Sometime ago Naomi submitted a two-pronged query: (a) “When a saved person dies [picapp src=”a/5/0/a/Rioting_Erupts_Again_1d7a.jpg?adImageId=5073180&imageId=1633795″ width=”234″ height=”156″ /]sinning or committing a sin, do they [sic] automatically go to hell” (b) “also, what if a saved person commits suicide, does that person go to heaven or hell”? This posting addresses part “a” of the question. Part “b” will be housed in a later posting that we will title: “Mortal Sin,”
The question of whether a saved person can end up in hell would be best approached through the prism of the doctrine of eternal security (or perseverance of the saint or continuance of the saint in salvation). So what is this doctrine about? Which Scriptures seem to support it and which ones seem to negate it (in the sense that they speak of the possibility of losing one’ salvation? Which theological traditions ascribe to it and which ones reject it?

Passages Cited (by Classical Calvinism and Moderate Calvinism) in support of the Doctrine of Eternal Security
Passages that confer believers with “eternal life”
Jn 3:16 [“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.]
Jn 5:24 [Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.]
Jn 10:27-28 [My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.]
Acts 13:48 [When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and praised the word of the Lord; and as many as had been destined for eternal life became believers]
1 Jn 5:13 [I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.]
Passages that declare the believer secure
Jn 10:27-28 [My sheep hear my voice…they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.]
Passages that speak of the believer’s destiny with certainty
Rom 8:29-30 [For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.]
Rom 11:29 [for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable]
Phil 1:6 [I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ]

Passages Cited (by Reformed Arminianism and Weslayan Arminianism) in denial of the Doctrine of Eternal Security
Passages that raise the possibility of falling away or cite examples of those who fell away
Heb 3:12-13 [Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.]
Heb 6:4-6 [For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt.]
1 Tim 5:15 [For some have already turned away to follow Satan]
Passages that attach contingencies to the final outcome of the believer’s future
Matt 24:13 [But the one who endures to the end will be saved]
Jn 15:4, 6 [Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.]
1 Cor 15:1-2[Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.]
Heb 3:14 [For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end.]
Col 1:21-23[And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him— provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven]

Back to Naomi’s Question
The question again was: “When a saved person dies sinning or committing a sin, do they [sic] automatically go to hell.” Calvinism will answer in the negative since it not only highlights passages that seem to support the eternal security of the believer, but attempts to explain away those passages that raise the possibility of falling away. For example, classical Calvinism will deny that the persons in view in Hebrews 6 are in fact believer; they are unregenerate, unbelieving children of the covenant. Alternatively moderate Calvinism, while admitting that the persons in Hebrew 6 are indeed believers regard the loss spoken of their not as the loss of salvation, but the loss of rewards.
But even Arminianism will answer the question in the negative as much as teaches the possibility of losing one’s salvation. According to Arminianism, two conditions lead to loss of salvation: (a) Unconfessed sin: This is not sin that is unknown but rather sin that is consciously held without repentance and continued without regret and (b) Apostasy: an intensification of the stage of unconfessed sin. Neither of these conditions are implied in the question posed.