by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
If it is true that once you are a child of God, you are automatically always a child of God, then no one could ever become a child of the devil. Yet, the Pharisees had become children of the devil (John 8:44-47). All people start out being innocent children of God, but reach an age of accountability for sin, and must choose what to do about their sin. If they choose to do nothing, they have by default chosen the will of Satan over the will of God. At that point, they reject God’s way and remedy and are separated from God (Isaiah 59:1-2). They become “servants of sin<\/em>” (Romans 6:11-12,22-23). You are a child of God if you quit being a servant of sin and become a servant of righteousness (I John 3:7-10).<\/p>\n So, if you were once a child of the devil (John 8:44) and then became a Christian (Philippians 3:5,6), does that mean you never were a child of the devil to start with? See Hebrews 3:12; 2:1f. If you can stop being a child of God and become a child of the devil by practicing sin, and all do, then you can stop being a child of the devil and become a child of God. That is what “conversion” is all about. All Christians are people who convert from being a child of the devil to becoming a child of God.<\/p>\n Now, can you “neglect so great salvation<\/em>” (Hebrews 2:1-2), develop an “evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God<\/em>” (Hebrews 3:12), and revert<\/strong>\u00a0to being a child of the devil again? Of course! You can be in grace and then “fall from grace<\/em>” (Galatians 5:1-4). You can harden your heart to God as you “neglect<\/em>” the spiritual blessings and tools of spiritual growth. You can then “trample under foot the Son of God<\/em>” and treat His precious blood as nothing, do despite to the Spirit of grace (Hebrews 10:25-28). In other words, you have reverted to the devil’s side. There is a worse punishment awaiting people who were former children of God. They will be haunted forever by the fact that they had <\/b>“so great salvation<\/em>” and neglected it and let themselves slip out of grace and under condemnation.<\/p>\n You have to do something with salvation to keep it. You will not escape if you neglect such a great salvation. Let us be good stewards of this great opportunity to be children of God with so great salvation and such a great inheritance ahead if we are faithful till death (Revelation 2:10).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton If it is true that once you are a child of God, you are automatically always a child of God, then no one could ever become a child of the devil. Yet, the Pharisees had become children of the devil (John 8:44-47). All people start out being innocent children of God,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[58],"class_list":["post-86186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-once-saved-always-saved"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":93791,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/always-a-child-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":86186,"position":0},"title":"Always a Child of God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 8, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton If it is true that \"once you are a child of God, you can never be lost or cease to be a child of God,\" then what happened to Adam and the rest of the sons of God? Adam is called the son of God (Luke\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32089,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/cannot-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":86186,"position":1},"title":"Cannot Sin","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Weldon Warnock via\u00a0Biblical Insights, September 2000 We are told by some of our religious neighbors that the soul of a child of God cannot sin, but rather only the outward man sins. This erroneous position is taken in order to justify a denominational dogma of \"once saved, always saved.\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22176,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-cain-the-son-of-the-devil\/","url_meta":{"origin":86186,"position":2},"title":"Was Cain the son of the Devil?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My Sunday school teacher says that Cain is the son of the Devil. I don't see where in the Bible this is true. Is it? Answer: If your teacher means physically, then it is time to find a better teacher. \"Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19388,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-happens-if-i-know-god-but-i-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":86186,"position":3},"title":"What happens if I know God, but I sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was doing a little research on sin to try and understand it a little better. I have just read through the New Testament and I'm still unclear on some things. I read\u00a0your article online about sin, it was very informative and helped me greatly, however, I have a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68867,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-right-to-become\/","url_meta":{"origin":86186,"position":4},"title":"The Right to Become","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton \"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name\" (John 1:12). Jesus gave certain people the right to become children of God. Unbelievers are not given this right. But even believers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16381,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/once-you-are-saved-can-you-live-a-sin-free-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":86186,"position":5},"title":"Once you are saved, can you live a sin-free life?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you believe that once you're truly saved that you can live a \"sin-free\" life? Answer: John stated, \"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86186\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}