NOTE: All comments in brackets [ ] or in parentheses ( ) as well as highlighted text (bolded and/or in blue) are from the author of this study.
Bible quotations are in maroon.
In the Church there is this widely-held belief that just about everyone is going to be saved and that it is only a small core of stubborn individuals that will refuse to submit to God and that will lose their salvation. This thinking goes along the lines that God is all-loving and all-merciful and that we are all basically good people and that if we are not saved then we wonder who indeed can be saved. God is not a harsh and cruel tyrant and we will all but a very few really bad sinners inherit eternal life.
What does the Bible have to say on this topic and does it tells us the fundamental reason why individuals lose their salvation?
We Must Choose
God will not in any way or by any means force us to obey Him including making us suffer physical or mental torment to correct us.
Deu 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
God has decreed that we must freely and self-willingly chose to obey Him once the knowledge and understanding of the truth has been given us. And, we must keep on making that choice without coercion of any kind from God every day of our lives. He will simply not force us to obey Him and if we ever turn away from Him, He will not by any means force us to return to Him. We must choose and once we have made our choice, God has decreed that He will respect it even if it means the loss of our eternal life.
Every day and for the rest of our lives, we must , freely and self-willingly and in whatever state we may find ourselves (rich, poor, sick, healthy, old, young, happy, sad, etc.), be making the decision to obey God.
If ever we decide we no longer want to be in submission to God, then God will not force us back by trials or any other means for that matter.
God does not want servants who obey Him only because there are being tortured into obedience (physical and mental trials that God would send upon the disobedient servants or those of flawed spiritual character) or out of fear of being tortured. He wants servants that know and understand the truth and freely and self-willingly want to submit themselves to it regardless of the cost to themselves in this present life.
God’s Correction
How does God correct us given that He will not force us to obey Him through fear of punishment and that He wants us to freely, without coercion of any kind, and self-willingly choose to obey Him after coming to the knowledge of the truth.
Let’s see what the Bible has to say on the matter.
Heb 12: 5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
In New Testament times, God is no longer dealing with a flesh-and-blood physical nation as in the days of ancient Israel but with a Spirit-begotten nation whose members are from all nations.
The chastening we receive from God is not being physically spanked, whipped or scourged as God will not by any means force anyone to obey Him.
What is the chastening that can rise to the level of scourging which true believers are to endure at the hand of God for their benefit and which so few have been able to endure and have become bastards spiritually-speaking i.e., God is not their father, they are of another father (Joh 8:44) again spiritually-speaking.
As Mr. Armstrong used to say and as is fully supported by the Bible, there is a battle going on in our minds (Eph 6:12) and it starts right after conversion and lasts till the end of our lives.
The battle is being waged “…… against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places…..”( Eph 6:12).
Please understand and realize that these spirit influences upon our minds are just that, influences. These principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places have no power whatsoever to force or compel men to submit to them and to obey them. If they did, then man would not have the absolute power to choose if there are higher powers in the universe that can force their will upon them. If men sin because of having become the unwilling slaves of spirit beings who are rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness then they cannot be held responsible for the sin that are committed under the irresistible influence of those higher powers. It would be those more powerful spirit powers working their will through them.
God commands mankind to choose and for this to be possible there can be no other higher power in the universe that can force men to believe something against their will.
So where does sin come from in men’s lives? James gives us the answer.
Jas 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
Jas 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Jas 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
Sin is the result of decisions made by man to follow or not follow his own lust. Please note this is not saying that temptation comes from God or that it is Satan’s or demons’ lust in men that is the source of temptation but rather it is men’s own lust. This is a topic which requires a long and detailed explanation and you can find it at the following hyperlink: Your Mind in God’s Plan of Salvation for Mankind For sure, Satan and his demons do exert influence on our minds but they have no power to force us to do anything; we alone have the power to choose what we will do. The main means by which we sin is our own lust. If you take the time to read through the study mentioned above you will understand how this occurs.
So, again, what is the chastening rising up to the level of being scourged that true believers (the sons of God) have to endure and over which many become bitter, refuse God’s correction, and become spiritual bastards refusing to acknowledge the supreme authority of God in their lives as expressed by His law?
God’s Scourging of His Sons
When we are first called to the truth, we are so excited we can hardly believe that all these wonderful things existed and that we had never known about them.
We have found the great treasure buried in the field, the pearl of great price and we want it and are ready to do anything in order to get it, to endure any hardship, pay any price, etc.
This is our first love of the truth which early in our conversion gives us great, boundless zeal for obeying God. We can’t at that time possibly imagine there could be anything too hard for us to do or any price to pay that would be so high that we would not be ready to pay it.
