[What follows is
a short article I wrote which might help explain an apparent
contradiction in Scripture on the subject of "once saved,
always saved." After
the article, the sermon transcript will continue.]
Apparent
Contradiction
In
Ephesians 1:13 Paul said that we "were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of
our inheritance.", giving rise to the "once saved, always
saved" doctrine a great many Christian fellowships ascribe
to. Yet
in Matthew 24:11-13 Jesus states, "And many false prophets shall rise, and shall
deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love
[agapeo] of many shall wax cold.
But he that shall endure to the end shall be saved."
A smaller number of fellowships adhere to Jesus'
words here and say salvation isn't a sure thing, but that
you have to hold on to the end, or else you won't be saved,
receiving eternal life in the resurrection (cf. 1 Corinthians
15:49-54). In the
expository sermon on Ephesians 1, Pastor Joe Focht was stating
that Paul was praying that the Ephesians, and by extension
all of us Christians, would receive from God "the spirit
of wisdom and revelation."
As he expounded on how we were "sealed" to the end
by the Holy Spirit, and how powerful that sealing was, this
contradiction (above) came to mind, so I asked God to give
me a spirit of revelation concerning this problem. I shouldn't have been so amazed and surprised
when various Scriptures came flooding into my mind, but
it's always amazing when the Lord starts revealing the meaning
of a Bible truth in this manner.
I will give the Scriptures that came to mind and
comment on them as I go.
Matthew 24:11-13 came to mind first, and then to
counterbalance that one, Romans
8:35, 38-39, which states, "Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or
famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword?.Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
him that loved us. For
I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able
to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord." So considering these two Scriptures, is
it possible for a "sealed believer" to leave the body of
Christ? People do, apparently. Then I remembered a Holy Spirit led pastor had
once remarked to the congregation as we sat there, and said
that he estimated that 50 percent of us were or people in
general in any Holy Spirit led church were "seat warmers",
were unconverted. Of course in the fellowship I was in at the
time, we didn't ascribe to the "once saved, always saved"
doctrine, but what Jesus had stated in Matthew 24:11-13.
So what came into my mind next, as these Scriptures
were coming into my head?
I
couldn't remember the exact Scripture, but just the passage
and what it said. I'll look it up for this article. But the passage came to mind about Saul and
his soldiers chasing the future king David, and how Saul
and his soldiers entered into one of Samuel's religious
colleges looking for David. Obviously Samuel and probably most of the students
had the Holy Spirit indwelling in them, or what I am about
to relate wouldn't have occurred.
Saul and his carnal, gruff soldiers obviously didn't
have God's Holy Spirit indwelling in them, being on a mission
to kill David. In
the presence of Samuel and all these students, obviously
filled with the Holy Spirit, who were
singing songs to the Lord, Saul and his soldiers started
singing to the Lord along with them, you might say, "caught up in the Spirit of
things". God's Spirit
obviously was shining into them so they "reflected" the
influence of the Spirit back out of their beings for awhile.
Three whole groups, one after the other, were sent
by Saul to apprehend David, but soon each group of battle-hardened
soldiers forgot why they had come in pursuit of David, as
they left the college singing songs to God (1 Samuel 19:18-24
). Then it clicked.
Recently
I have been made painfully aware of the fact that someone
can "fall away" from their calling--my wife of 20 years
recently divorced me and is now exhibiting an extremely
worldly lifestyle which I won't elaborate on.
She turned her back on the church and Jesus, and
anything she had believed.
On further examination and subsequent conversations
with her, now confirmed by her own admission, she had demonstrated
"interest" in the church I was attending at the time we
were dating and about to get married, just so she could
"land me", so that I would marry her.
She then got baptized by one of the pastors in that
church I was attending, and by all appearances from then
on, became a solid member along with me.
