WAS KING SAUL A BELIEVER?
June 10, 2019
READING TIME: 1-2 MINUTES
“Dave, was King Saul a believer?”
Thanks to my friend Dennis Rokser for an excellent answer to this question.
While Bible teachers disagree regarding Saul’s salvation, there seem to be several pieces of evidence that indicate he was a genuine believer in the true and living God.
He openly declares his faith in the LORD and gives Him the glory for the military victory that was won (1 Samuel 11:13) and has the Spirit of God come upon him (1 Samuel 11:6). However, Saul was prone to take things into his own hands (1 Samuel 13), seek to do God’s will his way (1 Samuel 15:1-11), live in self-deception (1 Samuel 15:12-15), and desire to be personally honored instead of the Lord (1 Samuel 15:30). Yet the reality is that too many carnal believers have followed Saul’s example. Thus, the Spirit of God departed from him (1 Samuel 16:14) as He would do at times in the Old Testament, unlike today (Ephesians 1:13).
This did not indicate a loss of salvation but of divine power and enablement in one’s life (this was also the case with Samson), which was certainly true with King Saul (see 1 Chronicles 10:13-14).
Saul’s death was due to maximum divine discipline because of his unfaithfulness to the Lord as was true of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11).
King Saul does not exemplify a believer in the LORD who lost his salvation due to unfaithfulness. Instead, he lived as a carnal believer who lost his fellowship with the Lord, along with his divine guidance, ultimately experiencing maximum divine discipline like the Corinthian believers (1 Corinthians 11:30-32).
Source Used
Rokser, Dennis. Shall Never Perish Forever. Grace Gospel Press.
