Can Salvation Be Lost And A Born-Again Christian End Up In Hell?

“But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he (or she) shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him (or her)…”----Hebrews 10:38

Can a believer in our Lord, Master and Savior Jesus Christ lose his or her salvation and go to hell? Absolutely Yes! Our First Parents; Adam and Eve communed with the Lord God Almighty, and enjoyed His Presence and beheld His Glory. They had unfettered relationship with their Maker for eons which we cannot guess estimate. The loving relationship was that of Father to Son; from the Creator to the created in the Garden of Eden when the Sovereign Lord used to come and fellowship with Adam and Eve. As God Almighty is God of Love; He gave free moral choice to our First Parents. He couldn’t have compelled them to reciprocate His Divine Love. Everything in the Garden of Eden was for both Adam and Eve for enjoyment, except one tree which was a no-go-area as the Lord commanded them. It was a matter of obedience or disobedience to the law and command of the Lord. As it turned out, Adam and Eve used the freedom of choice the Lord God gave them to disobey Him. The resultant effect is apparent in the fate of the human race today. Earlier on, the angelic beings created by the Lord God Almighty also possessed freedom of choice. They have the right to obey or disobey God Almighty and their independent choice comes with consequences. If they obey their Maker; they would be in His Presence and enjoy His Divine Grace and Goodness. On the other hand, their disobedience to Him would result in banishment from His Divine Presence. Lucifer and alongside one-third of the angels with him (Revelation 12:4) exercised the freedom of choice given to them by their Creator to disobey the Lord God Almighty. They were once loyal, but later became disloyal and disobedient. Consequently, they were flushed out of that Divine Place and hell fire was created by the Lord God Almighty as their permanent abode.

The Almighty God is God of Justice and shows no favoritism. If angels disobeyed Him and He punished them; human beings must be punished for disobedience as well. As Jude disclosed: “And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling-these He has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day” (Jude. 6). If the Almighty God flushed Lucifer and his rebellious angels out of heaven because of disobedience and He also drove Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden as a result of disobedience, brethren know this for certain; your salvation can be lost for the same sin of disobedience. As our Lord Jesus Christ Who is God in the flesh warned: “Not everyone who says to Me; “Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he (or she) who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). No one, I repeat no one; no matter the title you parade on earth and the bofo you may claim to be will enter heaven and the kingdom of God Almighty by disobeying the Almighty God. The moment you want to do things your own way instead of the Way of the Lord; the moment you assume the lordship of your life and refuse to submit your will to the Creator, you are eternally lost. That is the meaning of disobedience. Again, our Lord Jesus Christ warned: “Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, yet don’t do what I say?” (Luke 6:46).

History is littered with souls who initially obeyed the Lord God Almighty, but later disobeyed Him and perished. Our First Parents; Adam and Eve started with obedience but later disobeyed the Lord God Almighty and lost the Garden of Eden as the Lord God drove them out of that Beautiful Place. Mrs. Lot was on the way to salvation and would have made it alive when the Lord God sent angels to destroy the Twin Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, but she disobeyed the instructions of the Lord; Do not look back. “But his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” (Genesis 19:26). The children of Israel had it good with the Lord and His Presence was with them in the wilderness, until they sinned and spent 40 years instead of 40 days to enter the Promised Land. More than 2 million of them aged 20 years and above died and perished in the withering desert because of disobedience. However, only two faithful individuals; Caleb and Joshua made it to the Promised Land, because of obedience. King Saul started well, but disobedience led him to lose his salvation. As Prophet Samuel told Saul: “For rebellion is like the sin of divination and arrogance is like the wickedness of idolatry…” (I Samuel 15:23). The Contemporary English Version put it beautifully this way: “Rebelling against God or disobeying Him because you are proud is just as bad as worshipping idols or asking them for advice…”(CEV). Mr. Gehazi used to carry the water for Prophet Elisha, but lost his salvation because of greed (2 Kings 5:20-27). King Solomon was the wisest person who had ever lived and he started very well, but Mr. Excess lost it because of womanizing as the Word of Life disclosed thus: “For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his god, as was the heart of his father David. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Amonnites. Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord…Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon. And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods” (I Kings 11: 4-8).

Mr. Judas Iscariot was one of the Twelve Disciples holding a great title as the minister of finance, but greed and love for money consumed him that he betrayed his Creator and lost it totally and entirely. Diotrephes was once a believer, but egotism and self-love destroyed him and began to hinder the work of the Lord (3 John 1:9). He caused the downfall of many souls and lost his salvation. Alexander did great damage to the spreading of the gospel, even though he once was a believer (2 Timothy 4:14). Demas missed it because he loved the world rather than heaven (2 Timothy 4:10). The list is endless.

