Recently pastor Phil Schlamp distributed a gospel tract in printed format titled “Calvinism’s Misrepresentation of God.” Though I agree fundamentally with the basis of his tract — that of Calvinism’s misrepresentation of God and corrupt salvation, which is based on Calvinism’s corrupt TULIP (which I have exposed here); and that John Calvin was a murderous heretic and Protestant pope, embracing and propagating a false gospel (exposed here); and that they corrupt tons of Scripture to promote their false teaching on election and predestination (exposed here and here) including Romans 9 (exposed here), and have debunked John MacArthur's false logic to prove all are Closet Calvinists (exposed here) and more if you search on this website — nevertheless, his warning was weak and non-pointedly (he couldn’t even name the name of the church that is promoting Calvinism in the community), and no scriptural support was given, which is contrary to Scripture (we argue a Biblical position from the Bible), and even further, hypocritical, since Schlamp himself teaches a corrupted salvation and misrepresentation of God. In the tract Mr. Schlamp says he “desires truth above all else” but he clearly doesn’t since he rejects an extremely clear and important truth taught in the Word of God. I mean very, very clear.
So my issue isn’t with pastor Schlamp‘s expose of Calvinism (though he is wrong on the ‘P’ of the TULIP and what he wrote about election) or his positions on “drinking alcohol” and “divorce and remarriage” (both of which I also deal with here and here respectively) but rather he is not one to speak when it comes to “desiring truth above all else,” considering his horrible error concerning the critical doctrine of eternal security of salvation doctrine, which he denies and corrupts, which is as bad or worse than the false soteriology of Calvinism. And not only that, in so doing, he also corrupts who God is. Thus, though I agree mostly with his assessment on the errors of Calvinism, including their misrepresentation of God, the problem is a different perversion of salvation noted in the tract, and in much of his preaching.
He disagrees with what he believes Calvinists hold to on “The P of the TULIP,” writing:
“And now that they are saved, they will never fall away. They can’t fall away. They might backslide for some time but they will alway come back. Gods elect cannot be lost.”
Towards the end of the tract, he explains his argument for opposing Calvinism:
“And last, though one is saved, one may yet turn away from Christ, and many do. Salvation is not a one time believing. It is a present tense believing that must go on for life, as the entire NT clearly spells out. God never violates man’s free will. Never!”
Though I do not embrace Calvinism, his argument is full of lies. Satanic lies. Nothing is more important to Satan than corrupting Gods Gospel and the character of God, and in what he exposes he is also guilty of. I will prove that these are lies below, while also drawing from his sermons and from an open letter I wrote to him some years ago debunking his heresies on "conditional salvation" (losing salvation) and his massive amounts of scripture perversion.
LIE #1:
“The saved can fall away. . . . One may yet turn away from Christ, and many do.”
No, this is definirely not true. Saved people do not fall away; the unsaved do. Only false professors turn away from Christ, and the Bible is extremely clear on that.
Saved peoples hearts do not turn away from God, only false believers (pretenders, fakes, the meaning of hypocrite) do. Saved people are never in unbelief. Ever. The just live by faith (Hab 2:4; Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11; Heb 10:38). God never leaves His children to themselves (Phil 1:6; 2:12-13). Ever. He chastises them if they sin or disobey (Heb 12:5-11; Pr 3:11-12; 1 Cor 11:28-32; etc). Truly saved people also do not live in sin and rebellion, only false believers/pretenders do (Rom 6:1-23; 7:4-6; 8:1-14).
1. Firstly, unsaved people fall away. Those who fall from God’s grace in Gal 5:4 are unsaved; people who are attempting to be justified by the law:
“Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.”
Some of these Galatians were lost, because they continued to add works to grace (Gal. 5:1-4), thus perverting the gospel of Christ (Gal. 1:6-9). They were mere professors and these will indeed fall away from God’s grace and be cast into eternal hell for they were never truly converted to begin with (e.g. Jn. 2:23-25; 6:60-66; Matt. 7:21-23). They have never been saved because they are attempting to be justified by the law. A true born again Christian does not fall from “in Christ.” The lost is falling “from grace” and the word “from” does not mean from a position in Christ. From means up to. It doesn’t mean you are in. It means you are up to something, not into something. Once you’re in, you can’t go out but someone that is falling “from” is falling from a point up to something, from a point of experiencing something, not from in something.
Those justified by grace do not fall from grace. They always have God’s special grace on them (1 Pet. 1:10, 13), the “manifold grace of God” (1 Pet. 4:10), and they NEVER lose it (e.g. Ti. 2:11-14; 1 Tim. 1:14; 2 Th. 1:12; 2:16). Those who add to grace, even one iota like circumcision (Gal 5:3), have fallen from God’s grace. That doesn’t mean they once were saved and then lost it. It means they have never been saved. They might’ve been close to salvation, but their endeavour to be justified by some other way or by the law or their refusal to repent, causes them to fall away from the grace that they had and proves they were never saved to begin with. They had light but didn‘t respond to the light so the light diminishes: “Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be w the children of light.” (Jn 12:35-36). Not everyone that experiences the ministry of Gods grace will reach heaven. If someone renounces the truth or some aspect of the truth, it only shows that they were never of the truth to begin with, because those that are truly saved have the “truth . . . dwell[ing] in [them], and shall be with [them] for ever.” (2 Jn. 1:2). For ever! It never leaves them. One has to be completely ignorant to these perspicuous and clear words, to reject them. Those that depart from the truth are mentioned in 1 Jn. 2:19.
This is ironically the dilemma men like pastor Schlamp find themselves in. By adding works to grace (e.g. having to remain sinless and faithful lest you lose your position in Christ is works added to grace), he has become “a debtor to the whole law.” (Gal 5:2-3). “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.” (Rom. 4:4). Christ profits you nothing. You are severed or cut off from Him (the meaning of Christ profiting someone nothing). True believers do NOT fall from grace—false “believers” do. The irony is people just like pastor Schlamp are falling from Gods grace; not from a position of being saved but from having light and not responding to it and rather corrupting the grace of God. Hence the many warnings such as Pr 29:1, “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”
Those that fall from grace have never been saved by God’s grace (Rom. 5:15-21; 11:6). Christ only saves those who repent and depend upon His grace, not those who believe that they must do something to help God keep them saved. Such are attempting to be justified by the works of the law, even if they don’t admit, for they have never been “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:” (Rom. 3:24). They do not testify to “the gospel of the grace of God” like Paul the apostle (Ac. 20:24) but to “another gospel” (2 Cor 11:4; Gal 1:6-9). They have come close to salvation, having tasted but never eaten or drank (Heb 6:4-9; cf. Jn 6:35, 53-58). In Ti. 2:11 we see that all the world is under the grace of God that brings salvation: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appear to all men,” To all men! Even those wicked and “ungodly men” warned of by Jude, false teachers who have crept into churches unawares, “turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ju 1:4), yea even these men who are obvious false teachers denying the Lord that bought them (2 Pet 2:1). If these “ungodly men” who are obviously lost, didn’t have some grace, how could they “turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness”? They indeed have some grace since God is “the God of all grace” (1 Pet. 5:10) and “he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45) which is God’s grace, but every born again believer has been saved by God’s grace (Jn. 1:16-17; Ac. 15:11; Rom. 5:20-21; 11:5-6: Eph. 1:6-7; 2:5, 8; Gal. 2:21) and is full of God’s grace (Ac. 20:32; Rom. 5:2, 15-17, 20-21; 6:14-15; 12:6; 1 Cor. 1:4; 3:10; 15:10; 2 Cor. 6:1; 9:8, 14; 12:9; Gal. 1:6; Col. 1:6; Eph. 2:7; 3:2-8; 4:7; 6:24) and always stands in “the true grace of God” (I Pet. 5:12). He does NOT ever fall from it because Gods grace never leaves him, not even when sinning or disobedient (Heb 12:5-11)—nowhere does Scripture say that (rather the opposite—they grow in His grace), but false “believers” do though. We also see that throughout scripture.
