Posted on 05/17/2015 5:59:53 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
A common question for many is, "Can I lose my salvation?" I've heard both sides of the argument, and only God truly knows a person's heart, but I can share a few thoughts. The reason there is a debate is because the Scriptures teach that salvation is a gift from God that cannot be earned, but they also offer warnings about falling away. There should be a healthy tension between God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. This issue should not create a spirit of division, elitism, or theological superiority.
One school of thought suggests that salvation cannot be lost, as in losing your car keys, but that it can be left, as in walking away from it. This may be why Jesus spoke of the man who said in his heart "my master delays His coming; therefore, I will turn from living a godly life". When the master returned unexpectedly, the servant was banished because he chose to turn from what he knew to be right.
In another passage, Jesus said, "You have left your first love," when speaking to the church in Ephesus (Revelation 2:4). James 5:19-20 adds, if anyone wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, a soul is saved from death. If anything, these Scriptures, and many more, reinforce the fact that we have certain responsibilities.
We should never turn from what we know to be right. Jesus encouraged His followers to be watchful, prepared, and ready for His return. Are we watchful? Are we prepared? Are we ready? (Read Matthew 24:45-51; Luke 21:34.) The Scriptures offer a healthy tension between God's sovereignty and man's responsibility.
The other school of thought suggests that some of those passages are dealing with people who never fully surrendered to Christ. As a result, they fell away. They heard the gospel, but never fully embraced it and turned from their sins; they only had "intellectual" knowledge of salvation. According to this view, the real question isn't, "Can a person lose their salvation" but "Was the person really saved to begin with?"
Titus 1:16 and James 2:14 both conclude that many people "say" that they know God, but deny Him by their lifestyle. I John 2:19 suggests that those who acknowledge Christ initially, but deny Him later, are not saved to begin with: "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us."
When it comes to salvation, we all agree that God gets all the glory and all the credit. Salvation is His work. We are never outside of His sovereignty and control: "It is God who makes us stand firm in Christ" (2 Corinthians 1:21). I am convinced, like Paul, "that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39). Nothing can separate us from God, but we should never ignore the strong warnings about turning from Him.
When we believe the gospel and repent of our sin we "are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession" (Ephesians 1:13-14). These promises are not based on anything that we do; they are based on what Christ did. John 3:36 says, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life." Jesus adds, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:28). Again, "It is God (not us) who makes us stand firm in Christ." For this reason, I don't believe that we can lose it.
Our salvation is guaranteed based on the assurances found in Scripture, but we also must "work out our own salvation with fear and trembling" (cf. Philippians 2:12). My goal is to be faithful to the command to preach, witness, and proclaim while understanding that God does the drawing, saving, and sealing.
Again, I believe that there should be a healthy tension between God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. This issue should not create a spirit of division, elitism, or theological superiority. At the heart of the division is Calvinism vs. Arminianism. Sadly, brother is shooting brother and sister is wounding sister. Have we forgotten how to show grace to those in the Body who we disagree with? Those who believe you can lose your salvation should not chide those who believe in eternal security - "once saved always saved" is by no means a license to sin - it's a belief in God's guarantee. But on the flip side, those who embrace eternal security should not mock those who disagree.
I can hear it now, "But what about Hebrews 6:4-6." It says, "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace."
Based on my understanding of terms such as "enlightened," "tasted," and "shared," they are not necessarily words linked to salvation. Judas Iscariot was enlightened—he knew a great deal. He also tasted and shared in the ministry of Christ, but we all know his fate. When he fell away, repentance was elusive. His fate was sealed. However, this verse should force all Christians to take inventory.
We all sin and fall short, but the important question to ask is what is the condition of your heart—have you truly repented and believed in Christ as your Lord and Savior, or are you trusting in false assurance? This may be why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 13:5, "Examine yourself as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?"
Our actions reveal a great deal about our relationship with Christ. A.W. Tozer said: "When people find that after being in the church for years they are not making much progress, they ought to examine themselves and wonder whether they have been truly converted."
Has your heart become so hard as to reject Jesus Christ? If so, you can change that today. I'm aware that I'm driving this point home, but I'd rather err on the side of speaking too much about a committed relationship with Jesus than too little. It's never too late to get back on track: "Return to me, and I will return to you," says the Lord (Micah 3:7). God is sovereign but man has a responsibility to repent and return.
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Shane Idleman is the founder and lead pastor of Westside Christian Fellowship in Lancaster, California, just North of Los Angeles. He just released his 7th book, Desperate for More of God. Shane's sermons, articles, books, and radio program can all be found at www.wcfav.org.
After pulling out a sword, and using it in Gethsemane (which was more than any of the others did), Peter turned cowardly, like the rest.
**As Paul Harvey used to say, and now, the rest of the story.....**
He later became fearless,...after being endued with power from on high (Luke 24:49)
Jesus said to Peter, in Luke 22:31,32, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and WHEN THOU ART CONVERTED, strengthen the brethern.
