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Who Will Be Lost?
By Ron Boatwright

     The Lord is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).  Those who will not repent will be lost.  Repentance is a change of heart which results in a change of our actions in obeying and following God’s will.  Jesus says, "Unless you repent you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3).  Those who will not repent and obey the Lord will be lost.  Even though the Lord doesn’t want anyone to be lost, the vast majority has chosen the broad way which will lead them to be eternally lost (Matthew 7:13).

     Who will be lost?  Jesus says, "He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him, the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day" (John 12:48).  If one rejects Jesus and His words as found in the Bible, he will be lost.  Jesus says, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned" (Mark 16:16).  One does not have to do anything to be lost except not believe Jesus.  If one does not believe Jesus he will not believe and baptized so he can be saved.  The lost, who do not believe Jesus, say that baptism is not necessary for one to be saved.

     Many who did obey the Lord and were baptized for the forgiveness of their sins have become unfaithful and "having condemnation because they have cast off their first faith" (1 Timothy 5:12).  If they remain in this situation they will be lost.  We are commanded not to forsake "the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some…For if we sin willfully…there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin" (Hebrews 10:25-26), if one will not repent.  For all those who are lost, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31).

     All those who will not repent but practice the works of the flesh will be lost.  We are warned, "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God" (Galatians 5:19-21).  Notice it says "and the like".  This is not a complete list.  A child of God will be lost if he continues to practice such things.

     Also concerning those who will be lost, we read, "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death" (Revelation 21:8).  Notice it says that all liars will be lost.  All liars include those who tell "little lies", if there is such a thing.  The main reason people will be lost is they don’t believe God and His warnings.  Because of this "they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth" (2 Thessalonians 2:12).

 

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