<fredstover@email.com>
Re: Predestined to condemnation?

Can all be saved? Can every sin be forgiven? Some say yes and present
scripture from Ezekiel to support their belief:
"When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his

and do that which is lawful and right; If the wicked restore the pledge,
give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without
committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of his
sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done

which is lawful and right; he shall surely live" (Ezek 33:14-16). What
isn't in the text is what they read into it. It says nothing of the

becoming righteous, then becoming wicked and righteous again. In fact, in
the preceding verses says his righteousness will not be remembered:
"Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The
righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his
transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall
thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the
righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he

When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust

his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall
not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall

for it" (Ezek 33:12-13). The Lord tells us there is a sin which will not

forgiven: "Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be
forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not

forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come" (Matt
12:32). It is the presumption that one's self is above God, and

provide examples of it. Judas was already condemned as Jesus prayed

His arrest: "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name:
those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the

of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled" (John 17:12). The
heretic is already condemned when he provides the third witness to his
heresy: ""A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition
reject; knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being
condemned of himself" (Tit 3:10-11). In short, not all sin is forgiven.

Then there are the folks who argue that the saved and condemned are
predestined. They say God, who is "not willing that any should perish" (2
Pet 3:9), predestined who would perish. And some of them will insist that
they aren't saying He that, but only that He predestined who would be

They deceive themselves, for at the judgment scripture says "whosoever

not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire"

20:15). Within the constraints of scripture, saying He predestines the

is saying He predestines the condemned. The doctrine that the saved are
predestined to salvation derives from confusion between foreknowledge and
predestination, as can be seen in key scriptures often cited to support

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love

to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his

that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did
predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also
justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified" (Rom 8:28-30).
Foreknowledge is knowing what will occur before hand, and results from

omnipresence in time and space, but predestination is determining what

happen, causing it to happen. In the preceding scripture it is the saved
that are foreknown, what is predestined is that they will be conformed to
the image of His son. It is they who will who will be chosen, justified,

glorified. The Lord makes it clear that who will be saved is not

when He tells us: "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" (Rev.
3:5),. and scripture tells us the church is elect by foreknowledge, not
predestination: "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,
through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of

blood of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet 1:2). And scripture also tells us some will
depart, "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some
shall depart from the faith" (1 Tim. 4:1).

1 Cor. 9:27
But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by

means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

Hello,

Yes, the "once saved, always saved" teaching is not a Bible doctrine.
I think Jesus summed it up nice when he said at Mt 24:13 that
salvation was conditional upon something. Mt 24:13,

"But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved." (NASB)

Sincerely, James

the "once saved, always saved" teaching is not a Bible doctrine.