***Note: The scope of this thread is an analysis of Matthew 24:12-13 KJV only. Please do not attempt to refute the content of this post with other OSAS "proof texts" - if you wish to post OSAS "proof texts", please refer to Justaname's thread "The Doctrine of OSAS".***
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But, he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved." - Matthew 24:12-13 KJV
The "many" of verse 12 are said to possess "agape" love which is the highest, purest form of expressed love. It is wholly selfless, self-sacrificing, and self-abasing love and is why it is referred to as "Godly love".
This is crucial in establishing that the "many" in verse 12 are in fact born again, grace saved, fully converted, washed-in-the-blood saints. It is impossible to conceive that the selfish, self-centered, self-seeking, self-absorbed, unsaved are capable of receiving and imparting to others
agape love when their very carnal nature is enmity and hatred toward God. "He that is not with Me is against Me," says our Lord.
Verse 12 goes on to say that because of iniquity - deliberate, known, presumptuous sin - the
agape of these many will "wax cold". Notice that this change from hot, living
agape to cold, dead
agape is not a abrupt, sudden change, but a gradual cooling until it is completely cold and dead. The road to perdition is traveled on foot by one rebellious step after another.
This brings us to the crux of the issue: If the saints are:
- known by their agape for one another (John 13:35 KJV)
- known by their agape for God Whom they have not seen (1 John 4:20 KJV)
- and are known for having the agape of God perfected in them (1 John 2:5 KJV)
...then how can anyone who no longer possesses agape be any longer numbered with the saints? The answer is that they are not.
Finally, Jesus begins verse 13 with the contrasting conjunction "but" which contrasts those who through willful indulgence in iniquity allowed their once perfected agape to die with him who through patient continuance in well doing had his agape preserved and perfected by God. Through their own rebellion, they became bankrupt of
agape which rendered them incapable of fulfilling the Two Great Commandments.