Can a true believer lose their salvation?
(can a butterfly change back into a larva?)
Matt 16:18
18 ...and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
Introduction
A man-centered belief system has filtered heavily into the church for centuries. This belief system diminishes the Glory of God and seeks to water-down the radically God-centered Scripture and Atonement of Christ. This is widespread in our day. One outflow of this theology is the belief that a person, once truly born-again, can actually lose their salvation and end up in hell. I emphasize truly born-again because our society has watered-down real salvation for so long, producing many false conversions, which are a major reason people believe falsely on this issue. From what I have seen personally, most people are convinced of this false doctrine, not because they have a solid biblical foundation for it, but because they have known someone who seemed to be born-again walk away from Christ. This is the essence of walking by SIGHT and NOT BY FAITH - letting what we see and feel determine our beliefs, and not the rock of the Word. In this section, I will attempt to demonstrate that this belief is grossly unbiblical and is extremely damaging to the body of Christ. The purpose of this essay is in no way meant to belittle or attack anyone who disagrees, but to simply show why I believe that the Bible clearly teaches that one who is TRULY born-again can never lose their salvation (sometimes referred to as the Doctrine of Perseverance). This material should never be used in a divisive or arrogant manner, but in Christ-like humility. “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.” James 3:17
(All Scripture quotations are NIV, but reader is encouraged to study the passages in other major translations. I have purposefully not gotten into the Greek here to keep things more readable, but I encourage anyone to do that with all of these Scriptures as it only further strengthens the case.)
Assumptions
This essay assumes that the Holy Bible is, in fact, inerrant and completely inspired by God, never contradicting itself when read rightly. It also assumes that Scripture passages should be read in their context, trying to understand what the author intended to convey.
Is It Important?
The answer to this question is a resounding “yes!” Sometimes when a person who disagrees with eternal security is confronted with its vast biblical foundations, they retreat into their last line of defense: “Well, its just not that important.” Not important? On this issue hinges people's eternal destiny!! Important doesn't even describe it. If we are so afraid of opening up to differing ideas that we begin to regard the foundations and properties of salvation to be unimportant, then OH, how far we have fallen!
In 1 John 5:13, John tells us:
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
John is saying that the purpose of the letter (1 John) is for them to KNOW they have eternal life! John wanted the people to be able to discern whether they were truly saved or not because he knew it was incredibly important to our Christian walk that we have assurance of our salvation. Can we still say it is not important? It is of utmost importance to know who we are in Christ, or we will remain forever infants in the faith, blown and tossed by circumstances of life.
The blood atonement of Christ and what that really means is what's at stake here. This issue seeks to answer the question “What has Christ truly done for me on the cross?” It's the centrality of our Savior and His Sacrifice that is being flippantly regarded as “unimportant”. Since the nature of Truth is that it sets us free and the nature of Falsehood is that it puts us in bondage, it is of immeasurable importance that believers let the Light shine on this area of their hearts.
Scriptural Foundation
(Note: If you are used to just reading through Scripture without lingering to examine sentence structures and the context of the passages, then this will challenge your routine a bit. But press in and savor the words of Scripture as you would choice morsels of food. This will richly reward you. As a close friend once told me: You can rake leaves and get a pile of leaves, or you can dig dirt and find gold.)
John 6:38-40:
38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
I've underlined portions of the above verses because it is especially important to realize how these verses fit together, forming an unshakeable doctrine.
--verse 38, Jesus states his purpose in coming to earth: “to do the will of him who sent me” (the Father's will) -- he is saying this is why he came.
--verse 39, Jesus then tells us that the Father's will is that Jesus lose NONE of all those the Father gives him.
--verse 40, Jesus sums it up, saying that the Father's will is that all who believe in him SHALL have eternal life and Jesus WILL RAISE HIM UP!
So Jesus' mission, according to His own words, was to come to earth to do the Father's will by losing NONE of all those that are given to him, but raising them up at the last day! So ask yourself this question: Did Jesus fail in his mission? Did he score an 80%? - Well at least that's a “C” in most public schools, but he sure wouldn't make honor roll!
The reason what we believe is so important is because its what our hearts say that God's character is. In this case, you should be VERY careful that your current doctrinal belief does not say that Jesus failed in his very purpose of incarnation! As true believers, we know this is not so. Jesus did NOT fail, but fulfilled the will of the Father perfectly, just as He is perfect!!!
