INTRODUCTION: The Ugly and Embarrassing Version of “Christianity” which so Abounds Today

THE TRUE CHRISTIAN’S STORY AND SONG is the blesséd assurance that “Jesus is mine!” To be “in Christ” in this life is truly “a foretaste of glory divine!” (If you know the hymn, you’ll know what is meant here). But how many of those who profess to be “Christians” — even if they heartily sing about it — actually believe it? At one time — apart from a wacky minority who were determined to overthrow the sovereignty of God and make an idol out of freewill — the general consensus among genuine disciples of Christ was that Christ has come to save those who the Father has given Him, those for whom Christ died, having designated them for that from the foundation of the world and that once their salvation had been secured nothing and no one could snatch them out of Christ’s hand and they would thereby persevere to the end.

However, it seems that during the past few decades there has almost been a deliberate desire, bordering on the fanatical, to undermine the “blesséd assurance” of the perseverance of Christ’s disciples to the end. It is now commonly taught that genuine, born-again disciples of Christ can lose their salvation. Indeed, to think that salvation is an irrevocable gift for eternity is now often disparaged as being highly dangerous to the believer’s spiritual health, as they say it could lead him to think that he can behave however he wishes because his salvation is secure, come what may. But to imagine that a true disciple of Christ would deliberately indulge in antinomianism (flouting God’s law) could only be cobbled together by someone who doesn’t really know what it means to be saved. So crazed and fanatical are those who seek to undermine this precious teaching that I have actually had people yell at me because I believe in the assured perseverance to the end of those who are genuinely saved! When trying to debate or help such people get out of this soteriological and pastoral delusion, one becomes aware of the toxic influence which lies behind it. Surely this terrible faithlessness and rabid belief that genuine disciples of Christ can lose their salvation is all part of the growing apostasy.

You can witness this rabid desire of so many today to obliterate any twinkle of a notion that a genuine disciple of Christ has the assurance of salvation all over social media. There are countless memes saying things such as “The Once Saved Always Saved heresy must be stamped out!” Or “OSAS is the biggest lie in the church today!” I have noticed that as soon as the assurance of salvation is mentioned by someone on social media, it is as if some kind of hideous bots emerge from the shadows and desperately try to shoot it down as if their very lives depended on it. Why should this be? What could be behind their zealotry?

That genuine disciples of Christ have the blesséd assurance of salvation could not be clearer from Scripture, as I will show conclusively below. It is a fact that one of the most common questions I am asked is whether salvation is a once-for-all-time gift of God. I am constantly astonished by the now widespread notion that it is not. In fact, it has become as much of a cult among professing “Christians” as the belief in a flat earth! It can only be in the interests of Satan to undermine assurance to such an extent that today there must easily be more professing Christians who believe they can lose their salvation than there are those who believe that they are irrevocably saved for eternity. In Thomas Brook’s must-read book, “Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices”, he devotes dozens of pages to showing that one of the devil’s main aims is to put believers in a “sad, doubting, questioning and uncomfortable condition”. (And he also supplies the remedies!). Surely the widespread delusion that a believer can lose his or her salvation must be one of the main devices of Satan for attempting to undermine the faith of the faithful. He cannot make genuine disciples of Christ lose their faith, any more than he can make them lose their salvation. But he can certainly undo their assurance.

Believing that you can lose your salvation goes hand in hand with all the free-will nonsense which I highlighted in my article, “Revealing Dialogue for Our Time” (which you can find at this link: https://diakrisis-project.com/2024/04/23/a-revealing-dialogue-for-our-time-on-matters-of-salvation-and-eternality/ . It is part and parcel of an ugly version of  “Christianity” which now prevails in the visible church, in which ignorant and petulant professors of faith have come to dictate the church’s teachings. They teach a series of ideas which not only undermine the power and sovereignty of God but they present Him as being impotent and namby-pamby. They have no understanding whatsoever of the Bible’s teaching on election, for example, and therefore have no understanding of what it is that prevents a genuine disciple of Christ from apostatising. God’s grace in election would never let that happen. If they realised this then they would never be so zealous to try and undermine a true disciple’s faith in God’s blesséd assurance. If you quote a Scripture such as, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:28), they say “Yes, but that is only if you keep His commandments. If you don’t, you will lose your salvation”. Again, that is because they have no understanding whatsoever of the Divine electing power to preserve those who have been “given” to Christ by the Father (John 10:29) and they put human will above the power of God. Until one understands the wonder of Divine election, one will never understand how God keeps His children from falling away. [For an understanding of Divine election, please see my article on the subject here: https://diakrisis-project.com/2024/10/06/known-by-god-the-importance-of-divine-election-the-astounding-transcendence-of-god/ ].

These folks sing in their choruses out of one side of their mouths about “My glorious mighty Saviour”. Then, out of the other side of their mouths they present a God who is helpless to save people (while He waits impotently for their “decisions”), who has not even the power to ensure they remain saved, and who, ultimately, annihilates after death those who refuse Him in a puff of smoke, rather than carry out what He promises everywhere in Scripture to consign them to “outer darkness”, the eternal experience of destruction (i.e. separation from Himself), “eternal punishment” (Matthew 25:4), “the unquenchable fire… where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched” (Mark 9:43,48).

It is disingenuous in the extreme to try to dismiss (as some do) what I write as being “Calvinism”, hoping that the use of that label will put people off what I write. Just because some guy in sixteenth century Geneva also believed a Bible truth to be right does not mean that I am a slavish follower of that man. I follow no man. I follow the Bible rather than any man. And the Bible plainly teaches that a true elect disciple of Christ cannot lose his or her salvation. Only an out-and-out rebel would say otherwise, and the churches these days are full of them.

What the Bible Really Teaches About the Security of Salvation for Christ’s Disciples

What is the clear teaching of Scripture on the matter of security in salvation for genuine disciples of Christ? The clear teaching of Scripture is that they have been taken forever out of the power of darkness (Colossians 1:12-13), that he or she has been adopted into God’s family by the power of the Holy Spirit (John 1:12-13; Galatians 4:4-7; Romans 8:15), that he or she is an heir of eternal salvation (Romans 8:16-17; Ephesians 1:11-14), that he or she will — by divine preservation — persevere to the end (Scripture proofs follow below), and that he or she will never, ever be disowned by his or her Saviour (Matthew 28:20b; Hebrews 13:5). Salvation is a gift for eternity. It is true that the genuine elect disciple of Christ can temporarily “backslide” through foolish disobedience, and he or she can fall into sin; but such a one will always repent and return to the Lord and can never finally fall away and be lost (apostatize). This is known in historic Christian teaching as “The Eternal Security of those Who are Christ’s”, or “The Perseverance of the Saints”, or “Our Blesséd Assurance of Salvation”. Unfortunately, a vast number of professing “Christians” today are entirely ignorant of historic Christian teaching.

Here are the abundant Scripture proofs that genuine elect disciples of Christ cannot possibly apostatize and are kept faithful to the end of their lives by the power of God:

  • “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, who takes delight in his journey. Though he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down; For the Lord upholds him with His hand” (Psalm 37:23-24).
  • “The righteous will hold to his way, and he who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger” (Job 17:9).
  • “Blesséd be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By 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 is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power for the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3-5).
  • “Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own 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 those He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day. For it is My Father’s will 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” (John 6:37-40).
  • “My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” (John 10:27-29).
  • “In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and welcome you into My presence, so that you also may be where I am” (John 14:2-3).
  • “And this is that testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:11-13).
  • “Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment. Indeed, he has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24).
  • “For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29).
  • “For sin will not rule over you, for you are not under law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14).
  • “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30).
  • “…in Him, having heard and believed the word of truth—the gospel of your salvation—you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession, to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14).
  • “The Lord will rescue me from every evil action and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:18).
  • “For our citizenship is in heaven…” (Philippians 3:20).
  • “Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen” (Jude 24-25)

Added to the above irrefutable Scriptures there is the teaching of the eighth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans, which is devoted to proving that the saints are saved forever, and that there is nothing which can come between them and their faith. Just look at the relevant verses:

Verse 1: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…”. The price has been paid; the condemnation was poured out on Christ on the cross. So if the penalty for the true disciple of Christ’s sin has already been dealt with on the cross, how could there be any further condemnation remaining for him? “By His stripes, we are healed” — the healing of the soul and of our relationship with the Lord. It is a healing which lasts. Jesus’s healings are not partial or temporary.

Verse 11: “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you”. Believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. This is our guarantee of future glory in the resurrection (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:21-22; 2 Corinthians 5:5; Ephesians 1:14-15. God’s guarantees are never broken.

