A friend of mine was telling me something about his uncle. His uncle was apparently a lifelong believer who was the pastor of a church, but in mid-life, took up with the church secretary and ditched his wife and congregation. I don't know if there were kids. He told me that after his uncle got subsequently divorced and then married the secretary, he moved to Nevada and started a church near Las Vegas.

I asked him if his uncle was at all worried about the status of his relationship with God. He told me that, "No, he confessed Christ when he was six years old, so he knows he's secure eternally."

To say that I was surprised by that statement is an understatement. I answered him with a question. "Do you mean to tell me that he (the uncle) thinks he can just do whatever he wants and live life however he pleases before God?" It's one of the few times I've seen my friend unable to respond.

He believes in the Doctrine of Eternal Security. He believes that once you've accepted Christ, that there is no way you can ever be lost to the Lord. I don't believe that. I believe that the parable of the sewer in Matthew 13 is all about that.

Satan is not so amateurish that he would ask our permission to trick us into losing our salvation. The devil and his angels are extremely clever. Why should it be a surprise that the enemy pours all of his energy into deceiving whoever he can about their eternal destination?

I mean, the Bible tells us in Proverbs 14:12 and repeats in Proverbs 16:25, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." While the responsibility for believing these lies belongs to the individual, it is Satan and his minions who spend all of their time cooking the deceptions up.

The doctrine of eternal security has been well-used by the enemy to diffuse the light of the Gospel, deceiving many into continuing their lifestyle of sinfulness. I remember a friend of mine witnessing to some men he met in a park. They were drinking beer while smoking pot. I was a little surprised by the fact that they didn't ridicule him about Jesus. In fact, they welcomed him and told him they were all saved, because they had been to a 'service" years before and had said the sinner's prayer and had asked Jesus into their hearts. He said they told him they were safe and secure in God's hands now.

I find this doctrine contrary to God's word. Jesus said, "he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved" (Matthew 24:13), and the idea that somebody believing that they can ask Jesus to be their Lord, and to save their lives, and then just continue to dwell in iniquity is nonsensical, not to mention a little insulting.

I found some verses that back up what I'm saying. I've had other verses thrown back in my face when talking about this to Christian friends, but I don't have to do any tweaking on these verses like my friends have, such as ignoring direct context and the like. These verses sort of stand alone.

And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book (Exodus 32:33).

"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?"(Matthew 7:21-22).

"And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?"(Luke 6:46).

"For [it is] impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put [him] to an open shame" (Hebrews 6:4-6).

"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." (Revelation 3:5).

These next are the one's that really hammer it home for me though:
"For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known [it], to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog [is] turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." (2 Peter 2:20-22).

When you escape "the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," you are saved. I mean nobody else but Jesus can do that for you, right? That last verse is clearly talking about somebody once saved, but no longer.

"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." (1 Timothy 4:1).

And how can one "depart from the faith" to cling to these evil things without having been of the faith in the first place? And we can also read an example of how someone departs from the faith when Paul speaks of Demas leaving him for love of the world in 2nd Timothy 4:10. There are more scriptural passages to point out the spiritual flaws in a doctrine which has deceived so many into believing they're saved, but I'll leave it with the ones I've posted so far.

I was in the Christian chat room that I frequent and a guy came in for a few minutes and became incensed about the idea that one woman in the room might be suggesting, that one could actually turn their back on Christ and lose their salvation. He accused her (by implication) of fear mongering and teaching blasphemy, and then before leaving insulted the chat server and said we were heretics. He obviously hadn't spent much time there, as I can safely say that around 90% of those in chat who've posted their opinion on the subject when I've been there agree with the Doctrine of Eternal Security.

Some have argued that if you can lose your salvation, that you're saying that you remain saved through your own works. That simply isn't the case. It is only by grace, through faith in Christ Jesus that we are saved. Understand this though; I don't believe you can lose your salvation the way you lose your car keys. I simply believe that when I got saved, I didn't lose or give up my free will. It is the same free will that allowed me to make a choice for Christ in the first place.

My prayer is that as brothers and sisters in Christ, that we will all strive to exort one another and lift each other up in prayer to know Jesus more closely each day. My prayer for myself is that He would kill me before I could ever turn away from Him, because in Him is life and the alternative is just too unbearable to think of.