Does John 10:27-29 Teach the Impossibility of Apostasy?
The words of Jesus, as recorded in John 10:27-29, were,
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
(28) And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (29) My
Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is
able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” Many believe that
this is one the clearest statements in the Bible proving the
doctrine of the impossibility of apostasy. However, this
passage in no wise teaches such a devilish doctrine. To say
that Jesus taught the impossibility of apostasy in the
Scriptures is to contradict literally hundreds of clear
statements in the Bible that in fact teaches one can abandon
his faith so as to be eternally lost (cf. James 5:19-20; Gal. 5:
4). Jesus did teach that no man can “pluck” his followers
from out of his hand. But, this is not the issue. The issue
is this: Does the child of God possess the freedom of choice
so that he can walk away from the Lord if he chooses to do
so?
A close examination of these passages reveals that the
verbs employed are all present tense in the original
language. This simply indicates continuous action. The
sense is this: “My sheep continue to hear my voice, and keep
on following me and I keep on giving them eternal life.” The
implication is clear: As long as the sheep continue to hear
and follow the Shepherd (Jesus), they will not perish. What
is the antithesis? If the Sheep stopped listening and
stopped following, then they would perish. Jesus stated in
John 8:51, “Verily, verily, I say unto, If a man keep my saying,
he shall never see death.” What is the blessing? Jesus said,
“he shall never see death.” This is an obvious allusion to
spiritual death – eternal damnation. What is the condition?
Jesus said, “if (conditional term) a man keep (expresses
action) my saying.” Again, what is the antithesis? If a man
does not keep the Lord’s saying, then he shall see death.
The doctrine of “once saved always saved” is soul
damning error. When a person becomes a Christian, they
must remain faithful. John declared, “. . . be thou faithful unto
death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Rev. 2:10).