The second most contested doctrine in the church today is the doctrine of Eternal Security. I say the second because currently the first regards the importance of personal experience in the believer’s salvation and well-being as a Christian. This is quite an interesting doctrine to argue, I would say. Some would prefer to believe that a Christian, once saved, can lose his salvation, thus needing to be saved again, else be damned forever. Others believe that once a Christian is saved, he will never lose his salvation, for any reason. The position of the former, as I understand it, is that a person may lose his salvation by either some act of sin which removed him from God’s graces, or by refusing to believe any longer in Christ for his salvation. I will show that the idea that a Christian can lose his salvation for any reason at all is completely denied in Scripture. First, of all, I would like to establish a few truths vital to our discussion.

The love of God is a truth I think few Christians completely comprehend. In fact, I am sure very few do, myself included. Paul says to the Ephesians, however, that the understanding of God’s love is necessary to our growth into maturity, into the likeness of Christ. God says to the prophet Jeremiah concerning His people Israel, that Israel’s standing as His people is as secure as the rising and the setting of the sun, that His love for Israel (Israel being the offspring of Abraham according to faith—Romans) is as unsearchable as the heavens above and the ocean beneath. As of that writing, man had not begun to probe the height and depth of either, nor has he hardly begun as of this writing. To be sure, if it were up to God—and we shall see that it is—we would be His children forever, without question or dispute, despite any failing or shortcoming or rebellion on our part. Jesus makes this clear in John’s Gospel: "All that come to Me I will certainly not cast out."

Faith has long been a question of dispute among Christians also. Certainly not the fact that faith alone is necessary for salvation (we are ignoring the pointless banter of cultish doctrine), but the question as to the origin of faith¹. My concern here, is this: If faith originates from man, then man has every right to end his faith, thus losing his salvation. If God allowed man the freedom to will to believe, then surely God will allow man the freedom to will to unbelieve². This is a legitimate conclusion, is it not? Freedom to begin, freedom to end? Anyway, the other end of the equation is this: If faith originates in God, then only God has the right to remove faith. We will soon see that faith does originate in God, it would not be possible otherwise.

Let’s assume that faith originates from man. So this is our situation. Sinful Man A is strolling along in some park, or some college, or near some church, or some anywhere really. He hears a preacher proclaiming the Good News. Now up until this time, Sinful Man A has been "hostile to God...unable to please God...by nature a child of wrath...a slave to sin." But today, Sinful Man A decides to listen in on this preaching man. He says to himself, "Hey, I’ve been going nowhere. My life is at a dead end. I do need Christ." And he believes in Christ for his salvation. Now answer me truthfully, is it realy possible that Sinful Man A could believe in Christ of his own accord. Can a man in bondage to sin, hostile to God, unable to please God, by his very nature a child of wrath, all of a sudden choose to believe in God? Scripture makes it clear that faith is necessary to please God. If one is unable to please God, then one is unable to have faith. So where does this faith come from? "For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."³ "I will put the fear of Me in their hearts." Faith can only come from a heart changed by God. It is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5.22).

Now we have established that God loves us without end, and that faith can only come from God. Keep these ideas in mind.

Let us assume that Christian A loses his salvation. Now he is back to being Sinful Man A. How did he lose his salvation? God must have left him because of the rampant sin in his life, or possibly because of some command from God which he continued to disobey. First of all, if he did lose his salvation for one of these two reasons, it was because of some evil work he did, or some good work he did not do. So his salvation must have been dependent on his works. This is clearly denied in Scripture (Eph 2.8-10). Second of all, Heb 13.5 and Matt 28.20 state clearly that God is with us to stay. "He will never leave us nor forsake us." Or possibly Christian A became Sinful Man A again by refusing to believe in God. Now we know that Christian A could not have stopped believing of his own accord. Since God has granted him faith in Christ, only God can remove this same faith. So God must have removed this man’s faith in order for him to lose his salvation. So God no longer wants to be in this person’s life. We have already shown that God is with us to stay. It is also true that He keeps us to stay with Him. Nothing can remove us from His love (Rom 8.31-39). It is unending, as we discussed before. Nothing is stronger than His love. God will not stop loving us, and therefore wil never get rid of us or let us get rid of Him. "I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will never turn away from Me."

• I have dealt with this subject more completely in my first essay, Predestination. Please refer to that if necessary.
• A friend of mine argues thus against the idea that if we can choose God, then we can unchoose Him: "I have put into action a decision that cannot be reversed. If I decide to jump off a cliff, then halfway down decide I didn’t want to jump off this cliff, no decision of mine can reverse my fall." This illustration is in a way analogous to our discussion, but in the main it is not relevant. In the case of one deciding to jump off a cliff, it is not mainly his decision that causes him to fall, but his ensuing action. When one believes in God, it is God who performs the action which saves. What matters here is what one believes, not what one does. All depends on what one believes. If all depends on what I believe, then I can change what I believe and therefore all that depends on it. If we can choose God, then we can deny Him. If God chooses us, then only He can cast us out. This He will not do.
• Some would say that gift of God here refers to salvation. I prefer to assume that Paul’s grammar was correct (he was a very intelligent Jew). If we assume that, then we must conclude that it can only refer to some forementioned noun in the sentence. Grace is obviously from God. Salvation is not a noun in this statement, but appears in the form of a verb, past tense. Yourselves, I don’t think so. Faith, is the only alternative, and it makes perfect sense. For salvation to be truly independent of anything we can do, for salvation to be such that no man may boast over another, it must be given completely by God, and that necessariy includes faith.