Verses 15-17: “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father’. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together”. The believer has been adopted by grace into the family of God and is an heir of a certain future glory. The indwelling Holy Spirit — who is the guarantor of that future glory — bears witness to that.

Verse 30: “Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified”. This verse contains what is known as the Golden Chain of Redemption. It is an unbreakable chain. One thing leads inexorably to the other. Predestination, effectual calling, justification, and glorification. Although the last element, glorification, does not happen in all its fullness during the believer’s earthly life, it is plain from this verse that it is an irrevocable reality for the genuine disciple of Christ. The same tense is used in the Greek for each of the elements in this verse, signifying that those elements have already been ratified — including being “glorified”. The believer going to glory is as good as “done” in the eyes and mind of God. That is a hearty expression of eternal security. How could such a one fall away? To say that the true disciple of Christ can lose his or her salvation is a false teaching of the highest order and an utter blasphemy.

Verses 31-39: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter’. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who 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 created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. Nothing — not even their own foolish sins — can break the reality of future glory for genuine disciples of Christ. What place could there be here for a disciple of Christ to fall away and go to eternal punishment? Only someone with a pseudo-salvation could lose it. This whole passage of Scripture is a hymn to the divinely-appointed Perseverance of the Saints.

Paul plainly believed in “once saved, always saved”. He was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write it down for us. How come so many professing Christians today would rather believe otherwise? The only possible reason is the pseudo-salvation which prevails in the apostasy-contaminated pseudo-church, counterfeit ekklesia, of today.

This was also Jesus’s teaching in the parable of the prodigal son. The prodigal son does not represent everyone in the world, for everyone in the world is not a son of God. He represents a child of God — one of the elect — who wanders off from his heavenly Father for a while but soon finds that the world cannot satisfy his spiritual hunger and eventually returns to his Father. This is the perseverance of the saints in action — just as Jesus had said about His children elsewhere: “No one can snatch them out of My hand”. They cannot finally fall away, but will always return if they happen to foolishly wander.

Disposing of the Scriptures Which Seem to Disprove Eternal Security

Having said all the above, there are many who would still be waving their hands at me in anger, anxious to point out a handful of Scriptures which they claim undermine any other Scriptures and which — so they imagine — prove conclusively that the salvation of a genuine disciple of Christ can be lost. However, in their almost frantic desire to undermine the faith of the faithful, they have forgotten the great principles of Bible hermeneutics (interpretation), which state that passages must be taken in their context and that darker passages must always be read in the light of what is everywhere plainly taught. It is also extremely important to go to the Greek to discover the true meaning of the words involved because a dodgy Bible translation can easily give an entirely false impression. If there are a handful of texts which SEEM to teach other than what many authoritative texts plainly teach, then the faithful soul does not immediately assume that the dubious texts are the primary ones. Instead, he or she says, “I must get to the bottom of this by deeply enquiring into it, for I know that there can be no contradiction in Scripture. Therefore, I will do everything I can to understand what they really mean”.

One of the lesser-known Scriptures which appears to teach that a genuine disciple of Christ can lose his or her salvation is this: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its savor, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men” (Matthew 5:13). The key question here is “What is the salt?” It refers here to the unique qualities of the genuine disciple of Christ as being a powerful “germicide” and preservative in the world. We are the pungent moral element in this world which is the only reason that the world keeps going. Our presence here has a mighty powerful effect on the passage of humanity. We are the moral impetus of humanity. Or we should be, for that is the calling of the true child of God. If we stop being such in the world and just blend into it, what does that show? Does it show that we were true disciples of Christ — ones for whom He died — and who have have fallen away from our faith and become as the heathen? Of course not! It shows that we never really were genuine disciples of Christ in the first place. This is the case with all these texts which, on a very superficial reading by those with a vested interest in doing so, appear to insinuate that true believers can fall away. But we already know from countless other Scriptures that they cannot fall away, for no one can snatch them out of Jesus’ hand. So what these texts prove is that those who “fell away” never really were genuine elect disciples of Christ in the first place but were impostors. Some other texts for which this is true are Matthew 11:6; 24:10; Luke 8:13; John 6:66-67; John 15:6; Revelation 3:11. When a Scripture speaks about those who have professed belief as “falling away”, it cannot possibly be referring to genuine disciples of Christ because they cannot fall away, as so many texts teach, as Jesus Himself taught, as I showed above, and they are the “control texts”, the ones by which all others should be judged. Therefore, those Scriptures are instead referring to the apostasy of false professors of faith who looked like the real thing outwardly until they showed their true colours.

