Is Salvation Eternal Once Received, or Can It Be Forfeited?
1) Direct Answer
Salvation, once truly received in the new birth and sealing of the Holy Spirit, is eternal and cannot be forfeited. Many can taste, feel, and even be anointed, then fall away—but that only proves they were never born of the Spirit. The true believer is kept.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- John 10:27-29: “My sheep hear my voice… I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish… no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”
- John 5:24: He that hears and believes “has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”
- Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:30: We are “sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise… unto the day of redemption.”
- Romans 8:30, 35-39: Whom He justified, He also glorified; nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ.
- Philippians 1:6: He who began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
- 1 Peter 1:23: We are born again by “incorruptible seed.”
- 1 John 2:19: Those who depart show they were “not of us.”
- Hebrews 6:4-6; Matthew 13: Some taste the powers of the world to come and receive the word with joy, yet with no root; they fall away—showing it wasn’t the new birth.
- Luke 15: The prodigal was still a son in the far country; the Father restored him.
- Hebrews 12:6: The Lord chastens every son He receives; He doesn’t cast them away.
- Romans 8:9: If any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His—so the issue is truly receiving the Spirit.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- Eternal life is eternal. If it can be lost, it wasn’t eternal.
- God’s seal is unto the day of redemption. If it can be broken, who broke God’s seal?
- A sheep may stray, but it cannot change into a goat. The Shepherd goes after His own.
- Many profess; only those born of the incorruptible Seed possess. Those who finally fall away never had the life inside.
4) Reinforcing Statement
So it’s not “once merely professed, always saved,” but “once truly born of God and sealed by the Holy Ghost, eternally secure.” The real believer doesn’t use this as a license to sin; the Life in him keeps him, corrects him, and brings him home.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 1:E-8
How did Abel know what to do in order to offer a proper sacrifice to God? By faith he received the revelation of the blood. Cain didn't get such a revelation (even though he had a commandment) so he couldn't offer the right sacrifice. It was a revelation from God that made the difference and gave Abel eternal life. Now you might take what the pastor says, or what the seminary teaches, and though it might be taught to you with eloquence, until God reveals to you that Jesus is the Christ, and that it is the blood tha...
The presence of God unrecognized
64-0618 §43
Now. They were so carried away with the popular opinion of that day that He was a Beelzebub, He just a make belief, there wasn't really nothing to Him. What did he do? He forfeited it. He forfeited his opportunity. In the presence of God he could have been forgiven. He said, "I have power to crucify you, I have power to release you." He said, "You have no power unless it comes from my Father." He ought to have known. If he had knowed the Scripture, and him being a Jew should have known that. But you see, the tradit...
The Church and its condition
56-0805 §66
What you need today is to submit all your rights, is to let God lay you down and shave all your rights off of you. Amen. Could you imagine how a little old lamb, all fleece hanging all over him? That's his rights, yeah. "Hhh, hhh, hhh," burning up, and then just lay up on the shearing table. They know what's best for him. Take all of his rights away from him and shear it all off, how cool and light he runs. My, my, he's happy, and jumps around and has a big time. Yes, sir. If you'll forfeit your rights, that's what...
The faith once delivered to the saints
55-0501E §25
Now, how would Abel ever know to bring a lamb? And he was taught by the same father and mother, as Cain was. The only way, the Bible said it was by faith that he offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, showing that he was just. In other words, he was justified in the sight of God, and God gave him a revelation what the plan of salvation was. That was through the shedding of blood, not the offering of building churches, and coming with great intellectual faith, and saying, "Certainly..." Cain said, "God, I bel...
Just one more time, Lord
63-0120E §79
I just learned from a little Greek scholar, sitting here looking at me now, come over from Greece, a scholar in Greek, and he begin to play my tapes and he watched the message. Said, "I know that you haven't even got an education, but Brother Branham, your words and your message run perfect with the Greek interpretation of the Bible." Said, "It's exactly right. What you said it's exactly right." And he come to me, he was telling me, "The Laodicea mean's 'woman' in Greek." This is a woman's world, it's a woman's chu...