Eternal Debate - Is YOUR Faith In Place?

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One of the false "sweet frames" on which multitudes of sincere people rest their hope for eternity is the erroneous doctrine of unconditional security. Many who deplore the fact that some trust in church membership, baptism, decent living, and other false frames yet rest all their hope for salvation on a false frame just as deadly. Many, quite unconsciously, have transferred their faith from Christ Himself to the fact of a past conversion experience and the assumed validity of the popular doctrine "once in grace, always in grace". Their confidence now rests, not actually in Christ Himself, but in their conversion experience sometime in the past. They know the time and place they were saved; but they do not know Christ. They have no sense of present need for Him - no sense of present dependence on Christ for saving grace, no living faith in a living Savior. They are abiding, not in Christ the Living Vine, but in a popular doctrine. "I trusted Christ years ago," say they. But they have long since ceased trusting Him and now are trusting in their past conversion experience and in the erroneous assumption that 'once in grace, always in grace.
-Robert Shank, Life in the Son

Welcome to Eternal Debate. The quote you just read is the reason this site exists. Our goal is to examine unconditional eternal security doctrines logically, historically, and theologically to show that they are NOT the true teaching of Christianity. We will do this while providing the evidence of the security we DO have and showing how to have the assurance that you ARE saved.

Under our new site layout, we have done away with all the clutter and presented only the articles to help you seek out the truth in God's word.

"Examine yourselves to see if your faith is really genuine. Test yourselves. If you cannot tell that Jesus Christ is among you (or in you), it means you have failed the test."
2 Corinthians 13:5 NLT

Many articles are presented in the hope that you will examine yourself to see if YOUR faith is really genuine. It is not the intent of this site to bash your beliefs, only to make you look openly and without bias at OSAS doctrines that are being preached in our "churches" today. We want you to be sure that you are placing your faith into Jesus ONLY and not into a doctrine that says you can not forfeit your salvation.

We see OSAS is no more than a doctrine that provides false assurance. We believe that doctrines such as this are what Paul was speaking of when he wrote Timothy and said:

"For the time is coming when [people] will not tolerate (endure) sound and wholesome instruction, but, having ears itching [for something pleasing and gratifying], they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors they hold."
2 Timothy 4:3 Amplified

Or when Jude wrote to say:

"Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ."
Jude 3-4

It is our contention that eternal security is applied to the church collectively (the ekklesia) rather than to each of us indivdually. Our security does not rest in the doctrine, but in the doctor and His name is Jesus. We hope to convincingly show you that eternal life eminates from Jesus as a SHARED property. We DO have a "present tense" eternal life, but it is IN Christ, not us. It is in us only as long as we are in Him and He in us. This is the reason Jesus told us "Abide in me and I in you".

For each argument, theological supposition, or scripture passage cited as evidence that eternal security doctrines are correct, we will try to show how each is either based on faulty logic, passages taken out of context, or scripture twisted to mean what it isn't saying.

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If you feel you have found error here, please log into our discussion forum and leave a note.

Best regards and may God bless you in your pursuit of truth.
E.D.

"My dear brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back again, you can be sure that the one who brings that person back will save the sinner from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins."
James 5:19-20 NLT

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Logically
From a logical point of view, the greatest assurance and security for a believer is to be in opposition to OSAS!
Why do I say that? Think about it! If you're a Securist, and you are right and I am wrong we have a win-win situation! You see, if I'm wrong, the worst that can happen is that I will find out that I was always eternally secure and didn't know it. On the other hand, if you are the type that leans on license, thinking you are totally secure in the Lord and come to find out that you were wrong, what then?

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Historically
Is OSAS a teaching that had been lost and then revived again. or is it a teaching that was introduced after the church's beginnings?
As we saw in the article on the teachings of the early church fathers, eternal security (OSAS) was not the predominant teaching of the church. In fact, we saw NO evidence in those writngs of eternal security. We saw either a belief that we can fall away and need to repent and come back to God or that, once lost, salvation can never be regained. What we DIDN'T see was that once we were saved we would retain salvation regardless of our lack of faith or behavior.

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Theologically
Many people are blinded to the fact that they believe in any form of theology at all. They are under the impression that they just believe the Bible. The Bible is the only place to start and finish our theology, but whether we like it or not , we are all given theological presuppositions immediately after our salvation. This is natural since in the early stage of questioning the new believer is fed this theology through friends, family and clergy.

Faith & Fall
When we are saved we receive eternal life. If that life could be lost, it wouldn't be eternal. Therefore, once saved, always saved...So the argument goes. But the logic behind this statement can be seen as erroneous once we ask and answer a few questions about the statement's elements.
The biggest flaws in this argument are the idea of tangible possession of eternal life and the assumption that eternal life is given as a commodity. Most assume that it is a type of life that is somehow implanted within us and becomes a personal possession. How far from the Biblical record this belief is! What is the Biblical record you ask?

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Arguments
If you died tonight, what would you tell God that you did to deserve Heaven? Think about it. How would YOU answer that question? If your answer is related to anything you have done then the door is now open to explain the truth about God's free gift of salvation. Securists depend on this evangelistic question to reinforce their position of OSAS. It's good for evangelism, but it doesn't provide any truth in a discussion about OSAS. The purpose behind it is that if you reply that it is Jesus that did all the work to save you, then they have a foothold to further imply and support OSAS.

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A Word from John Wesley about Assurance
"My comfort stand not on any opinion, either that a believer can or cannot fall away, not on the remembrance of any thing wrought in me yesterday; but on what is to-day; on my present knowledge of God in Christ, reconciling what is to-day; on my holding the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; walking in the light as he is in the light, and having fellowship with the Father and with the Son. My comfort is, that through grace I now believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that his Spirit doth bear witness with my spirit that I am a child of God. I take comfort in this and this only that I see Jesus at right hand of God; that I personally for myself, and not for another. Have a hope full of immortality; that I feel the love of God shed abroad in my heart, being crucified to the world, and the world crucified to me. My rejoicing is this, the testimony of conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, I have my conversation in the world.

Go and find, if you can, a more solid joy, a more blissful comfort, on this side of heaven. But this comfort is not shaken, be that opinion true or false, whether the saints in general can or cannot fall. If you take up with any comfort short of this, you lean on the staff of a broken reed, which not only bear your weight, but will enter into your hand and pierce you."
-John Wesley
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