Salvation and Grace

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Dialogue on Revelation 22:19 and Eternal Security

Does Revelation 22:19 really show that a believer can forfeit his salvation?

   Gary Hoge

A dialogue with a friendly Evangelical Protestant that took place on a public message board after I posted a short essay on Revelation 22:19. My words are in black, and his are in blue.

The Essay

It seems to me that one problem we face in examining the biblical evidence for the Eternal Security doctrine (a.k.a. “Once Saved Always Saved”) is that there are very few verses that deal directly with this subject. So we are often forced to try to deduce a biblical author’s views on perseverance based on his discussion of something else. As Baptist author Perry Lassiter explains, “Most . . . passages are aimed in another direction, and the implications may or may not fairly represent the author’s view on the subject of perseverance.”¹

Therefore, it seems strange to me that one of the few verses that does directly describe the loss of salvation is usually not mentioned in discussions about Eternal Security. I’m talking about Revelation 22:19. At the very end of the Bible, in Revelation 21 and 22, the Holy Spirit describes our heavenly destiny, the New Jerusalem:

²I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
⁴He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
⁵He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
⁶He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.
⁷He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
⁸But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars – their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” (Rev. 21:2-8)

Jesus himself says,

“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood” (Rev. 22:14-15).

A few verses later, the Holy Spirit warns us, 

“If anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city” (Rev. 22:19). 

The Bible ends with this word of warning, and it seems to me that it is the nail in the coffin of the Eternal Security doctrine. Having one’s “share in the tree of life and in the holy city” taken away is about as graphic a description of the loss of salvation as one could hope to find. There are, after all, only two eternal destinations: the “New Jerusalem” and the “fiery lake of burning sulfer.” So if one is thrown out of the holy city, there’s nowhere else to go but amongst “the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” And “their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.”

This is one verse where I think even the two common Protestant explanations won’t work:

1. “It isn’t talking about someone who is truly saved.” I hear this one a lot. For example, Hebrews 6:4-8 seems to teach that a believer can indeed fall away from the faith. But in his discussion of these verses in the International Bible Commentary, Protestant author Gerald Hawthorne writes, “[The author of Hebrews], in composing such a list as this, may have intended to describe one who has all the ear-marks of Christianity and who yet is not a real Christian.”² 

Perhaps, but that is clearly not the case in Revelation 22:19. Here the Bible says that “God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city.” One who is “not a real Christian” doesn’t have a share in the tree of life and in the holy city. There’s nothing for God to take away, because such a person is already excluded from the tree of life and from the holy city. Therefore, if this is a serious warning (and it is: God doesn’t make idle threats), then this verse must be directed at real believers, those who do have a share in the tree of life and in the holy city; a share that “God will take away” if they don’t heed his warning.

2. “It’s talking about loss of rewards, not loss of salvation.” Although I hear this one a lot too, I don’t think anyone would seriously try to apply it to Revelation 22:19. The description of the holy city in Revelation 21 and 22 makes it quite clear that the difference between salvation and damnation is that the saved “have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city,” and the damned may not. According to the Bible, “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Rev. 21:27). Obviously, to be saved is to be allowed into the holy city, and therefore, to have one’s share in the holy city taken away is to lose one’s salvation.

This is the very thing that some Protestants tell us cannot happen. They say that a true believer cannot lose his salvation under any circumstances. But in Revelation 22:19, he who is truth itself tells us that it not only can happen, but it will happen if we take words away from this book of prophecy: “God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”

The Dialogue

You missed another Protestant “dodge,” that is, it is a warning that we take seriously.

In which case, it is not a dodge, but a healthy respect for the Word of God.

They cause us to examine ourselves.

And to rely upon the grace of God, without which we cannot persevere.

However, notice the verse says, “If” it happens. The Scriptures does not say categorically it will happen.

Of course. Scripture says only that it can happen, not that it will happen. If the once-saved-always-saved doctrine were merely a negative statement (i.e., “We don’t know that this will ever happen to any Christian”) I would have no problem with it. But unfortunately, it is a positive statement (i.e., “We know for sure that this will never happen to any Christian”). Given the many warnings in Scripture that it can happen, it seems quite presumptuous to assert dogmatically that it never will happen. To make such an assertion, we would have to assume that all of those many warnings were purely hypothetical, when in fact, they do not appear to be. When Paul says, “I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:21), that doesn’t sound hypothetical to me. I guess I just don’t understand the concept of frequently warning people against something that is guaranteed not to happen.

Protestants that believe in the perseverance of the saints are saying that God will make sure they persevere as promised. Those warnings are a means to an end. The end is our salvation.

