“Spirit, Soul, Body” by Andrew Wommack Quotes Chapter 9, “Once Saved, Always Saved or Born Again, Again?”

[Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks, PsyD]

When I first started understanding this revelation, I wondered, God, is it like the Baptists say—once saved, always saved? Or is it like the Pentecostals teach—saved, lost, saved, lost, born again, again? I struggled with these questions for a long time. Finally, the Lord spoke to me about it one day saying, “It’s not A—once saved, always saved; or B—saved, lost, saved, lost, born again, again. It’s C—none of the above!” He showed me that both positions have a partial truth, but the full truth is somewhere in between.

The “once saved, always saved” camp understands that your spirit is sanctified and perfected forever. Since you aren’t saved by your own goodness, your lack of goodness can’t un-save you. If you confess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are born again. Since faith is the issue, sin doesn’t cause you to lose your salvation. Someone might say, “Now wait a minute! I believe if you sin, you lose your salvation. You can’t tell me that a person who’s committed some grievous sin can go to heaven!”

Even though I would be considered “holy” by most religious standards, I’ve fallen short in my actions. I haven’t used profanity, drank liquor, smoked a cigarette, or committed adultery, but I’ve broken some of God’s laws. I haven’t loved people the way I should, neither have I always told the truth. I try to, but I remember being caught lying as a kid. I haven’t committed what’s considered “big” sins, but I’ve broken God’s Law!

Plate Glass Window

“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). The Law is like a plate glass window. You could shoot a BB through it and make a little hole or throw a piano through it and make a huge one. Size makes no difference because the glass can’t be patched. It’s broken and must be replaced. If you violate one tiny command, you’re guilty of breaking the whole thing! You might not be transgressing all of God’s commands, but you won’t ever be able to do everything He’s told you to do. Nobody always does all of the good they know to do (James 4:17). Therefore, everyone falls short.

Those who say “You have to be holy! You can’t have sin in your life and still think you’re saved” have to categorize it into “big” sin and “little” sin. They contend, “I’m talking about the big things. You can’t tell me that a person who commits adultery and dies in a car accident on the way home with their sin not confessed would still be saved. Surely, they would go directly to hell. You can’t tell me that an adulterer would go to heaven!” Forgive me for bursting your bubble, but that’s religious tradition!

According to God’s Word, there is no such thing as a “big” sin or a “little” sin (James 2:10). Speeding while driving is sin. Romans 13:1-7 instructs you to obey the laws of the land and to submit yourself to the governing authorities. Driving 56 in a 55-mph zone is breaking the command of God. If you break a little command, you are guilty of violating the entire thing.

The speeder is as guilty of sin as the adulterer. In man’s eyes, there is a radical difference between going 1 mph over the speed limit and committing adultery. A speeder and an adulterer deserve different consequences in man’s opinion, but in the eyes of God, sin is sin. Both come short of His standard of perfection. If you keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point, you become guilty of it all. If the born-again believer who committed adultery and didn’t confess it before dying goes straight to hell, then so does every believer who has ever sped. If that were true, then nobody would make it to heaven because we all come short and fail in many different ways!

Michael Jordan Vs. Couch Potato

If you’ve come short of the glory of God, you’ve missed it! Suppose you were in a room with a 20-foot ceiling, and God said you had to jump up and touch it in order to be saved. If you’re Michael Jordan, you might be able to jump 15 feet high and get close. If you’re a couch potato, you might only jump six inches and miss it by a bunch. Either way, the end result wouldn’t be any different. If you can’t touch the ceiling, you can’t be saved. Both miss it!

That’s the way it is with God’s standard. He doesn’t grade on a curve saying, “Do the best you can. As long as you’re in the top 10%, I’ll accept you, because you really tried.” No, either you have to be perfect, or you need a Savior who is!

If you can sin your salvation away, then the only way to heaven is to die immediately after being born again. The loving thing to do with new converts would be to kill them. Then they wouldn’t have a chance to sin and lose the salvation they just received. The evangelist who murdered them might go to hell, but the new believers wouldn’t have time to void their ticket to heaven through sin. Sound ridiculous? It is!

