SCRIPTURE Numbers 14:11–12 “And the Lord said unto Moses, how long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.”  

COMMENTARY: This passage is confirmation that the Israelites coming out of Egypt were disinherited.  Understand that God is speaking here of a heartfelt belief because they saw the miracles God did; they had intellectual belief.  These “believers” are provoking God through their continual sin (disobedience), and consequently are risking eternal damnation (separation from God), something proponents of the doctrine of eternal security say cannot happen.  God states otherwise.

In Deuteronomy 8:19–20 “And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.  As the nations which the Lord destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God.”  Those who follow other gods (these need not be literal gods as people worshiped in the Old Testament, but can be material possessions, family, or anything we prioritize above God) will perish.  Perish (Hebrew abad), means “utterly destroyed by divine judgment, blotted out,” indicating not physical death, but spiritual death.  Compare to guaranteed, unconditional eternal security doctrines which say this cannot happen.