The primary Scriptures which are commonly said to ‘prove’ that Christians can lose their salvation are Romans 14:15; 1 Corinthians 8:11 and Hebrews 6:4-6, which I will deal with below. Obviously, there can be no genuine contradiction in Scripture; so these texts cannot possibly contradict what is plainly taught everywhere in God’s Word about the divinely ordained perseverance of the elect saints and their assurance of salvation. That is the attitude of the genuine disciple of Christ rather than whooping with delight at finding some text which appears to undermine some major teaching which is everywhere taught in Scripture. What kind of a person engages in such undermining with such delight? Why are these folks so determined to overturn the truth about the perseverance of the elect saints? Most telling of all, how come such scoundrels have managed to become so dominant in the visible church? The only answer to these questions can be the reality of a vast apostasy which has swept through the churches as well as the world, aided and abetted by the scourge of social media, which seems to have turned every Tom, Dick and Karen into a Bible teacher! For the only beneficiary of such false teaching is the demonic realm which loves to undermine the faith of the saints and make them doubt their salvation, which is an appalling pastoral disaster. Let us see, therefore, what those texts which appear to undermine the perseverance of the elect saints and their assurance of salvation really mean. Let us first take Romans 14:15 and 1 Corinthians 8:11 together as they express more or less the same thing:

“Do not by your eating destroy your brother, for whom Christ died” (Romans 14:15). “So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge” (1 Corinthians 8:11)

These two verses cannot at all be referring to the possibility of eternal punishment for genuine elect believers because we already know — as shown above from abundant Scriptures — that those for whom Christ died are saved forever and that, as He Himself said, no one can snatch them out of His hand. That could not be clearer. Thus, because this speaks about someone “for whom Christ died”, it cannot therefore be referring to the destruction of eternal punishment for that would make Christ’s sacrifice in that case as being of no effect, as if it is all dependent on us rather than God’s sovereignty. If Jesus gave His life for your salvation, then you cannot be destroyed body and soul in hell, for you will definitely be saved! Surely, that it as obvious as the nose on your face! But all the “Christians” today who have made up their own embarrassingly fake version of faith and soteriology then set out to disprove Jesus’s words and show that He is wrong because they put their own made-up version of what it means to be a “Christian” on a higher level than the clear teachings of the Christ. That is nothing less than blasphemy.

So when these verses speak of the destruction of the one for whom Christ died, they surely refer not to the endless destruction of the soul in eternal punishment through separation from Christ (such as we find in 2 Thessalonians 1:9) but to catastrophic repercussions in the material aspects of life — either earthly ruin as a result of our sins or physical death accelerated by our own actions. Even the saints can be severely chastised and even made to be sick and dealt an early death by the Lord for their behaviour, e.g. Acts 5:1-11; 1 Corinthians 11:30. NB: I do believe that Ananias and Sapphira were true believers for internal reasons, e.g. they were numbered among the “all” who were filled with the Holy Spirit, Acts 4:31, plus other reasons; but they were so visibly and dreadfully punished in order to provide a public example to the church at such a fragile point in its history, see Acts 5:11. From an earthly standpoint, we are all expendable, physically speaking. Just because we are genuine disciples of Christ does not mean that God will not deal with us physically in a catastrophic manner if we foolishly step out of line. Thus, the verses in Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8 are simply speaking about the possibility of a weaker Christian being led into sin to such an extent that he could meet earthly ruin or an early death, for which being responsible would be a terrible thing. Paul is merely showing us that we must be sensitive to the weaknesses of our brothers and sisters so that we do not bring about their debilitation or earthly demise. There is nothing here to provide us with proof about lost salvation or eternal punishment for genuine disciples of Christ. That is just the usual bunkum invented by those desperate to undermine the perseverance of the true Christian. I ask again, why are they so desperate to prove that? In whose interests is it to attempt to disprove the blesséd assurance of salvation for the genuine saints of God? Rhetorical question!

