Advocates of the impossibility of apostasy say that one of the "evils of the doctrine of the possibility of apostasy" is that it "makes us depend upon the mercy of the devil for salvation." If, they aver, the devil can get us, but he does not, "it is through his mercy that we get to heaven and not the mercy of God."

Answer:

1. According to that, if God can get one of the devil's children and save him, he can get them all. Thus, if one is lost, he can blame God because God could have saved him, but he did not. That kind of logic borders on blasphemy, but it is the type that one must use to discredit the truth. But if one is "once saved-always saved," he can blaspheme, yea, "curse God and die," and still go to heaven.

2. The devil cannot get the faithful child of God, "for the Lord preserveth the faithful" (Psa. 31:23); "he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul" (Prov. 16:17). The devil cannot get those who:

a. Resist him - Jas. 4:7; 1 Pet. 5:9.

b. Hear, believe, and follow Christ - Jno. 5:24; 10:27-29.

3. The possibility of apostasy does not posit one's fall from grace to the devil's determination or will alone. The devil wills the damnation of all. However, he cannot snare, tempt, or beguile any person against his will. Those the devil overcomes yielded themselves to him. Neither God nor the devil has a child against that child's will (Rom. 6:16). "Choose this day whom ye will serve."

TRUTH MAGAZINE, XV: 48, p. 7
October 14, 1971