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Question: "Can a Christian lose salvation?"
gotquestions.org ^ | unknown | Got Questions Ministries

Posted on 05/31/2017 1:41:09 PM PDT by ealgeone

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To: Mark17
Ain't that the truth. There are millions who think they are Christians, but are actually enemies of God, who will wake up in the fires of Hell, and say, didn't we do many good works in your name?

And I trust you notice what they are appealing to for their salvation?

Their WORKS.

And those works they are appealing to are the very ones that today the Emergent church and the Pentecostals claim are signs of a believer: casting out demons, prophesying, and miracles.

But obviously, those are not the signs of a believer. The FRUIT of the Spirit is not works, but the Christ like character being developed in us.

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

The gifts can be imitated by the enemy. He cannot imitate the character of Christs in someone's life.

81 posted on 05/31/2017 6:47:58 PM PDT by metmom ( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: kosciusko51

Certainly! By free will, we choose everyday if we are going to live in God’s grace, or not.

Like a child, who through the day can be both stubborn and cooperative, so we sinners are the same. We can be bullheaded, sin, then seek forgiveness. We likely do this many times a day, in matters great or small.

His Salvation was once and for all, and is available for the taking. We just have to conform ourselves to God’s will to keep it. Fortunately, He is always there to accept our apologies, and encourages us to amend our lives.

That’s the thing about conversion. Accepting responsibility for our faults, feeling true contrition (penitence), and seeking to amend our lives, that’s what conversion is all about. We are called to do that everyday. We were born again in Baptism, and should be born again each day, as we strive to conform ourselves to God’s will, and not our own will.


82 posted on 05/31/2017 6:53:39 PM PDT by SpirituTuo
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To: metmom

False piety is very hard to discern, unless the Spirit does so as a gift of the Spirit. Look at the sexual degenerate priests and pastors. Too many are duped by such frauds.


83 posted on 05/31/2017 6:58:00 PM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensational perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: metmom

No, neither Hebrews nor the Catholic Church teaches what you claim. As long as there is life, there is the possibility of repentance and forgiveness.

A person who DIES in the state of mortal sin goes to Hell.

The fact remains that you have just condemned a book of the New Testament for teaching error.


84 posted on 05/31/2017 7:05:45 PM PDT by Arthur McGowan (https://youtu.be/IYUYya6bPGw)
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To: Arthur McGowan

Nonsense. Trying to get this thread erased also, priest?


85 posted on 05/31/2017 7:09:13 PM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensational perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: Mark17; metmom

“There are millions who think they are Christians, but are actually enemies of God, who will wake up in the fires of Hell, and say, didn’t we do many good works in your name?”

I assume your referring to those who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and savior but have become “backsliders”, as the passage you site is from Matthew which was before the cross. So from a salvation standpoint if you’re saying salvation must be earned with works, then you have to ask what differentiates the sins of those people from your own? Do you believe that the Bible passages in the book of John as well as in the Epistles that state God’s gift of salvation for those who believe in the Lord Christ Jesus are too good to be true?


86 posted on 05/31/2017 7:13:35 PM PDT by ScottfromNJ
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To: SpirituTuo

So, will we have this same free will in Heaven?


87 posted on 05/31/2017 7:17:39 PM PDT by kosciusko51
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To: odawg
Paul must not have known all that when he wrote his epistles to the “Hebrews”, warning them against apostatizing to Judaism and dooming themselves.

Even though evidentially it is unlikely Paul wrote it, but God inspired it.

88 posted on 05/31/2017 7:19:44 PM PDT by daniel1212 ( Turn to the Lord Jesus as a damned and destitute sinner+ trust Him to save you, then follow Him!)
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To: ScottfromNJ

Backsliders is a term I learned in the Baptist Church. Once saved, the old nature still exists nd can caused ‘backsliding’. But a person born from above will not remain ‘backsliden’ for the Spirit deposit from GOD into their human spirit will hound them to repentence. God raises up His children in the way that they should go, even if it takes a lifetime to git er dun.


89 posted on 05/31/2017 7:21:18 PM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensational perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: Arthur McGowan

If someone is going to use that verse to claim that a person can lose their salvation, then they also have the problem of dealing with the fact that it says that if they fall away, it is IMPOSSIBLE to be brought back to repentance again.

That means that salvation is a one shot deal.

Once you fall away, and it doesn’t even say deliberately sin, but simply fall away, then you are lost forever.

And who doesn’t fall at some point in their lives?

