Satan's Great Scheme, 17

2) So-called "study Bibles" contain notes in them that were written by uninspired man. These notes are not always an aid but an actual hindrance to Christianity when they express the teaching of eternal security. The devil has been successful in deceiving many through such notes. You would be much better off to get a Bible with no "notes," but one which only has related Scripture verses linked together. Such will help protect you from many of the false doctrines being pushed upon us in our dark day.

3) Just because a friendly, respectable, smooth-talking and popular preacher is on TV or the radio doesn't mean he's teaching the real gospel message. It is most alarming that people dare to associate once saved always saved (OSAS) with the gospel or grace and it has not only been done, but sadly, even widely accepted by many who own Bibles.

4) The venomous, so-called "gospel" from OSAS teachers Standey and MacDarthur in our cartoon strip are actual teachings that have gone over the air or put in books to potentially millions of people. There is no way to know how many acts of immorality have been committed such as adultery, suicide and criminal acts because of these and others just like them. Sadly, their demonic message has already spread around the world and deceived multiple millions.

5) Many congregations are nothing more than religious social clubs where people have dinners together and visit certain attractions, just like in the world. In contrast, a New Testament congregation is to be a spiritual training camp to equip the saints for various good deeds and evangelism as well as a spiritual hospital for the people to get spiritual medicine and treatment to be healed and revived. Christians are to work in the vineyard and sacrifice for the sake of souls. You will be held responsible for your time, money, knowledge, abilities and opportunities that God has allowed you to work with now to bring forth fruit for the Kingdom of God. You are to use these in your battle for eternity in a most diligent way.

6) To support OSAS, the teachers of such have often: (1) taken Scripture out of context such as what they do with Jn. 10:28, etc.; (2) reason from the natural to the spiritual such as saying, "You will always be your father's child regardless how bad your behavior may become"; (3) misrepresent Christians who hold to a conditional security by saying something like, "They are teaching a 'works salvation'" or are "denying we are saved by grace." These and other objections are nothing but distortions of the facts.

7) True Christians in the past have been deceived and led away from God by false teachers. See 2 Tim. 2:18 cf. Rom. 16:17,18; 2 Cor. 11:3,4; Col. 2:18; etc. It is nothing less than vital to learn the message of the Bible for ourselves and cleave to it above any other message that might come our way over TV, radio, in books, through dreams, visions, prophecies, experiences, angels, testimonies, feelings, miracles, etc. The Bible is God's eternal word and our standard for spiritual truth. Your eternal destiny depends on what you do with the message of the Bible.

8) All Christians are to be WARNING others not to sin. That doesn't mean just the wicked but also the righteous:

Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. Since you did not warn him, he will die for his sin. The righteous things he did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the righteous man not to sin and he does not sin, he will surely live because he took warning, and you will have saved yourself. (Ezek. 3:20-21)

"But if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits sin and does the same detestable things the wicked man does, will he live? None of the righteous things he has done will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness he is guilty of and because of the sins he has committed, he will die. "Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' Hear, O house of Israel: Is my way unjust? Is it not your ways that are unjust? If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits sin, he will die for it; because of the sin he has committed he will die. (Ezek. 18:24-26)

If I tell the righteous man that he will surely live, but then he trusts in his righteousness and does evil, none of the righteous things he has done will be remembered; he will die for the evil he has done. (Ezek. 33:13)

If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, he will die for it. And if a wicked man turns away from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live by doing so. Yet, O house of Israel, you say, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' But I will judge each of you according to his own ways." (Ezek. 33:18-20)

Again, the righteous will continue to live because "he took warning" and did not do evil. So it isn't because he is eternally secure even if he turns to evil that he will continue to live, but only because he refrained from evil. On the other hand, if he would turn to occasional acts of adultery, drunkenness, theft, slander, etc., then he would not continue to live, but would die spiritually. Sadly, some so-called "shepherds" who reject the OSAS teaching are really poisoning the sheep and not feeding them truth by stating that occasional acts of adultery, drunkenness, theft, homosexuality, etc. won't cause loss of salvation. To them it must be "lifestyle." In some ways, they can do more harm to a Christian than an OSAS teacher.

Remember, sin can bring the righteous to their death and will keep the wicked in a spiritually dead condition. Your worst enemy, the devil, tempts you to sin because of what it does, but he also tries to conceal its deadly potential through the OSAS teaching and those who say your sin must be "lifestyle" for you to be unsaved.