ETERNAL SECURITY OR NOT - Part 3 of 3

 In the first part of this commentary, I said that I do believe in eternal security. Remembering that “security” is freedom from danger,” obviously the Devil out to devour you is not real security. Indeed, the genuine Christian is threatened continually, as was Job, as I wrote before. A person must be brave to be a Christian for the threat from demons and such are real.

In fact, in the manner of Job, your very lives as righteous people may be in danger. You may be hated for Jesus’s name’s sake (Mat 10:22). What do haters do? They persecute. Indeed, you will suffer tribulation. Those who refuse to deny Jesus may face Great Tribulation.

What is considered the “pre-tribulation rapture” is a required doctrine of Calvinists because eternal security, for them, means that Christians will never face the coming tribulations before the end (apocalypse). Again, I like to think that God will snatch me away before the Antichrist comes, but like Job, if I am alive, I too will be tested for faithfulness.

It is easy to say, “I know that I know that I know that I am saved.” You may even sing it like the Israelites did at the beginning of the exodus, but will you do that when confronted with a terrible choice; the choice of continuing in the fellowship of Christ or joining the legion of devils.

“All the world wondered after the beast” (Rev 13:3). Every ethnicity will be in admiration of the Beast (The Antichrist). “There was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months” (Rev 13:5). Go figure, geniuses; 3-1/2 years of the tribulation period.

You might think, I will be with Jesus by then! Of course, the souls of the dead may very well be, but will you gamble your soul that Jesus will come first so that you will not be tested? All sincere Christians do want to skip the tribulation period, but wishful thinking does not amount to truth. God issued a warning way back when:

When you are in tribulation, and all these things are come upon you, even in the latter days, if you turn to the Lord your God, and shall be obedient unto His Voice… He will not forsake you, neither destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore unto them. (Deut 4:30-31); “if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deut 4:29) 

People will always make excuses to support their false beliefs. The excuse may be that God was speaking only to the Israelites. Will you gamble your soul on that overly comforting, but dangerous thought?

Tribulation in the Hebrew is “sar,” pronounced tsar, meaning “adversary” (Strong 2006). The “Adversary” is Satan, and his way is adversarial against whom? God and Christians. How does Satan get to God? Through you, bringing into remembrance President Trump’s words, “They’re not after me, they’re after you. I’m just in the way.”

Satan knows that God is secure; he knows that you are not as a living being. Like Jesus said, Satan can get to your soul through your flesh. It is not your flesh that Satan and the demons are after but the righteous souls of Christians. Whatever for? To diminish God and enlarge himself… “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High” (Isa 14:14).

Why the mark of the beast? It will diminish God if you are branded like a beast as belonging to Satan. What goes on after the mark? Life here in the world will go on, and perhaps very pleasantly, but what happens to those who remain true to God? Even greater tribulation, for 3-1/2 more years until the return of Jesus.

There are two ways to escape the fear of great tribulation: (1) refuse to believe a good God would allow that, or (2) submit to the mark of the Beast. Most Christians accept the former, saying, “I am already saved and as such am secure.”

Paul wrote, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom 10:13). Paul didn’t say that; translators said that! Paul used the word “sozo” — “to save, keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction” (literally saos — safe).

Words means things; indeed, those who rely on Jesus are safe. Words like “shall be” and such are not in the original writings of Paul, and even if “shall be” was, that is future tense.

“Are safe” is just as applicable. However, either way, salvation is conditional. In the time of peril (tribulation) a Christian must “cry out” (epikaleo) in the Name (Jesus) of the Lord God. Crying out to Jesus is imploring help from Him. Not by coincidence, the Name, Jesus, is theophoric: “Yahweh Saves.” Crying out to Yeshua is asking for help from Him. Crying out implies trust in the Lord God whether you can see Him or not. That us “faith.”