The truly saved endure, persevere and continue to live by faith unto the end, because the just live by faith (De. 13:3-4; Ps. 7:9; Matt. 10:22; 24:13; Lk. 18:7-8; Rom. 1:8, 12, 16-17; 1 Cor. 2:5; Gal. 3:18; 6:10; Col. 1:4; Phil. 2:17; 1 Th. 3:2, 5-7; 2 Th. 3:2; Heb. 6:9-15; 10:38-39; 11:1–12:12; Jam. 5:10-11; 1 Jn. 2:24; etc). God never stops working in those He indwells. “A just weight and balance are the Lord's: all the weights of the bag are his work.” (Pr. 16:11). Those imbalanced are unsaved. A false balance and a false weight is an abomination to God (Pr. 16:11a; 20:23; Dan. 5:27). God’s Word commands a just weight and balance, which comes from Him (De. 25:13-16; Lev. 19:36; Job 31:6; Pr. 11:1; 16:11b; 20:23), for we never want to be “weighed in the balances, and . . . found wanting.” (Dan. 5:27). De. 25:13-16 gives the explanation and makes it clear that balances and weights are referring to salvation and the evidence thereof. The truly saved are continually stabilized by the Lord, right to the end. The “Lord Jesus Christ . . . shall also confirm [stabilitate] you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful . . .” (1 Cor. 1:7-9). Living by faith is living by obedience to God’s Word. “And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.” (Ps. 9:10). The true believer follows the same path of life as the true believers of yesteryear. Like their forefathers in the faith mentioned in Heb. 11, that great cloud of witnesses, they are not “slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (Heb. 6:12). They are like Abraham, who “after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.” (Heb. 6:15). The just live by faith (Hab. 2:6; Gal. 3:11; Rom. 1:17; Heb. 10:38). They never stop living by faith. The true disciple of Christ indeed is one who continues in God’s Word (Jn. 8:31). They endure and persevere, which is a major evidence of salvation. They “shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end” (Heb. 6:11).
It is the false believer on the other hand that doesn’t endure or persevere; they get offended because of the Word of God or the Lord Jesus Christ, or the cares of this world or the deceitfulness of riches and lusts of other things take over, and they fall away (Mk. 4:17-19; 1 Jn 2:19; Jn. 6:60-66; 2 Pet. 2:20-22; 2 Tim. 4:3-4; Heb. 12:7-8). The Lord is not there to hold them up (Ps. 94:18), for they were never saved to begin with. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they stop attending church or reading their Bible, or associating with Christianity to some level, though it certainly can mean that. They might go from a Biblical church to a lesser one; one that is worldly and meets their lustful needs. What it always means is internally they reject the words of God and commands of God, and have no desire to obey Him. They were false professors. Imitators. Counterfeits. Deceiver’s and seducers. False believers and maybe even false teachers. Some are also wilful false prophets and wolves in sheep’s clothing.
The saved cannot even fall away, for “The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.” (Ps. 145:14). Saved people do not fall away: “When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up.” (Ps. 94:18). That ought to finalize that, the final nail in the coffin, but for some no amount of evidence would ever persuade them. They are scoffers, men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, followers after their own lusts (2 Pet 3:3; 2 Tim 3:8).
2. Secondly, a new creature in Christ will never deny the Lord Jesus or turn away from Him, while God warns that apostates do turn away and fall away because they were never saved to begin with, just as John wrote 1 Jn. 2:19.
“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.”
Their is a contrast being made between v. 19 and v. 20, between false believers (“they” used 7 times) and true believers (“us” used 5 times). “Ye” in v. 20 are “us” in v. 19. All born again believers continue with true believers and they are indwelled with the Holy Spirit and have an unction from Him and know all truth (1 Jn 2:19-21). They are not saved because they continue but if they are saved they will continue. The difference here is tremendous, the difference between grace and works, between heaven and hell. They NEVER fall away, and even when they stumble and fall after the lusts of the flesh, they rise up again because of God’s continual work in them: “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again:” but those who are lost, when they fall, they will eventually stay in their fallen condition: “but the wicked shall fall into mischief.” (Pr. 24:16). The wicked are always unsaved in scripture. So the only falling from grace which is recognised in Scripture, is not the falling of the regenerate but the falling of the unregenerate from influences tending to lead them to Christ. 1 Jn. 2:19 is a clear explanation that true people of Christ will continue, and that those who do not continue were never of, only with, so that we know that it isn’t that you lose it, but that it was never yours in the first place.
It is a promise and guarantee of the Lord that true believers, just like Israel one day (in the Great Tribulation) when she is saved, will never depart from the Lord. In Jer 32:40 God says:
“And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.”
There are many promises of eternal security in this passage (everlasting covenant which is everlasting life given at salvation, He will never turn from them, He will always do them good, they will fear Him, they shall never depart from Him), and though it contextually pertains to the nation of Israel, it occurs in every repentant sinner that is born again, for we all have the same salvation and all fall under the same father of our faith: Abraham (Rom. 4; Gal. 3).
3. Thirdly, falling away refers to someone that came close to salvation but was never saved to begin with. Seen in the wayward, stony and thorny soils (Matt 13), which are very plain examples of this, all of which are equally unconverted, although the time frame of each falling away is different, and they fall away from the plausibility of ever getting saved at all, for different reasons. Only the good ground is truly converted, and consequently understands, has a good heart, and is fruitful.
4. Fourthly, according to Heb 6:4-6, those who fall away cannot be saved again. This shows the error of those who teach that a believer can fall away and lose their salvation. This passage says,
“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”
This passage refers to false believers. How do we know? (a) They tasted but they did not drink and eat (cf. Jn 6:54). (b) The difference between the true believer and the false is the evidence and fruit (vv. 7-8). (c) Paul plainly states that he is not referring to true believers (v. 9). Those who fall away (v. 6) cannot be saved again (v. 4, “For it is impossible”). This shows the error of those who teach that a believer can lose his salvation. If they deliberately and wilfully refuse to repent and believe in the gospel of Christ, then they “crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” This passage is clear that “It is IMPOSSIBLE . . . if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance.” This one passage alone reveals the fallacy of this false doctrine, contradicting it definitely and finally. Note also further the illustration given by the Holy Spirit in the verses which follow, bearing out the fact that vv. 4-6 were written concerning those who had been “enlightened,” but not regenerated, were close to conversion and likely even made professions of faith, such as those Hebrews in Jn 2:23-25, but were unconverted. In other words, the saved man “bringeth forth” fruit, but the man who rejects repentance and the Heavenly Gift bears “thorns and briers.” (vv. 7-8). “By their fruits ye shall know them.” (Matt 7:15-20). In v. 9 we see further convincing proof of the fact that vv. 4-6 describe the enlightened, but unregenerate, where there is a change from describing those who had rejected true repentance and Christ to addressing the truly born-again Hebrew Christians. He calls them “beloved.” And He says, “But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you”—He had referred to the unregenerate as “those” (v. 4). Of “you,” the “beloved” of God, they were “persuaded better things” than merely an intellectual knowledge. “We are persuaded . . . things that accompany salvation.” These words unmistakably prove that, in the preceding verses those that fall away, were not born again souls. And than as we keep reading, in vv. 13-20 we find one of the strongest passages bearing upon the eternal security of the believer to be found in all the Word of God. The illustration is given of Jehovah’s promise to Abraham, at which time God confirmed His Word by His oath. According to the law of Moses, two or three witnesses were required to establish a fact in point of law. And here we read that by God’s Word and God’s oath—by these two “immutable,” unchangeable things, we have a hope, “an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast.” What could be more plain, more reassuring?
5. Fifthly, how about the argument, “how can a person fall away from something he has not had,”— if falling away is not from salvation? Even if he is not saved, he has had a lot. Just because someone is unconverted does not mean he doesn’t have God’s grace on him. The Bible speaks of this everywhere. The lost have light (Jn 1:9) and are continuously under God’s grace, although its vastly different than that of a child of God. The grace of God that saves the sinner has appeared to ALL men (Ti. 2:11), which means ALL men that are not converted and die in their sins—which is majority of men (Matt. 7:13-14; Lk 13:23-25)—obviously fall from some level of God’s grace.
6. The absolute horrible bondage pastor Schlamp creates with the fear of falling away is seen in a sermon titled Felot Ekj Got - Part 3. He pounds the fear mongering of falling away. Not reading the Bible—you will forget God and fall away. You don’t go to church—you forget God and fall away. This forgetting about God is supposedly all in the context of a professing believer falling away completely, like Israel did. But Israel wasn’t saved and nor are these people that “forget God and fall away.” They were/are lost. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out , that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” (1 Jn 2:19). Not sure what part of “they” and “us,” Schlamp doesn’t understand. He obviously does not understand the doctrine of salvation or the supernatural new birth and is turning his followers into two-fold more children of hell they once were. He also doesn’t understand the difference between the saved and the unsaved. Truly born again people love God, God Word and God’s people. They don’t need to be told to read their Bible or go to a Bible believing church; they will do that because of their new loves, new heart and new position with the Holy Spirt to of God indwelling them.