Then when severe problems hit in our marriage, as
happens in most marriages from time to time, she walked
away from me, God, and the church. I became painfully aware of the fact that the
Holy Spirit was not in her, and I think now probably never
was. Just as Saul and his soldiers "reflected God's
Spirit", and in the strong presence of the Spirit of God
being beamed onto these hardened soldiers, they took on
the attitudes of the other Spirit led people who were in
their presence. The
Holy Spirit was in Samuel and his students (called in the
Bible "the sons of the prophets"), and they were "shining"
the light of God's Spirit onto and into Saul and his men,
hardened soldiers. I
became aware of the fact, which these passages in Romans
8:35, 38-39 and Ephesians 1 seemed to indicate, that once
God's Holy Spirit has sealed an individual, it is God through
his Spirit who won't let go of you. But people can and do come into our midst, into
the church, into our lives, and for some reason, say like
wanting to marry someone who's a Christian, they will make
a "decision for Christ" which is not entirely honest, but
out of an ulterior motive.
Though we may be fooled, God is never fooled by this,
and refuses to honor such baptisms and subsequent bestowal
of his Holy Spirit within such a person.
That person, then, in the constant presence of other
Christians, reflects the presence of the Holy Spirit of
the other Spirit-filled and led individuals around him or
her. Daniel
12:3, in talking of the just resurrected saints, says,
"And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament"
which is a king James way of saying we will shine as the
very stars in the heavens.
In Revelation 1:13-18 it states that the face of
Jesus right now shines as the very sun in its brilliance. As one pastor said (he had had occasion to interview
several demon-possessed people), the demons don't like to
be around a real Christian, as they shine with the light
of the Holy Spirit who is dwelling within them.
As these "revelations" were coming to my mind I was
driving to work. It
was dark out, the sky was clear
and cold. Venus and
the moon were shining brightly in the early morning sky.
Then it hit me. The
moon, and even Venus, are like
unconverted people who may be, for awhile, fellowshipping
with us in the church. The
moon reflects the light of the sun,
and on the surface of the moon when the sun is hitting it
the temperature can be in the hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit.
When the moon's surface goes into darkness and shadow
it then falls down hundreds of degrees into the below zero
range. We see the
light at night, and it can be brilliant and beautiful. That is like an unconverted person within our
midst, reflecting all the Holy Spirit to all around, having
and displaying a degree of spiritual knowledge, so much
so as to fool those around them, and yes, even themselves.
But God is never fooled.
Then when real trouble comes into their lives, some
fiery trial, they "fall away". Why? God
had never really sealed them.
John makes this plain statement in his first epistle,
chapter two, verse 19, "They
went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had
been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us;
but they went out, that they might be made manifest that
they were not all of us."
In
Matthew 24:11-13, the word for love is agapeo,
which is a Greek word used to denote God's love which comes
into us by the Holy Spirit. It is not a human love. So by the very use of that word, it shows Jesus
is apparently talking about believers, Christians--or is
he?. My question is, are
they "real believers", those who have really been sealed
by God's Holy Spirit, or are they those that I have described
here, reflectors of God's Holy Spirit, those who absorbed
and reflect God's Holy Spirit from other real Christians
around them? I also
recalled examples in Foxes book of Martyrs of ordinary Christians
who willing died for their beliefs in Jesus, when all they
had to do was renounce him verbally. Paul's words in Romans 8:35, 38-39 came to mind. "Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or
famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?.Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
him that loved us. For
I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
So that pretty well sums the matter up, at least
in my mind. Some may not think so. In no way I am taking a dogmatic stance one
way or the other on this matter, either the "once saved,
always saved" or " we must endure to the very end to be saved" side of the doctrinal
fence. Personally,
I believe both principles apply.
But we will all know for sure when Jesus returns,
when we're in the resurrection to immorality Paul spoke
of in 1 Corinthians 15:49-54. So I defer any hard and fast
judgment on the matter until then.
But let this be a strong warning to any Christian
who may desire to date unbelievers (for a good article on
that subject, log onto http://www.askpastorjim.org/unbelievers.htm
). These facts also
ought to be a strong warning to pastors as well.
Not everyone within your congregation is born-again--and
you can't really discern who is and isn't until you see,
long-term, the fruits of their lives. That's why Paul cautioned
Timothy not to appoint a novice, or new-believer as a deacon. When I learned of the untimely death of Jon
Courson's wife and daughter in two separate car accidents,
Paul's words in Romans 8:35-39 rang out loud and clear,
this man is a Christian, sealed with the Holy Spirit.
Why? An unconverted, unsealed individual would have
cursed God for not protecting his loved ones, and turned
his back on God and walked out the door of the church.
