If you're saved once are you always saved?
Please no Sunday school answers I don't think my brain can stand it!

That is somthing I have considered on several occasions... You can argue both sides with some really good, well thought-out "Sunday School" answers. "Nothing can seperate us from His love"... etc...
I think it all comes down to this: I believe we have to choose whether we accept Him as our personal savior. This "human will" is most likely what makes us different from the angels. I believe we can also choose to turn away from Him after accepting Him... yes, God is a loving God, He is also a just God. If we choose to accept His son as our personal savior (and I mean truly accept Him), then go about sinning everyday, confident in the hope that nothing can ever seperate us, then what was the reason for Him to die? We spit in His face, bang the nails a little deeper, and laugh at His death if we believe we can enter His kingdom as unrepented liars, thieves, adulterers, murderers, etc...

This is a difficult subject for me to express what I believe. I cannot accept the belief that our future is secure since we chose a while back to serve Him and choose to do whatever we feel like now, safe in the belief that we cannot do anything to keep us out of heaven.

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- David
- http://www.truckwerks.com/

[This message has been edited by David (edited 03-12-2000).]

Hi David,
I concur to some extent with what you wrote. I believe that you can either accept or reject Christ. I don't however think that someone who is "reborn" could truly just run around in sin every day. There would have to be a falling away (backsliding) or complete rejection of their salvation. A person who is backslid will still retain their salvation. whereas a person who rejects their salvation will burn. Lemme 'splain myself. I came to this beleif while trying to reconcile the O.S.A.S beliefs with an often overlooked scripture

This clearly shows that something is up!!! Now I recognize the OSAS teaches that one who is saved and filled with the Holy Spirit will never do such a thing. But in my mind that would eliminate free will at conversion.....

God bless you all


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WhenGod is all you've got; God is all you need!

Men's Ministry Home!

Maybe I threw one out to everyone that was a little too complex.....I hope I didn't make anyones brains explode!

I'm not giving up--come on fellas and fellets tease your frontal lobes...or which ever lobe it is...

innerdawg

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Love GOD and you cannot go wrong!!

Okay, so here's my .02. It's a heart condition. Romans 10:9 says confess Jesus and believe in your heart...It's like you can't have one without the other. But really, we'll never know the anwser to that question because we cannot judge the condition of a man's heart. It's onw of those "mystery's" the Word talks about...you know the "...My thoughts aren't your thoughts..." kinda thing. Another thing, if someone has to ask, maybe there's some things that need to be put right between them and God anyways.

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once saved ALWAYS saved!!

Tough one... if you gave your only son to die for a drunk bum that shot up every time they had a chance and slept w/ dogs (let's be real)... and they accepted that, came home and became a new creation, would you take that away? No matter how bad they messed up... they were jacked up in the first place... He is GREAT in love and His Mercy endureth forever. Wherever sin abounds...there grace doth much more abound.
Here is another illustration... say you lived and depended on your parents, but they were moving to a foriegn country tomorrow. You went out tonight and committed the most horrible sins you could fathom... would they still take you with them? Our Heavenly Father is much greater than our earthly parents. I do think that we could reject the invitation though. It speaks in the book of Revelation that some names will be blotted out of the Lambs Book of Life, but I hardly believe that God has a big 'ol pencil w/ a big 'ol eraser just taking folks out bound by sin. For those bound by sin are the ones' My Saviour died for... To set the captives free (read Is.61) I say salvation remains for those who accept. Those who accept and then deny, let God be their Judge...not me.

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Until He Returns, I remain... About souls,
crucified_with_christ

Very good points cruce... His grace is sufficient, as long as we accept His grace. God will be the judge if we throw it all away...

This thread is getting more interesting...