7. He completely fails to understand the difference between a true Christian and a false one, while the Bible makes the contrast absolutely everywhere, from Genesis to Revelation, and its easily discernible by one that is truly born again. In another place he says:
“We all know people who started well and even lasted for a time but later turned their back on God” (Eternal Security Series).
2 Cor. 7:10 succinctly states (and plainly refutes this error of yours), that “godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” Those that have exercised saving repentance which consists of godly sorrow and are saved, they will NEVER repent of that! He is very confused. It’s the lost and false pretender who repents with worldly sorrow about his false and fake position before God, like Judas and those in 1 Jn. 2:19 and many other places, but true believers will NEVER turn from the most amazing and unspeakable gift known to mankind! The truly converted sinner will never repent of or regret his or her conversion and salvation and turn his/her back on God, no matter how difficult the road ahead may be. Never! The Corinthians proved that very truth in that very context and epistle. Only those who had a “conversion” inspired by the sorrow of the world eventually turn their backs on God because they have never been genuinely saved (again, many examples of this in Scripture, and the case with some of the Corinthians —2 Cor. 12:20-13:5). His false philosophy also ignores the parable of the sower and seed, where none of the grounds are saved except the good ground. Both the stony and thorny souls have this sort of testimony, that they are saved but in fact unsaved which eventually reveals itself. But unsurprisingly, he grossly misinterprets and abuses these passages as well (Matt 13:3-23; Mk 4:2-20; Lk 8:4-15).
8. Every person that comes to God by free choice with a repentant and believing (in the gospel of Christ) heart, He will save. Scripture states that certain men turn “the grace of God into lasciviousness” (Ju 1:4), and I am convinced that both Calvinists and Arminians are guilty of this. Paul pleaded with the Corinthians to be sure they had not “received the grace of God in vain” (2 Cor. 6:1; cf. 13:5). This is because the way they were living was pointing to some of them having received it in vain. They were likely yet “carnal” (1 Cor 3:1-4) which means unregenerate, only of the flesh (1 Cor 2:12, 14; Rom 8:1-9). It is not God's grace that is vain, but man's false reception or rejection of it. The vanity is in man's rejection of its appeal to his heart. Men can reject God’s grace both occasionally and then finally (Ti. 2:11; Pr 1:20-31). Every human on earth can reject the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the “effectual call of God” for their lives (and the vast majority do), and God's grace would still be triumphant. It is poor, blinded men who lose, even their souls (Matt. 16:26). “The Lord will give grace and glory” (Ps. 84:11), despite the reactions of the godless, and the doctrinal machinations of Calvinism and Arminianism. The exercise of man's freewill no more negates God's grace, then the Devil returning to heaven from whence he was cast negates the eternal peace and joy of that place (Job 1:5; 2:1; Ze. 3:1-2). Man's reception of grace, does not make it become valid grace, nor does his rejection make it become invalid grace. Grace is grace and always will be regardless of the theology of angels, demons, Calvinists, Arminians, or anyone else that is unsaved. Falling from grace is lost man falling from “the grace of God that bringeth salvation” which “hath appeared to ALL men” (Ti. 2:11) regardless who they are.
9. Backsliding means to apostatize. The backslider is not a saved person but a false professor, who apostatize‘s from the truth, like pastor Schlamp, ironically. Read more here about backsliding: Saved People Don't Backslide - They Are Not Apostates.
LIE #2:
“Salvation is not a one time believing. It is a present tense believing that must go on for life, as the entire NT clearly spells out.”
No, the entire NT doesn’t clearly spell out the damnable heresy of process salvation. Nowhere in scripture is salvation described as an ongoing daily event. True Biblical salvation is not a process but a completed, finalized event, on one given day, at one given time. “(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)” (2 Cor 6:2). Salvation occurs on a given day, at a specific point in time. Very. Clearly. But there is more.
Salvation is only described in the Greek perfect tense, where it’s completed at one point in time but the effects go on for life. When Jesus said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (Jn 3:3-7), He was not saying that you need to be born again everyday. He was referring to an event that occurs but once in a sinners lifetime, if he repents, which is completed
Twisting the Scriptures to imply that a man must keep on believing in order to keep on being saved, produces a false gospel. Salvation is not a continual process that requires continual repentance. This is a false “gospel” of works. Jn 5:24 and 2 Cor 6:2, among many passages, make it clear that faith in Christ for salvation is a one time event. That faith resulted in the things that came to pass on that day, such as life and eternal life and no more death (Jn 11:25-26; 17:2-3; etc), whereby a lost sinner becomes a permanent saint, a beloved child, adopted into God’s family by reconciliation with God, and justified, sanctified, redeemed, propitiated, given eternal and everlasting life and a host of other promises, and all these things are eternally permanent and can never be lost. They are all perfect tenses. Gods promises are immutable (Heb 6), “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” (2 Cor. 1:20). They—then and presently and ongoing (the perfect tense)—have everlasting life, are not condemned, and have passed from death unto life. 1 Jn. 5:1 says every born again believer will keep on believing, NOT for salvation but BECAUSE of salvation (because they are “born of God”). And those that don't keep on believing, 1 Jn. 2:19 and Matt. 13:4-7, 12, 19-22 say they never had it in the first place. 1 Jn. 3:6 says they have “not seen him, neither known him.” In Matt. 7:23 and 25:12 Jesus says He doesn't know them either.
Salvation is always a progress and a process to Schlamp. It’s continually in check, because it could be lost at any moment, even though that seems to never apply to him. This is clear form of works-salvation: e.g. “if we live faithfully we will be finally and ultimately saved.” Yes that is works, but we are not saved by “living faithfully” but saved at a specific moment and time (Jn 3:3-7, 15-21; 2 Cor. 6:2; Ti 3:3-7; etc). All truly saved people will live faithfully—the just live by faith—for many reasons, but that is an evidence of salvation, not a means to it. He is putting the cart before the horse. The new birth is not a process that continues on daily or weekly or monthly or annually, but the work of God in an instantaneous moment in time, at which point it is finalized. At that moment it is done. Completed. It is finished, for God has said: “in the day of salvation have I succoured thee:” (2 Cor. 6:2). That is a Greek perfect aorist tense, referring to a perfected state that occurred at some point in the past. God rescued the perishing at one given time, and they never need to be rescued again. They shall never perish. They are alive forever more (Jn. 10:10; 11:25-26). They will never be cast away (Jn 6). They have everlasting life (Jn 5:24). No one can ever take them out of the Fathers hands or the Son’s hands. Nothing can be added to this or taken away, and everything we will ever have in this life or ever need is given at that moment, and none of it can be lost, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Pet 1:3-4). That is why it’s called the new birth. Just like the physical birth of a new born baby, when the new birth is completed, it is complete. We don’t keep being born every day, or born again every day. We are born of water once, and born of the Spirit once (Jn 3:5-6). And nothing can undo it. You can never be unborn.
Jn. 3:17-18, 36; 5:24, amongst other passages, show that life is received the very moment one repentantly believes—at that instant and forever, one “is” no longer condemned (an unchanging completed perfect tense; occurred in the past and true in the present and ongoing perpetually). The instant the snake-bitten Israelite looked at the brazen serpent, he was completely healed physically; so the moment one looks in faith to the Crucified One, he is perfectly and eternally saved (Jn. 3:14-15)—the poison of sin is completely gone! As physical healing was immediate upon looking to the serpent (Num. 21), so spiritual healing is immediate upon receiving the Lord Jesus Christ by repentant faith; it is not a process where one gradually becomes justified or forgiven, or salvation has to be maintained on a daily basis. That is a Satanic lie. I cannot think of a more awful bondage than living a so-called Christian life that could be lost at any moment.
This heresy reeks of Tony Campolos false gospel and the false gospel presented in modern Bibles perversions, including the NKJV which Schlamp uses. The NKJV teaches doctrine derived from Roman Catholicism (RCC — which corresponds with the history of the false theology of "losing salvation"). And that influence was there, right in the translation committee. They, like you, teach that salvation is a process and it can be lost if not maintained daily or for confessed sin (the “losing salvation” heresy was invented and propagated by them). The NKJV changes salvation from a present immediate possession into a continual process. It completely changes the doctrine of salvation from that of grace into works. All this is brought out by the straining of the tenses, as I will point out below. This lines up perfectly with both the RCC Bible and RCC doctrine. And yes, the NKJV commits this perversion on multiple occasions.
2 Cor. 2:15 in the NKJV says: “among those who are being saved” while God’s Word (KJV) actually says: “in them that are saved”. Thats a massive difference of tenses and only the latter (the KJV) is true to the Greek Received Text, God’s inspired and preserved Word.
