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By Neal Griffin
The proponents of "faith only" salvation argue that a sinner can live a life of constant sin and be rewarded with eternal life. He can continually covet, continually lie, continually steal, continually murder, continually commit all kinds of sexual sins so long as he mentally assents to the fact of Jesus. He can deny Jesus. He can live a life of drunkenness void of spirituality, never producing any fruits of the Spirit, and yet be saved because he mentally acquiesces to the fact of Jesus. He can hear the Word of the Father without doing any of it and yet be saved. He can build his house on the sand, show no signs of a new birth or renewed mind, refuse to follow Jesus, refuse to love anyone but himself, hate God and man, worship idols and yet be welcomed into the eternal presence of God. This is what the proponents of "faith only" salvation teach. But the Holy Spirit reveals that man is not saved by faith only. James 2:24. In l'st Corinthians 6:9-l0, we read that evil people will not inherit the kingdom of heaven.
The Holy Spirit reveals that a believer can live such a sinful life as to void his faith. This is the message of Romans l:25. This is the message of l'st Timothy l:l9 concerning "shipwrecked" faith. I understand it also to be the message of Revelation 2l:8: It reads, "However, people who are cowards, UNBELIEVERS, (emphasis mine) perverts, murderers, sexual sinners, those who follow occult practices, idol worshipers , and all liars will be in the lake which burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death". It is very clear from this passage that there are others, besides perverts, who will be lost.It is very clear that there are others, besides murderers, who will be lost. It is clear that there are others, besides idol worshipers, who will be lost. You can see where I am headed. It is, then, altogether obvious that there are others besides unbelievers who will be lost. How can one be other than an unbeliever unless he is a believer? The sentence construction demands that there are others besides unbelievers and those others would have to be believers, and in this case, believers who are continually guilty of the sins listed. If all believers are going to be saved, why didn't the Holy Spirit list only unbelievers who would be lost? That would have been sufficient to make His point perfectly clear. If unbelievers are the only ones to be lost, why did He list all of those others? The fact of the matter is that there will be many who cry, "Lord, Lord", (mental assenters) who will not be saved, and there will be many denied before God who have denied Jesus before men.
The Holy Spirit proclaims that a life of sin results in eternal death. Revelation 2l:8. Men proclaim that a life of sin results in eternal life. Whom shall we believe?
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