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@ori-art

WOW!! Great thoughts! You have a beautiful way of communicating…I admire that. 👍

@selah-chelyah

Hey, my dear his-fic friend…I’ve stuffed myself with turkey, stayed up way to late far to many nights in a row, and played enough board/card games to last for the rest of my life and am now ready to answer your questions. 😉

So, just to clarify, do you believe that true Christians can’t lose their salvation?

Also, I want EVERYBODY to know that I’m not really arguing a point, I’m just explaining what I believe.

Okay, let’s go:

I’ve been taught from little on up that salvation is something you can lose. I don’t know so much if there are verses that I can pick out from the Bible that say “Christians can lose their salvation.” The Bible is not an encyclopedia…where you can look up a certain problem under a letter and find an answer…I think it’s more about finding the theology/ideas woven throughout the Bible.

I think the idea of born again Christians losing their salvation is an concept expressed throughout the Bible, the Word of God.

First, let’s look at the Holy Spirit.

John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

Acts 2:38 “And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

When Jesus came to earth he taught and ministered to the people around him and to his disciples, his followers. He told them about himself, of his Father and why he had come to earth. He taught them what the life of a true believer looks like. He told them how he would be crucified and rise again in three days, and then return to his Father and the home in heaven that he had left. And because Jesus knew that everybody is fallen and we forget and make mistakes, he told his disciples that he was sending the Holy Spirit to guide us and teach us after he was gone. That’s why we have the Holy Spirit…to guide us…it’s basically our spiritual conscious.

But if it’s impossible for a true believe to lose his salvation, why would need the Holy Spirit? We need the Holy Spirit because we are all sinners and therefore we make mistakes and we sin…and we need the guidance of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. If we couldn’t lose our salvation, then there would be no need for the Holy Spirit.

Secondly, why is there such an emphasis in the Bible about winning the race? Of staying faithful to the Father? Of not giving up? Of pressing on and being victorious? Why is the Christian walk always compared to a battle? If it’s impossible for us to lose salvation, there is no battle. There is no need for a soldier to fight if the battle is already over. If salvation and heaven are secured there is nothing that the believer must fight against because he’s already won the prize. Which in a sense is true…when we accept the gift of salvation, we obtain part of the prize-a relationship with Christ-but we must finish the race before we can obtain our crown of glory and a place in Heaven. Does this make sense?

I just don’t understand how you can read through the Bible and not see how over and over again we are warned against “falling away from the faith”. It’s a reoccurring theme in the New Testament.

I think of the parable of the sower in Luke 8.

Luke 8:11-15  Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.
 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.
And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.
As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

This is a clear example of men who believed, (therefore saved, John 3:16) but in the end they fell away from the faith and returned to their sin.

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There is SO much more that could be said, and many more people who could explain it better than me, but hopefully you got a little idea of what I believe and why.

Before I end this, I want to make it clear that I don’t believe that people, who are truly born again, can just lose their salvation at the snap of a finger. I believe it is a gradual process-repeatedly hardening their hearts and persisting in their sin. God is gracious and just, and is quick to forgive, but those who refuse to continue in the path of life, he will cut off from himself. No sin can dwell with God for He is Holy.

All of these things make complete sense to me, but then again I grew up surrounded by this type of teaching. Hopefully I made sense and you were able to understand what I was saying…I have a hard time explaining what I’m trying to say sometimes. 😀