1 Cor. 1:18 in the NKJV says: “to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved” while the Word of God says “to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved.” In both these KJV passages, “are” is a Greek perfect verb, a completed perfect tense, while “being” is obviously NOT completed but continues to take place without a definitive end result and un-assuredly.
Ac. 15:19 in the NKJV reads: “who are turning to God,” while God’s Word reads: “are turned to God:” Again same problem: changing God’s Word from a definitive perfect tense in the Greek to a non-definitive and non-perfect ongoing tense, which completely changes the meaning of the passage and of the doctrine, perverting the doctrine of salvation.
In 1 Jn. 5:13 the NKJV adds to God’s Word by changing "may believe" with "may continue to believe.”
In Ac. 2:47 the NKJV reads: “And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” while God’s Word actually reads: “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” Clearly a process of salvation, yea a works “salvation” in the NKJV.
In 2 Cor. 4:3 the NKJV reads: “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,” while God’s Word reads: “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:” Again, the tense is completely off and changes the meaning of the passage. There is no such thing as “are perishing” for they are either lost or they aren’t— there is no process associated with it, just like that of salvation. (And whats with “veiled”?! As if that is a better translation than “hid”!)
In Heb. 10:14 the NKJV adds the word “being” to "are sanctified" which once again results in a works salvation: "are being sanctified”— since the context is all about salvation, so thus likewise perverts the doctrine of salvation and actually renders this verse contradictory. The verse actually reads, “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” All that are sanctified are already perfected. It happened at salvation (see also Ju. 1:1; Matt. 19:21; Lk. 6:40; 1 Cor. 2:6; Heb. 12:23; Phil. 3:15). At that moment, because of His all-sufficient “one offering” of His own self on the tree, all that He sanctifies “he hath perfected for ever.” This is a present and eternal truth based upon the incredible event of conversion. In the NKJV, the “being sanctified” contradicts the “perfected for ever”. Those that “are perfected for ever . . . are sanctified”, NOT “being sanctified”. Although sanctification has a practical process attached to it, it is also a positional truth that occurs at salvation, which is precisely what this passage is teaching. The perfection and sanctification go together, but turning it into a process like the NKJV does, makes it contradictory and brings massive confusion to God’s Word.
Salvation is NOT a process as the NKJV reads. We are not "being" sanctified for salvation, we are not "being" saved, and we do not "continue" to believe so we can be saved. At salvation we have been saved eternally, we then continue to be sanctified because we have been saved and sanctified, and we continue to believe because we have been saved, justified, sanctified and have the indwelling Holy Spirit and a hundred other reasons. Salvation, sanctification and perfection are all permanent and unchangeable positions before God, although sanctification has a practical aspect to it which makes the believer more like Christ, more practically holy, perfect and righteous in our daily walk, etc (e.g. 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Eph. 4:1; Rom. 8:29-30). When a lost sinner is supernaturally saved through the regeneration of the Holy Spirit which came through repenting towards God and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ (Ac. 20:21; Mk 1:15-20; Lk 14:25–15:32), he is instantaneously saved (2 Cor 6:2; 1 Jn. 5:11-13; Rom. 10:13), he is instantaneously sanctified (1 Cor. 1:2; 6:11; Heb. 2:11; 10:10), and he is a born again believer forever, which will never be repeated again!
These evil and damnable changes by the way in the NKJV, falsely implying that salvation is a process, are blatantly wicked and blasphemous. Its condemned by Rev. 22:18-19. By using and endorsing this perversion of Scripture, men like Schlamp become accomplices to the crime. And we can also see how his doctrine has been leavened over by this heretical perversion.
Like I said, this pastor does not understand the doctrine of salvation which is the gospel. That is very bad considering the position he holds.
LIE #3:
“God’s elect can be lost. . . . Scripture teaches salvation can be lost.”
No, actually the Scriptures do not teach that salvation can be lost. It doesn’t say that anywhere. This is pure fabrication made out of sheer cloth. Pure fiction found absolutely nowhere in God’s Word.
1. In the report Biblical Reasoning Why Salvation Can Never Be Lost, I cover the following reasons why it’s impossible for the saved to lose their salvation…
Because it is a free gift of God's grace that cannot be mixed with works (Eph. 2:8-10; Ti. 3:3-8; Rom. 3:19-24; 4:4-6; 5:12-21; 11:6).
Because it is by imputation and substitution (Rom. 4:5-8; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 2:20; Heb. 9:10).
Because it is an eternally new position in Christ, a new creature (2 Cor. 5:17; Col. 2:10-15).
Because of Divine election and predestination (Rom 8:29-39).
Because of redemption and Christ's blood (Rom. 3:24-25).
Because salvation brings immediate eternal perfection and sanctification.
Because of the circumcision of the heart and flesh (Col 2:10-15; De 30:6; Rom 2:28-29).
Because of Christ’s Advocacy and High Priestly prayer (Jn. 17) and ministry (Hebrews), which guarantees eternal security and the continual sanctification of all believers.
Because of the indwelling and sealing of the Holy Spirit, who indwells the inner man of every redeemed believer (Eph. 3:16), and is "the power that worketh in us" (Eph. 3:20).
Because once one is filled with the spiritual water that Christ gives he will never thirst again (Jn. 4).
Because of glorification and Rom. 8:28-39.
Because of the New Covenant.
Because of the Greek perfect tense (aorist) moods and verbs regarding justification/salvation.
Because of the things that WE KNOW, that are absolutely sure and God has revealed them and promised them to His redeemed.
Because so many passages abundantly clarify this.
Because of many reasons other than those mentioned above and also because of all the soul-saving doctrines directly connected to eternal security that further describe salvation.
Because of not all those hundreds of passages that teach we can't lose it but also because there is no passage of Scripture that says we can.
They are compelling and concrete reasons. God’s Word says it, and then we have nothing that contradicts it.
Here are excerpts from two different sections, no. 10 and 13.
Ten. Salvation can never be lost because once one is filled with the spiritual water that Christ gives he will never thirst again (Jn. 4). In Jn. 4:13-14 we read “Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Never thirst again! Here Jesus contrasts physical water and spiritual water, with the former one must keep drinking and drinking or one would get thirsty again but with the spiritual water that Christ gives, a person drinks one time and has the strongest possible guarantee (“ou me” in Greek) meaning a double negative, that he will never ever thirst again. This contrast of a one-time drink with the need to continually drink is confirmed by the Greek tenses (aorist for the spiritual drink and present tense for the physical water). Every single instance of the word "drink" in the aorist represents a point-in-time action. Jesus is saying here that the sinner who comes to Him spiritually at one point in time can never afterwards be spiritually lost. He is secure from that point on to all eternity future, so that the water that Christ has given him/her is a “well of water springing up into everlasting life.” So Jesus says here that upon one drink the person will never thirst again but you say that one needs to keep drinking and drinking to maintain and feed that thirst, or you will lose it. Who do you think is right? Let me tell you what this passage has in it for eternal security—at least three things. One, the context contrasts lots of drinking (works) with one drink (grace). Jesus was saying that she didn't have to keep drinking, but drink once. Two, the second "drinketh" is aorist tense in the Greek, which means drink completed at one point in time, punctiliar action. Third, "shall never" is a double negative in the Greek (ou me), which means "no, not ever." So this is emphatic. One drink and she will never thirst, contrasted with the physical water that one must keep drinking and drinking.
Jn. 6:35 teaches the same: “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” Any one who comes to Jesus Christ and believes in Him will never hunger or thirst spiritually again, as it regards eternal life (the subject here). “Life” speaks of spiritual life, the word for spiritual life or everlasting life. The word “never”, again like in Jn. 4, is the most emphatic negative in the Greek language—i.e. communicated as strongly as possible—no room is left for spiritual hunger or thirst after someone has come and believed. These verbs are present tense, of which there are many categories in the Greek, and these are descriptive presents, that is, they indicate what is now going on; the point of this present is to give to the mind a picture of the events as in the process of occurrence. The idea is not believing and believing and believing any more than it is coming and coming and coming— the idea is that as soon as someone comes or believes, they will never hunger or thirst again. Ever. These passages have simply no argument against it. (It is also consistent with the hundreds of other passages on eternal security.) It alone refutes the horrible gospel error of losing or conditional “salvation.”
