The Gospels
John the Baptist boldly proclaimed, “Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 3:10; Luke 3:9). In fact, Jesus began His ministry by reiterating this same message (Matthew 7:19).
Jesus also taught that if we are unwilling to forgive, we remove the possibility of our receiving God’s forgiveness (Matthew 6:15). In Jesus’ original historical context and in Matthew’s canonical context, the new covenant community — comprised of believers — Jesus said that only those who endure to the end will be saved (Matthew 10:22; 24:13), and that if we deny Him before men, He will deny us before His Father (Matthew 10:33). When He said, “Any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven” (Matthew 12:31), He made no distinction between the saved and the unsaved.
In the Parable of the Sower and the Seed, the seed took root and began to bear fruit, but various circumstances eventually destroyed it (Matthew 13:3–23). In Matthew 18:15–17, Jesus commanded that members of the new covenant community who persisted in unrepentance be put out of the church and treated as outsiders to the covenant. Jesus also warned that in the last times, false messiahs “will mislead many” (Matthew 24:5), and during persecution, “many will fall away” (Matthew 24:10). Verse 24 records Jesus’ teaching that false messiahs and false prophets will “mislead, if possible, even the elect.”
Advocates of PS/ES think the phrase “if possible” points to a hypothetical situation and shows it is not possible for anyone to stray from the faith. This argument, however, does not consider the larger context (Matthew 24:5,10) or other texts (1 Thessalonians 4:1,2) that clearly state that some believers in the last days will depart from the faith for various reasons.
Luke reported that Jesus taught, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and [continually] looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). The context makes the meaning of the metaphor clear. The same can be said for Luke 14:34,35, “Salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (for more on the teaching of Jesus, see Matthew 7:16,17,21,24,26; 10:38; 12:30; 18:23–35; Luke 9:23 and following; 14:25–33).