--Verses 44 and 53 of the same chapter, Jesus again affirms that he will not fail.
--John 10:27-29, Jesus reiterates that his mission cannot fail:
27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.
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John 8:35-36:
35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
The belief that you can lose your salvation subtly breeds fear and the mindset of a Slave/Master relationship with God. But Jesus said that a SON belongs to the family of God FOREVER. This is the mindset of a Father/Son relationship with God. If you are a child of God, you not only currently belong to the family, but belong to it forever. You are not only free now, but “will be free indeed” - forever! Read this passage closely a couple times and you will begin to see that it can mean only that.
The famous preacher & evangelist, Charles Spurgeon, put it this way:
“I know some Christians, or persons who call themselves so, who often come under this spirit of bondage. They erroneously say, `If I have sinned I have ceased to be a child of God.' That is the spirit of bondage with a vengeance. If a servant disobeys he will be sent adrift; but you cannot discharge your child. My son is my son forever; who denies that? Sonship is a settled fact, and never can be altered under any possible circumstances. If I am a child of God, who shall separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, my Lord?” (Spurgeon, “The Spirit of Bondage and of Adoption”)
Truly, to believe that salvation or sonship is so flimsy that somehow it may be lost, is to err from the Word and fall into the spirit of bondage/slavery.
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Romans 11:29
29 for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.
The Apostle Paul agreed, of course, with Christ and Spurgeon. The context of this verse is not speaking of gifts such as the gift of tongues or prophecy or the call such as a call to vocational ministry, but His “gifts and his call” of election and salvation! Read verse 28 and the rest of the chapter and that is crystal clear. The wonderful gift of salvation cannot be revoked!
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Ephesians 1:13-14:
the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession-to the praise of his glory.
Paul believed that after “having believed”, we received the Holy Spirit and that this GUARANTEED our inheritance!!
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We've all got Romans 8:28 memorized, but do we ever read on to get its full context?
Romans 8:29-30:
29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
Notice in this string of actions Paul describes, that no believers are left out as it goes. He doesn't say, “And OF those he predestined, SOME he also called, and OF those he called, SOME he also justified (made righteous), and OF those he justified, FEWER STILL made it to being glorified (with Christ in heaven)!!! Perhaps Paul just didn't word it right. No, Paul worded it carefully and meant it. This is why just a few sentences later in Romans 8:38, Paul can so confidently declare:
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul is so confident about this because he knows that when a person is born-again and justified by the blood of Christ, God continues the work and its impossible that “anything else in all creation” (that includes ourselves), will ever triumph against us! This is exactly what Jesus was saying in Matthew 16:18:
18 … and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
Many of us have heard this verse quoted in many different contexts, but first and foremost, this is what it means! What is the church anyway? A building? No, it's the body of Christ made up of individual believers. If Satan (or us, or anything else) should succeed in separating a SINGLE true believer from God in the end, then in that life, the gates of Hades have overcome. And to follow this error through, since God is not in control, hordes of believers, even ALL believers could possibly be lost and “overcome” by the gates of Hades. You can see this is not biblical - Jesus, Paul, and the rest of the Scriptures make that plain.
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1 John 5:4:
4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
Really? “Everyone” John? Could this be true? Everyone who has been born-again (read verse 5) overcomes the world? YES!!!!
How is this possible?! Why are there so many warnings then? Does this mean that we can do ANYTHING after we're born-again and still go to heaven? The answer is quite simple: Yes we must be holy and remain holy to enter heaven (read 1 John), but Jesus' “yoke is easy” and his “burden is light” because GOD IS THE ONE WHO KEEPS US!!! He keeps us holy and secures our salvation. Yes, we live it out, but behind the scenes, God is fulfilling his Purpose in our lives! Read on and you will see that Scripture teaches this emphatically…
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More Scriptural Foundation
(The previous section focused on the “That” we cannot lose our salvation, while this section will go into the “How” we cannot lose it. Of course, verses in each provide basis for both.)
God's purpose in the the New Covenant is to show that HE is the one who raises the dead, makes us alive in Christ, and finishes the work fully in our lives - not us.
