Tag Archive | lost salvation

King David lost his salvation (died spiritually) but he REPENTED

Apr7

King David lost his road to heaven due to sin  (but he repented)

King David was a man of God’s own heart, but this is a general description of him, and doesn’t mean that he never did anything that was evil in God’s eyes. God is not a respecter of persons. He doesn’t have different rules for different people – not even if your name is King David. Will unrepentant murderers, adulterers, idolators and liars enter heaven? Clearly not, so this means that King David lost his salvation (or rather; he was spiritually lost and dead) during his year in sin.  What King David did to Uriah (he MURDERED him) was EVIL.

2 Samuel 12:9 Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is EVIL in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You KILLED him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own. 

1 Kings 15:5 Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, SAVE ONLY in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. 

King David lived under the Old Testament, but murderers were considered evil also during this time. What did Ezekiel say about righteous people (much like David) who chose to sin? They would DIE for it (spiritually).

Eze:3311Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? 12Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth. 13When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, HE SHALL DIE FOR IT. 14Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right; 15If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die. 16None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live. 17Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal. 18When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby. 19But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby

Ezek 18:20The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.21But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.22All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live.23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?24But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die. 25Yet ye say, The way of the LORD is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal?26When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die.27Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.28Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die. 

Ezekiel 3: 20Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand. 21Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul. 

Luckily King David REPENTED and restored his salvation thanks to this. But it took him about a year – the entire duration of Bathsheba’s pregnancy.

2 Sam. 12: 1And the LORD sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.2The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: 3But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. 4And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man’s lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him. 5And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die: 6And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. 7And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; —9Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. —12For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun. 13And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. 14Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. 

Can unrepentant murderers enter the Kingdom of God? Not a chance. 

1 John 3:15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that NO MURDERER HATH ETERNAL LIFE ABIDING IN HIM  

Also the prodigal son went from being alive, to being dead, to being alive again:

Luke 15:24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive AGAIN; he was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate.  

Justin Martyr, Dialogue 141faith

But that you may not have a pretext for saying that Christ must have been crucified, and that those who transgressed must have been among your nation, and that the matter could not have been otherwise, I said briefly by anticipation, that God, wishing men and angels to follow His will, resolved to create them free to do righteousness; possessing reason, that they may know by whom they are created, and through whom they, not existing formerly, do now exist; and with a law that they should be judged by Him, if they do anything contrary to right reason: and of ourselves we, men and angels, shall be convicted of having acted sinfully, unless we repent beforehand. But if the word of God foretells that some angels and men shall be certainly punished, it did so because it foreknew that they would be unchangeably [wicked], but not because God had created them so. So that if they repent, all who wish for it can obtain mercy from God: and the Scripture foretells that they shall be blessed, saying, ‘Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not sin;’ that is, having repented of his sins, that he may receive remission of them from God; and not as you deceive yourselves, and some others who resemble you in this, who say, that even though they be sinners, but know God, the Lord will not impute sin to them. We have as proof of this the one fall of David, which happened through his boasting, which was forgiven then when he so mourned and wept, as it is written. But if even to such a man no remission was granted before repentance, and only when this great king, and anointed one, and prophet, mourned and conducted himself so, how can the impure and utterly abandoned, if they weep not, and mourn not, and repent not, entertain the hope that the Lord will not impute to them sin? And this one fall of David, in the matter of Uriah’s wife, proves, sirs,” I said, “that the patriarchs had many wives, not to commit fornication, but that a certain dispensation and all mysteries might be accomplished by them; since, if it were allowable to take any wife, or as many wives as one chooses, and how he chooses, which the men of your nation do over all the earth, wherever they sojourn, or wherever they have been sent, taking women under the name of marriage, much more would David have been permitted to do this.

If they shall fall away, to renew them again is impossible Hebr. 6:6

Apr3

[If] they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame (Hebr. 6:6)

The people spoken of are christians. They:

  • have once been enlightened
  • have tasted of the heavenly gift
  • have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit
  • have tasted the good word of God
  • tasted the powers of the age to come

The whole context is:

Hebr. 6:4For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. 

The word IF is not in the Greek in verse 6!:

“(IF) they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame” 

Consider what Adam Clarke wrote about this and the aorist tense:

“And having fallen away” I can express my own mind on this translation nearly in the words of Dr. Macknight: ‘The participles who were enlightened, have tasted, and were made partakers, being aorists, are properly rendered by our translators in the past time; wherefore parapesontas, being an aorist, ought likewise to have been translated in the past time, “HAVE fallen away”. Never­theless, our translators, following Beza*, who with­out any authority from ancient MSS. has inserted in his version the word “if” have rendered this clause, IF they fall away, that this text might not appear to contradict the doctrine of the perse­verance of the saints. But as no translator should take upon him to add to or alter the Scriptures, for the sake of any favourite doctrine, I have trans­lated parapesontas in the past time, “have fallen away” according to the true import of the word, as standing in connection with the other aorists in the preceding verses.

*) Theodore Beza was John Calvin’s successor 

Young’s literal translation reads: “And having fallen away, again to renew them to reformation, having crucified gain to themselves the Son of God, and exposed to public shame” (v. 6).

(I can add that the word IF is not present in the common Swedish Bibles so I didn’t have to write all this stuff  about the added word IF when I wrote the equivalent post in Swedish.)

There are a couple of suggestions why the christians in Hebr. 6:6 could not be restored to salvation even though the rest of the Bible provides examples of people who have repented and were brought back to life (for example when Peter sinned by denying Jesus).

1) They might have ended up with a reprobate mind, as in Romans 1 

Rom. 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.—24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:—26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:—28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, GOD GAVE THEM OVER TO A REPROBATE MIND, to do those things which are not convenient

The above concerns people who have no excuse for rejecting God since he has clearly been seen and understood by them through his creation. Because they refused to glorify God and instead pursued sin, God gave them over to a reprobate mind and then they were totally absorbed in their vain life styles and were totally lost. People can harden their hearts to the extent that there is no return.

Acts 17:30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent

Acts 11:18 When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.

If God no longer calls/draws people through the Holy Spirit, and no longer grants people repentance, then people will be for ever separated from God.

2) It could be the unpardonable sin that is spoken about

Those addressed were Hebrew Christians, who were tempted to return to Juda­ism.

Hebr. 10:28 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

Mark 3:22 And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils. 23 And he called them unto him, and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan?—28 Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme29 But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.

Before being received again into the synagogue they would have to announce publicly that Jesus was not the Son of God; that His blood would not be able to save anyone; and that His miracles were done by the power of the devil. Before their con­version they had belonged to the nation which had crucified Christ; to return to the synagogue would be to crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame; it would be the awful sin of apostasy.

If one accepts this interpretation then he can better understand why those in Heb. 6:4-6 who fell away (parapesontas) could not be renewed by repentance unto salvation as they were enemies of God (10:29), but others, like Peter, who didn’t sin to that degree, could be renewed. The word in this verse translated fall away (parapesontas) is found only once in the NT and that is here!

Moreover, Peter and the other apostles fell away (skandalizo) (Mt. 26:31,33) and perhaps multitudes like them throughout the centuries, but it is not the same Greek word. Jesus taught that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is directly related to saying that the Lord had an evil spirit by which he was driving out demons. Hence, a link seems to exist between eternal sin and openly insulting the Spirit of grace (Hebr. 10:29). This could possibly explain why the ones referred to in 6:6 could not be renewed unto salvation.

We already know from numerous examples in the Bible that a sinner CAN be renewed and cleansed from his sins, if he confesses his sins and repents, but no one can be forgiven for the unpardonable sin.