Posted on 05/31/2017 1:41:09 PM PDT by ealgeone
Question: "Can a Christian lose salvation?"
Answer: First, the term Christian must be defined. A “Christian” is not a person who has said a prayer or walked down an aisle or been raised in a Christian family. While each of these things can be a part of the Christian experience, they are not what makes a Christian. A Christian is a person who has fully trusted in Jesus Christ as the only Savior and therefore possesses the Holy Spirit (John 3:16; Acts 16:31; Ephesians 2:8–9).
So, with this definition in mind, can a Christian lose salvation? It’s a crucially important question. Perhaps the best way to answer it is to examine what the Bible says occurs at salvation and to study what losing salvation would entail:
A Christian is a new creation. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). A Christian is not simply an “improved” version of a person; a Christian is an entirely new creature. He is “in Christ.” For a Christian to lose salvation, the new creation would have to be destroyed.
A Christian is redeemed. “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:18–19). The word redeemed refers to a purchase being made, a price being paid. We were purchased at the cost of Christ’s death. For a Christian to lose salvation, God Himself would have to revoke His purchase of the individual for whom He paid with the precious blood of Christ.
A Christian is justified. “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). To justify is to declare righteous. All those who receive Jesus as Savior are “declared righteous” by God. For a Christian to lose salvation, God would have to go back on His Word and “un-declare” what He had previously declared. Those absolved of guilt would have to be tried again and found guilty. God would have to reverse the sentence handed down from the divine bench.
A Christian is promised eternal life. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Eternal life is the promise of spending forever in heaven with God. God promises, “Believe and you will have eternal life.” For a Christian to lose salvation, eternal life would have to be redefined. The Christian is promised to live forever. Does eternal not mean “eternal”?
A Christian is marked by God and sealed by the Spirit. “You also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:13–14). At the moment of faith, the new Christian is marked and sealed with the Spirit, who was promised to act as a deposit to guarantee the heavenly inheritance. The end result is that God’s glory is praised. For a Christian to lose salvation, God would have to erase the mark, withdraw the Spirit, cancel the deposit, break His promise, revoke the guarantee, keep the inheritance, forego the praise, and lessen His glory.
A Christian is guaranteed glorification. “Those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified” (Romans 8:30). According to Romans 5:1, justification is ours at the moment of faith. According to Romans 8:30, glorification comes with justification. All those whom God justifies are promised to be glorified. This promise will be fulfilled when Christians receive their perfect resurrection bodies in heaven. If a Christian can lose salvation, then Romans 8:30 is in error, because God could not guarantee glorification for all those whom He predestines, calls, and justifies.
A Christian cannot lose salvation. Most, if not all, of what the Bible says happens to us when we receive Christ would be invalidated if salvation could be lost. Salvation is the gift of God, and God’s gifts are “irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). A Christian cannot be un-newly created. The redeemed cannot be unpurchased. Eternal life cannot be temporary. God cannot renege on His Word. Scripture says that God cannot lie (Titus 1:2).
Two common objections to the belief that a Christian cannot lose salvation concern these experiential issues: 1) What about Christians who live in a sinful, unrepentant lifestyle? 2) What about Christians who reject the faith and deny Christ? The problem with these objections is the assumption that everyone who calls himself a “Christian” has actually been born again. The Bible declares that a true Christian will not live a state of continual, unrepentant sin (1 John 3:6). The Bible also says that anyone who departs the faith is demonstrating that he was never truly a Christian (1 John 2:19). He may have been religious, he may have put on a good show, but he was never born again by the power of God. “By their fruit you will recognize them” (Matthew 7:16). The redeemed of God belong “to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4).
Nothing can separate a child of God from the Father’s love (Romans 8:38–39). Nothing can remove a Christian from God’s hand (John 10:28–29). God guarantees eternal life and maintains the salvation He has given us. The Good Shepherd searches for the lost sheep, and, “when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home” (Luke 15:5–6). The lamb is found, and the Shepherd gladly bears the burden; our Lord takes full responsibility for bringing the lost one safely home.
Jude 24–25 further emphasizes the goodness and faithfulness of our Savior: “To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”
Nothing we do can make us righteous in God’s eyes.
We are clothed in CHRIST. We have HIS righteousness credited to our account.
We don’t have to do anything.
No sacraments can give grace. Grace comes directly from God through faith.
If we have to do something to avail ourselves of grace, then it’s no longer grace, it’s wages due for work performed.
I agree, but it takes a born again, regenerated spirit, to understand that kind of spiritual truth. Unregenerate man will NEVER grasp spiritual truth, for it is spiritually discerned.
Can one lose their salvation? I don't believe it. Now, I can see the wheels turning in the heads of works based religionists. They may try to say that, well then, I can get saved, and then live like hell. Not under ANY circumstances is that true.
Rather than declare himself justified before the Lord and therefore certain of his eternal salvation, St. Paul is content to persevere in his mission and leave to God the judgment concerning his fate.
This doesn’t mean we Catholics are not confident that God keeps his promises. It means simply that we must exercise caution. As our tract on salvation states, “Assurance we may have; infallible certitude we may not.”
1 John 5:13: I write these things to you so that you may know that you have eternal life, you who believe in the name of the Son of God.
Earlier in the letter, the author of 1 John describes essential attributes one must have in order to be a true believer in the son of God. In 3:10 he says, “No one who fails to act in righteousness belongs to God, nor anyone who does not love his brother.” In 5:3 he says, “For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” If we believe in the son of God we will keep his commandments, but if we do not keep the commandments, then we do not believe in him and can’t know that we are saved.
Scripture teaches that one’s final salvation depends on the state of the soul at death. As Jesus himself tells us, “He who endures to the end will be saved” (Matt. 24:13; cf. 25:31–46). One who dies in the state of friendship with God (the state of grace) will go to heaven. The one who dies in a state of enmity and rebellion against God (the state of mortal sin) will go to hell.