Peter, and the brethern hid after the crucifixion. They continued to hide, even after Mary Magdalene witnessed of seeing the Lord. The Lord appeared to them, minus Thomas. After eight days, they “were within........the doors being shut” (John 20:26). Even after seeing the Lord they were still fearful of the Jews,.......since they were still unconverted.
Peter, and the others, were converted on Pentecost, and boldly preached to the very people, that just weeks before, they were hiding from.
**If the casual reader of the NT read the account of Peter denying Christ without the rest of the story, would they draw the same conclusion as you regarding Demos?**
Casual reading is not the same as ‘searching the scriptures to see if these things be so’. Demas was an assistant to a supremely gifted preacher of Holy Ghost baptism; the new and living way.
Paul didn’t need courage to persecute the Christians. He had the backing of the religious establishment. It was after his conversion, he had the boldness to preach Jesus to those that wanted to kill him.
He knew Demas well, I believe, in order for him to judge him as loving this present world. No, we don’t no the ending of Demas, but he’s not the only one that would turn away:
Paul, while in Miletus, “sent to Ephesus, and called the ELDERS of the church”, and left a final testamony with them. He ordered them to be overseers, warning them of ‘grievious wolves’, continuing: “Also OF YOUR OWN SELVES shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them”. (Acts 20:30)
Perilous time then, and still today.
Rather, Jesus answered that if one is NOT born of water and the Spirit, he CANNOT enter the kingdom of God.
In short, baptism sets on the path TOWARDS salvation, but it is by no means a guarantee that we WILL be saved no matter what.
BTW, did some fundamentalist protestant hijack your FR screenname?
Heb. 3:10-13, 19
You know RDM, I tend to believe that a Christian can not lose his salvation, but it is an honest debate, and honest people can debate the subject. What I have not seen anyone say or ask, is if one can lose their salvation, after getting it, is it possible to regain it the second time, then lose it and regain it numerous times? Or, do they think once they have lost it, that they can never regain it again?
Nonsense. There was the OT Scripture.
They had that and that was enough for people to verify Paul's teachings with and for people to recognize who Jesus was.
Scripture tells us otherwise.
2 Corinthians 6:2For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
When we are born again, it happens NOW, while we are here on earth. We are new creatures in Christ, having died to the Law, and spiritually are NOW seated with Christ in heaven, sealed by the promised Holy Spirit until the day we are redeemed (the day we die).
We co-exist in both the heavenly realm and the earthly realm.
So if you lie to someone tomorrow are you still saved?
So whatever happened to *one Lord, one faith, ONE BAPTISM*???
Now the Catholic church adds all kinds of baptisms that Scripture never even mentions and adds something make believe as a condition for salvation, something God NEVER required.
What chutzpah.
Fixed it.
Are you sure you want to go there?
How about showing us FROM THE BIBLE, just where any of THESE following terms some from? Book, chapter, and verse please.....
Matthew 23: 8-10 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope#Official_list_of_titles
The official list of titles of the Pope, in the order in which they are given in the Annuario Pontificio, is:
Bishop of Rome
Vicar of Jesus Christ
Successor of the Prince of the Apostles
Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church
Primate of Italy
Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province
Sovereign of the Vatican City State
Servant of the servants of God.
Yes.
Because my salvation is based on the forgiveness granted me by God in His mercy and grace, not my keeping the law perfectly, which NO ONE can possibly do.
Sin does not remove me from God's family that I have been adopted into, anymore than disobedience to one's earthly father removes a child from his earthly family.
That child's parents are still his parents regardless of the child's obedience.
Disobedience breaks down the lines of communication between the parent and child, and repentance and confession restores that, but disobedience to either our earthly fathers or our heavenly father, does not sever or nullify the relationship or remove us from the family.
Did it ever occur to you that God WANTS to save people, not wanting to damn them?
He's not up there with a check list looking down on us, saying, *He did it again, can you believe it? When is he ever going to learn?* zzzooottttt *No salvation for him until he comes in line!*
Sheesh, no room for mercy in Catholicism, is there?
So, you can go through life committing sin after sin and you are forgiven?
This is a Democrat’s Dream!
It's alright that your religion invented itself...No one cares...But what we do care about is when your religion tells lies about scripture; what God says to his 'real' church...And then watch you guys repeat that junk...Your religion makes the claim that salvation comes by water baptism...
Rom_10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
2Jn_1:7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
Rom_10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
No confession, no salvation...You anti-christs will get slapped down with scripture every time you pervert the words of Jesus Christ...
Why are you even asking...Why don't you pick up a bible and read Romans 7!!!
It does not appear that way to me. Works based religions, even ones who say they are not works based, usually don't. They expect people to be perfect, then don't lift a finger to help the people. Sounds a tad close to those works based religious people that Jesus dealt with everyday. What were the terms Jesus used to describe them? I can't remember. 😂😇😎
Because I will whether I want to or not. It happens because I'm human and God understands that.
Psalm 103:8-14 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
He didn't give us the Law as a means of salvation. He told us in Scripture WHY He gave the Law. Do you know why He did it?
Romans 8:1-4 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Like when Johnny stops being a boy and decides to be a girl.
You also need to study up on what type of government we have in the United States.
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