Then we have what must be the prime influential text on those who are so determined to prove that the genuine Christian can lose his or her salvation:

“It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age—and then have fallen away—to be restored to repentance, because they themselves are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to open shame” (Hebrews 6:4-6)

We need to be quite clear here about the kind of people to whom this passage refers. If we already accept — as we must — that Scripture in multiple places teaches that it is impossible for the true believer to fall away, then the “falling away” mentioned in these verses cannot possibly refer to a true believer. In fact, what we have here is a classic description of a cleverly disguised false Christian, one who professes faith but who, in reality, is not a true Christian. Churches are full of such people. They may even be pastors and teachers! To the undiscerning eye, they look like the real thing. They have even fooled themselves. But they will be revealed for who they are in the Day of Judgement. Jesus referred to such people as “tares”, compared to the “wheat” or true believers (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43). Tares (zizania) is a plant which resembles wheat until it is harvested. They appear to be Christians to such an extent that, even if one has one’s suspicions, one must leave it to the angels of judgement to sort out at the end of the age. Just look at how such a person is described in Hebrews 6:4-6. Let us here blow this text wide open because it is a passage of Scripture often quoted by those scoundrels who rejoice in claiming that true believers can fall away from the faith and thus undermine that very faith.

This person has indeed been “enlightened” in the sense of having received much light. In modern terms we can say that he or she has sat under numerous sermons and read much, if not all, of the Bible — maybe a number of times. He or she has heard many Gospel messages. His or her mind has been enlightened by what has been heard and read, but there is no real work of grace in the heart. Balaam, for example, was such a man whose “eyes were opened” and who had “the knowledge of the Most High” (Numbers 24:15-16), but that did not alter the fact that for him “is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” (2 Peter 2:17). He had the knowledge but not the salvation. He was a false professor of faith just like the people referred to in Hebrews 6:4-6.

The person in Hebrews 6:4-6 is also said to have “tasted the heavenly gift”. He or she has had some notions about the work of God and the gift of faith — after all, he has most likely had some kind of religious experience and even been baptised. He has read the Bible. He might even have taught Bible! He has tasted the heavenly gift, but he has not truly received it. One may go into a cheese shop and sample a cheese and even like it; but if one doesn’t buy it, one doesn’t have it!

Furthermore, such a person may indeed also have been a “partaker of the Holy Spirit”. One does not need to be a Christian to be a partaker of the Holy Spirit, or to have some operations of the Holy Spirit in one’s life, for this is not the same as being permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit as a child of God. Look at King Saul. He was a classic case of an unbeliever who had outward trappings of faith. He also had some operations of the Holy Spirit in his life (e.g. 1 Samuel 10:10; 11:6). The Bible also shows that unbelievers can be partakers of the Holy Spirit if they cast out demons and perform miracles in Christ’s name through some operations of the Spirit. Judas Iscariot was surely a prime example. Along with the other apostles he must have performed such works. He was a partaker of the Holy Spirit, but he was never a true believer. The Lord Jesus spoke about such people in Matthew 7:21-23:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’“

These are just the kind of people referred to in Hebrews 6:4. They can be “partakers of the Holy Spirit” . However, they are false believers, fooling themselves and usually all those around them throughout their lives. But they can never fool God.

Another element mentioned in Hebrews 6:5 is that these false Christians can “taste the goodness of the word of God” . Well this is another mere tasting experience. It is identical to the man in the parable of the sower, who “hears the word and immediately receives it with joy” (Matthew 13:20). He has “tasted the good word of God” , but ultimately he rejects its teachings in his life. For “he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles” (Matthew 13:21). He is therefore not a genuine full-fledged disciple of Christ. He is an impostor. It is not enough merely to taste the good word of God. One has also to do the things it teaches (cf. Matthew 7:24-27; John 14:15; 15:14; James 1:22-24). It must find a real place in our hearts, proving that we are genuine disciples of Christ, otherwise great will be our fall (Matthew 7:27), just as it says in Hebrews 6:4-6.

Such people also can “taste…the powers of the age to come” (Hebrews 6:5). They can have some intense fantasies about what heaven is like and can be very afraid of hell. But even these notions are not enough to save them. The demons also have similar head-knowledge and beliefs as the person in Hebrews 6:4-6 and, like him, they are not true believers (see James 2:19). So the person in Hebrews 6:4-6 can have all these experiences and feelings, but if he subsequently loses interest and falls away even from his pretence, he will receive a double blow for not acting on the privileged knowledge he had received. For from him, “even what he seems to have will be taken away from him” (Luke 8:18).

