“he Protestant friends of my youth would tell me that once I was saved, there was nothing I could do, no matter how terribly sinful, that could separate me from God and cause me to lose my salvation.”
This article misstates the evangelical view.
Going by God’s Word, evangelicals know there are false Christians, people who profess to be Christians but are not, because God’s Word says so. A common way evangelicals speak of this today is that standing in a garage doesn’t make you a car. Going to church, or any other Christian practice, doesn’t make you reborn. If you’re not, then baptism only produces a wet sinner (another commonly used expression). In fact, evangelicals commonly speak of how Christians should examine themselves to make sure that they’ve actually accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and haven’t just gone through the motions.
The assurance that one is saved, though, is important because it is an assurance, an assurance that salvation is a free gift to those who actually are heart-broken over their sin against God and want His forgiveness, and know that even with all their desire and effort to do right, they still commit sin. The Gospel is an assurance to “those who mourn” over sin, especially their own, and not to those who can’t truly be grieved about their sin in order to see their need for a Savior if they want to continue in sin.
Maybe this man’s teenage friends could have explained the Gospel a little better, but it’s unlikely they would have expected to meet anyone so hardened, twisted, and already so deep into evil and unafraid of God that the person would want to use Jesus’ sacrificial death as a license to deliberately and knowingly sin against God. The worst-case scenario of someone young coming to Christ and then later committing some “huge sin” is only that, and the person would be expected to repent.
ANd ultimately, as the Bible says, in this life only God knows for sure in every case what’s in people’s hearts. There are false Christians, and while Catholics would say they lost their salvation, evangelicals would say that those who turn out not to be Christians never truly were in the first place. As the Bible says, those who are the Lord’s persevere until the end.
Only those that hold the OSAS viewpoint.