OBJECTION #5. "The Bible Answer Man" is Hank Hanegraaff. He's on coast to coast radio, he can't be wrong! He wrote the following, "And remember, eternal life comes to the believer through faith in Christ is not life for two weeks, two months, or even two years; eternal life is everlasting life. It begins at the moment of conversion and stretches on through the eons of time." (27)
ANSWER: Hank is right when he writes that eternal life (or salvation) "comes to the believer through faith in Christ" and "begins at the moment of conversion." Also, it DOES remain everlasting (or eternal) life. That can't change. However, this doesn't necessitate that we can't be lost after we receive the "gift" of eternal life. In other words, eternal life is the "gift" (Rom. 6:23). As long as we have the gift, we have eternal life. Moreover, as long as we have spiritual life, it is everlasting, but according to Scripture a person once saved can still "die" spiritually (Rom. 8:13) and miss the kingdom of God (Gal. 5:19-21)!
True, the “gift of God” is eternal life, but that’s not what gets us saved and into heaven. We are saved when the righteousness of Christ is applied to our lives by God. Where in the Bible does it say that God unapplies Christ’s righteousness, and reapplies our sins to our account?
Also, I fail to see how Romans 8:13 says that we can die spiritually. The verse says that in order to live spiritually, we have to die to the flesh (“mortify the deeds of the body”).