Jon didn't do that, but instead wrote a book titled
"A Future and A Hope" [Available from "A Foundation for Living, P.O. Box 1698, Chino
CA
91708-1698. paperback,
$9.00 ] The Holy
Spirit inspires believers to take the lemons the world hands
them and make lemonade. Non-believers take the lemons the world hands
them, and use those as an excuse to turn their backs on
the Lord and their beliefs, and leave.
Jesus did say that it is by their fruits that you
will know them--this goes for believers and non-believers
alike. It is through
the fruit of peoples lives that
true discernment comes between believer and non-believer.
Tragedy and severe trial separate the men from the
boys. Sad it has to be this way, but it's the only
way Jesus gave to discern between believer and non-believer,
for we can't see the Spirit glowing in believers, and merely
reflecting off wannabe believers.
Only God and the angels (and yes, demons) can see
the difference visually.
Like the saying, "Anybody can talk the talk, but
can they walk the walk?"
[You
might be asking right now, "What kind of lemonade did you
make? For starters
I transcribed and got permission to put on my website two
incredibly good articles describing how to make a marital
relationship work. It
applies to believer and non-believer marriages with equal
success, and if you're married to an unbeliever and struggling,
it may just be what you need to keep things going.
To access these two articles, log
onto http://www.UNITYINCHRIST.COM/christiangrowth/HisNeeds_HerNeeds.htm
.]
Now
let's continue the sermon transcript of Ephesians 1:15-2:5.
"Because
there has never been a "saved angel", there has never been
"a savior" for angels. The
angels were all created in one day.
When the rebellion took place in heaven [may have
happened or started on earth--or that's where it ended up]
and Satan seems to have led one third of the angels in rebellion
against God (cf. Revelation 12:3-4), they all made their
choice for themselves the same day.
And angels don't have little angels, just you and
I do, we have little angels. Angel's don't propagate, there's a fixed number,
there's not generations of angels.
And the difference with human beings is, here we
are in this mess, and we can blame it all on Adam.
It's not our fault, it's
Adam's fault, that's why we're in this pickle.
[And by extension, the buck stops on God's desk,
he was the one who allowed Satan and this host of fallen
angels, demons, to remain on earth-it was Satan, disguised
as a serpent, that beguiled and deceived Eve--God allowed
this, full well knowing Adam and Eve's spiritual weakness,
as they had not the Holy Spirit (the Tree of Life) indwelling
in them yet, and never would.]
And because of that, the Bible says God is just,
because death has come to the whole race because of one
man, that eternal life and forgiveness comes to the whole
race through a man too.
The angels never experienced that.
See, you and I weren't around when Adam blew it for
us. So God has provided
a way of salvation for the race. The angels were all there [good ones and bad
ones]. They made
their own decision. So
the angels that are in heaven that are worshipping God,
their song will be complete in some way once we arrive,
and they understand a little bit more about why all this
took place. [Here's
an explanation which came from the old Worldwide Church
of God, which may apply. Satan and his demons were cast down (or back
down) to earth when they rebelled (cf. Luke 10:18; Revelation
12:3-4a). Satan was in the Garden of Eden when God created
Adam and Eve. Who
deceived Eve? Who
is the god of this evil world? (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4;
1 Corinthians 11:13-15) Mankind is being taught a huge and painful lesson
about Satan's way of life and wrong attitudes. All of mankind in this world, us included, are learning a lesson which will not be soon forgotten.]
Jesus said, "Lo, I go to prepare a place for you
that where I am you may also be. If I go and prepare a place, I'll come again
and receive you unto myself, that
wherever I am you may be also.
[Where will Jesus Christ and God the Father's dwelling
place end up, initially Jesus and us at his 2nd
coming, and then the Father (and of course the Holy Spirit,
who is omnipresent throughout the universe, and will probably
always be so)??? Look up Zechariah 14:9; Revelation 5:9-10; Revelation
21:1-17.] Now think
of that city that we read about in the book of Revelation
(Rev. 21:1-17), streets of gold, walls of jewels, the incredible
beauty of this city [which Abraham looked forward so much
too, cf. Hebrews 11:8-10].
But you know what it says?
It says there's no light there.
Imagine that city in darkness.
What would it be? One of the incredible beauties of that city
is that it has the ability to reflect and refract light. And it says 'the Lord God is the light thereof',
and it says 'the saints will shine like the stars of heaven'
(cf. Revelation 1:13-18; Daniel 12:2-3).
What gives beauty and meaning to that city is the
redeemed standing around their Lord and Savior and looking
into his face. If
it wasn't for that, it would be a ghost-town. The idea is, that when we think about it, and
you and I pray and seek the Lord, there's facets of God's
glory and God's creation that have not seen the fulness
of their purpose, and won't see it until all the redeemed
are gathered home [and this occurs at the very end of the
time period spoken of as the Millennium, just after Gehenna
fire has consumed the whole earth (and perhaps the universe)
(cf. Revelation 20:14-15; 21:1-17)].
So there is within the saints a greater richness
to his inheritance in us, that
adds to his glory. And
he says, 'I pray that God will show you that.'
One of the reasons that we're going to be redeemed
is for his name's sake. A lot of the verbs through these first three
chapters are in the middle voice, which means he's doing
it for himself. Through the Old Testament we read about God
working for his name's sake, that he preserved Israel for his own reputation, for
his own name's sake. Moses
plead with God, 'God, forgive the children of Israel for your great name's sake, so the heathen
don't say 'he brought them out of Egypt and lost them in the wilderness.'
And there's something about God's name and God's
glory that's at stake if we don't get there. So it says 'know this, our future, not only
is our past secured, our future is secure too, because the
hope of our calling is a certain hope, it's involved in
God's glory and the riches of his inheritance in us, bringing
us home to himself. And
it's taking place, he says, through the power he wrought
in Christ. And he prays that we might know "what is the exceeding greatness (verse 19)
of his power to usward who believe, according to the working
of his mighty power.which he wrought in Christ when he raised
him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the
heavenly places, far above all principality and power and
might and dominion and every name that might be named, not
only in this world"--this is pretty inclusive--"but
also in that which is to come.
And hath put all things under his feet, and gave
him to be the head over all things to the church" (verses
20-22). So, it
says, also that we should understand that this hope is certainly,
it involves God's glory, and is accomplished through the
dramatic working of God's power whereby he rose Christ from
the dead. And what
it's saying is this, when you and I think of God and we
think of God's power, and the incredible working of his
power, I mean, you think of Charlton Heston holding a stick
and the Red Sea parting, you think of the Pillar of Fire
in the wilderness, you think of the ground opening up and
swallowing Korah. You
know, you think of God saying "Let there be light" in the
creation scene--but what he's saying here, is that there
is a greater demonstration and exercising of power that
transcends every thing that's on this material plane, because
it actually translates something from the "here-and-now"
into a different realm, into Eternity. And where it was 'by the power that he rose Christ from the dead.'
Now this is an incredible thing you have to realize. He took genes and chromosomes that were not
Spirit, and all of the blood was drained out of Jesus, he
put Spirit drive behind it, you know, warp drive, different
drive system, took the gas out of the tank--you saw what
happened on Back to
the Future, what they did with that car--well he took
the body of Christ and put Spirit drive behind it, and that
made that vehicle then able to transcend this material world.
And he says that makes it eternal.
Take something from the temporal and translates it
into the eternal, that's an incredible
thing. [Some believe
and teach this is a virtual transformation of what was Jesus
Christ's mortal body back into Spirit composition--and that
in the 1st Resurrection our mortal bodies will
go through the same transformation (cf. 1 John 3:1-2; Revelation
1:13-18)--and that like YHVH in Genesis 18 was able to transform
into human physical form and back again to Spirit composition
at will, so did the resurrected Christ, and so will we be
able to as well. Revelation 1:13-18 is not a picture of the same
body Jesus was resurrected back to in John 20 and Mark 16
by a long-shot. Many
denominations differ in how to interpret this, so as John
cautioned, we can't get too dogmatic or specific about what
Jesus is like now, beyond what's said in Revelation 1, but
we'll know for sure when we see Jesus again at his return,
for we will be like him
(cf. Daniel 12:1-3; Revelation 1:13-18).]
That's an incredible thing.
It's greater power than parting the Red Sea, because
the heavens and earth are going to pass away (cf. Revelation
20:14-15; 21:1-2;2 Peter 3:10-14), and we will be something
left out of this physical world that goes on throughout
eternity [it's my personal guess that we won't even be physical
at this point--let's wait and see, as John cautioned].