Thirteen. Salvation can never be lost because of the Greek perfect tense (aorist) moods and verbs regarding justification/ salvation. The indicative mood is taught everywhere in Scripture in relation to salvation. It indicates reality. The perfect Greek form is the verb tense used to indicate a completed, or "perfected" action or condition. The word perfect means complete, and the perfect tense is a completed action. But the perfect tense is a primary tense because it emphasises the present, or ongoing result of a completed action. According to A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament (T.P. Dana & J.R. Mantey, 1955), there are really two fundamentals of viewing action. It may be contemplated in single perspective, as a point, which we may call punctiliar acton; or it may regarded as in progress, as a line, and this we may call linear action. The perfect tense is a combination of these two ideas: it looks in perspective at the action, and regards the result of the action as continuing to exist; that is, in progress at a given point. A basic explanation of this would see the aorist represented by a dot (•), the present by a line (—), and the perfect by a combination of the two (•—). Verbs can appear in any one of three perfect tenses: present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect and may include all three tenses. Verbs in the perfect form use a form of "have" or "had" plus the past participle. In the KJV, the form of words "hath" and "we have" and "shall not" and "now hath" and "ye be" and "ye are" and "ye then be" and "ye shall" and "then shall ye" and "is" and “ye are” all refer to a perfect tense, which means a present condition that resulted from a past action, a present unconditional condition that continues on into the future but was determined in the past by an earlier action.
For example, in the phrase “we have peace with God,” the “have” is the indicative mood tense. Modern Bible perversions change the “have” to “let us” which changes the tense mood to conjunctive, which is only potential. That changes salvation, from an absolute yea to only potential, a maybe. The NKJV which is a perversion of God’s Word and the Bible of choice for Schlamp, does this over and over, but so do all the other Bible perversions streaming from the apostate and blasphemous Critical Text, which is all 500+ of them besides the KJV.
God inspired every Word of Scripture. The exact words in Scripture, including the perfect tense, are there on purpose because God choose and authored them. For instance: "hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life" (Jn. 5:24b). Note these words underlined, all of which have been placed there intentionally by the Divine Author of Scripture. They are a perfect Greek present tense based upon a previous truth, a past event (salvation). It’s an absolute guarantee of God that salvation can never be lost. The person who savingly believes in the Lord Jesus Christ IS passed from death to life at one point in time with that action of passing completely completed in the past with the results ongoing. The same can be said of everlasting life here, completed in the past (“hath”), and shall never come into condemnation. All perfect tense. This is the truth of salvation (and this is only one example). This passage alone refutes his teaching that a person has to keep on believing and keep on believing, in order to keep on having salvation. The true believer presently has all these things because he responded in repentance and faith when he heard the Word of God, and was born again (believing the gospel, like presented here).
There are many Biblical examples of the perfect tense of eternal security of salvation/justification such as Matt. 9:22 (“hath made thee whole”); Jn. 1:13 (“were born . . . of God”); 3:6-8 (“is born” x 2); 4:13-14 (“never thirst”); 5:24 (“hath everlasting life”, “not come into condemnation”, “is passed from death unto life”); 6:39 (“hath given”); 10:28-29 (“I give”, “never perish”, “no man”); 13:10 (“is washed”, “is clean”); 17 (many); Rom. 5:1-2 “have peace”, “have access”, “we stand”), 5 (“Holy Ghost which is given”); 6:4-7 (“are buried”, “have been planted”, “is crucified”, “is dead”); I Cor. 1:2 (“sanctified”); 6:11 (“were some of you”, “ye are” x 3); 2 Cor. 5:17 (“a new creature”, “are become new”); Gal. 2:20 (“I am crucified”); 5:24 “are Christ’s”, “have crucified”); Eph. 2:8 (“saved”); Phil. 1:6 (“being confident”); Col. 2:10 (“are complete”; 3:3 (“is hid”), 12 (“beloved”); I Th. 1:4 (“beloved”); 2 Th. 2:13 (“beloved”); Heb. 9:15 (“called”); 10:2 (“once purged”), 10 (“sanctified”), 14 (“hath perfected”), 22 (“sprinkled”, “washed”); 12:22 (“made perfect”); I Pet. 1:4 (“reserved”), 22 (“purified”); 3:18 (“put to death”); 2 Pet. 1:3 (“hath given”), 4 (“given unto us”); I Jn. 2:12 (“are forgiven”), 13 (“have known” x 2, “have overcome”), 14 (“have known”, “have overcome”), 29 (“is born”); 3:1 (“hath bestowed”), 9 (“is born”), 14 (“we know”, “have passed”); 4:4 (“have overcome”), 7 (“is born”), 13 (“hath given”); 5:1 (“is born”, “begotten”), 4 (“is born”), 13 (“might know”), 18 (“is born”), 19 (“and we know”), 20 (“hath given us”); 2 Jn. 1:1 (“known”); Ju. 1:1 (are “sanctified”, “preserved”); Rev. 14:3 (“redeemed”); etc.
2. The Bible is VERY clear that the truly saved, those genuinely born again, are eternal secure. Here are further reasons why we know this to be entirely true and why they can never be lost: (1) They are born again of incorruptible seed which yields fruit including the fruit of everlasting life (1 Pet 1:23). (2) They stand before God clothed in the imputed (credited) righteousness of Christ, and not in their own (2 Cor 5:21; Rom 5:19-21). (3) They are His sheep and have been given eternal life—they shall never perish (Jn 10:28). (4) Their lives are forever hid with Christ in God (Col 3:1-3). (5) They are already seated in the heavenlies in Christ (Eph 1:3; 2:6). (6) The penalty for all their sins has been forever settled through the perfect and finished work of Christ (Rom 4:23-5:2; 5:6-9). (7) Rewards for service to God can be lost but not salvation (1 Cor 3:10-15). (8) God never leaves His children to themselves and faithfully chastens/disciplines all of His children, even to the point of sickness and taking home those who resist their Heavenly Father's correction (Pr 3:10-11; Heb 12:5-11; 1 Cor 11:28-32). (9) They have been permanently delivered from the wrath of God (1 Th 1:9-10; 5:8-10). (10) They are sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption (Eph 1:13; 4:30; Rom 8:23). (11) The Lord knoweth them that are His; false professors will be exposed either here or at the judgment (2 Tim 2:19; Rev 20:11-15; Matt 7:21-23). (12) God is the one Who has begun the good work in the believer, and He has promised to perform it until the day of Christ (Phil 1:6; 2:12-13). (13) They are living stones in the spiritual building of God of which Christ Himself is the Chief Cornerstone (1 Pet 2:5; Eph 2:20-22; 1 Cor 3:9-10). (14) They are kept by the power of God, through faith, not through the efforts or the works of the one who is saved (1 Pet 1 :5). The just all live by faith (Rom 1:16). (15) They have an incorruptible, undefiled, and everlasting inheritance reserved for them by God in Heaven (1 Pet 1:1-4). (16) They are God the Father's irrevocable gift to God the Son (Jn 17:6-7). (18) He is able to save them to the uttermost because Christ "ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Heb 7:25). (18) Upon conversion they are made "accepted in the Beloved" (Eph 1:6). (19) Nothing can separate the saved from the love of Christ (Rom 8:36-39). (20) By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified (Heb 10:10-14). (21) Just like the flesh birth cannot be unborn, the spiritual birth cannot be unborn (Jn 3:3-8, Christ actually makes that connection in these passages). (22) Christ dwelleth in them for ever (2 Jn 1:2). (23) No man can pluck the saint out of His Father's hand, and that obviously includes the believer himself (Jn 10:29). (24) All who are justified are finally glorified—none are lost along the way (Rom 8:28-30). (25) Salvation is by grace (the undeserved favour and merit of God) and not by ones own works (Eph 2:8-9). (26) The gifts and calling of God are without repentance — God, who cannot lie, will never annul His promises of eternal life promised before the world began (Rom 11:29; Ti 1:2). (27) God will never cast out those who come to Him through Christ and are born again (Jn 6:37; 17:2) (28) They know they have eternal life that can never be lost (1 Jn 5:9-13). And many, many more reasons.
Those that believe salvation can be lost have never been born again. They are not eternally secure. Not only became of all the reasons we’ve just read, but because 1 John 5:9-12 specifically tells us that. They deny the record of God, they make God a liar and they do not have the indwelling Witness of God, Who is the Spirit of God.
3. OSAS did not grow out of Perseverance as he so dearly wishes in the tract and other places. OSAS didn’t grow out of anything at all. It’s in the Bible. Everywhere. It is wholly inseparable from salvation itself. God gave the doctrine and it’s as much a component of salvation as anything. To actually believe and trust what the Bible says and understand what it says, is NOT being ignorant.
