Bible Question:
I grew up in a Christian home, but lately I've been searching for truth and trying to take my faith as my own. The biggest obstacle in my faith right now is the first hand stories I hear about people leaving the faith. I'm not talking about John and Jane who come to church once a month, sit in the back row, and read their bible once in a blue moon. I'm talking about former evangelists, pastors, missionaries, and seminary students. Charles Templeton is a prime example. Their conversion stories seem sincere, but they all come to a point where they see the world as it truly is and begin to doubt the existence of a loving God. Then they begin to find inconsistencies in the Bible that they had previously accepted by faith. Then they start thinking that if some of the Bible is inaccurate, then how can they trust it as a whole. At that point the foundation falls out beneath them, and all hope is lost. If John 10:25-30 is true, how can these people of faith come to a point where they can no longer believe? The most disturbing thing about the stories I've heard is that most of these people wish they were still able to believe, but their reason won't let them. They miss the hope and security of faith in Christ, but they've come to a conclusion in their minds that can not be reversed! Please help me as this issue is causing major distress in my quest for truth and my personal faith in Christ! At times it seems a curse to be such a deep philosophical thinker. Sometimes I wish I was able to have the simple childlike faith that many Christians have. |
Bible Answer: Greetings yampa78! First off, I want to say I understand where you are coming from when you say that you are a philosophical thinker, I am too. There are times that I wish I had a short answer or a simpler faith, but God has given me (and you!) a mind to use for His glory, and His glory alone, so we must be at peace with His will. Off the top, the idea that “we” can lose our salvation can be misleading. In reality, Christ is the one who owns our salvation because he purchased us, with His blood, back from our sins(Acts 20:28; Rev. 5:9, 14:4). If I go to the pound and purchase a dog, I own that dog, it is mine. I have purchased it back from its impending death. That dog does not own anything, I showed it grace and bought it with my own money, without me, it would have been put to sleep, destroyed. So it is with us as sinners. We are bound to our sins, which lead to death(Rom. 7:5, 8:6), but Christ has redeemed us with His blood that He shed on the cross(1 Pet. 1:18-20). Therefore, I think the proper way to look at this is: Can Christ lose a Christian? And the answer is “NO!” The reason I think this is true is because there are many passages that speak about God making a “promise” to believers, a promise to give us certain things when we are adopted into His family(Rom. 8:15, Eph 1:5). Among others, these things include the fruits of the Spirit(Gal 5:22-23), everlasting life(John 3:36, 6:47, 10:27-29; Heb. 9:15; 1 John 2:25; 2 John 5:11-13) and conformity to the Son, Jesus Christ(Rom 8:29). The point of all this is to say that God promises these things to believers, the followers of Christ. If God makes a promise, that promise comes to pass, His will cannot be thwarted. Therefore, if God has promised us all theses things, including eternal life, how can He lose us? How could He decide to renege on His promises and pull back what He has promised to us, and most importantly, to His Son? There are three verses that really hit me between the eyes when I started to study the bible surrounding this topic. They are Titus 1:1-3 and Hebrews 7:25, 10:14. I will try and go over them really quick! ;-) First off, Titus 1:1-3 is talking about a promise God made before time, a promise of eternal life. Ok, so, who was around before time began? None of us of course. God was the only one around before He created time, He was alone. So, to whom was the promise made? The promise was made to the Son, an inter-Trinitarian promise, a promise to give the Son a redeemed humanity. God made a promise to Himself! Much like in Gen. 15:17 where God made a promise with Abram(Abraham). In reality, it was a promise to Himself never to break the covenant He made with Abram. So, all of this to say, God made a promise to His Son that He cannot break because God cannot lie. Therefore, if God promised eternal life to us, through Christ, before time, it is impossible for a true believer in Christ to be lost because God promised us to His Son! Further, in Heb. 7:25, we have Christ making intercession for His people, Christ in the role of our High Priest. Obviously Christ’s prayers to the Father are to keep us and protect us. His prayers are powerful and sustain us until that day we go home to be with Him. If we can lose “our” salvation, then the prayers of the Risen Savior are not powerful enough to keep us until the end, which to my way of thinking is a serious slap in the face to our Creator and Redeemer. Heaven forbid anyone would think Christ’s intercessory prayers are ineffective! Lastly, Heb. 10:14: “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” Notice here that the offering is of course Christ’s offering. Notice also, by this one offering, He “has perfected forever” those who are being sanctified. The “has” is past tense, meaning it is already done. What is being said here is that when Christ dies on the cross, He perfected forever His people, His sheep scattered abroad. In eternity, we, His people, are already perfected, but obviously, on this side of glory, we are being sanctified daily to be conformed to the image of His Son(Rom. 8:29). So, tying back into the topic, if we have been made perfect in eternity, how could we go back, if it is already been done at the cross through Christ’s blood? There are always going to be folks who fall away, ones who profess Jesus, but in the end do not endure. I think the various parables of Christ, like the parable of the sower(Mark 4), and the parable of the wheat and tares(Matt. 13) clearly illustrate that there are false professors of Christ in the world and in the visible church. In light of the above Scriptural evidence, I think it is apparent that folks who deny Christ later and die that way, after professing Him, were never truly regenerated by the Spirit of God. If they were truly saved, Christ would have kept them until the end, running the full race, keeping the faith(2 Tim 4:7). In Christ, Joe |