What is Eternal Salvation?. Joe Clemons

      This is a great little book. I recommend it.

      —Norman L. Geisler

      Dr. Norman L. Geisler has written over 100 books and is considered to be a giant among giants in the field of Christian Apologetics. Some say he is the number 1 theologian in the world. He is the cofounder of the Southern Evangelical Seminary, where I am currently a student.

      Personal Testimony

      In 1983 at the age of twenty-three, I was your typical, average, no-good American guy. At that time in my life, as James Brown would say, “I was doing my thing.” I did most of the dirty dozen, nasty nine, filthy five, and I may have done one of the slack two, but never did the unthinkable one. I got most of that from Dr. Tony Evans.

      I was reared in a small community called Cross, South Carolina, where I lived with my parents and siblings, and my mom took us to church every week. After high school, I went off to technical college, where I became a welder and resided in Denmark and Columbia, South Carolina. I later moved to Tampa, Florida, for work but after a few months decided to go back home to Cross because like they say, “There’s no place like home.” One day in Tampa, I met a young man that was about my age (twenty-one) who had bought a house. This inspired me to build my own house (after paying rent all over the place), but although I had a new plan, I had my same old problem, not drugs, alcohol, smoking, gambling, and not even child support or alimony; I had a “she weakness”—women.

      Even with my new desire to build a house, a couple of years passed, and I was still living with my mom and doing my thing. I realized that I was not making any headway with my plan, and then I remembered what Richard Pryor used to say, “Anytime you cannot stop yourself from doing what you love to do and at the very same time all the problems you got come from the things you love to do, you got a problem and need some help.” At the end of every year, all I had were memories and no money, so I knew that I needed help if I was to get out of that rut.

      My mom was a good Christian woman, and I saw how God was blessing and helping her. While staying with her, she always reminded me about church and the Lord. I always believed in God and that there was a heaven and hell, so I began going to church every Sunday with her. After about a month, I was convicted by the Word and Spirit and accepted Christ into my life, and the rest was history.

      Well, after about two years of faithfully attending church (a Pentecostal church) and trying to be a good member and a good Christian, I began to have a problem because my church leaders told me I was saved, but that I needed to receive the Holy Ghost. At that time, I was doing everything they told me to do; I was fasting, praying, tarrying, and reading my Bible. Reading my Bible showed me that if I am saved, I have the Holy Ghost, so I started asking questions. I realized the answers I received sounded good but either were not consistent or did not make good Bible sense. Then I started to do a study on the Holy Ghost, and that’s when I found out that every believer has the Holy Ghost, also that He resides or abides with us forever. This led me to see, believe, and I became convinced that eternal salvation is true. Unfortunately, sharing my understanding with my church leaders did not go well. My pastor was bishop of the state of my denomination, and he did not believe in eternal salvation. He had a son who had received a doctrine degree in theology, so I approached him in hopes that he would understand my point of view and would help convey it to his dad. After a few meetings, he expressed that he did not believe in eternal salvation, but he did believe that every Christian has the Holy Ghost. He revealed to me that he knew this was not being taught correctly, but this was the way it had been taught for years, and he did not see how anything could be done.

      Experiences and conversations with church leaders throughout the years such as this fueled me to help others understand the Gospel in the right way. A few years ago, my mom and dad died as believers who did not know of the assurance we have in Christ. To this day (thirty-five years later), my siblings and most of my family, friends, community, and believers that I know don’t know how good the Good News is because they do not believe in eternal salvation. For this reason, I have dedicated myself to be my family and community spiritual paralegal. This was done to give them a better understanding of the Gospel. My prayer is that reading this booklet will help someone begin to understand and appreciate all that God has done for us. Thank you, and I ask that you pray for me and may the Lord bless us all.

      Introduction

      The Gospel means Good News, and it is the best news that man will ever hear in this life, because it tells about what God has done so that we can have eternal life or to save us by his grace. Unfortunately, most people, including preachers and teachers, explain it in a way that doesn’t make good sense. Most of the preachers and teachers that I know say that one must accept Christ and live right or good to be saved; however, the Bible tells us that it is impossible to live good or right enough to be saved. There is no way to see or explain the Good News about how God saved by Grace without understanding salvation, which is eternal. Those who reject God’s salvation, and/or the concept of eternal salvation have incorrect knowledge of what God is offering and do not know or believe what the Gospel is truly saying. The Bible said that eternal life, and salvation, is free and a gift. Well, what does that imply? No conditions or strings attached. Remember, when what you truly know (saved by grace) doesn’t match, what you really believe (live right to be saved), you have a problem and need a better understanding.

      If you want to see people, even good Christian people who love God, become confused and even angry, ask them this question: does going to heaven depend on how you live, or does it not? I have never found a Christian who did not know that salvation is by grace. They also know that it is a gift that cannot be earned. But some of these same people will also tell you that being saved and going to heaven depends on how they live. This is a direct contradiction because that makes heaven attainable by earning it. Now I’m talking about spiritual, righteous, and committed Christians. I am talking about people who believe all the same things concerning the foundation of our faith. They will become so unspiritual, unrighteous, and angry with one another that they would almost fight. They may even stop associating or speaking with one another.

      Just picture going to a big interdenominational meeting with all denominations of Christianity present and someone deciding to debate eternal salvation. Can you imagine the confusion that could or would be started just from those two words? All this confusion could be eliminated if people would just take the time to investigate. You can have a lot of knowledge about something, but until you get a good understanding of it, you just have a lot of information that you do not understand and cannot explain.

      It is amazing that all this confusion could happen to people who are united in the same belief. Even though their beliefs are the same, they could be separated by two simple words, so most people avoid this conversation. I call them the Christian’s “dirty” words: eternal salvation—meaning that once