In hebrews, Chapt 2, it is clearly pointed out that if after tasting the heavenly gift, they turn away, their fate is worse than never knowing Jesus at all. They had the gift, they were saved, yet they chose to turn away. One cannot lose what they never posessed, so the from the beginning part is not what I am referring to. There is much in scripture that tells us that.
There is also the matter of those who firmly believed they kept all that Jesus said and asked yet he tells them he never knew them. Perhaps you or I are one of them. We presume we know, as those folks did, what Jesus wanted. What if one or both of us is wrong?
No, there is no assurance of salvation. It is something that he offers to us, we must accept, and then work out with fear and trembling and endure to to the end. Jesus and the apostles say many things that are contradictory if one or the other view is the only view. Jesus speaks in Jn 3:16 about belief, we are told by paul we are saved by grace, faith without works is dead, yet we will be judged by our works, Jesus tells the woman who touched his cloak her faith has saved her. There are more things like this thru out scripture.
It is a trick of the devil, to convince believers to let their guard down. They believe they cannot forfeit their salvation even though scripture is full of exhortations to believers about not sinning, not doing as the others do, not falling away, not being unevenly yoked. There would be no reason to do this if the wages of sin were not death and seperation from God. If we were not subject to that after accepting Christ, then what purpose do those warnings have?
I do believe that Christ will give us sufficient grace to handle every situation, but it is up to us to accept that grace and allow it to work in our lives,as well as ask for more constantly. They were not written for unbelievers or scoffers, as they don’t believe. No, they were written for Christians, and since God is the same yesterday, today and always, we must believe that they are relevant to us.
As to never really being saved to begin with, that brings me to my final point. How can you be so sure that you will never lose your faith. Therefore, how can you with certainty or presumption as scripture calls it, be 100% certain you are without a doubt saved? As I told you before in my original post, extremely devout family, over long period, lost their faith. were they never saved or did they choose to walk away? how do you or I know how we will react to things adverse in our lives? It is easy to say we will never walk away, but until put to the test, one does not know for sure. I think the world is going to test Christians as never before in the coming year. Many will start to rethink the once saved always saved during their crisis. Thank you for an excellent debate, and keeping comments within the bounds of Christian decorum :)
BTW, Jesus did not come to change the law, he came to fufill it. We live under law as Christians. We no longer need blood sacrifice, as his blood is the one and only, but Jesus’ own words were that he came to fufill not change. The 10 commandments, the spirit of the law is what he fufilled. The Jews added so much to the law for their own gain it made God angry. Jesus came to get back to what God intended in the law, His law, and that is what Jesus referred to a fufill the law, not change it. Divorce was one issue that he points out. Man made for convenience, abolished by Christ.
There appears to be so much that you don't understand...
Christians do not live under the law...THAT is what Jesus fulfilled...The law is a curse...We are no longer under the curse...We will not be judged by the law unless we chose to live under the law...
And that's why your statement about divorce is wrong...Sure, divorce displeases God...But you certainly won't go to hell for it...
You apparenlty know little about Christian liberty...
Jesus did not come to enforce the law...He came to be the Messiah for the Jews and then to give us salvation 'in spite' of our inability to keep the law...