Eternal Security And The Sin Unto Death

—Dan Corner—

[Duplications of this article, without additions or omissions—including
author's name and ministry address at the end of this
article—are permitted and strongly encouraged.]

You will probably never hear any eternal security teacher say outrightly their doctrine is a license for immorality. In fact, they will most often flatly deny this charge sometimes to the point of yelling slander. However, there are still various ways these people teach this very thing they hate to be identified with. Certainly one is through their version of the sin unto death. The apostle John wrote of this sin:

If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. (1 John 5:16,17).

Clearly, there is sin that leads to death. Whatever type of death this is, is not clearly identified here. However, the eternal security teachers like to draw our attention to 1 Cor. 11:27-30, which reads:

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.

And to that they sometimes add the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira as specific examples of the sin unto death:

Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God." When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him. About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, "Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?" "Yes," she said, "that is the price." Peter said to her, "How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also." At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband (Acts 5:3-10).

To Them Death Is Always Physical

To the eternal security teachers death will always be physical death, such as mentioned in 1 Cor. 11:30 and Acts 5:3-10. While it is undeniable truth that God gets so angry over sin that he kills people because of it, there is another truth related to this that the eternal security teachers will always deny—that sin can bring a Christian to his spiritual death, just like Adam and Eve died spiritually because of their sin, as God warned would happen (Gen. 2:17). (God didn't kill them physically but they did die spiritually like he warned.)

From the eternal security perspective, when a person who was formerly saved would die physically, he will always go to heaven. How such people are living at that point is inconsequential, even if God would kill them physically because of their unrepentant heinous sins. This clearly spells out license for immorality.

Dave Hunt's License For Immorality

Please note what Dave Hunt teaches about this as he comments on the 1 Cor. 11 passage:

For this cause, some of you are weak and sickly and some of you sleep; some of you died because God has brought judgment upon you for the way you have conducted yourselves and so forth. So I think what he's saying is, there are some sins that are so heinous and not only heinous but perhaps I think it depends upon the position that a person has that brings reproach upon Christ and God takes them home for that.(1)

Judgment or Blessing?

To be consistent with his license for immorality or his security-in-sin gospel, commonly called eternal security (once saved always saved, the perseverance of the saints or the preservation of the saints), Dave Hunt must always teach the way just cited. Question for Dave Hunt (and all other eternal security people): What kind of punishment is this that God would kill a person because of their unrepentant heinous sins and take them out of this cursed environment filled with sin, injustice and pain to a beautiful paradise where joy, peace, truth, righteousness, etc. will be? For Paul, to live was Christ and die was gain and better by far (Phil. 1:21-23), but these "blind guides" want us to think we can live for self, sin and the devil and die in those sins and that death is gain when God kills you in his anger. Hence, death isn't really a punishment at all, but a blessing and gain for their hatred of God.

To look at this in another way, one can therefore backslide into heinous sin and wickedness, absolutely refuse to repent even though disciplined and be blessed by the thrice holy God for their unyielding stubborn rebellion when he strikes them dead in his holy wrath and anger. Dear reader, if you ponder the horrible conclusion produced by the eternal security teachers, you will have to agree that this is nothing more than a deadly, religious myth yielding an opportunity and license to live in wild rebellion to God—a license for immorality.

Hunt And The Calvinists—Close Associates

The so-called Berean Dave Hunt is not alone with these Scriptural fabrications and distortions, however. Hunt has the staunch Calvinists as his close companions and co-laborers with this teaching, even though he claims to oppose Calvinism! Please note what Calvinist, D. James Kennedy has likewise written about this:

I think back many years ago of a man in this church who was engaged in adultery—a man who had been a minster [sic] and had left the ministry, but a man who seemed to be a godly man—a man who seemed to be a Christian. Only God knows the heart. He became involved with a married woman. He was going to have her divorce her husband and marry him. I admonished him and urged him to repent. He was brought before the discipline committee and they admonished him to repent. He was suspended from the sacraments, but he did not repent. Finally, the Session determined that since he remained impenitent, they would have to excommunicate this man from the church. Just before that happened, God pulled his string and suddenly that young man died.
These are just some of the unlimited, infinite ways God can chasten those who are truly His own, who do not repent of their sins. My friends, we need to take the warnings seriously because they are very real.(2)

So Hunt and the Calvinists are identical twins regarding the sin unto death, because they both teach eternal security, that is, once a person becomes saved he will always remain saved regardless how far into wickedness he may go and remain.