Your spirit has been sealed, sanctified, and perfected forever. Its righteous state doesn’t fluctuate with the holiness of your actions and attitudes. Since salvation depends solely upon putting your faith in Jesus and being born again, your sin doesn’t affect your relationship with God. He fellowships with you based on your faith in Christ alone!

 Renouncing & Rejecting

However, Scripture doesn’t teach “once saved, always saved.” Several places discuss the possibility of becoming reprobate and losing your salvation. The classic example is, “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 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” (Heb. 6:4-6). If a person falls away, there’s no more sacrifice. Hebrews 6:4-6 is located in the same context, emphasizing how Jesus’ one offering provided your eternal redemption. However, if that one sacrifice is voided, there isn’t any other. It cannot be reapplied. You can’t be born again, again. Jesus Christ is not going to suffer through that shame and humiliation to die a second time. His one sacrifice was it—forever! You can make the sacrifice of Christ of no effect by turning to legalism and trusting in your own works for righteousness. “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Gal. 3:1-3).

Salvation is both received and maintained by faith in Christ alone. “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering” (Heb. 10:23). You can’t sin your salvation away, but you can renounce it. Rejecting your faith isn’t easily done, but it is possible. Personally, I don’t believe there are very many who do fall away.

Hardened

Before someone would ever renounce so great a salvation, they would have to become hardened toward God (Heb. 3:13-14). Although your spirit is unaffected by sin, your body and soul are. Sin dulls your perception, wisdom, and understanding of who you are in the spirit. If you persist in sin far and long enough, you can come to a place where Satan will try to make you renounce your faith in Christ. However, without being totally blinded to the truth, nobody in their right mind would ever reject the Lord! If you renounce your faith and reject God, you can throw your salvation away. It’s not something you just lose, like misplaced car keys. You must deliberately and openly reject it. That’s something that takes place over a period of time. You’re saved by the grace of God, so sinful actions don’t cause you to lose your salvation.

If that happens, it’s impossible to ever be renewed again to repentance! This contradicts saved, lost, saved, lost; born again, again. Those who believe you lose your salvation every time you sin, also believe that all you’ve got to do is confess it and you’re saved again. You just “pray through” and come back into right standing with God. Hebrews 6:4-6 says that can never happen! Either you didn’t lose your salvation when you sinned, or if you did—you can never be saved again!

Do You Qualify?

The qualifications listed in Hebrews 6:4-6 are pretty stiff. You should look them over carefully before condemning yourself as reprobate. It’s not talking about that time you were frustrated and said “I’m quitting! This doesn’t work!” and then back- slid into sin. No, it’s much more involved than that.

In order to qualify, you have to (1) be enlightened, which means drawn by the Holy Ghost. John 6:44 declares, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” You couldn’t have been coerced into making some statement, signing a church roll, or repeating a prayer. Then, after not experiencing a dramatic change, you became tired and renounced it saying, “I reject this. It’s not real!” If this describes you, it wasn’t a true conviction from the Holy Spirit. You were coerced, not drawn. You went to church because your parents made you, or you were dating someone who had you repeat a prayer. You don’t qualify! Therefore, you aren’t even held accountable for that so-called “rejection.” You also must have (2) tasted of the heavenly gift, which means you must be truly born again; (3) made a partaker of the Holy Ghost, which refers to being baptized in the Holy Spirit; (4) have tasted the good Word of God, which means the Word has literally impacted you. You’ve done more than just put it in your mouth—you’ve swallowed it, digested it, and benefited from the nutrients and life in it; and (5) you’ve tasted the power of the world to come, which refers to a Spirit-filled person who has exercised the gifts of the Holy Spirit and is going on to maturity. In other words, you must be a mature Christian before you can actually renounce your salvation. If a mature Christian rejects the Lord, they can never be brought back to a place of repentance. It’s a one-time deal. They’re held accountable, damned, and that’s it! Jesus proclaimed that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit was the one unpardonable sin (Matt. 12:31-32). Yet Paul said he obtained mercy because he “did it ignorantly in unbelief” (1 Tim. 1:13). This shows that even the unpardonable sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit depends upon whether or not you did it knowingly. You can’t renounce your salvation ignorantly! That’s what Hebrews 6:4-6 is saying. You have to be a mature Christian who was drawn by the Spirit, born again, baptized in the Holy Ghost, mature in the Word, and operating in the gifts of the Spirit before you can reject the Lord. Only then are you held accountable!

