Winter 1998

PREFACE

By: Michael Tao

Titus 1:15 says,"Unto the pure all things are pure; but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled."

Here is another evidence of eternal security of salvation in the Bible. "Unto the pure" clearly indicates the category of the spiritually pure, which is the believers. And to the pure - "all things are pure". Only under the condition that God cleanses one's sin before and also after a person's salvation, can all things be pure. When this is the case, how could a saved person lose his salvation - even by sinning? When God call his own pure, who can call them impure? The rest are the "defiled and unbelieving", the spiritually lost. There is not a group called "in and out of salvation by their own will", so the argument that believers can lose (and regain) their salvation is scripturally unfounded.

However, numerous that have professed Christ continue to argue that they can lose their salvation by sinning wilfully against God. The result of believing this wrong teaching is these professing Christians serve God out of horror and out of a grudging attitude. Another result is when one thinks that he has gone so far in sin that God should not re-issue salvation; he then becomes hopeless and depressed.

Another problem of this false teaching is men become prideful of what they can do to keep their salvation. A fellow who follows this false doctrine was once, with pride, proclaiming that he has been in and out of his salvation several times in his past. If he thinks that by his sin he lost his salvation, and by good works he regained it, we can see where his prideful attitude came from.

The doctrine of eternal security of believers is an extremely important doctrine, it complements the Doctrine of Salvation, and qualifies the salvation that one owns. One of the reasons that it can be false is because the Bible claims repeatedly that life given by God through Christ is eternal. When a professing Christian does not believe that his life is eternal and he can lose his salvation, it becomes very unclear what his salvation status is.

Another reason that his salvation can be questionable is because the Bible tells us that Christians should know that they have eternal life, 1 John 5:13 says, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." Obviously, these professors do not know whether they have eternal life or not, because they may have lost their salvation (by sinning) already. Again this contradicts the Word of God.

The final test is to correct the professor by opening the Bible. If the reaction is active rejection of the teaching of eternal security, then his salvation is counterfeit. When one openly denies that the God given life is eternal, he simultaneously rejects the sufficiency of the Blood of Christ, the Grace of God; basically God's whole plan of redemption. When Christ on the cross cried out "It is finished (totally and once and for all)", but to this professor, it was not finished, and God needs man's works to supplement. This is work-based salvation.

One cannot become a Christian by following lesser than 100% of what is said in the Bible to become a Christian. When one mixes 99% of God's Grace with 1% of his filthy works, he is 100% spiritually lost. We are not saved by following our own understanding, it is God's rule - his written Word that we have to follow.