There are six deadly associate demons that destroy quickly and take human beings to hell, whether you are saved/born-again Christian or unsaved. I have seen these demons destroy people’s lives rapidly and brazenly without humans realizing the pernicious activities of these six demons in winning souls for Satan. They are; anger, hatred, bitterness, resentment, unforgiving spirit/vengeance and murder. Our Lord Jesus Christ warned that it wasn’t the believer that started very well in the Christian Journey that would make it to heaven, but the one who finishes well and endure till the end. Many ministers of God you watch on television and listen to on the radio or you attend their church services started well when they were called by our Lord, Master and Savior Jesus Christ. But as they began to walk with the Master, Satan too began to covet them. Gradually and anon, they veered from the path of the Master and lost it. Although you can still see them shouting and hectoring the name of the Lord Jesus Christ they once worshipped, but they have lost touch with Him. Hear what the Lord says about such so-called men and women of God: “The One who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says; I know your works, you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead. Be alert and strengthen what remains, which is about to die, for I have not found your works complete before my God. Remember therefore what you have received and heard, keep it, and repent. But if you are not alert, I will come like a thief, and you have no idea at what hour I will come against you…” (Revelation 3:1-3). There are many factors that can cause a believer and born-again Christian to lose his or her salvation. The salvation won for us on Calvary by the Lord Jesus Christ through His Blood is for us individually to keep and ensure it is not lost. But this salvation is not etched on Rosetta stone and slam dunk, it can be lost. The more reason Apostle John warned us thus: “Watch yourselves, so that you do not lose what we have worked for, that you may be fully rewarded” (2 John 1:8). Many precious souls do not know the Christian Journey is not a marathon, but a race. Consequently, Apostle Paul admonished all regenerated souls this way: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the price? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize” (I Corinthians 9:24-27). Let’s examine some of the reasons a saved person and born-again Christian can lose his or her salvation and end up in hell.

First, commission of sin repeatedly and without the sincere heart to stop sinning. In the world today, we hear such glib talk that we are all sinners and no human being is above sin. But committing the same sin over and over again is not of God, but of Satan, because; “Anyone born of God refuses to practice sin, because God’s seed abides in him (or her), he (or she) cannot go on sinning, because he (or she) has been born of God” (I John 3:9). In that verse, the words; “God’s seed” refers to the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit empowers us to be able to withstand sin and thus live a righteous and holy life before our Lord, Master and Savior Jesus Christ. The evidence of the Holy Spirit in your life is the empowerment you received from Him not to sin deliberately. When you are able to do what ordinarily you were unable to do before in your life; then you have the evidence of being indwelled by the Holy Spirit. For years, I could not be faithful to a woman, but for more than fifteen years, I have never cheated on my wife. The demonic doorway through which Satan had the legal ground to invade my body to make me commit sexual sins in the past was through my ex-wife. I cried and wept to the Lord and He told me He would take me out of that unholy marriage, because the marriage was not His will. I have disclosed in this column in the past that my ex-wife used voodoo charms to marry me and she even boasted about it openly. Even though I was indwelled with the Holy Spirit, she was the agent through which Satan was invading my life to cause me to sin. It was when the Lord revealed this to me that I began to pray and He arranged situations and circumstances in my life to fulfill what He commanded in His Words on divorce thus: “I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery” (Matthew 19:9). This is the only legitimate spiritual ground that divorce is allowed by our Lord, Master and Savior Jesus Christ. You must have the smoking gun as evidence for the sexual immorality and two witnesses must come forward to testify against the woman.

Consequently, the Lord Jesus Christ brought my current wife and ever since I have been able to work for Him and fulfill my destiny. So do not let me hear you tee-hee now that everyone sins. Hear Apostle John again; “By this the children of God are distinguished from the children of the devil. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is anyone who does not love his or her brother” (I John 3:10). The first factor therefore that can cause a saved and born-again Christian to miss heaven and end up in hell is wanton and deliberate act of sin. Someone once asked; if you have the Holy Spirit, can you then sin? Won’t the Holy Spirit help you not to commit sin? Some saved and born-again Christians have forgotten that the Holy Spirit who is actually our Lord Jesus Christ in you will not and never efface our individual choice and personality. Unlike Satan and demonic spirits that possess fake Christians; the Holy Spirit does not possess us and destroy our freedom of choice. The Lord doesn’t turn us into automatons and zombies as saved and born-again Christians. You still retain your freedom of choice and ability to sin or not sin after you have given your life to our Lord, Master and Savior Jesus Christ. What the Holy Spirit does is point out the areas of your life that you should watch out for and guide against temptation. The Holy Spirit as the Greater One in us than the one-Satan-in the world helps us to live a righteous and holy life in our Christian Journey, but He needs your cooperation to achieve this.

Immediately the Holy Spirit notices you are about to sin, He will warn you accordingly. You still have your freedom of will to either obey or disobey Him. Once you disobey Him, He will not talk to you anymore until you obey Him. But you cannot obey Him, until you ask for His forgiveness for your disobedience on the last instruction He gave you which is called repentance. But this act of repentance must be sincere and genuine and you must determinedly resolve not to repeat the same sin again. But if you persist in committing the same sin over and over again thinking you can always return to Him to ask for forgiveness over and over again; the Holy Spirit will stop talking to you henceforth. This is why Apostle Paul warned us thus: “Do not extinguish the (Holy) Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19). The New Living Translation put it this way: “Do not stifle the (Holy) Spirit” while other Bible Translations say: “Do not quench the (Holy) Spirit.” When King David sinned by committing adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband, Uriah, he wept, sobbed and cried onto the Lord pleading with agony thus: “Do not cast me from your Presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11).

Another grievous sin which can make a saved and born-again Christian to lose his or her salvation, especially pastors and workers for His Utmost is pursuing one’s glory. All these so-called men and women of God flying all over the place in private jets, wearing $700 suits and $300 shoes while children, widows, the poor, orphans, the fatherless, the handicapped, the elderly and sick in their churches are suffering are not going anywhere when the Trumpet sounds. The Lord Jesus Christ declared matter-of-factly to them thus: “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? When did we see You sick or in prison and visit You?’ And the King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’

Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, I was naked and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ And they too will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then the King will answer, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me. ’And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”(Matthew 25: 31-46).

You do not need a $50 million private jet to preach the gospel and spread the Good News of our Lord, Master and Savior Jesus Christ. It is all pride of life, period! All these charlatans are going nowhere, mark my words! There are only three needs the Lord Jesus Christ promised us and He delivers on them; food, clothing and shelter, period! Ask all these so-called billionaire preachers and pastors gallivanting all over the place where did they get the money? They are servants of Satan, period! They may have started very well in the beginning, but because of gree love for money, they have wandered away from the faith and consumed by Satan, the god of this world. As Apostle Paul warned: “Of course, godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, so we cannot carry anything out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. But you, O man of God, flee from these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made the good confession before many witnesses” (I Timothy 6: 6-12).

Another destructive sin that precipitously shipwrecks the faith of many saved and born-again Christians, especially men and women of God that serve on God’s altar is the lure of power. Many of today’s pastors, evangelists, missionaries, general overseers and others behave like czars and company chief executives. They operate like potentates. Some precious souls that call us here at The Jesus Christ Solution Center even complain that they have to wait for weeks and at times months to see their pastors. And these are supposed to be shepherds of the flock of the Lord God Almighty? A pastor called me from the EU asking to be assisted financially and I asked him what happened to the tithes and offerings that his local parish collects for his maintenance and that of the parish in that particular country. He told me they cannot touch it but all tithes and offerings must be sent to the church’s headquarters. I was flabbergasted. These charlatans have turned the gospel into a thriving enterprise and multinational corporations. They will appear before the King and discover they have missed it on that Day. I even hear that they address some of these charlatans as My Father in the Lord! Our Lord Jesus Christ warned that; “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Christ…” (Matthew 23:9-10).

Finally, Satan uses the demonic spirit of self-glory to lure saved and born-again Christians to hell without many realizing it; because the original sin which Satan committed that put him into eternal trouble as Lucifer was rebellion. After the minimum needs of food, clothing and shelter that our Lord Jesus Christ guaranteed us as His Own (Matthew 6:25-34); we have no right to three things that the Almighty God warned us He would not share with anyone namely: Power, Honor and Glory. These three things are the three sins Satan cleverly and disingenuously baits some saved and born-again Christian with and shipwreck their faith. That is why we are warned: “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in your faith and in the knowledge that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering…”(I Peter 5:8-9). I pray you will not lose your faith and salvation in the Mighty Name of Jesus, Amen.

Dr Moshood Ademola Fayemiwo is the Spiritual Head & Founder, The Jesus Christ Solution Center, based in Cameron, TX USA. Call him at this number: 254-605-4035. You can also send him email at [email protected]