Jeremiah 32:38-40:
38 They will be my people, and I will be their God. 39 I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. 40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.
This passage answers all the questions from the previous paragraph. It doesn't get much clearer than this. This passage is a prophecy of the New Covenant and shows that God is the one who gives us singleness of heart and action, He is the one who inspires us to fear Him, so that we will NEVER TURN AWAY FROM HIM!! The reason we will never turn away is because it's not our strength holding us; it's not even a mixture of His and ours! It's Him ALONE!! Truly only in the humility of a child can our prideful hearts submit to this biblical truth. We WANT it to be our responsibility to not fall away, because that gives us control, makes us the ultimate determiners, and puts us in the “driver's seat” of our lives - right where our sinful hearts have always wanted us.
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2 Tim 1:12:
12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.
So whose responsibility is it to “guard” our salvation? Certainly it is ours, even Paul said, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” in Philippians 2:12. But read on into verse 13:
12…work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 FOR it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
I emphasized the word “for” because it literally means “because” here. Paul encouraged us to work out our salvation BECAUSE God is the one who is in control and causes us to do all that He wills!! The two are not in conflict. Another example of this “paradoxical” mentality is in Hebrews 13:20-21. The author of Hebrews just finished a huge list of exhortations on how to do God's will and then he says,
20 May the God of peace…21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him…
So Hebrews tells us how to live and then prays that God will make us live that way!! There are many other examples of this from Paul and others in the Scripture. So yes, we should “guard” our salvation, but also rest in the fact that God is the one who is “guarding” it ultimately, by working “in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”
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Phil 1:6:
6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Paul was confident that the good work God began in you would be carried on to completion. This is precisely what the author of Hebrews meant when he referred, in Hebrews 12:2, to “Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (NKJV). God birthed faith in you (read Ephesians 2:8-10), began the work in you, and will be the “finisher” of it to the end. What else could the verse possibly mean?
2 Thessalonians 3:3:
3 But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.
1 Corinthians 1:8-9:
8 He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24:
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.
Notice the connection that Paul makes in the above three passages between our persevering to the end and God's faithfulness. In all of these verses, Paul is telling believers that God will cause them to persevere to the end because GOD IS FAITHFUL! The reason that we cannot lose our salvation is that God Almighty has staked His very faithfulness on it! Read them carefully and you will see that in Paul's mind, it is because of God's faithfulness that true believers can never fall away. So if we say that true believers can lose their salvation, what we're really saying is that God is not faithful as He claims in Scripture.
The following verses continue to build upon this incredible, rock-solid Truth. They really need no further explanation:
Jude 24:
24 To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy
2 Corinthians 1:21-22:
21 Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
Romans 14:4:
4 Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Psalm 57:2:
2 I cry out to God Most High,
to God, who fulfills [his purpose] for me
Psalm 138:8:
8 The LORD will fulfill [his purpose] for me;
your love, O LORD, endures forever--
do not abandon the works of your hands.
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So what about all the people who have “fallen away”?! How do they fit? In a large way, this goes back to the question of whether someone is “truly” born-again. It is not hard for people to look the part, and even some really mature believers cannot tell them apart. They blossom beautifully, producing fruit for a season, but in the end, as in the Parable of the Sower, they wither because they either had no roots, or they grew up among weeds. They were not planted in the good soil. Read the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13 and you will see clearly that the seeds on good soil produce fruit - they never wither!
John puts it in such clear terms that there shouldn't be any question left:
1 John 2:19
19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
Notice that John writes the same Truth 3 times in 3 different wordings all in 1 verse! It couldn't be clearer. If someone were really a true believer, they wouldn't have fallen away! He says that 3 times here. If anyone would care to make the point that the context of the verse is talking about “antichrists” only, then I would note 2 things: 1 - This doesn't make sense because then the whole point John is trying to make would be lost - it only makes sense because John is applying an all-encompassing truth to the “antichrists”. 2 - Read the rest of the chapter and you will see that the word “antichrist” in this context means anyone who doesn't believe in Christ, which would include anyone who turned away from Him.