But God never promises that everyone who has faith in Christ and is regenerated is guaranteed to persevere no matter what. On the contrary, he promises that if we behave in certain ways, we will not persevere. Paul lays it out very plainly in Gal 6:8,

The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

Note that the contrast is between “eternal life” on the one hand, and “destruction” on the other. You will reap one or the other, depending upon what you sow. Therefore, to say that it is impossible for a Christian to reap anything other than eternal life seems to be a contradiction of this, and numerous other Scriptures.

Having said that, though, it is also clear in Scripture that God wants everyone to persevere, and he gives us the grace to do so, provided we don’t resist it. That’s why, as you said, we must take God’s warnings seriously. He isn’t saying these things for nothing. Whether anyone will fall away and be lost, I don’t know. That it can happen, I think is plain from Scripture, and that’s why I object to any doctrine that would nullify God’s warnings and say that when all is said and done, these things that God warns about are guaranteed not to happen.

Do you make Jesus out of a liar when he says the following:

“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:37-44

Jesus says he will lose none that the Father has given him and he also says no can come unless they are enable by the Father. Do you say he will lose some?

Read it again. Jesus doesn’t say that he will lose none, he says that his Father’s will is that he lose none. Some would say that if God wills it, it must happen. But elsewhere in Scripture, we learn that God is “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9), and that God “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). God wants everyone to be saved – that is His will – and yet, unless you are a universalist, you must acknowledge that some (most?) will be lost. Therefore, the fact that God is not willing that any who come to Christ should be lost does not mean that it is guaranteed not to happen.

Perhaps an analogy will help to understand this. I am the father of a wonderful little boy. I love him very much, and I am not “willing” to punish him. That is, I don’t desire to do so, and would much prefer never to have to do it. But sometimes his behavior requires it, and I must punish him. Likewise, though God wants everyone to be saved, he will condemn those who ultimately reject him, and that group may include some who “believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away” (Luke 8:13). He allows us that freedom. He doesn’t have to do that, he could force us to obey, but he wants sons and daughters, not marionettes.

Also, we must bear in mind that the same Jesus who said, “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away,” also said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” (John 15:1-2). Likewise, Paul says, “Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off” (Rom. 11:22).

The Bible almost always present salvation as conditional. We see such phrases as, “if we endure,” “if we stand firm,” “if we remain in him” throughout the New Testament. In fact, there are dozens of statements in the Bible that make both salvation and forgiveness contingent on certain things: Forgiving your brother (Matt. 18:35); standing firm to the end (Matt. 10:22); remaining in Jesus (John 15:10); persistence in doing good (Rom. 2:7); not living according to the sinful nature (Rom. 8:13); suffering with Christ (Rom. 8:17); continuing in God’s kindness (Rom. 11:22); holding firmly to the gospel (1 Cor. 15:2); continuing in your faith (Col. 1:23); enduring (2 Tim. 2:12); not disowning Christ (2 Tim. 2:12); not disobeying (Heb. 4:11); not deliberately sinning (Heb. 10:26); not shrinking back (Heb. 10:38); not straying from the truth (Jas. 5:19); not denying the Lord (2 Pet. 2:1); not soiling your clothes (Rev. 3:4); not taking words away from the book of Revelation (Rev. 22:19), etc., etc., etc. And not once do we read, “But you are guaranteed that none of these things will happen to you.”

They are warnings and they are true statements, but God gives guarantees that those that are His sheep will persevere. There are a number them that I could quote, but I have quoted one of them below that I will get to shortly.

Yes, the one in which Jesus said, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.” But that statement, and others like it, are not as iron-clad as they may seem. For one thing, we must interpret Jesus’s statement that he “will never drive away” those who come to him in the context of his warning to the Christians in Laodicia, to whom he said, “I am about to spit you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:16).

“We must” interpret Jesus’s statement in light of the fact that he gave a warning in Rev. 3:16? I don’t follow your logic here.

I meant that we must interpret Jesus’s positive statements in light of his negative statements, and I used Rev. 3:16 as an example of the latter. There are other verses I could have chosen, too.

Jesus is talking to the church and not individuals about losing their salvation. Are you saying, that this means everyone in the church will lose their salvation?

Of course not. I think you’re being too literal-minded here. Jesus is, as you said, speaking to an entire church, one that can, in general, be characterized as “lukewarm.” But that doesn’t necessarily mean that every last person in that church was lukewarm. Consider Jesus’s warning to the church at Sardis: “You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you” (Rev. 3:1-3). Was everyone in Sardis like this? No, because Jesus goes on to say, “Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy” (Rev. 3:4). I would imagine the situation in Laodicea was similar.

Verse 19 goes on to say, “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.” It seems that you reading more into the passage then what it is saying.

I, of course, think you are reading less into it than what it is saying. Jesus talks of people being “dead,” and tells them to “wake up” and “repent,” or else he will come against them like a thief. He says that only a few haven’t soiled their clothes, and they will walk with him (but the others will not). Would you say that he is only talking about “loss of rewards”? It sure doesn’t sound like it to me.

However, in John 6 Jesus not only says, he “will never drive away,” but He also says he “will raise them up at the last day.” Furthermore, Jesus repeats basically the same thing again.

Yes, that is a magnificent promise; one to which I cling. I know that I will persevere only by the grace of God. It is Jesus who will see me through and raise me up; apart from him, I can do nothing. But this same Jesus warns me that the “faithful and wise manager” may say to himself, “My master is taking a long time in coming,” and he may begin to “beat the menservants and the maidservants and to eat and drink and get drunk.” When Jesus, the master of that servant, returns, “He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers” (Luke 12:42-46). Do I think that’s very likely to happen? No. Do I think it could happen? Yes. The Bible repeatedly warns me to keep alert, stay awake, watch myself, lest I, who have preached to others, should be disqualified (cf. 1 Cor. 9:24-27).

God also says, if you deny Him, He would deny you, but Peter denied Him three times.

Yes, but he also repented and came back to the Lord, unlike Judas, who went out and hanged himself. Had Peter not repented, his fate would have been like that of Judas. And had Judas repented, his fate could have been like that of Peter.

Even before Peter denied Him, Christ said I have prayed for you so that your faith WILL NOT FAIL ! This is the promise for all true believers, that is Christ interceding for us that our faith will not fail.

Peter’s faith probably didn’t fail. I suppose that even as he cowered there in the dark and cursed and swore that he didn’t know Jesus, he still believed that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). It sounds to me as if it was his courage that failed, not his beliefs. But I don’t see how that’s particularly relevant. Not every serious sin is a sin against faith. It is possible to commit adultery, say, yet still have faith.

But why did Peter’s faith not fail? Not because of Peter, but because of Jesus’ intercession for him! Do you think Jesus interceded for Judas?

Good question. I don’t know, he might have. Jesus’s intercession cannot fail, but we can fail. Jesus doesn’t force anyone to have faith, after all. Remember what he said about Jerusalem? “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” (Matt. 23:37). I can imagine him saying something similar about Judas: “O, Judas, Judas, you who betrayed the Son of Man, how I have longed for you to repent and return to me, but you were not willing.”

No, not probably, it didn’t fail. It didn’t because of the intercession of Christ. That is relevant, because the scriptures says on a number of occasions if you deny Him, He will deny you.

Which you seem to think does not allow for repentance. Peter did deny Christ, yet he was saved. Why? Because he wept bitter tears of repentance and came back to the Lord. Judas didn’t. He was “seized with remorse” (Matt. 27:3), but apparently not with repentance.

You don’t think denying Christ is a sin against the faith? What greater sin could one commit, then denying the sovereign Lord that bought him? It is relevant because it shows that Christ will not lose a one. The Lord knows those that are his.

What have I said that makes you think I don’t regard Peter’s denial of Christ as a grave sin? In fact, if Peter’s faith did not fail, that is, if he still believed that Jesus was the “Christ, the son of the living God,” even while denying him, it makes his sin all the more heinous. If he had lost his faith in Christ, it might have made his actions more understandable.

But [God] gives us promises that we will persevere, because he will do more than just “want“ us to persevere. He will see to it that we do.

Romans 14:4

Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. AND HE WILL STAND, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

The problem here is that Paul wasn’t talking about the question of perseverance. He was talking about Christians judging each other over such things as eating meat and celebrating holidays. But you’ve stripped this verse out of its context and forced it answer a question it wasn’t being asked because it sounds like the answer you want to hear. This is fallacious, but quite common. In fact, most of the Bible passages brought forth to bolster the Once-Saved-Always-Saved doctrine aren’t really discussing that subject. As Baptist author Perry Lassiter observed, “Most . . . passages are aimed in another direction, and the implications may or may not fairly represent the author’s view on the subject of perseverance.” (Perry Lassiter, Once Saved . . . Always Saved, Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1975, p. 18).

Context is very important here, because when Paul does discuss perseverance, he frequently warns against falling away. And never, in the context of those warnings, does he, or anyone else in the Bible, reassure his readers that if they truly believe, God won’t let these things happen to them. Those verses that are stripped out of their context and used to prop-up the Once-Saved-Always-Saved doctrine are almost invariably discussing something else.

