Can an Elect Person Fall Away Forever?
1) Direct Answer
No. An elect person cannot fall away forever. The true seed may stumble, but God brings them back. The elect are kept by God and will be presented faultless.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice… I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand… My Father… is greater than all” (John 10:27-30). If they “never perish,” then final falling away is impossible.
- The Scripture says those whom God foreknew He predestinated, called, justified, and glorified (Romans 8:29-30). Notice the chain is unbroken—from foreknowledge to glory. Then it adds that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ (Romans 8:35-39).
- We were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world and sealed with the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption (Ephesians 1:4,13-14). A seal unto the day of redemption is not a seal for a season.
- “If it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:24). That shows it is not possible to finally deceive or lose the elect.
- “Being born again… by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever” (1 Peter 1:23). Incorruptible seed does not die out.
- “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him” (1 John 3:9). The life in the soul cannot deny the Word. The outward man may fail; the inner man holds to God.
- God chastens every son He receives (Hebrews 12:5-11). He corrects His own; He does not cast them away.
- The prodigal was a son while away and a son when restored (Luke 15). He was not made a pig; he was a sheep out of place, brought home again.
- Those who depart and never return reveal they were never of us (1 John 2:19).
Revelation shows the Bride standing victorious, not lost: a countless, washed, overcoming people (Revelation 7:9-17) and seated to reign (Revelation 20:4). That is preservation, not perdition.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- Eternal life cannot be temporary. If it can be lost forever, it was never eternal.
- If the elect could finally fall, then Christ would lose a part of His Body and a name written from the foundation would be erased. But Jesus said, “they shall never perish.”
- The life of God in the soul believes the Word. The outside may slip, but the Seed inside will call for the Word, and the Father will bring that child back.
4) Reinforcing Statement
Now notice: it’s not a license to sin; it’s a promise that the true seed will be kept holy. The Bride will be there. God finishes what He starts.
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Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Questions and Answers, Part 3
64-0830M §160
...says the blood sanctifies), and then comes right up to the gate of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and because of prestige or denomination refuses to walk in it, said, "That person is lost and can never be saved," see, for he's done despite even to the very works of grace that's called him up to that place and shown it to him, and then turn around, walk away from it. He counts the blood of the covenant wherewith he was crucified---Christ was crucified as an unholy thing. Because the blood that saved him, and justifi...
From that time
60-0716 §61
That's just as much intelligence of him doing that, as it would be to send a man away to learn to be a preacher. God calls men who don't know beans from split coffee. What difference does it make? As long as he knows Christ, that's the main thing---if you ever met Him. I'd rather have somebody with one of my children out here in the sage brush field, somewhere down by an old stump, that didn't even know his ABC's or know which was right or left hand. If he knows Jesus Christ, I'd like to have him beside of my child...
The Faith Of Abraham
59-0424A §55
...turn them back young again. When they come from the dust of the earth, not old gray-headed and broke down, but young in the very splendor of health. Always will be that way forever and forever, never to blemish. Sin will be done away with. There'll be no serpent in that garden of Eden. He will be done away with forever. Notice. It'll all be renewed again. God's great purpose. He cannot be defeated, because He's God.
Questions and Answers on Hebrews, part 1
57-0925 §16
...ifference? The wicked has everlasting punishment, but everlasting is "a space of time." Now, if it would have been the same, it would have been written, "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, the other shall go away into everlasting life," see. Or, "They shall go away into eternal punishment, and the other one into eternal life." See, if there's an eternal punishment, to be punished forever and ever, then, there's an eternal ... he's got eternal life; and the only one eternal life, and that comes fro...
The unconditional covenant that God made
54-0306 §84
...o has power to loose or to bind on this earth, we now claim that, and Satan cannot rob us from it because it was given by sovereign grace. And we ask that the woman, or the person that's in the hospital that's very sick or what's wrong, that the mercies of God will fall upon that person and Satan will be drove away, and the person will be made well. And bless that one who is here that's listened to the message, and when they get there anointed with this Spirit, I send it in the name of Jesus. Let them lay their han...