[Comment] Please try to explain the following scripture:
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).
Remember the same God who saved you is the same God who will keep you. Once we are saved we are always saved. Our salvation is most definitely eternally secure! Now I will agree that not everyone that says they are saved, are truly saved. But once a person is truly saved as the bible says nothing will take them away from the Love the God has for them.
Christian Answer
[Bible Answer] IF God’s love for us was a guarantee of salvation, then everyone would be saved because God loves everyone, even the unsaved (Mark 10:21; John 3:16; etc.)! If everyone would be saved, then Universalism would be true and no one would go to hell, which is very far from the Biblical message (Jude 7; Mt. 25:46; Rev. 20:15; etc.).
When Christians say there is NO once saved always saved, they are saying that the righteous who backslide have died spiritually, meaning the LIFE of God within their soul is gone. So it is the LIFE of God that is the critical issue, not the LOVE of God, as mentioned in Romans 8:38,39. You mentioned God keeping us [saved], with no conditions attached, which is also dangerously unscriptural. God’s truth reveals there is human responsibility, under grace, in salvation! Christians are to keep:
- themselves from idols (1 John 5:21),
- themselves pure (1 Tim. 5:22),
- their lamps burning (Lk. 12:35),
- their spiritual fervor serving the Lord (Rom. 12:11),
- their lives free from the love of money (Heb. 13:5),
- ourselves from being polluted by the world (James 1:27)
How To Keep It For Eternal Life
The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (John 12:25)
If we were once saved always saved there would never be any hell warnings directed towards Christians, which is not the case (Mk. 9:43-48; Eph. 5:5-7; Mt. 10:28; etc.)! We also would never read of verses showing salvation maintenance under grace, but we do (1 Tim. 1:19; Rev. 3:11; etc.). There is no question that once saved always saved is NOT a Christian belief, but a distortion of grace into a license to sin!
Though there are false converts, we can KNOW who is saved and who isn’t (1 John 2:3,4; 1 John 3:10). Jesus’ wheat and tares teaching also substantiates this. Hence, the backsliding are on the road to hell again for as a dog returns to his vomit he is worse off than at the beginning (2 Pet. 2:20-22)! There is no such thing as a Christian adulterer, Christian drunk, Christian homosexual, etc. (1 Cor. 6:9,10; Eph. 5:5-7; Rev. 21:8; etc.).
John 10:28 does NOT support once saved always saved either. Christians must endure hatred, for their holy living, to the end to be saved (Mt. 10:22; Heb. 3:14; Rev. 2:10,11). A Christian is a slave of righteousness, not a slave of sin (Rom. 6:22). Eternal security is candy coated soul poison.