I agree that it is dealing with eating meat, however do you think Christ is only able to make us stand in reference to eating meat and not all other situations?

None of our disagreement is about what Christ is “able” to do. He is able to do absolutely anything and everything. The question is not what he can do, but what he will do, and what he won’t do. And one thing he won’t do is take away our free will when we come to him. We can still do the things he warns us not to do, which, of course, is why he warns us not to do them. I can’t think of a single instance where Scripture warns us against the impossible. Never are we warned not to grow a third arm, for example. But we are warned not to commit adultery. Of course, a warning is useless without the power to obey it, and so God gives us the grace to do his will (cf. Phil. 2:13).

Here are few verses to show that the scriptures teach this same thing other places.

To him who is *able to keep you from falling* and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen

Jude 24-25

Who denies that God is able to keep us from falling? Perseverance is entirely by the grace of God, not from our own strength.

*He will keep you strong to the end*, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.

1 Cor 1:8-9

And yet, later in that very same letter, Paul says, “Now brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain” (1 Cor. 15:1-2). “In vain” means “for nothing” (See Rom. 13:4, Gal. 3:4, Gal. 4:11, where the same Greek word is used). It does not mean that those who fail to “hold firmly” to the gospel didn’t really believe, it means that they believed for nothing, because in the end they did not persevere.

As a matter of fact, Paul specifically discusses perseverance in this epistle. He says,

²⁴Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
²⁵Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
²⁶Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.
²⁷No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. (1 Cor 9:24-27)

The word “disqualified” is the Greek word ἀδόκιμος, and Paul is the only NT writer who uses this word (assuming that Paul wrote Hebrews). It is very clear from the other verses where this word occurs that it refers to the unsaved.

Paul continues, saying,

¹For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea.
²They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
³They all ate the same spiritual food
⁴and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
⁵Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert.
⁶Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.
⁷Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.”
⁸We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did – and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.
⁹We should not test the Lord, as some of them did – and were killed by snakes.
¹⁰And do not grumble, as some of them did – and were killed by the destroying angel.
¹¹These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.
¹²So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! (1 Cor 10:1-12)

Could this be more clear?

because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Phil 1:5-6

I also am confident of this, but there is a big difference between saying, “I am confident that you will persevere,” and saying, “I hold it as an infallible article of the faith that you, and every other Christian, is guaranteed to persevere.”

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

1 Peter 1:3-5

And yet, in the same epistle, Peter asks, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” (1 Pet. 4:18). How can it be hard for the righteous to be saved if they are guaranteed to persevere? Haven’t you been telling me that there’s no way they can not be saved?

Also, in his next epistle, Peter tells us to “make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love . . . For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 5-11). Why doesn’t Peter assure as that we will never fall, period, whether we do these things or not? Why does he make not falling, and receiving a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of God, contingent on “making every effort” to do these things? Sounds to me like more of that “you-must-cooperate-with-grace-in-order-to-persevere” teaching that’s just strewn all over the New Testament.

Now, you’ve quoted some good, strong verses, and I certainly must take them into consideration when I ponder the question of perseverance. But there are also verses that you must take into consideration:

In Matt. 18:23-35, Jesus tells us a parable about a servant whose unpayable debt is freely forgiven by his master, a clear metaphor for God’s forgiveness of the great debt of sin for a repentant sinner. But because the servant is unmerciful to his fellow servant, and refuses to cancel a trifling debt, the servant’s master reinstates his previously canceled debt. And just so we don’t miss the point, Jesus says, “This is how my heavenly father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

In Matt. 24:10-13, Jesus tells us that in the future, “many will fall away and will deliver up one another and hate one another . . . and because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved.”

In Luke 8:13, Jesus tells us that there are some who “receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in time of testing they fall away.” It cannot be said that these people didn’t really believe, because Jesus said they did. Nevertheless, they only believed for a while, then they fell away.

In John 15:1-10, Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit . . . If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.”

In Rom. 11:20-22, Paul compares the kingdom of God to an olive tree, and he says that the Jews, the natural branches, “were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.”

In 2 Cor. 13:5, Paul says, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you – unless, of course, you fail the test?” But these are the same people to whom he had previously said, “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11). So if their perseverance in the faith was guaranteed, why is Paul now telling them to test themselves to see whether they are still in the faith?

By the way, the Greek word translated “fail the test” is that same word, ἀδόκιμος that Paul said he disciplined himself to keep from becoming. According to Paul, Christ is in you unless you are ἀδόκιμος. This is what Paul fought to keep from happening to himself, and this is what he urged the Corinthians to make sure had not happened to them.

