Obtaining Ultimate Salvation—A Process, Not a One Time Event

Deuteronomy 2:31, Begin to possess [the Promised Land]. Possession of the Promised Land was a process. This concept is as true for us as much as it was for the children of Israel.

The idea in mainstream Christianity that when you receive salvation at the beginning of your spiritual walk and that’s all there is to possessing or entering the kingdom of Elohim is a seriously incomplete one. It doesn’t fit the biblical models or the teachings of the apostolic writers about the need for the believer to persevere and overcome to the end to receive his ultimate eternal inheritance.

When this verse states that Israel “began to possess [the Promised Land],” what does this mean? Why didn’t YHVH give it to Israel all at once? What did Israel have to do to “possess” the land? What do we have to do to possess our spiritual inheritance? Does YHVH just hand it to us, or do we have to persevere, overcome and fight for it?

Leaving Egypt is a picture of a believer’s initial salvation, while entering the Promised Land is a picture of a believer’s ultimate salvation involving his glorification or the redemption of his physical body and being granted eternal inheritance at the resurrection. It’s also a picture of rewards for obedience. 

Much more could be said on this subject, and the apostolic writers show us. Suffice it so say, the idea that the mainstream church propagates that receiving salvation is a one time event like getting your ticked punched to a movie or amusement park ride falls woefully short of the biblical truth and has led many people astray spiritually. Yes, the initial steps in the process are relatively easy, but then there’s the repentance, the spiritual walk, the obedience and lordship of Yeshua, the overcoming, and the levels of rewards. All of these things are precursors and steps in the process to actually receiving eternal life and a resurrected glorified body.

The children of Israel’s exodus from Egypt and their subsequent 40 years journey to the Promised Land is a picture of this process and all the steps in between. It’s a picture of the redeemed believer’s life and all of the faith-building struggles one must encounter before entering the the Promised Land of their ultimate spiritually inheritance.

The idea that the saint can have it all here and now is not a biblical one, but an ear-tickling message promoted by hireling gospel peddlers and corporate church merchandizers who have something to sell you. Beware of these false teachers who refuse to tell you the whole truth as presented in the Bible! Let the buyer beware.

 

6 thoughts on “Obtaining Ultimate Salvation—A Process, Not a One Time Event

  1. Hi Natan. This is a huge incredibly important thing to discuss. Can you either expand further or perhaps there is already a teaching in your archives that you can direct people to. Matt 7 surely is an indicator that not everyone who thinks they are “ok” are ok. I have often thought about a person who jumps off the side of a boat and someone goes in after them and “saves” them, but…….if they jump back in…they are no longer saved…unless of course the 2nd person jumps in and saves again:<) So…IS there a difference between "being saved" and eternal life or even where one LIVES that eternal life (ie inside or outside of the Kingdom….on the outside looking in)? Lots to consider. Thanks, drb

    • This is a good question. I will answer it quickly.

      If you study out the concept of salvation and being saved as the apostolic writers discuss it in the NT, some very interesting truths manifest themselves that the mainstream church largely ignores.

      On the large spectrum of the subject, we learn from the apostles that salvation is a process, not a one time event. They speak of “having been saved” (past tense), “being saved” (present tense) and how one “will be saved” (future tense). The mainstream church largely focuses on the past tense aspect. The Christian-Torah cult-like church I was born into and grew up in focused on the future aspect of salvation, and was thus able to keep people in line based on fear due to a works-based salvation approach (i.e. you didn’t know if you were saved or not, so you had to tow the party line [i.e. their interpretation of the Bible] to earn your salvation). I rejected this approach at age 30 because it didn’t square with the Bible on the subject, and since I chose the Bible over men’s interpretations, I left that system.

      Now let’s look at how the apostles present salvation by looking at the past, present and future aspects of salvation. Simply put, your personal spirit is saved at the time of initial salvation (one recognizes that one is a sinner, and then repents of one’s sins, and accepts Yeshua as not only one’s Saviors [i.e. your sin atonement] but also as Lord [i.e. accepts his commandments as one’s lifestyle by obeying what he said to do (i.e. the Torah)].

      With one’s personal spirit now lined up with the Set-Apart Spirit of Elohim (i.e. the mind and will of Elohim), now comes the process of converting the soul of man (i.e. one’s mind, will and emotions or who one is, i.e. one’s personality) to line up with the mind and will of Elohim. This process will last a life time, and is a constant struggle as Paul shows us in Romans 7. This is because the soul was born cut off from Elohim (this occurred when our first parents sinned at the tree of knowledge in the garden), and man thus is hard-wired or tuned in to listen to and obey the world, the flesh and the devil, which is the wisdom from below as James calls it, and which leads to confusion, strife, sin and evil (Jas 3:15-16), which is antithetical to the wisdom from above, which leads to righteousness (Jas 4:17-18). So the spiritual battlefield in which we humans find ourselves is that of converting the soul to line up with the spirit. This is the processes of being saved.