That's an incredible thing.
And again, I love to think about that, 1 Corinthians
15 says that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God" and yet when Jesus was risen from the dead, he said to the guys when they were afraid
"Touch me. Does a
spirit have flesh and bone?"
So evidently flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom
of God, flesh and bone can inherit the kingdom of God [maybe-but
this is getting too specific in an area John, much later
writing in his first epistle said "we just don't know." We do know Jesus at this point and before in
Genesis 18, along with two angel companions, had the ability
to transform himself from his Spirit composition into human flesh form and
back again at will. There
are simply too few Scriptures to hang a doctrine on this
"flesh and bone" theory, one way or the other.
Let's wait and see how things shake out, as the apostle
John said in 1 John 3:1-2. Pastor Joe and Calvary Chapel in general are
taking this flesh and bone physical/spiritual state of Jesus'
body and our future bodies a bit far on way too little Scriptural
evidence to properly hang a doctrine on.].But the idea is
there, is an incredible working of God's power that will
take our DNA, our physical frame, somehow, molecular change,
who knows, and it will transcend this time/space world,
this material world, and take something that's temporal
and make it Eternal. We will step into Eternity,
there will be enough reality to it that we will be able
to embrace. [Embrace? More
than that. When
Jesus returns we will rise to meet him in the upper atmosphere
and ride back down with him on Spirit white horses--as the
very army of God (read Revelation 19:1-21).
Another way to look at it is that spirit composition,
God and the angels, are more solid than physical matter,
but in another dimension.
We'll just have to see when the time comes. That's my take on it.] When you see your relatives and loved ones that
have passed on before you, it's not like you're going to
say 'Mom!' and you're going to run towards each other and
go--woosh!--right through each other.
It says they felt Jesus, they embraced Jesus. He said "Touch me, feel me." You're going to see people that you love there
and you're going to be able to put your arms around them,
you're going to love them, you're going to experience their
presence and reality. [Again, this world has a concept, and we all
have as well, that the Spirit composition of God, Jesus,
and the holy angels is something less solid than physical
matter, more like air or nothingness. And this concept is all wrong. Spirit beings, God, the angels are living outside
of space and time, and are more than likely more solid than
the physical matter that the universe is composed of. When our bodies, down to the
very molecular and atomic level are transformed into spirit
as Jesus is in Revelation 1:13-18, then we'll understand
what spirit is, not until then. We must be careful not to try to get too specific
in describing what we'll be like--flesh and bone, etc.--we
just don't know as John wisely said.
We do know we will be transformed, made immortal
like Jesus at his 2nd coming, at the sounding
of the 7th trumpet blast (1 Corinthians 15:49-54). That's all we do know. That's enough.] And he says here that there's some incredible
working of God's power that is part of our fixed hope.We're
awaiting the day that the dead in Christ rise first, and
then they which are alive and well on the planet are changed
to immortality and caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
That's pretty powerful stuff. And it's incredible to see that you and I have
the same genes and chromosomes that Jesus did, we're all
from Adam as far as the physical body goes, and remarkably
because we're born of the same Spirit--it's going to tell
us that Christ is seated in the heavenlies, he raised him,
he made him to sit there, verse
23 says "he's head over all things to the church, which
is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all."
Then in chapter 2 it's going to tell us that we are
also already in heavenly places in Christ.
What an incredible thing it will be to find out what
that actually means. Because tomorrow you're going to feel like you're
seated in a Chevy on the way to work.
You're not going to feel like you're seated in heavenly
places. You know, the amazing thing is this letter was
written to those in Ephesus and [all those] in Christ, and
so it's written to us in Philadelphia and in Christ, two
addresses, two realms, we exist in both of them through
this remarkable work of God on our behalf. Yes, we're in Philadelphia [or wherever you're reading this
online], yes we're eecking out a living, trying to live
with integrity. We're going to see in the last three chapters
how we should live and conduct ourselves. And yet the first three chapters tell us of
this incredible established fact of our existence in the
heavenlies in and through Christ.
[How does Christ dwell in us?
Via, by the Holy Spirit which indwells us.
God's Holy Spirit is everywhere, omnipresent, including
heaven. This may
partially answer this mystery.] To me it's an incredible thing.