In Gal. 5:4, Paul says to the Christians in Galatia, whom he calls “brothers” (Gal. 1:11) and whom he said had “received the Spirit” (Gal. 3:2), “You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.”

In Gal. 4:19, Paul says, “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you.” Paul often refers to his converts as his “children” whom he has “begotten.” For example, in 1 Cor. 4:15, Paul says, “In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.” Likewise, in Philemon 10 he says, “I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds.” In both cases, Paul used the Greek word ἐγέννησα, which is exactly the same word Matthew uses throughout his genealogy in chapter 1 of his Gospel. But Paul obviously uses the word in a spiritual sense, to refer to regeneration in Christ. In the case of the Galatians, he says he is again in labor, until Christ is again formed in them. Why? Because they have been “severed from Christ” and they have “fallen from grace.” If “once-begotten-always-begotten” were true, then Paul’s statement would be nonsensical. It only makes sense if Paul believed that the Galatians had turned away from Christ, and so had lost their justification, and had fallen once more into a condition of spiritual death. They needed to once again be regenerated, and Paul was once again in labor, waiting for that to happen.

In Col. 1:21-23, Paul says, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation – if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.”

In 1 Tim. 3:6, Paul warns Timothy that a potential overseer must not be “a new convert, lest he become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil” (NASB). The “condemnation incurred by the devil,” by the way, is the “lake of fire and brimstone” (Rev. 20:10). But if this can never happen to a believer, why does it matter who Timothy selects as an overseer?

In 1 Tim. 4:1, Paul says, “The Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith” (NASB). Isn’t this the very thing that you have explicitly said will never happen?

Paul does warn against falling away, but that does not negate the promises and the assurance that God will see to his sheep persevering to the end.

It doesn’t negate them, it contextualizes them. We must interpret the one in light of the other.

As you said above, context context context. Judas is called the son of perdition. Judas defection was included in the plan of God. Judas fate was foretold in the scriptures. Judas was not given to Christ for salvation, but to fulfill his role in redemption.

So what are you saying, that Judas was set up? That he never had a chance? I don’t believe that. I think he could have been saved, just as Peter was, though he also denied Christ. Judas is called the son of perdition because that is what he became. What do you think Paul would have been called if he had never become a Christian? And what would Judas have been called if he had repented?

Think about what you are saying. Jesus said He came to do the will of the Father, which is not to lose a one.

And yet he lost Judas. “None has been lost except . . .” (John 17:12).

Are you saying Jesus did not do the will of the Father perfectly? There is a big difference between God saying He is not willing that any should perish versus God giving His Son His will to carry out and the Son not fulfilling it perfectly.

Jesus said, “I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.” (John 6:38). And what did Jesus come to do? He came to give “himself as a ransom for all men” (1 Tim. 2:6). Paul says this in the very same context in which he says that God “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:3-4). That is what Jesus came to do: to make it possible for God’s will to be fulfilled that all men be saved. Yet all are not saved. Has Jesus therefore failed to fulfill God’s will perfectly? No, because God’s will does not include taking away our will. He wants to save us all, but not at the cost of making us marionettes. Because of this, some will not be saved, and that grieves God: “Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’” (Ezek 33:11). So Jesus did what God sent him to do, even if all do not benefit from it as God desires.

By the way, the next few verses in Ezekiel are truly the death-knell of Once-Saved-Always-Saved:

¹²“Therefore, son of man, say to your countrymen, ‘The righteousness of the righteous man will not save him when he disobeys, and the wickedness of the wicked man will not cause him to fall when he turns from it. The righteous man, if he sins, will not be allowed to live because of his former righteousness.’
¹³If I tell the righteous man that he will surely live, but then he trusts in his righteousness and does evil, none of the righteous things he has done will be remembered; he will die for the evil he has done.
¹⁴And if I say to the wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ but he then turns away from his sin and does what is just and right –
¹⁵if he gives back what he took in pledge for a loan, returns what he has stolen, follows the decrees that give life, and does no evil, he will surely live; he will not die.
¹⁶None of the sins he has committed will be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he will surely live.
¹⁷Yet your countrymen say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But it is their way that is not just.
¹⁸If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, he will die for it.
¹⁹And if a wicked man turns away from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live by doing so. Ezek. 33:12-19.

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¹Perry Lassiter, Once Saved . . . Always Saved, Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1975, p.18

²Gerald F. Hawthorne, “Hebrews,” The International Bible Commentary, ed. F. F. Bruce, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986, p. 1516

3Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1259.

⁴Catechism, 1260.