I feel safe at the moment. To be honest, when I sin, I don’t feel quite so safe because in a sense, I am raising Cain and not hearing the blood of Abel crying out from the ground (Gen 4:10). In other words, my flesh belongs to Cain, but I strive to belong to Jesus.

Jesus used different words, “The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mat 26:41). Because sin is genetic, and you cannot control your genes, God understands. All the work that we do is futile, but by grace we are saved (Ephes 2:5).

And again “saved” is not literally accurate since the Greek word again is “sozo.” Salvation is “soterios” in the Greek — “bringing salvation” or even the hope of (future) salvation. Or it could be one who has embodied salvation as if it is already there (ibid) (i.e., the “hope of salvation.”)

My hope is that I am snatched away to avoid tribulations. My hope is that I am already saved. Those wearing the whole armor of God have “the hope of salvation” as our helmet (1 Thes 5:8). Hope in that context is a “great expectation.” I do expect that my soul be saved, albeit I know that I do not deserve salvation; that is grace.

The Devil should love translations that lead to denominations and conflicts. However, although He could have, Jesus never spoke the King James English, or any other version; He spoke the truth, so we should defer to the Greek.

Translations and denominations, to be truthful, are a cunning way of deception. If you remember, Eve failed to understand The Word, adding “and do not touch.”  (Gen 3:3). Eve had no idea what God said, but there she was dominating the man to whom God did speak. God didn’t say anything to Eve about that, but she only thought that she knew God and the Law; to make a name for herself to please Satan.

Translations diminish God. Many Christians see the “Serpent” and the “Beast” whereas they should seek a person whose inner most being is like a serpent or a beast. Hopefully, you get the point.

It occurred to me that the King James Version must be the Calvinistic version of The Word and found out that the majority of the KJV translators were Calvinists who take salvation as now. What does that conceive? To live life, you are already saved, and sin is just a distraction. While feeling saved, the Christian is completely non-sober to the truth; that each day he or she is in jeopardy.

I do believe in eternal security for those who are saved. “Saved” is the key word. When are you saved? At the end. For some, that will be at death, and for others at the rapture of Christians — those who follow Christ to the end of the Way.

So, if I am saved at the end, then I do have eternal security beginning at regeneration when obtaining the “prize” of incorruptible flesh. (1 Cor 15:52).

Incorruptibility is when your person can no longer be defiled. Indeed, that is the “salvation” of your soul and the putting on of new flesh that cannot sin or ever die. That is salvation and thereafter, those who die in Christ will be eternally secure.

The last issue to be addressed is “preservation of the saints": 

Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore. For the Lord loves judgment, and forsakes not His saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever. (Psalm 37:29-31) 

“Saints” are those who have departed from evil and do good. Their hope is to live forever. God will never forsake saints, meaning those who do no evil. Salvation is promised but only so long as they are good. Those who do evil are not part of that covenant, so sin does matter!

Preservation is not salvation. “Preserved” in that passage is “samar” — to put a hedge about.

Remember that even Paradise had a hedge about it (Gen 3:24) “to keep the way of the tree of life.” Somehow the Serpent slithered through the hedge of Paradise and got into the flesh of Eve. Don’t be an “Eve”!

 The Comforter is the “hedge” of Christians. Like Noah, comforters can be kicked off. Noah had found grace — the Comforter — but soon his son saw his nakedness. Even righteous Noah threw off the preservation of God, and him, rather than God, became the “Husbandman” (Gen 9:20) even after the salvation of mankind.

"Salvation," therefore, is at the second coming of Christ at what is called the "rapture" when Christians are both raised from the dead and the living as well. The "end" to which they must endure is either death or the rapture. From thereon they indeed are eternally secure, and God preserves the "saints" until that time. He preserves them in another realm until the time of the harvest — the rapture.

Am I the final word? No; that would make me “the Christ.” You must ponder the Word of the Bible and draw your own conclusions. I am just a messenger, so please don’t hate the messenger!