      The next aspect of salvation as the apostles present it is a future tense one. Once our personal spirit is saved, and our soul is converted from the kingdom of darkness to that of light (a lifetime process), then we can confidently and in faith believe the promise of Elohim that he will save our body (remember that we’re a tripartite being: body and soul and spirit [1 These 5:23]). This is the divine promise of immortal life where our bodies will be glorified and immortalized at the resurrection of the righteous, which will occur at Yeshua’s second coming. At that time, we will be born again into the family of Elohim as his glorified sons and daughters (John 1:12; Rom 8:14–15, 23; 9:4; 2 Cor 6:18; Gal 4:5–6; Eph 1:5; 1 John 3:–2; Rev 21:7).

      Now not everyone who is initially saved stays saved. Many fall away as Yeshua’s Parable of the Sower and the Seed present in Matthew 13. In this parable, if we look at it statistically, only 25 percent overcame the cares of this world, the trials and tribulations of life and the influences of the devil to produce the fruits of righteousness (Matt 13:1–9, 18–23). Yeshua then goes on to explain in the Parable of the Wheat and Tares that many people look like wheat (or saints) but are actually weeds growing among the wheat (Matt 13:24–30). Yeshua will even eventually expose them and he will cast them into the (lake of) fire at the end of the age (Rev 20:11–15).

      The key to staying saved and making it to the point where one’s body is glorified has to do with becoming perfected spiritually (Matt 5:48) and overcoming all the evil influences that would take us away from our love for and obedience to Elohim. This is the message of Yeshua to the seven churches in Revelation chapters two and three. Each of his admonitions to them ends with him telling them to overcome something evil, and if they do, they will receive such and such heavenly reward. Receiving the ultimate reward of immortality is conditional upon overcoming and persevering to the end. This is something that the mainstream church largely fails to teach. As such, the majority of Christians fit the category of the lukewarm Laodicean church where they they think they’re okay spiritually (because their church tells them they are), but Elohim has a completely different view (Rev 3:14–21).

      The concept of being “born again” as taught in the evangelical church is incomplete and has led many people to an impartial view of the concept of salvation. Many people think they are saved when they are not. Let me explain. Yeshua discusses the concept of the new birth with Nicodemus in John 3. He tells the Jewish ruler that one must be “born again” to be in the kingdom of Elohim (John 3:3–8). What does he mean here? The Greek word for “born” is gennao which can mean both to be begotten (or conceived) and born. As we all know, there’s a big difference between conception and a live-birth. So which one did Yeshua mean? We find the answer by looking at this passage’s context. In the same passage, he talks about the Spirit of Elohim and a person being energized by the Spirit. He then talks about being born of the Spirit (v. 8). Notice he neither mentions one’s soul (the mind, the will and the emotions of a person) being born again, nor one’s body being born again. What this tells us is that the process of the new birth starts when the Spirit of Elohim hits our spirit (like a sperm implanting self into an egg) and we become a spiritual zygote. We are currently in the womb, but we can be aborted along the way due to a number of factors as we’ve discussed above. Again Yeshua discusses this in his Parable of the Sower and the Seed in Matthew 13. If we as a spiritual fetus makes it full term, we will be live-birthed. This is the second birth, which occurs at Yeshua’s second coming when the fully developed saint who has overcome the world, the flesh and the devil will (future tense) receiver his immortal and glorified body.

      This is a truth the church has largely failed to teach its constituents, but is a vital truth that can make the difference between whether one goes to full term in their spiritual birthing process and receives their ultimate salvation of immortality or not. This is why the “once saved always saved” doctrine is so dangerous when it teaches that initial salvation equates with ultimate salvation. The two are not analogous concepts. Many people who adhere to this false teaching have been lulled into a false sense of spiritual security and, in reality, are really either lukewarm Laodiceans or, worse yet, tares.

      The mainstream church has embrace these doctrines of men because they have rejected the full counsel of YHVH’s word, which, at its core, is a rejection of Torah and the spiritual maturity and righteousness that obedience to YHVH’s Torah-Word brings. In fact, many “Christians” have been so indoctrinated by the church’s false teachings on this subject that when they hear the truth, they’re blinded by the light and actually come out against it. I get hateful emails and comments all the time from people who fail to recognize these truths, even though the Scriptures are given to prove it. This is because they don’t know the truth, or only have a partial understanding of it, and have believed what their pastors teach them instead of actually studying the Bible themselves. They are spiritually drunk on the false teachings of the whore system. So sad!

      This is a very quick response to a complex question, but hopefully it answers more questions than it engenders.

  2. Thanks. Never heard or “saw” the picture you paint about “new birth.” This is so important. We can argue all day long about “stuff” that matters not……..while this very important basic is generally left out of the discussion.

  3. Peter gives us a good idea of all this….
    1Pe 1:7  That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 
    And……
    2Pe 1:5  And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 
    2Pe 1:6  And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 
    2Pe 1:7  And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 
    2Pe 1:8  For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
    2Pe 1:9  But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. 
    2Pe 1:10  Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: 
    2Pe 1:11  For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

    • Hugo, in Natan’s blog article, “Salvation by Works or Grace”, dated 7/21/18, discussing a related theme, I made comments in reply, using this very same passage. I just found that interesting and thought we may be on the same page in our thinking about these matters. Shalom.

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