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Allen

Sin itself, of course, cannot separate us from God's love. After all, the Bible says that it is not through our own works or deeds that we enter into Heaven, but only through Jesus Christ. Therefore, if deeds could not attain our salvation, neither could we lose our salvation through sin. Going back to the example of the parents taking the child no matter what sin he committed is very true. However, say that you, the child, accepts the invitation of your parents to move with them. All is well, and life is good. However, if you then change your mind and decide that you refuse to follow their rules and that you just will not change and decide not to go with them after allready accepting their invitation, there is really nothing they can do to make you go. After all, God gave us free will. Our will is subject to change at any given time. So yes, if you truely accept His invitation, and decide to live for Him, you are saved. But if you refuse to accept the WHOLE package and decide it's not worth it and that you've changed your mind, then I belive that you are no longer saved. Salvation is not forced on us. It is a gift. A gift that He will not take away. But if we accept the gift, open it, and then give it back, as much as it breaks His heart, He can't force us to be with Him. I speak from my experience because I grew up in church, and I accepted Christ at a young age. When I accepted Him, I was truely sincere. I wanted what He had to give. But I grew far apart from Him and let my life be consumed with things that were not of Him. I shamed Him and forgot about Him. He did not take my salvation back from me. I willingly gave it to Him. Of course no one really WANTS to go to Hell. But just beleving in God and knowing that He exists will not save you from that fate. After all, even Satan believes in God. So I never said, God I don't want to go to Heaven any more. What I said was God I think Heaven would be great, but your rules suck. I'll just ask your forgiveness once in a while so that I don't burn. And if I had died in that time of my life, I have no doubt that I would have gone straight to Hell. Do not pass go....
Anyway, thank God that once you accept Him, you never forget the love you felt at that moment, and he is merciful and just and gives us sooooo many second chances and pursues us even through our sins, and eventually, I remembered what I was looking for. I was looking for the love that I did not feel in any sexual encounter. The euphoric on top of the world feeling that wore off when the drugs were out of my system, and the acceptance that I couldn't find no matter how much of a door-mat I was. And I remembered where I had found it the first time. And He let me re-open the gift. And I will never give it back again. Or hide it, or lose it.....
That doesn't mean that I won't sin and screw up still. I'm human. I'm SLIME. I came straight out of the mirey clay! But I'm forgiven.

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<FONT COLOR="#ffffff" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">[This message has been edited by foreverchanged on 05-11-2000 @ ]</font>

*poof* and the thread re-appears... bumping for angel.

I agree that one who accepts their salvation is "saved", but that doesn't keep us from sinning. Tho we may not have "lost our salvation", as forever states here - we can still sin and choose to not ask forgiveness for that sin. "Nothing can separate us from His Love" but sin can and does separate us from Him.

Like the prodigal son... had he died in the pig pen (in his willful act of sin), he woulda died separated from his father, tho the story clearly shows he was never without his father's love.

This was the first post in It Is Written that I remember replying to...one of my first long posts. <img src="smile.gif" border="0" alt="" />

once your saved your saved

every time after that your just rededicating your life
is that cool or was it to simple minded????

so if you get saved when you are young and you really mean it but then you totally disregard all of God's rules as you get older, you join the church of satan and start sacrificing babies or something...then you are still saved? Or did you really not mean it when you were little? How do you know?

Also, what about suicide? If you are saved but you kill yourself do you still go to Heaven?

well if you sacrafice babies you haveto answer to me because well....im a babe

but if your saved and comitt suicide then your still saved butt when you die your comited suicide so thats a sin and your dead and you cant ask for forgiveness and the bible clearly states thet no sin shall enter the gates of heaven


so HAVE A nice day

waiiiit a minute...if you are saved and living your life for God but let's say you lie to your parent (a sin) and then you get in your car and a drunk driver hits you before you repent...you're going to hell???? that's an unrepented sin....
Doesn't really seem all that merciful to me...

[ 09-09-2001: Message edited by: foreverchanged ]

Everyone will get the moment before God!

God is our Judge and He will execute His justice on everyone.

Remember that your name will never be erased!

Revelation 3:5 He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.


(I personally believe that you can deliberatly, willfully reject salvation once you have it, but that is different than simple sin {not that any sin is simple})

[ 09-09-2001: Message edited by: SLattier ]

I understand I am in His Book, I just don't wanna be on His List. <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0" alt="" />

jesus said that a sin is a sin there is no big sin and there is no small sin liying is the same as murder............so if going by the bible then i would have to say yes but.....i am not God and only God can judge....but my oppinion is that yes you would go to hell <img src="frown.gif" border="0" alt="" />

i'm going to have to disagree here. Christ came to this earth and was crucified on the cross as payment for our sins...all of them, correct? So, if we die before we can repent of sin (does that include sinful thoughts or just sinful actions?), we go to hell? Then it would seem to me that we are still living under the law...and if we believe that our salvation is based on our own actions or works...why did Christ die for us?...It would nullify the Grace and the Power of the CROSS...Specifically the BLOOD that was shed on that cross by our SAVIOR. i do believe that we need to repent of our sins before our Father...to keep our relationship intimate. I cannot believe in a GOD that claims to love us, but demands perfection(which we all know isn't possible)or else eternal damnation. That would mean that we have a relationship with our FATHER that is based on FEAR. Not LOVE. His word says that nothing can seperate us from the love of Christ...that we are His adopted sons and daughters ( which by the way, from what i remember...adopted children are not able to be legally disowned) we could argue this point over and over...i don't know what happens when someone turns his back on GOD and walks the other direction, but i know that the bible says that if ONE sheep strays and becomes lost, the Shephard will seek him out....I refuse to live in fear...i sin constantly, but my LORD is loving and compassionate and He looks at my heart...i know that i know, that i know, that my eternity is secure in the presence of my FATHER, even if i die before repenting of all my sins. HIS grace is sufficient for me. <img src="smile.gif" border="0" alt="" />