One of the great precursor signs of the revealing of the Antichrist is a global apostasy, a falling away, on a vast scale of many, even in the church (2 Thessalonians 2:3). The apostasy as manifesting in the secular world will be the abandonment of any vestiges of Divine law and morality and falling into degeneracy, perversion, mendacity, corruption and debauchery (such as we see all around us globally); whereas the apostasy in the church will be a religious one, falling away from their superficial profession of faith into teachings of demons, heresies and the populist bandwagons which infest the churches. However, they will not have fallen away from true faith but merely from their former pretence of Christianity. True Christians do not finally fall away. As Spurgeon put it: “The believer, like a man on board a ship, may fall again and again on the deck, but he will never fall overboard”.

The fact that people have imagined that a true disciple of Christ is being described in Hebrews 6:4-6 is a great sign of the superficial view that many people today have of the Christian faith. For the believer has SO MUCH MORE than what is described there. The true believer is not merely “enlightened” but he has “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16) and “knows all things” (1 John 2:20). The true believer does not merely have a “taste” of the heavenly gift, but he has received it completely (Romans 6:23). The true believer is not merely a “partaker” of the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit has made His permanent home with him (John 14:23). The true believer does not merely “taste” the good word of God, he lives it! (Revelation 14:12). The true believer does not merely “taste” the powers of the age to come, for he has actually entered into that age (Ephesians 2:6-7) and is a citizen of its kingdom (Philippians 3:20).

One must have a very superficial or defective understanding of Christianity to imagine that a real Christian is being described in Hebrews 6:4-6. People fail to realise the enormous privilege obtained by people who merely and nominally become part of the Ekklesia — having been enlightened, having become something of a partaker of the Holy Spirit, having had a taste of the heavenly gift, the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. Even as a nominal, church-attending “Christian”, one has entered into so much. But it is not enough; for their privilege only renders them with more severe culpability, and if they should fall away from even their bare (and false) profession of faith, that culpability becomes even more severe. As Peter said: “It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them” (2 Peter 2:21). Again, that is not a true disciple of Christ being spoken of there but a false professor, like the one in Hebrews 6:4-6. As John put it: “They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their departure made it clear that none of them belonged to us” (1 John 2:19). If they depart from the faith, they were never really among the faithful, for true disciples of Christ always endure to the end. That is the principal sign of salvation. As Jesus put it: “The one who perseveres to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13). If you do not endure to the end, that does not mean that you lost your salvation; it means that you were never saved in the first place!

CONCLUSION: Easy-Believism Leads to Easy-UNbelievism!

It is nothing short of wicked to attempt to convince genuine disciples of Christ that they can finally lose their salvation and that they do not have eternal security. There is no more pitiable thing than a Christian who is forever doubting that he or she will spend eternity with Christ. The Word of God makes it very clear that the children of God have a right to complete assurance. After all, “we know we have passed from death to life” (1 John 3:14). “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). We have been “bought at a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20), and He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).

There are those who say that the teaching of the Perseverance of the Saints such as I have espoused in this article will cause people to abandon themselves to sin because they know they cannot lose their salvation under any circumstances. But such antinomian thinking and acting is impossible for a true disciple of Christ, who is “in-lawed to Christ” (1 Corinthians 9:21) and who is only too well aware of the awful price which was paid by Him to secure his or her salvation. “The love of Christ constrains us [holds us, keeps us in the faith]“ (2 Corinthians 5:14).

It is surely no coincidence that the notion that a genuine disciple of Christ can lose his or her salvation has prospered most readily in circles which involve what is known as “easy-believism”. If you can become a “Christian” simply through making some superficial decision or mental assent of your own as a result of an outwardly emotional appeal, then you can just as easily lose the kind of phony “Christianity” which that decision brings about. Easy-believism leads to easy-UNbelievism! If you saved yourself through your own superficial decision then you can just as easily undo that through your own actions. For the only kind of salvation which you can lose is a false one! And the visible church is absolutely stuffed full of the recipients of such effete pseudo-salvation. But if you were saved entirely by the power of God — as revealed in my recent “Revealing Dialogue for Our Time on Matters of Salvation and Eternality” (link given above) — then you will not only definitely be preserved to the end by that same power but you will also certainly be raised up by that same power at the Last Day. For “we are His workmanship”, not our own (Ephesians 2:8-10).

So the real issue here is not the question, “Can Christians lose their salvation?”  The real issue is the question: “Am I a genuine disciple of Christ?”  And if you have truly believed and been born again (i.e. “from above”, John 3:3), having had your heart opened by God, then this is a question to which one can provide an undeniable answer, “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). Genuine disciples of His can never lose their salvation. Period. End of.  Ω

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2026
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]

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