.
Maranatha in the original Greek is defined as "an exclamation of the approaching divine judgment."
Many would argue that love and sin have nothing to do with each other -- That one can sin and still love the Lord. Or that sinning does not separate us from the Lord.
However, those commonly espoused notions are refuted in the Word of God:
John 14:15If ye love me, keep my commandments.
John 14:21He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
John 14:23Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
John 14:24He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.
John 15:9As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
John 15:10If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
_____________________________________________Psalm 145:20The Lord preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.
May the body of Christ unite and with great sincerity never cease to remind one another regarding the importance of abiding IN Christ. May we never cease to teach one another that the enemy is without the gates, and he is patient in his wait. He can't remove believers from the city as long as we are securely IN the city. However, the enemy will use clever tactics to lure a believer outside of the gates. We must frequently teach believers of his tactics and his temptations.
No comments:
Post a Comment