Scriptural refutation of Eternal Security

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"Eternal Security" is also known as "once saved always saved" or "perseverance of the saints". In other words, once someone accepts Christ as their Lord and Savior, there is nothing that he or she can do to separate himself/herself from God, and they will always be saved. This is a false doctrine. The following passages show, without any doubt, that those who believe in Christ can fall away if they do not practice righteousness.

 

Bible texts that refute "eternal security"
Bible Text	Description Of Blood Bought Believer	Description Of Sin	Description Of Believer After Sin
Ezekiel 3:20; 18:24-26	righteous	turns away, commits iniquity	die in sin
Matthew 25:1-13	took lamps and went to meet Christ	5 were foolish	"I do not know you"
Matthew 25:14-30	Christ's own slaves	hid talent	wicked lazy, cast into outer darkness, weep & gnash
Luke 8:13	receive word with joy, believe	temptation, persecution	fall away
Luke 9:62	put hands to plow of kingdom	looked back to former life	not fit for kingdom
Luke 12:42-48	steward in charge of Christ's servants	beat slaves, drunkenness	cut in pieces, assign with unbelievers
John 15:1-6	branches	does not abide	thrown away, dried up, burnt
Acts 4:32;5:1-11	of those who believed	lied to Holy Spirit	God struck dead
Acts 8:9-24	Simon the sorcerer believed, baptized	offered money	heart not right, wickedness, gall of bitterness, bond of iniquity
Acts 20:17,28-30	elders, shepherds of church	false doctrine	drawn away
Romans 11:13-23	wild olive, grafted in v17, stand by faith V20	unbelief, not continue V20,22	not spared, cut off V21-22
1 Corinthians 9:26-27	Apostle Paul, preached to others	body not slave	Paul disqualified
1 Corinthians 10:1-12	standing (feel they are saved) V12	immorality, crave evil, grumble,	fall V12
Galatians 2:11-14	Apostle Peter	false doctrine, hypocrisy	Literal Greek "stood condemned" V11
Galatians 5:4	severed & fallen indicates previously joined and standing	seeking to keep OT	severed from Christ, fallen from grace
Galatians 6:1	restore indicates once saved	caught in trespass	needed to be restored
1 Timothy 1:18-20	Hymenaeus, Alexander: shipwreck indicates they once sailed good.	rejected faith and good conscience, blasphemed	their personal faith shipwrecked, delivered to Satan
1 Timothy 4:1	fall away indicates once saved	false doctrine	fall away from faith
1 Timothy 5:8	passage addressed to Christians	doesn't provide for family	denied faith, worse than unbeliever
1 Timothy 6:10	passage addressed to Christians	love of money	wandered from faith, pierced selves with pangs
2 Timothy 2:16-18	Hymenaeus and Philetus: gone astray indicates once correct	False doctrine: resurrection past	gone astray, upset other's faith as well
Hebrews 3:12	brethren	evil, unbelieving	fall away from God
Hebrews 4:1-2,11	brethren, addressed to Christians	unbelief, disobey	short of God's rest, fall
Hebrews 6:4-8	once enlightened, tasted heavenly gift, partakers of HS, Bible & powers to come, renew indicates restore to former cleanness	sin	fallen away, can't renew, crucified Christ again and put in open shame
Hebrews 10:26-31	received knowledge of truth. no longer remains indicates they once had forgiveness	sinning willfully	no forgiveness of sin, fearful judgment
Hebrews 10:38-39	God's righteous, Christians	shrinks back	God has no pleasure in him, destruction
James 5:19-20	brethren, Christians	strays from truth, sin	soul will die in sins, sinner
1 Peter 5:8	Christians	sin	devoured by devil
2 Peter 2:1	Christians, "among you" had been bought by Christ	false prophets	swift destruction
2 Peter 2:20-22	escaped defilements of world by Christ, entangled again, returns to mire indicates they were once untangled and clean, known way of righteousness, had washed	entangled, overcome, turned away, returns to vomit/mire	last state worse than first, better they never had became Christians
2 Peter 3:17	beloved, Christians	carried away,	fall from own steadfastness
2 John 8-9	Christians, have accomplished	not abide in doctrine, false doctrine	lose, no reward doesn't have God
Revelation 2:4-5	Christians in Ephesus	left first love	fallen, lamp stand removed
Revelation 3:5	Christians in Sardis	deeds incomplete	are dead
Revelation 3:16-17	Christians in Laodicea	lukewarmness	spit out of Christ's mouth

 

Topical organization of scriptures that refute "Eternal Security"

Parable of Sower:

 

Mark 4:16 (Luke 8:13), "And in a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; (they believe for a while) and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away."

 

Fallen from grace passage:

 

Galatians 5:4, "You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace."

 

Pruning passages:

John 15:5-6, "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."

Romans, 11:19-23, "You will say then, Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you. Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again."

 

Hebrews Passages:

Hebrews 6:4-6, "For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame."

Hebrews 10:26-27, "For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries."

Hebrews 10:38-39, "Now the just shall live by faith: ; And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul."

 

Doctrinal Apostasy passages:

Acts 20:17,28-30, "And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church...I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them."

1 Timothy 1:18-21, "fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander"

2 Timothy 2:16-18, "But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and thus they upset the faith of some."

1 Timothy 4:1, "But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons"

1 Timothy 6:20-21, "O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge-which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith."

2 Peter 2:1, "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves."

2 Peter 3:17, "You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall from your own steadfastness."

2 John 8-9 "Watch yourselves, that you might not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son."

 

Moral Apostasy passages:

1 Timothy 6:9-10, "But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang."

2 Peter 2:20-22, "For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, A dog returns to its own vomit, and a sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire."

James 5:19-20, "My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth, and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins."

 

Revelation passages:

Revelation 2:4-5, "'But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 'Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you, and will remove your lamp stand out of its place-unless you repent."

Revelation 3:5, 'He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels."

Revelation 3:16-17, "So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. 'Because you say, I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing, and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked."

 

Old Testament passages:

Ezekiel 18:24-26, "But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that a wicked man does, will he live? All his righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered for his treachery which he has committed and his sin which he has committed; for them he will die. Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not right.' Hear now, O house of Israel! Is My way not right? Is it not your ways that are not right? When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and dies because of it, for his iniquity which he has committed he will die."

 

Other scriptural arguments that refute "Eternal Security"

 

The fact the Bible exhorts to faithfulness proves one can be lost:

1.       be "steadfast, unmovable" (1 Corinthians 15:58).

2.       "For if these things be in you" (2 Peter 1:5-11).

3.       "we shall reap, if we faint not" (Galatians 6:9).

4.       "be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life" (Revelation 2:10).

5.      practice these things and God will be with you (Philippians 4:9).

Man has a free will:

 

Joshua 24:15, "And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

 

The Bible clearly prophesied some would fall away:

 

Acts 20:28, "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood."

1 Timothy 4:1, "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;"

Christians are to restore the fallen:

 

Galatians 6:1, "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted."

James 5:19-20, "Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins."

Your name can be blotted out of the book of life:

Exodus 32:32-33, "Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book."

Deuteronomy 9:14, "Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they."

Deuteronomy 29:20, "The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven."

Psalms 69:28, "Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous."

Revelation 3:5, "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels."

After God forgives your sin, you can lose your salvation by not forgiving others:

 

Matthew 18:23-35, "Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought   unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. And his fellow servant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses."