Can You Lose Your Salvation? A Comprehensive Examination

Can A Regenerate Believer Lose Their Salvation?

3 Responses

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• Roman Catholic View

• Arminian View

• Reformed View

Can A Regenerate BelieverCommit Apostasy and Lose Their Salvation?

3 Responses

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• Catholics say YES

• Arminians say YES

• Reformed say NO

What Can Cause Someone To Lose Their Salvation?

3 Responses

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• Catholics say a MORTAL SIN

• Arminians say APOSTASY

• Reformed say NOTHING

A Defense of Conditional Security______________________________________________________________________________

ARGUMENT #1

“FREE WILL”

God gives us freedom to choose Him or reject Him. He does not take away this freedom when we

become believers.


ARGUMENT #2

Numerous scriptures that support the idea that one can lose his/her salvation


1 John 5:16 (NKJV)

“If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin

not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about

that.”


Mark 3:28,29 (NKJV)

“Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; but he who

blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal

condemnation.”


Hebrews 10:26,27 (NKJV)

“For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery

indignation which will devour the adversaries.”


2 Peter 2:19-22 (NKJV)“For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world

through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment

delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow,

having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”


Galatians 5:1-4 (NKJV)“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has

made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. 2 Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become

circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. 3 And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a

debtor to keep the whole law. 4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by

law; you have fallen from grace.”


Matthew 18:23-35 (NKJV)

The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant


ARGUMENT #3

Numerous scriptures that support the idea that one can lose his/her salvation

through apostasy


Hebrews 6:4-6 (NKJV)

“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have

tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to

repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.”


ARGUMENT #4

Numerous scriptures that support the idea that the saved must continue to believe


Matthew 24:10-13 (NKJV)

“And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who

endures to the end shall be saved.”


Hebrews 3:6 (NKJV)

“But Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the

confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.”


John 3:16 (NKJV)

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting

life.”

“Believes” [present active, “keeps on believing”])


John 5:24 (NKJV)

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into

life.”“Believes” [present active, “keeps on believing”])


John 5:24 (NKJV)

“And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will

raise him up at the last day.”

“Believes” [present active, “keeps on believing”])


ARGUMENT #5

Historical: Prior to the 16th century (John Calvin), no

one believed in the now common “once-saved-always-saved” view.


The Didache 16 (A.D. 70)

“Watch for your life's sake. Let not your lamps be quenched, nor your loins unloosed; but be

ready, for you know not the hour in which our Lord will come... for the whole time of your faith will not profit you, if you are not made

perfect in the last time.”


Ignatius, Letter to the Ephesians 10A.D. 110

“And pray without ceasing in behalf of other men; for there is hope of the repentance, that

they may attain to God. For he that falls cannot arise again, and he may not attain to

God?”


Jerome, Against Jovinian 2:30A.D. 393

“There are venial sins and there are mortal sins. It is one thing to owe ten thousand talents, another to owe but a farthing. We shall

have to give an accounting for an idle word no less than for adultery. But to be made to blush and to be tortured are not the

same thing; not the same thing to grow red in the face and to be in agony for a long time. . . . If we entreat for lesser sins we are

granted pardon, but for greater sins, it is difficult to obtain our request.”

A Defense of Eternal Security______________________________________________________________________________

ARGUMENT #1“Logic of Scripture”

Eternal security is a necessary and logical outcome of total depravity and

unconditional election.


TULIP• TOTAL DEPRAVITY• UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION• LIMITED ATONEMENT• IRRESISTIBLE GRACE• PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS (ETERNAL SECURITY)


ARGUMENT #2“Supporting Scriptures on Eternal Life”

To not believe eternal security is to not believe many passages that explicitly teach

that a true believer can never be lost.


John 10:25-29 (NKJV)Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not

believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”


Romans 8:29,30 (NKJV)

“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that

He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined,

these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified,

these He also glorified.”


Romans 8:38,39 (NKJV)

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor

powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ

Jesus our Lord.”


Romans 11:29 (NKJV)

“For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”


Ephesians 1:13,14 (NKJV)

“In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed

with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His

glory.”


John 6:39,40 (NKJV)

“This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing,

but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who

sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last

day.”


John 5:24 (NKJV)

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him

who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has

passed from death into life.”


John 5:24 (NKJV)

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him

who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has

passed from death into life.”


ARGUMENT #3“Supporting Scriptures on Assurance”

Without Eternal Security, it is difficult to be confident and assured of our salvation,

which contradicts scripture.


1 John 5:13 (NASB)

“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that

you have eternal life.”


Phillipians 1:6 (NASB)

“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good

work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”


Security and perseverance are two sides to the same coin. It is God’s responsibility to protect and secure

our salvation and it is our responsibility to persevere in our

belief until the end…


However, God will enable those who are His to persevere until the end. Those who don’t persevere

until the end were not His to begin with.

Spiritual

Can You Lose Your Salvation? A Comprehensive Examination