The doctrine of eternal security is found in many passages in the OT: Genesis 15:1-6; Deuteronomy 30:6; 2 Chronicles 17:11; Job 19:25-28; Psalms 4:8; 23:1-6; 32:1-2; 37:28; 51:12; 86:13; 94:14; 97:10; 103:2-4, 11-13; 138:17-18; 145:17-20; Proverbs 1:23; 3:11-12, 35; 8:35; 10:25, 30; 12:28; 24:13-16; Is. 1:18; 55:1-3, 6-7; Ezekiel 18:27-28; 36:26-27; Daniel 7:18, 22, 27; etc. God the Son confirms this in Jn. 5:39, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” He was referring to the OT Scriptures. They teach eternal life because salvation is eternal life. It can never be lost and no man would ever forfeit it. The OT saints knew that, and so do the NT saints. Only an unsaved person thinks like pastor Schlamp does, one that has only mental assent to salvation but never been truly born again.
Hundreds of passages in the NT verify this truth: Matthew 19:29; 25:46; John 1:12-13; 3:3-18, 36; 4:13-14; 5:24, 39; 6:35, 37, 39, 40, 44, 47, 51, 53-56, 60-66, 68; 8:31-36; 10:1-11, 14, 27-30; 12:49-50; 13:10; 14:1-4, 15-17; 15:16; 17:2-3, 8-26; Acts 2:38; 13:38-39; 26:18; Romans 3:22-28; 5:1, 5, 8, 9, 10-11, 15-16, 17-19, 20-21; 6:1-2,3-11, 14-17, 18, 22-23; 7:5-6; 8:1-11, 14-15, 16-17, 18-21, 23-25, 28, 29-30, 31-32, 33, 34, 35-36, 37-39; I Corinthians 1:2, 4-6, 8, 9, 24-26, 30; 2:6, 9-16; 3:9, 10-15, 16, 22-23; 4:14-15; 5:12-13; 6:1, 2-3, 9-11, 12-13, 15a, 17, 18-20; 7:23; 15:57; II Corinthians 1:18-22; 2:14-16; 3:4-12, 18; 4:6, 7, 10-11, 14, 16-18; 5:1-8, 10, 17-21; 6:1-2, 16, 18; 7:1, 10; Galatians 2:20; 3:1-3, 13-14, 26-29; 4:4-7; 5:16-18, 24-26; 6:1-3; Ephesians 1:3, 4, 5, 6-10, 11-12, 13-14, 17-18; 2:1-10, 11-22; 3:12, 15, 16-20; 4:4, 30, 32; 5:8, 30; Philippians 1:6; 1:21; 3:9; Colossians 1:5, 9-11, 12, 13, 14; 2:10, 12-14, 20; 3:1-4, 10, 11, 12-13, 15; I Thessalonians 1:4-5, 10; 2:12-13, 19; 4:8, 15-17; 5:4-8, 9-11, 23-24; II Thessalonians 2:13-17; 3:5; I Timothy 1:16; 3:8-9, 10; 6:12; II Timothy 1:7-10, 12-14; 2:19, 24-26; 3:15-17; 4:6-8, 18; Titus 1:2-3; 2:11-15; 3:4-8; Hebrews 1:14; 2:10, 11-13, 17-18; 3:1; 4:2-3, 14-16; 5:9; 6:11-12, 17-20; 7:19, 24-25, 27; 8:12; 9:12-15; 10:10-14, 16-19, 22-23, 38-39; 11:13; 12:2, 5-8, 22-29; 13:5-6; Jam. 2:5; I Peter 1:2, 3, 4, 5, 8-9, 18-19, 23-25; 2:4, 9-10, 24-25; 5:10 II Peter 1:1, 3-4; I John 1:2-4; 1:6-7; 2:1-2, 8, 12, 19, 20-21, 25, 27-28; 3:1, 2, 24; 4:13; 5:9-13; II John 1:2, 8; Jude 1:21-24; Revelation 1:5-6; 3:19; 5:9-10; 22:17; etc.
To hold to Schlamp’s position one must deny all these passages, which is unbelief and that is synonymous with unbeliever. Like the Hebrews in the wilderness wandering, this is an “evil heart of unbelief” that has “depart[ed] from the living God.” (Heb 3:12). (This does NOT mean they lost their salvation: read here about “unbelief in the Bible). Then after the denial, he has scripture to wrest to support his belief. And that is an “error of the wicked” (2 Pet 3:16-17). I couldn't emphasize this enough.
4. In a personal conversation with pastor Schlamp, he claimed the following (which he has also stated in sermons):
“As far as losing one’s salvation, technically I would say no one loses their salvation. . . . The only way to forfeit it is by rejecting it and choosing to live in sin rather than living for the Lord by faith.”
How can someone forfeit something that he never earned to begin with, something that was given to him as a gift (Rom 6:23; 5:15-22; Eph 2:8-9)? Do we earn, deserve or work for the gift of salvation? “Forfeiting salvation” is the false “gospel” of losing salvation, whether he calls it so or not. Playing mind games with words doesn’t booster his position. And he keeps changing his definitions or deductions over the years to keep the heresy going. No one that has ever been truly saved has done what he is claiming here. It’s not true conversion but pure fiction pulled out of thin air. David chose to sin for instance, but he didn’t reject salvation. David was repentant of those sins as a believer, so he wasn't sinning as a lifestyle. Psalm 51. He didn't turn from God. If he had, that would say that he was never saved in the first place. David is not an example, however, intended to say that a believer should just go ahead and sin in whatever way he wants. Just the opposite, especially when you look at both the short term and long term consequences. This is chastening of the Lord, but it never causes a true born again believer to turn from God: De. 8:5-6; Pr. 3:11-12; Job 5:17; Ps. 94:12-14; 118:18; Heb. 12:5-11. Read those passages. The whole Bible harmonizes perfectly, but in his world of corruption, it’s one mess of confusion and contradiction.
The Bible over and over tells us about false professors, their characteristics, fruits, failures, and fallings. Those who turn to sin or get offended or fall away are described in the first three soils of Christ’s parable of the sower and seed: the wayward, stony and thorny. None of these are saved. Only the good ground is saved, understands, has a good heart, and is fruitful. He really needs to understand this, instead of keeping the false doctrine going and his ongoing rejection of God’s truth. He is in a very precarious state. He is willfully corrupting the scriptures and God the Son made it abundantly clear those who do that will have it worse than anyone in the eternal lake of fire (e.g. Rev 22:18-19; Matt 11; 23).
There is no example anywhere in the Bible of anyone being saved and then rejecting it. It’s a nonsensical and unBiblical argument, made by someone that doesn’t understand Biblical salvation and the gospel or what the Bible says about it. Paul answers your irrational rhetorical statement in Rom 6:1-2,
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”
And then again in Rom 6:14-18,
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.”
That should end that argument in rapid succession, though there is much more in scripture on it, like 1 Jn 3:1-10.
No one can lose their salvation. Once saved, always saved. However, someone might not be saved in the first place, the Bible does teach that quite clearly. 1 Jn 2:19, 3:6. Read those two verses. Those who choose to live in sin were never saved in the first place. The Bible teaches that very plainly. Many examples as well, Judas, Balaam, etc.
Paul said in Rom. 11:6 that if it was works, it wasn't grace, and if it was grace, it wasn't works. They are mutually exclusive, which is why in Gal. 5, he argues that someone that adds even one work to grace, it nullifies grace (you add multiple works to grace such as being sinless at death, keeping the faith, etc). Since that's what the Judaizers were doing in Galatia, Paul says concerning these, "let them be accursed." The “losing or conditional salvation” teaching is not of grace; it adds works to salvation.
Read here as to why Losing Salvation is a False Gospel Propagated by False Teachers
5. To arrive at or ascertain support for his perverted false gospel and position, pastor Schlamp must misinterpret, manipulate and abuse a lot of Scripture, while simultaneously reject tons of very clear truths of Scripture. In the process, he strains at gnats and swallows camels. The following are a brief example of his corrupting of Scripture concerning this subject: Ezk. 18:24; Matt. 10:22; 13:3-23; 24:13, 42-51; 25:14-30; Mk. 13:13; Jn. 1:12; 3:3-8, 18; 10:27-30; 15:1-6; 17:3; 20:21; Ac. 1:25; Rom. 4:7; 5:1; 8:12-13, 35-39; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; 9:27; 10:12; 2 Cor. 5:19; Gal. 5:16-21; Phil. 1:6; Col. 1:23; 2 Th. 2:3; Heb. 2:3; 3:7-19; 6:4-6; 10:23-31; 12:15; 1 Pet. 1:10; 2 Pet. 2:20-21; 1 Jn. 5:10; Ju. 1:4, 1-11, 21-22; Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21; 13:16-18; 17:14; 21:7.
