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.”
Why does nearly every post you present seek to blaspheme Him?
He made us to perform good works, but we are not saved by works. They aren’t human concoctions. When they are part of His Plan, many have ben logistically predestines to occur.
Why don’t you try to explain the dancing sun in 1917?
1) All glory belongs to the Father. He is a jealous God, his name is Jealous. Anything that detracts from him is wrong. That includes Mary. Jesus points to the Father, the Holy Spirit points to the Father and Mary would point to the Father if this was real.
(Exodus 34:14) You must worship no other gods, for the LORD, whose very name is Jealous, is a God who is jealous about His relationship with you.
2) Luk 11:29 As the crowd pressed in on Jesus, He said, “This evil generation keeps asking Me to show them a miraculous sign. But the only sign I will give them is the sign of Jonah.
There is only one sign that is important and the “dancing sun” isn’t it..........................
Blasphemy is all yours.
Obedience is not blasphemy.
Obedience is not “works.” (read James)
We are not yet saved. Those that will be saved will be those that followed his “teaching” (Torah), not those that practice “iniquity” (lawlessness).
Paul spelled all of this out in his epistle to the Romans in chapter 2 particularly, as did John in his first epistle, where he stated plainly that sin is simply failure to follow Torah.
It appears that you have been hooked by the false doctrine of the man made religion called “christianity,” that conflates Phariseeism with Torah, disregarding every word Yeshua spoke in his Earthly ministry.
This false religion you follow disregards the profuse praise that Paul heaped on those that kept the appointed times (Colossians, Thessalonians) as did all of the apostles as recorded in detail in the Acts.
Does your life conform to the standard put forth in John’s first epistle? Do you walk as Yeshua walked, keeping his Father’s Sabbath and commandments?
Or do you follow the man made works like Christmas, Lent, Easter that are taken from man’s ancient sungod worship?
Do you seek first the Kingdom of Yehova and his righteousness (Torah) or do you follow the dictates of christianity’s creeds and other man made rejections of his word?
His “Plan” (covenant) was presented at the first Shavuot, at Sinai, and that plan was fulfilled and renewed in the sinless blood of his Son that flowed through the rocks at Golgotha, onto the mercy seat of the Ark of that covenant below in Jeremiah’s well chosen location.
Do you live by the renewed covenant as promised in Jeremiah’s prophecy, or by the rules of man’s iniquity?
Enjoy your house of cards and creeds, and memorize Matthew 7:21-23, in case you become deaf before you are dragged up to the Great White Throne.
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Even the plain and simple sign of the prophet Jonah is made into a lie by the Maryolators by declaring that he died on Friday night and arose on Satan’s day.
Three days and nights in the grave is just too much for their pagan calendar.
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