I heard a pastor say that if we walk away from the Lord and choose not to walk with him anymore that the epistles prove that your going to hell and not Heaven.
I study so hard and try to come to the truth. It is real hard to hear so many different things and they use scripture too and it sounds like it is the truth. We have no church in our rural town that is teaching the truth, the apostasy is here too. We have visited so many churches. It can be frustrating to get to the truth of the Bible with all of this that is going on. I appreciate your site and knowledge of the word of God.
Could you please give me scripture on what it does say if a believer walks away from the Lord. Some also say you don’t lose your salvation, but you can walk away from it and the Lord won’t force you to stay where you don’t want to be.
First of all, this is what comes from determining what the Bible says by listening to someone else. Because it turns out that Paul’s Epistles say exactly the opposite of what you were told.
The clearest examples of this are 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 ,where it says that when we were saved God Himself took responsibility for us. He anointed us, put His mark of ownership on us and His Holy Spirit in our hearts as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come.
In Ephesians 1:13-14 Paul made this even clearer by stating that this happened at the time we believed, before we had done anything good or bad. The deposit of the Holy Spirit was meant to guarantee our inheritance until the day of redemption.
Since He was writing under the influence of the Holy Spirit (who cannot lie) and since these are the clearest verses in the Epistles concerning our security in Christ, everything else he wrote has to conform to them. Paul was the Bible’s strongest advocate for our eternal security in Christ.
Jesus also confirmed this with His various shepherd/sheep analogies. If one of us even tries to wander off He is committed to go after us because He promised His Father not to lost any of us. (Luke 15:2-7) (John 6:39-40) (John 10:27-30)
In conclusion, no born again believer can ever truly walk away from the Lord.