Jesus proclaimed that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit was the one unpardonable sin (Matt. 12:31-32). Yet Paul said he obtained mercy because he “did it ignorantly in unbelief” (1 Tim. 1:13). This shows that even the unpardonable sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit depends upon whether or not you did it knowingly. You can’t renounce your salvation ignorantly! That’s what Hebrews 6:4-6 is saying. You have to be a mature Christian who was drawn by the Spirit, born again, baptized in the Holy Ghost, mature in the Word, and operating in the gifts of the Spirit before you can reject the Lord. Only then are you held accountable!

Too Young to Know Any Better

One time when I was a child, somewhere between five and eight, I became upset and ran away from home. I took off running but realized my mistake even before I lost sight of my house. Where am I going? What will I eat? Where will I sleep? I love my parents! I might have been angry, but I didn’t want to run away. Being too proud to admit it, I got caught up in a barbed wire fence on purpose so my brother would catch me (he’d been running after me to bring me home). Since I wasn’t old enough, it wasn’t held against me. Even though I was mad and had declared “I don’t want to be a Wommack anymore!” before running away, it wasn’t imputed unto me. If the police had been called, they would have been on my parents’ side because I was so young. I didn’t know what I was attempting, nor was I legally able to do it. However, now I’m old enough to decide. As an adult, I could change my name and make a formal separation from my parents. If I renounced them, the government would back me up, and I could legally reject them. It’s the same thing with renouncing and rejecting salvation. God knows whether someone is mature or not. He alone knows their heart.

Beyond Hope

When someone rejects their salvation, they can never come back into relationship with God. “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…Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them” (Rom. 1:28, 32). Giving them over to a reprobate mind, God takes away the conviction of the Holy Spirit. “Reprobate” means “beyond hope.” You aren’t convicted of your need for relationship with the Lord unless the Holy Spirit is dealing with you (John 6:44). As long as He’s dealing with you, you aren’t reprobate. However, if someone fulfills the qualifications of Hebrews 6:4-6 and renounces their salvation, then God takes the Holy Spirit away and they become reprobate. Without conviction, they no longer know they’re doing wrong.

Not only do they like it, but they like all those who are in rebellion against God too. Reprobates display a total lack of desire and response toward the Lord. Are you repenting and sorry for what you’ve done? Do you desire to be in relationship with the Lord? If so, you aren’t reprobate. The Holy Spirit is still dealing with you. You weren’t mature enough when you turned your back or fell away. Like Paul, you’re forgiven because you were ignorant when you did those things. Praise God—He’s your loving heavenly Father!

(END OF ANDREW’S QUOTES FOR CHAPTER 9)

Are you ready to change your life? If so, here is the link to start – you can study on your own, by clicking here to go to the teaching of, “Spirit, Soul, Body.” Once on the site, you can choose if you want to listen via audio or watch the videos.

Or study with a group, like I am doing, by going to this link, creating an account, and finding an online or local study – the materials are furnished for you – there is an outline teaching, questions, and Scriptures, on the website, that you download after logging in and finding your study.

 

Here is the link for the group I am in – you can go to the link and register, but to download your class materials, you must create an account, and sign in (the material information is on top of the page). Then contact the Leader, Dennis Kerr, and let him know you just signed up for the class and ask him to send you the Zoom link for the class. We currently meet on Tuesdays at 4:00pm EST (Dennis is in Arizona and his local time would be at 2:00pm for the study) – this Chapter 9, was from our March 1, 2022 class – it was our nineth meeting.

Click the link below to review all study materials, which is the same as the first link, for “Spirit, Soul, Body:” All “Spirit, Soul, Body” Resources

 

NOTE: Wherever there is bolding in this document and is not specified by Andrew that he did it, it was added by me. Also, highlighting, and Scriptures were bolded and linked to the text by me.

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God’s BLESSINGS to you all and your families!!

 

In Father’s Service,

Rev. Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks