Bible Question:
Hi, I would like some help on answering a friend's question. She believes one can loose their salvation and I've been trying to do a study that tells her you can't loose your salvation once you are really born again into the family of God. Can you help? Thanks! |
Bible Answer: I can only imagine you're probably thinking you've been flooded, maybe even saturated with so many different opinions and scriptures to back them up. Thus I'm motivated to make this my last post on this thread and strive to keep it brief. Just a few more examples from God Word and I'll try to summarize. First from Apostle Paul 1 Cor 9:25 Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; 27 but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified. So we even see the Apostle Paul, probably the greatest, most devoted disciple of Christ who has to exercise self-discipline in order to prevent losing the prize. What else could he possibly be referring to in this context? We have in Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira, christians who were also greedy. They wanted the same fame and glory as Barnabas in selling their land but they wanted to keep back a portion of the money and tried to deceive the Holy Spirit. Thus they not only lost their souls but immediately lost their lives as well. My last example would be that of Simon the Sorcerer in Acts 8. He too was a christian but greedy for the miraculous powers as exhibited by Peter. He even tried to purchase these powers. Of course Peter told him he had to repent to prevent the horrors of God's rejection. There are others but again I want to be brief. My main point of this post is to acknowledge that God's Word is not always ideally clear on some topics, including this concept of the "eternal security" or "once saved, always saved." I'll readily agree that some scriptures as cited by some of these other posts does give one reason to wonder about the possibility of contradiction but we all know that God WOULD NOT contradict Himself in His Word. So what are we to do? This is my last point and then I'll hush. I would refer you to the words of Jesus Himself from Matt 5:29 "If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 "If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell. Does Jesus actually expect us as His disciples to literally eliminate a body part if we have a problem with it? I don't think so as we don't have any history of this kind of practice in these past two thousand years. But on the other hand, IF a person came to the conclusion that these were his only two choices: go to Heaven minus a body part or go to Hell with a whole body, I'm sure most would make the right choice and go to Heaven. What am I saying: this is Jesus' way of saying "better safe than sorry" or "err on the side of caution." So in a similar manner, if a person draws a conclusion of two choices on a particular subject: Assume once you're a christian, there's nothing more for you to worry about OR assume the scriptures referred above are true and that we're all guilty of sin every day (Rom 3:23 and Ja 4:17) which needs to be resolved before God. Thus we must see ourselves in need of God's Mercy and Grace every day of our lives. We all should be in a pentitent attitude all our lives and realize our need to repent every day. If we don't do this, I'm very much afraid we take a terrible chance of facing Judgment Day unprepared. I hope this helps and God bless. --Rowdy |