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.
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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.
Investments
63-1116B §11
We got to talking. And I knew what he was coming for. I got a brother that sells insurance, but I just never did take any, somehow. So he said, after we talked awhile, he said, "I understand, Billy, that you haven't got any insurance," he said "and I thought maybe I could talk to you about a policy. And ..." "Oh," I said, "thank you, Wilmer, but I've got a paid-up policy." And he said, "Oh, I'm sorry," he said, "what kind of a policy do you have, Billy?" And I said, "Eternal life." And believe it or not, the boy sa...
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever
58-0312 §62
Well, then look. If a great big animal had you, and his paw in your side pulling the ribs out, now, it wouldn't be necessary for you to cut that paw off. If he wasn't biting you, you wouldn't just cut his paw off. Just knock him in the head. That'd kill the whole thing. Isn't that right? Well, that's the way sickness is. When you kill sin, you kill sickness with it. You can't preach salvation without taking everything that ever happened to the human race. He was our Redeemer---to redeem us. Yes, sir. Even this old...
Corinthians, book of correction
57-0414 §53
This is Sunday school and remember that's a lesson to you:. Be in your heart; let Christ have first place like the real woman would to her husband. No other arms could touch her nowhere. No other kiss, no matter how charming it looks, she'd turn her head. She's got one set love, and that's for her husband. That's right. No matter how handsome the man might be, and how polished and slick his hair might look, and how he might hold himself correct, no, sir, not one thing. She loves that husband, and that's him alone d...
Seals 2: Breach between the Church Ages and the Seals
63-0317E §52
Now, couldn't we stop here just a minute and get a real sermon, see? Oh, then if the blood has cleansed it back, what about now, see? Look what that Son of God, the second Adam, did. And said, "The works that I do, shall you also," see. Adam lost his inheritance, the earth. Now, it passed from his hands to the one he sold out to---Satan. He sold his faith in God to Satan's reasonings. Therefore, his eternal life, his right to the tree of life, his right to... The earth belonged to him, and he forfeited every bit to...
Adoption, part 3: Position in Christ
60-0522M §97
God, by his foreknowledge, seen exactly who would be saved and who wouldn't be saved. He sent Jesus to save those that He had already chosen. Didn't Paul say, five verses behind this, that He chose us in Him before there even was a world? That's our inheritance. God chose us, and let Jesus come and pay the price. The what? The shedding of his blood, that no sin would be accounted to us. Nothing you do. Well, if you.... "He that sins willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there's no more sacrifice." N...