I am a relatively new Christian and have been troubled by the conditional versus eternal salvation issue since the beginning of my walk. Your website has provided me with tremendous relief from this problem and I am very grateful. However, it was recently brought to my attention by an advocate of conditional salvation that during the end times, that a single sin could be eternally damning – taking the mark of the beast. What about Christians who, in a moment of fear and weakness, accept the mark of the beast? Will they be forgiven, or will they have forfeited their salvation by that one act?
Rev. 14:9-12 says that taking the mark of the beast is an act that carries eternal consequences and that anyone who does so is hopelessly lost.
But this cannot be used in the eternal security debate because it doesn’t apply to the Church, since eternal security is promised only to believers during the Church Age. Old Testament saints didn’t receive this assurance and neither will Tribulation believers. By the time the Mark of the Beast is required, the church will be long gone.
After all, how could God guarantee the inheritance of believers in Ephesians 1:13-14, 2 Cor. 1:21-22 and other places and then tell them that taking the mark of the Beast will result in their salvation being revoked? He would have to break His own promise.