Regarding the issue of whether Christians have an “absolute” assurance of salvation, regardless of their actions, consider this warning Paul gave: “See then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off” (Rom. 11:22; see also Heb. 10:26–29, 2 Pet. 2:20–21).
Yo-Yos come in lots of shiny colors, with bangles and colorful line attached.
“Scripture teaches that one’s final salvation depends on the state of the soul at death.
Bogus.
False.
Ripped from context.
Where is that found in the Bible?
You can even give us references out of the Catholic Bible.
I don't recall ever seeing the word *sacrament* in the Bible.
That's because they do not understand regeneration and what it entails.
I have long suspected that we are accused of that because that is what they would do if they were in our place and didn't feel the need to have to obey the law.
But we do not live the way we do because or outside influences forcing us into living a certain way.
It's inward motivation, the desire to please God, not a fear of losing my salvation.
“Where is that found in the Bible?
“Bible?? We don’t need stinkin’ justification for our pagan teachings. We wrote the Bible. It says what we say it says! If we want to add to it to justify our additions, we teach that it’s a tradition’”
- Catholic Rooster Dude
“He who endures to the end will be saved” Matt 24:13”
Before the cross my friend, before the cross.
Absolutely he knew of the certainty of his salvation.
And he told us of those promises of God in the verses I posted in post 16.
The problem comes in that Catholics appear to think that it is possible to not sin and when they do to confess every sin they commit.
If you don't have assurance of your salvation that means that you have to do something to keep it, and that is not possible either. See post 37 where Paul addresses that.
It's faith beginning to end. Otherwise man would have something to boast about before God.
The Biblical term “Christian” is actually used only 3 times in scripture. It was a word that unbelievers assigned to believers, and was meant as a mockery.
Certainly a person who wears the label of “Christian” can reject the Gospel and go to hell. Christ Himself warned of false prophets, false teachers, and false Christ’s that would even come in His name.
So, yes, a person identifying with Christ can go to hell.
The definition in this article is the modern use of the term “Christian,” but the definition is problematic.
The Lord taught the Gospel of the kingdom using parables. And the foundational parable was the parable of the sower. Christ described four types of people / responses to the Gospel. Christ is the sower, the seed is the word of God, and the field represents people who hear the message.
Matthew 13:3-9
Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
Notice that He describes only one of the four as complete unbelief and rejection of the message. These are the ones who do not understand or receive the message. These are lost.
But there are two cases where there is something that initially happens that is positive. They do receive the Gospel. But some fall away due to trials and persecutions. Some fall away because of riches and cares of this world.
Only one type of ground was fruitful. And only that one type of ground bears fruit unto eternal life.
From a human perspective there are ones like Judas who have all of the appearances of being a Christian. And yet they turn away. These do not go to Heaven. These go to hell.
From an eternal perspective, it is impossible for any of the elect of God to fall away, perish, or go to hell. The elect are chosen by God before the foundation of the world. They are chosen to hear, believe, bear fruit, do good works, persevere through trials and temptations, continue in the faith until the end. Only those who have these marks of a believer will enter Heaven.
Do not let anyone deceive you, the unrighteous will NOT inherit the kingdom of God. Continuing in the Christian faith is not optional for a Christian. It is required. Continuing in sin is not an option. It is a repudiation of faith.
To be clear: “Christian” must never be defined merely as someone who as at some time or another, made some sort of decision for Christ. A Christian, in the sense of being a born-again believer is someone who has believed the Gospel, continues to believe the Gospel, and does so until the end.
Only in the sense of being saved or not.,
It has nothing to do with whether someone has sinned and not confessed or repented, nor does it have anything to do with whether we are in a *state of grace*.
Every last human being is alive and breathing because of the grace of God.
He sends rain on the just and the unjust and every good thing we have is a result of God's grace, whether we are saved or not or whether we acknowledge it or not.
Dying without confessing some sin will NOT affect one's salvation in the least. The believer is still going to heaven.
Actually, that verse is in regard to the end times, the tribulation period.
It is not applicable to present day believers.
It’s taken out of context and applied wrongly.
“To be clear: “Christian” must never be defined merely as someone who as at some time or another, made some sort of decision for Christ. A Christian, in the sense of being a born-again believer is someone who has believed the Gospel, continues to believe the Gospel, and does so until the end.”
This view is easily disproved by reading Paul.
Christians do have the ability to choose poorly, living a carnal life.
It is sad when it occurs.
At the Bema seat Judgement, a believer’s works in his Christian life are tested as to their quality. Carnal works are destroyed in the fire - though the believer himself is saved - smelling of smoke.
It's a hearty endorsement of 11th hour redemption then. Why become a Christian when, at any moment, you might f*ck up and lose all? Better to wait, sin like it's going out of style, and then seek redemption at the last minute, so you don't run the risk of effing up and losing it all.
I think that the point isn't that those who persevere will be saved, but those who are saved will persevere.
Otherwise, it would depend on our ability to persevere and not on God's grace to endure.
So, SAINT PAUL is wrong, and you are right.
I’ll remember that the next time you are slamming someone for not taking Scripture seriously.
Calvinism has spiritual/intellectual problems as well in light of all the Catholic bashing, Baptist bashing, Luther bashing, etc... constantly being bandied about. Christ did all the work, however the theology of the “Christian has no responsibility how they act” is extremely short-sighted. Jesus is Lord's verse on post #3 pointed out the futility of that theology.
Indeed, the straw man of Calvinism that you present has many problems, but that is not Calvinism.
Your statement is as idiotic to a Calvinist as saying “Roman Catholics worship Mary” is to Roman Catholics.
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