Some of these are wannabes (passages he uses to teach you can lose it, but they actually don’t). Some are weasels (passages used to weasel out of clear eternal security passages). Some are whoppers, tall-tales (such as the ones he uses in Hebrews). And then there are complete wipeouts, and on these I would definitely not want to be him (many of the passages referenced above). All are terribly tortured and abused, butchered with savagery. He imposes many inferences and conjectures that simply do not exist, and then the argument of logical fallacies used, such as smokescreens, red herrings, straw man, and distractions, reflects the dishonesty and heretical manifestation of the man, since this is bearing false witness and lying. There are many more than the list above but time fails me to go through anymore of his sermons. It’s also a waste of time as he has hardened his heart to the truth. This expose is not for his benefit or even reproof (I have done that already, and the heretic is to be separated from: Ti 3:10-11) but for exposing him as a false teacher to those who might entertain his heresies (or maybe even the same heresies in another environment). The abuse and butchery he subjects these passages to is so bad, that one can come to no other conclusion than that this is clearly the work of a false teacher (2 Pet 3:16-17).
In the beginning of his Eternal Security sermon series Schlamp claimed that he “always seek to be accurate down to the smallest points” but that is not true. He purveys not the truth of Scripture but his own preconceived agenda and philosophy, and teaches horrible lies found nowhere in Scripture, that will damn souls to eternal hell fire.
See here for further proof and evidence as to Why Salvation Can Never Be Lost.
LIE #4:
“No historical records show that men taught eternal security of salvation.”
This is what he is left with, since the Bible strongly opposes his heresy and he has no answer to any of it. All the verses cherry picked out of their context, misinterpreted, misused and abused to support the heresy (such as Heb 6:4-6; ) are easilee explainable when interpreted in context He focuses on church history to undermine eternal security of salvation, or OSAS as he refers to it, but this is utterly ridiculous and reflective of a scoffer who is walking after his own lusts (2 Pet 3:3). The Bible teaches it and that’s all we need. Church history doesn’t verify a Bible doctrine but the opposite. The reason why its harder to find in church history is multi-fold. (1) It wasn’t attacked so there was less reason to preach and teach on it specifically. The Schleitheim Confession of 1527 is a prime example. It didn’t touch on it because it was not under attack. (2) Every true born again believer would have known that they had eternal security of salvation from the moment they were born again, and in that day the contrast between saved and lost amongst professing believers was much greater towards saved. So the issue didn’t exist in all those years there like it does today with the massive amounts of false religions and almost entirely false professing “Christians” amongst so-called bible-believing churches. (3) It was Rome that taught the false doctrine of losing salvation and all true children of God separated from Rome and understood that false religious system to be exceedingly heretical and apostate, including this attack on salvation (they invented this damnable heresy, to keep the people in bondage and the system going). (4) Maybe most importantly, Rome stole and destroyed almost all written material amongst true Bible believing Christians, and vast majority of them were martyred as well for their faith.
And honestly, I actually couldn’t care less if an “early church writer” or Reformed writers such as “John Calvin” taught the doctrine (since its a Calvinist doctrine as he claims, at the expense of Bible truth) or didn’t, for I do not receive my doctrine from fallible men but from the infallible God in His infallible Word. This man-centred looking at humans for verification of the truth happens to be a huge symptom of Schlamp’s condition. He is man-centred, not God-centred. He also holds to the NKJV, and that isn’t infallible, so I see another element of where his issue comes from. That perverted version of Scripture, as discussed earlier, changes salvation into a process, which compounds his error. John Calvin and the “church fathers” (which are mostly the “early church writings” available today) were all heretics and apostates. All of them, which I address here: The Protestant Reformers Were Wolves in Sheep's Clothing and here: Can We Judge Someone to be Unsaved? Such as the Reformers or John Wesley? They were unsaved men to whom the Bible was a closed book, which I also believe to be his issue. They have no part in what I believe. And why is it that most of the writings that survived the wrath of Rome were from these men? Has he ever considered that?
The Word of God is not sufficient for pastor Schlamp. God’s Word is historical. It was competed just before the completion of the 1st century. All the apostles taught the doctrine because it’s inseparable from salvation itself. All the prophets taught it. All the other born again believers taught it. God the Son Himself taught it. Over and over, well over 500 verses in the Bible, but he denies the obvious and constructs straw man and other logical fallacies in its place, forming an entirely new doctrine that perverts the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. But the true doctrine is perspicuously plain and very obvious. Every major doctrinal statement of faith from the last five hundred years—pretty much the only ones that suffered Rome’s rage—contains eternal security of salvation. They all do, and one can read them for ourselves, such as the Schleitheim Confession (1527), Westminster Confession of Faith (1647), The Orthodox Baptist Creed (1679), London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689), Catechism of the Principles of the Christian Religion (1702), Philadelphia Baptist Confession of Faith (1742), New Hampshire Confession of Faith (1833), Baptist Fundamentals of the Faith (1897). The Baptist preacher Benjamin Keach’s book on The Glory of God's Rich Grace Displayed in the Mediator to Believers and His Direful Wrath against Impenitent Sinners written 1694 (for convenience, find source here and even further convenience, some of the pages where the subject is taught: pp. 95-96, 126, 141-160), should satisfy the search as well. These all teach eternal security and none are Calvinist. They are Baptist. Though there may be some Calvinist leanings within the statements, they are Baptist and their soteriology is Baptist, which is Biblical. It doesn’t derive from Calvinism. They derive from the Bible. They have Bible references. If he was honest and not manipulating these teachings, and if he really “desires truth above all else,” he will find proof from before 1800’s and post-completion of the canonization of Scripture, though the latter is all we need.
But his elusive hunt for proof to verify whether the Bible is true or not, is scorn and mockery and its not living by faith, and the Bible warns about that:
“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,” (2 Pet 3:3).
LIE #5:
“The election, the choosing is man’s not God’s. It is man who must make his election sure (2 Peter 1:10).”
He also corrupts election in the tract. Like the typical work of a false teacher, he takes one passage and cherry picks it (cf. 2 Pet 1:21), wrests the passage from its meaning (2 Pet 3:16-17), and then falsely divides the word of truth (cf. 2 Tim 2:15), all reflective of the “error of the wicked” (2 Pet 3:17). This issue compounded with the false gospel, makes it more than abundantly clear that pastor Phil Schlamp is indeed a false teacher.
Divine election and predestination point to eternal security of salvation. God does the election, not man. The elect are those whom God “hath chosen . . . in [Christ] before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4; 2 Tim. 1:9). Election guarantees glorification (Rom. 8:30) and promises that there will be no condemnation (Rom. 8:31-34; 1 Pet. 1:2-5). They are chosen through their response to conviction of sin, by repentance and faith. Election does not destroy human responsibility, for man has a free will and God saves no man against his will (2 Th. 2:10-13; cf. Ac. 13:46 with v. 48). But divine election is still a Bible doctrine and it does promise security for the believer (Rom. 8:28-39).
God has “predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Eph. 1:5-6). Predestinate means predetermine. Predestination is not God choosing only some to be saved; it is God choosing the destiny of those who are saved (Rom. 8:29). God has eternally determined that all who believe in and are saved by His Son will be like the Lord Jesus and be with Him in heaven forever. He “did predestinate [them] to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29), so that they “have obtained an [heavenly] inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Eph. 1:11). As a result, we “who first trusted in Christ” will “be to the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:12). The Father has ordained that all who repented and trust in Christ will be in heaven and give the Triune God praise and glory both here and there forever. His decree is certain.
Thus the Christian is secure because of unchanging and eternal election and predestination. Rom. 8:33 reads, “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.” No man in the world (including himself) can lay any charge to God’s elect, because God has justified them and they can never again be unjust. Election and predestination are sure grounds for the eternal security of the believer.
CONCLUSION.