Calvinism's Christian Adulterers

Kennedy's message comes through loud and clear regarding his so-called doctrines of grace. He is indirectly saying by his story that Christian adulterers do exist. In contrast to this deadly doctrinal myth, the Bible speaks of only one type of adulterer and he is always shown as one who will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9,10), but instead will be thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 21:8), unless he repents. But the eternal security teachers don't think this person has to repent for salvation. He will still get to heaven and escape hell in his unrepentant adultery or heinous sins, because he was once saved! How God must hate this deadly lie which has multitudes deceived.

At times Kennedy's Calvinism will have him declare the elect will endure in holiness to the end, but then he turns right around and blatantly teaches his sin unto death yarn. Doesn't Kennedy know that dying in adultery is not enduring to the end in holiness?

God Lovers and God Haters

Dear eternal security reader, you have been deceived by popular teachers of our hour and from yesteryear that have changed grace into a license for immorality, as just proven. This should be apparent now after considering what both types of eternal security teachers have said about the sin unto death. Their deadly version of grace allows or permits all forms of unrepentant wickedness for those that enter heaven. In contrast, the Bible says the following:

However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Cor 2:9).
Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? (James 2:5)

In other words, those who actually enter God's kingdom love God. (This is the real issue, not if God loves them.) To love God we must obey him (John 14:15,21,23,24; 1 John 5:3). Moreover, not to love Jesus is to be unsaved:

If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed. Maranatha. (1 Cor 16:22)

Clearly, one is not loving God if he is in such sins as those just taught by the well-known Hunt and Kennedy. Jesus taught:

He who does not love me will not obey my teaching .... (John 14:24)

God promises to kill those who hate him—his adversaries:

See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand. I lift my hand to heaven and declare: As surely as I live forever, when I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand grasps it in judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and repay those who hate me. (Deut 32:39-41)

Furthermore, Hebrews 10:26,27 say:

For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES.

Did you notice that one becomes an enemy of God by turning to willful sin (or deliberate sin), the very thing Hunt and Kennedy teachings allow for without jeopardizing one's salvation. Also, Heb. 10:27 says the fury of fire (or raging fire) will consume God's adversaries. How much more clear can it get? The ones killed by God because of their deliberate sinning go to the fires of Hell.

Also, the true Christian is clearly called by the term saint, which means holy one. Since sin can make a holy person unholy again (1 Tim. 5:22; Rev. 3:4; etc.), and therefore unfit for entrance into the kingdom of God (Mt. 5:8; Heb. 12:14; Rom. 6:22; etc.), then these eternal security teachers are dangerously downplaying the effects of sin in the life of a Christian. Souls are at risk because of their fables.

The Real Truth

The real truth is a true Christian can sin in such a way as to bring him back into spiritual death and endanger him to the lake of fire again (James 1:14-16; 5:19,20; Luke 15:24,32; Gal. 5:19-21; 6:8,9; Rom. 6:16; 8:13; Rev. 2:10,11; etc.). This is the real sin unto death, as mentioned by the Apostle John. Moreover, if God in his holy wrath strikes someone dead because of his unrepentant adultery he will go to hell, not heaven, with other God haters as already shown in Hebrews. This was basic knowledge in first century Christianity, though popularly denied in our dark day by those who maintain their security-in-sin gospel and license for immorality.

Repent For Your Salvation's Sake

Dear reader, if you think you can live in heinous sin, as Hunt and Kennedy wants all to believe, and still be on the road to heaven, you have been dangerously deceived. You must repent (turn from sin) or you will find yourself being thrown into the lake of fire in the end. You are not just jeopardizing your physical life, rewards, etc. as they say, but it is your very soul that is endangered. Don't be deceived.

Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil .... (1 John 3:7,8)

Endnotes

(1) Radio show 0121. (The word, heinous, is defined as "utterly reprehensible or evil.")

(2) D. James Kennedy, Can A Christian Fall From Grace? (Ft. Lauderdale FL: Coral Ridge Ministries), pp. 14, 15.

Make donations through Paypal—
Fast, Free, Secure!
Click the donation image above.

Support the largest evangelistic, Arminian, countercult, apologetic ministry

click the book
to order