And so are you now saying that the Catholic church does NOT teach that a person can fall from grace?


90 posted on 05/31/2017 7:25:22 PM PDT by metmom ( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: kosciusko51
God is not obligated to anyone. Everything he does for fallen man is of His Grace, for His Glory alone.

Though doing all to His glory means nothing selfish, or otherwise "as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; (Acts 17:25) but it means that "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32)

And salvation by grace, for man could not and would not believe on the Lord Jesus or follow Him unless God gave him life, and breath, and all good things he has, (Acts 17:25) and convicted him, (Jn. 16:8) drew him, (Jn. 6:44; 12:32) opened his heart, (Acts 16:14) and granted repentance (Acts 11:18) and gave faith, (Eph. 2:8,9) and then worked in him both to will and to do of His good pleasure the works He commands them to do. (Phil. 2:13; Eph. 2:10)

But which works, resulting from faith, do not appropriate justification, but as saving faith is that which effects obedience, this fruit justifies one as being a believer, with "things that accompany salvation." (Hebrews 6:9)

Thus man owes to God all things, even the ability and motivation to obey Him, and in justice man only actually deserves damnation, since what man must take credit for for is resisting God, whatever the level of grace given him is. (Prov. 1:20-31; Lk. 10:13; 12:48; Rv. 20:11-15) Yet under grace, which denotes unmerited favor, God has chosen to reward faith, (Heb. 10:35) in recognition of its effects, which God is actually to be credited for.

Which thus means that God justifies man as one "accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:6) not on the basis that his works merit this, and which is what Romans 4:1-7ff teaches, with works of the law including all systems of this justification by the actual merit of works, for, "if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law." (Galatians 3:21)

91 posted on 05/31/2017 7:28:45 PM PDT by daniel1212 ( Turn to the Lord Jesus as a damned and destitute sinner+ trust Him to save you, then follow Him!)
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To: metmom
So salvation is by works? You have to keep doing enough works to stay in.

No, as in conversion, you only have to believe, which effects obedience, including repentance when convicted when not doing so. But the effects of faith are not what appropriates justification, though works justify one as being a believer. (Heb. 6:9) Faith - as enabled and motivated by God - appropriated justification, thus if one denies the faith just as surely as once embraced it then he forfeits what he appropriated. Which means resisting God who works to effect repentance, lest we be condemned with the rest of the world. (1Co. 11:32)

92 posted on 05/31/2017 7:38:39 PM PDT by daniel1212 ( Turn to the Lord Jesus as a damned and destitute sinner+ trust Him to save you, then follow Him!)
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To: MHGinTN

Agree. And God knows our hearts. .


93 posted on 05/31/2017 7:39:04 PM PDT by boycott
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To: boycott

Roll TIDE! Baet ‘em all, not just Auburn.


94 posted on 05/31/2017 7:47:58 PM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensational perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: ADSUM

Plus it appears some posters have forgotten the words of Jesus to the apostles (especially Peter):

“Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall retain, they are retained”

Sighhhhhh!


95 posted on 05/31/2017 7:52:13 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Roman_War_Criminal

And he “breathed on them and said to them, ‘receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained’” (John 20:22–23).


96 posted on 05/31/2017 7:57:22 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: metmom

And he “breathed on them and said to them, ‘receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained’” (John 20:22–23).


97 posted on 05/31/2017 7:57:56 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: MHGinTN

And he “breathed on them and said to them, ‘receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained’” (John 20:22–23).


98 posted on 05/31/2017 7:58:31 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Sirius Lee
It's a hearty endorsement of 11th hour redemption then. Why become a Christian when, at any moment, you might [**] 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.

Not very logical, for if it is a matter of odds that is to determine choice, then it is far more risky to presume you will be able to repent in faith the last minute. Meanwhile, it is not simply messing up that is the issue here, but in contradistinction to conversion, having "an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God" (Heb. 3:12) versus persevering in faith, which includes repentance when convicted of not doing so.

One means choosing to co-operate with God, who alone deserves the credit for that ability and motivation, while the other means resisting God unto denial of faith, which what man must take credit for. You cannot believe and obey except by grace, but you can resist the same.

99 posted on 05/31/2017 7:58:40 PM PDT by daniel1212 ( Turn to the Lord Jesus as a damned and destitute sinner+ trust Him to save you, then follow Him!)
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To: metmom

And he “breathed on them and said to them, ‘receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained’” (John 20:22–23).


100 posted on 05/31/2017 7:59:06 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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