If salvation is not permanent, it is not salvation, for that is the only way the Bible describes it. A person who does not have eternal security of salvation has never received the true gospel. The gospel has been distorted for you. It is a distorted gospel founded upon a lie, and you have placed your trust in something that is not true. You have been deceived. You might think you are saved but you have heard and believed a lie. The “salvation which is in Christ Jesus” comes “with eternal glory” (2 Tim. 2:10). It’s inseparable. Furthermore, salvation is receiving the Lord Jesus Christ (e.g. Jn. 1:12), and receiving Him is receiving eternal life (1 Jn. 1:1-3; Jn. 17:2-3). Speaking of Christ, John said: “that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)” (1 Jn. 1:2). Jesus is the “life” (Jn. 14:6; 1 Jn. 1:1; Pr. 8:35), “eternal life” (Jn. 5:39), which “life” He gives at salvation (Jn. 5:40; Pr. 8:35; Jn. 10:10; 17:2-3) and He dwells in us (Gal. 2:20), “For whoso findeth me findeth life” Jesus said in Pr. 8:35. Salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ, life and eternal life are all inseparable. They come together as the perfect bundle. If you don’t have one, you don’t have any. If you don't have eternal security, then you don’t have salvation, life or Christ. I understand that some might see this as harsh but its not; I am only reporting what God so clearly teaches and I am being quite soft about the whole thing.
Salvation requires believing the right doctrine (Rom. 6:17) and receiving the Lord in truth (Ps. 145:18; Ac. 11:14; Eph. 1:13; Col. 1:5-6; 1 Tim. 2:4). Salvation requires believing the right gospel. There are many many false gospels but they cannot bring a person to salvation. A gospel that teaches a conditional eternal salvation, is very clearly a false gospel, and it creates a bondage very similar to that of Roman Catholicism and the one among the religious Mennonites (Grace Light, Reinlander, Sommerfelder, Old Colony, Old Order, etc). There is a reason why these aforementioned groups all believe that salvation can be lost or forfeited. If you have true salvation, you have it eternally, if you don’t have it eternally, you don’t have true salvation. You’re not saved, in other words. You have never repented and surrendered to Christ, you are trusting in your works. You do not believe in the true gospel. And if you continue to do this, you will perish. You deny Scripture everywhere. You deny true salvation. The truth sets a person free, not bring one under further bondage and confusion. It appears that the true gospel which delivers from sin permanently and gives eternal and everlasting life at conversion, and not through good works, that glorious gospel that Paul and the apostles preached, is hidden to men like pastor Schlamp, and Paul stated “if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” (2 Cor. 4:3-4).
The Bible teaches that the person who refuses to believe in the eternal security of salvation that God gives at conversion is not saved at all (1 Jn. 5:9-13; and many of the hundreds of other passages documented previously, speak of this, but especially this passage). 1 Jn. 5:10 reads:
“He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.”
By believing and teaching against “the record that God gave of His Son” which “is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son” (v. 11)—yes that is most certainly eternal security of salvation, which is eternal life through Jesus at salvation—you make God a liar (“he that believeth not God hath made him a liar”), which is evidence that you do not have the witness in you, for “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself” for “beliveth . . . the record that God gave of his Son” and we know that witness is actually the Holy Spirit of God, as defined in the preceding verses (1 Jn. 5:6-8), Whom is received at salvation (e.g. Ac. 2:38; 10:45; 11:17; Eph. 1:13-14; 1 Cor. 6:19-20) and is the Spirit of Truth, not error and He does not teach lies to those He indwells, but truth alone and that to everyone He indwells (1 Jn. 2:20-21, 27), so that those who have not “the witness in [them]” are obviously not saved, which is why they have no qualms about lying about God. “Knowledge is easy to him that understandeth” (Pr. 14:6b), and believing God’s record of eternal life through His Son is easy to see for him with understanding, or in other words, him that is converted, for all that are converted have understanding (Pr. 14:33a; 17:24a), while false pretenders do not. This passage condemns pastor Schlamp as a false teacher but to get around this passage he must butcher it to an unbelievable degree, completely changing the true and clear meaning of it.
These passages in 1 John 5 make it pretty clear that someone who believes eternal life can be lost make God out to be a liar and do not have the indwelling Spirit of God. He consistently attempts to have it both ways. He supposedly desires to have eternal security but then preaches against it, using for instance the words “eternal security” in conjunction with the word “conditional” — e.g. “Then there are those who teach conditional eternal security. I hold to this view.” (Unconditional Eternal Security, p. 2), and “Is the believer eternally secure? Yes but not unconditionally.” (ES-Part 3, p. 7). But this is hypocritical and impossible, even as he said himself: “I must tell you that that we cannot have it both ways” (ES–Part 1, p. 1), though he desperately attempts to have it both ways.
In another place he teaches that eternal security is not found in proper exegesis of Scripture and that there is a difference between eternal salvation and OSAS. He shares an exchange of emails with David Cloud, where Schlamp wrote to him:
"I know the New Testament writers taught the doctrine of eternal salvation. But my question is where did the once saved always saved doctrine start. I do not find that teaching in any properly exegeted text in Scripture."
Yikes. Wow. If he would indeed "know the New Testament writers taught the doctrine of eternal salvation" then he would also know "where . . . the once saved always saved doctrine start[ed]." There is a massive problem of spiritual confusion and blindness happening here.
So when he claims that salvation is through faith in Christ alone, this is empty and vain when his actual doctrine and beliefs run contrary to that and he denies a major aspect of salvation and the gospel (see Is. 8:20; Jam. 2:14-26). Scripture gives many examples of people that professed to believe but were actually false pretenders: e.g. false believers in Jn. 2:23-25; false disciples in Jn 6:60-66; Judas Iscariot; Simon in Acts 8; Elymas in Acts 13; Balaam; Demas; etc. There is a counterfeit faith. I’m not naive or deceived by this (Pr. 19:27; Col. 2:8). The Bible has much to say about it and makes a big deal between true saving faith and false faith. Losing (conditional) salvation, keeping salvation and maintaining salvation are a works-gospel and completely contrary to the one true gospel through repentant faith in Christ alone. Schlamp’s justification is not that of grace, but rather grace plus works, which is not grace at all (Rom. 11:6; Gal. 5:1-4). Thus he rejects “the grace of God that bringeth salvation” (Ti. 2:11) and have replaced it with a false “gospel” of self-righteousness. Subtly, he mixes grace with works but yet God’s Word is clear that we are saved by grace alone (Ti. 2:11; Eph. 2:8-9), which necessarily saves us for all eternity (Ti. 2:12-14; Eph. 2:1-9). Naturally, he also rejects God’s love and grace and forgiveness being unconditional towards His children. That fits his false gospel, revealing a serious misunderstanding of the one true gospel. He is striving to stand before God in his “righteousness” which the Bible calls “filthy rags” (Is. 64:6). But true believers are justified, not by anything they have done or ever will do, but by Christ’s perfect righteousness (Rom. 5:19) through repentant faith alone (Rom. 5:1; Ac 20:21; Mk 1:15).
Since it’s obvious he rejects the eternal life that God gives, and “seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life” (Ac. 13:46), it is virtually impossible for such a one to have ever been genuinely converted through the new birth. Even though I knew hardly anything about this doctrine when I was converted, I knew immediately I could never lose my salvation, for God the Spirit indwelled me and made it abundantly clear that I had received eternal life. The life that God gives does not reverse into death, nor does the child of God become unborn. That is heresy if there ever was, but worse, its “damnable heresy” (2 Pet 2:1) since its heresy that will damn a soul to eternal hell fire.
The salvation pastor Schlamp believes in that can be lost, that doesn’t include the forgiveness of all sins (past and future), that holds to a type of sinless perfection required for salvation, that believes salvation is maintained by God and man, that seriously misunderstands and misrepresents the love and grace of God and what He does in the repentant sinner at salvation and continually thereafter, is simply not the salvation of the Bible. Nowhere even close. It’s as different as day and night, and what is different is not the same. This “salvation” does not produce peace or assurance but confusion, contradiction, corrupt fruit, bondage, unconverted false pretenders, and serious unstableness affected by the changing circumstances of life and spiritual bondage rather than spiritual freedom.
In manifold ways pastor Schlamp is a false teacher and thus needs to urgently give heed to what is written here, and desperately repent and be truly converted. I tell him these things because I care for him, for his soul, but I expose him because God’s Word demands it and the souls under his teaching require it. Truth is eternal and is vastly more important than you or I. We must defend it to death, and such is a valiant man of God.
The whole problem, and it’s a massive one, with denying eternal security of salvation is that in so doing he has embraced a false gospel, so he differs nothing then the system of Calvinism he is exposing. Just like Calvinism misrepresents God and corrupts salvation, so does he, only in a different light. He hardens his heart to the truth that the false teaching of losing or conditional salvation is an accursed and perverted gospel, and Paul warns of any perversion of the gospel in Gal 1:6-9:
“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."
Pastor Phil Schlamp is a false teacher that needs to be marked and avoided, in obedience to Rom 16:17-18:
“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.”