However, at the time of our calling, we only have a very small amount of truth which God has shown us but as we grow in knowledge of the truth of God which is inevitable as we pray and study, we come to know and understand truth which goes squarely against some of our most cherished and treasured beliefs which we had manufactured for ourselves while cut-off from God and most of the time picked up from false religious teachers or paganism. Whatever they may be they are of the highest importance to us.
God’s correction starts off easy and we agree to let go of certain things which though important to us we decide we can live without them. But as time goes on and we grow in knowledge, God’s correction (His teaching of the truth to us as we pray, study and meditate) gets stronger till we come to the point where we have to abandon in order to accept the truth, some of our most precious beliefs which we thought were the truth but which we now know to be wrong. It can be so painful for us to abandon these beliefs that to do so is like enduring a physical scourging. But yet, if we are to grow in knowledge of the truth, we must abandon our previous and, “Oh so precious to us” false beliefs no matter how important they were to us as God leads us into ever more spiritual truth.
Many become bitter and refuse to be corrected; accept the truth God is showing them and; walk in it. They cannot bring themselves to abandon their false beliefs and start reasoning their way around God’s law to make their beliefs which are contrary to God’s law somehow compatible with God’s law. They are not and cannot be made compatible with God’s law and by refusing God’s correction they adopt an attitude and embark on a process whose ultimate result is the loss of their salvation. Their cherished and supremely important beliefs contrary to God’s truth are more important to them and they refuse to let go of their idols which they made for themselves. They no longer have God as their father because of their refusal to be corrected.
God corrects us by teaching us more and more of His truth and we have to exercise our self-will to freely and willingly cease to hold on to past false beliefs no matter how important to us they might have been, and to follow Christ. We are not corrected by trials though we have to endure trials because of the righteousness that we have as our knowledge of God’s truth places us in conflict with the ways of this world. Some of them have to do with putting our old man and all his false beliefs to death, some of which were so very important to us. Freely and self-willingly accepting to abandon and have our old self die in its many facets, aspects and ways that are contrary to God’s truth are the trials we have to endure unto the end as well as all the other physical, emotional and mental trials that are common to all mankind (sickness, grief, sorrow, ageing, death, etc.)
As Mr. Armstrong used to say, the hardest thing for man to do is admit that he was wrong. We all think of ourselves as being pretty smart and good looking too; we are filled with physical and intellectual vanity and had lived our lives accordingly up to the point of our calling. Then we find out as we grow in knowledge and understanding that much of what we had manufactured for ourselves as being the truth is wrong. Many have been unable to accept that they were wrong and refused the truth God was revealing to them to hold on to their past false beliefs.
All you have to do is read some of the comments left on different WEB sites by former members of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) while HWA led it and see how happy and relieved these people are to have finally found the truth i.e., a church that teaches what they believe; not the truth of God. They had refused God’s chastening through His teaching them while they were in the WCG but had remained there nonetheless fearing losing their salvation. But though they may have been member on the physical level, they had ceased to be a member of God’s church on the spiritual level and had lost their salvation from the time they refused to believe God because His teachings or correction went against their own, self-made truth which they placed above the truth of God.
Conclusion
God corrects newcomers to the truth and long time members of His Church through giving them progressively more truth some of which inevitably will require that we abandon our own ideas no matter how important they might be to us in order to obey God. God says these personally-developed but false beliefs that are so important to us and that we have to abandon is such a hard and painful thing to do that it is like being scourged. Consequently, it should not be all that surprising that there are not many who have endured God’s scourging; their personal but false beliefs were too important for them to abandon them.
Becoming part of God’s Kingdom requires that in this life we trust God, submit ourselves to Him and abandon our idols.
Christ clearly and plainly says in verses that require no interpretation that is the few not the many that do let go of all their idols i.e., the truths they had manufactured for themselves while unconverted and which after their conversion they realize are not the truth.
Mat 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.[they choose to remain in the world ]
Mat 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: [they compromise with the world to maintain some of their cherished personal beliefs that are contrary to God’s law and in time drift back into the world; you cannot serve two masters.]
Not everybody but a few stubborn and incorrigible individuals will be saved as we may have once believed. It is a hard truth but one which should cause us all to cast a critical eye on our spiritual lives and make whatever changes are needed for us not to lose our salvation.
We will receive a very great reward but only if we will use our freedom to choose to freely and self-willingly put our old man and all his false beliefs to death and resolve to walk in newness of life.
God's Spiritual Nation 