So we can see definitively here that if someone “falls away” from Christ, they were never a true believer and never “belonged to us” as John put it. He put it this way a few verses later in
1 John 3:6:
6 Whoever abides in him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. (NKJV)
Literally, this verse is saying that if anyone lives a life of habitual sin, it shows that they had neither seen (recognized) Him or EVER known Him - see also Matthew 7:23 on this. So you can hold that a true believer can eventually fall away, but the apostle John certainly did not believe this.
This is why Paul, in 2 Corinthians 13:5, said,
5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you-unless, of course, you fail the test?
The Living Bible paraphrases it this way: “Check up on yourselves. Are you really Christians? Do you pass the test?”
Paul didn't say, “Are you still a Christian? Test to see if you've lost it all.”
Peter, in 2 Peter 1:10, puts it this way:
10 Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure…
Not “make sure you haven't lost your salvation”, but “see if you really are one of God's elect.”
Some Verses Seemingly Contradictory
In this section, I will go into a few verses that are quoted often to prove that a person can lose their salvation. I will attempt to show that these verses are taken way out of context, but when read properly and in context, actually say quite the opposite.
John 15:6-7:
6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.
Okay, I've heard this one quoted more than a few times to show that we “must remain” in him, otherwise we'll lose our salvation and be “thrown into the fire and burned.” But that is the wrong conclusion to come to. What does Jesus mean by “in me”? Is it what we think? Read on into verse 8 now:
8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
In other words, Jesus is saying, “if you remain in me” and “bear much fruit”, you are “showing yourselves to be my disciples.” Remaining in him does not KEEP you a disciple; it PROVES you truly are one. Remaining in Christ is a prerequisite for being a true believer. This passage actually strengthens the case that a believer's salvation is secure in God.
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Revelation 3:5
5 He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.
See! We have to “overcome” and if we don't, we'll be blotted out of the book of life!!
Well, to read this in the context of the rest of Scripture, lets read what the same author (John) had to say in 1 John 5:4 (quoted earlier):
4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
So when we read Revelation 3:5 in context with 1 John 5:4, we actually learn that everyone who has been born of God (born-again) WILL overcome, and WILL NEVER have their name blotted out of the book of life! Praise God!!
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Hebrews 6:4-6:
4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, 6 if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
This is the age-old, classic passage that is quoted to “prove” the point that a believer can “fall away”. First off, it seems hard for most people to imagine that these couple verses might not be talking about real believers. “Tasted of the heavenly gift”, “shared in the Holy Spirit”, “tasted the goodness of the word of God”, “brought back to repentance” - this has to be true believers, right? Not necessarily. The Holy Spirit often operates in and through people who are not true believers. They experience all the Truth and wonders of the Spirit and the Word, and have an outward form of repentance - they're even bearing something that looks like fruit! But remember the Parable of the Sower once again! Is it real, or will it wither? In Matthew 7:23, Jesus, speaking of those who prophesied in His Name, cast out demons, performed miracles, and who knows what other amazing things, said:
23 Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
Now, the real test of this passage is how does it fit in context with surrounding verses? Does our initial interpretation of it hold up when examined in their light? NO - read carefully the next 3 verses:
Hebrews 6:7-9
7 Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. 8 But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned. 9 Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case - things that accompany salvation.
1. In verses 7 & 8, notice the distinction between the two types of land. Compare this to the Parable of the Sower again. The land in verse 7 is a land that drinks the rain and produces a crop. The other land, in verse 8, never produces good crops - it produces thorns and thistles - in the end it will be burned. This passage draws a distinction between two opposite types of land. Good land and bad land. Good soil and bad soil. The correlation between this passage and the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13 is close:
-seed fell path -- eaten up
-seed fell on rocky soil -- sprang up quickly but withered - no root
-seed fell among thorns -- thorns grew up and choked the plant
-seed fell on good soil -- true salvation -- produced crop!!
-verses 7-8 in Hebrews 6 are a correlation to good soil and bad soil
-seed on rocky soil exhibited all the signs of tasting in the Holy Spirit, but it was bad
soil and would not last.
-only the seed on good soil exhibits True Salvation.
Also, read 1 John 3:6 and you will see that the land described in verse 8 could not possibly be a believer. These verses follow right after verses 4-6. Verses 4-6 were never meant to be read without verses 7-8. So you see that these verses 7-8 indicate that verses 4-6 are not describing a true believer, but ones that looked real, but weren't (refer again to 1 John 2:19).
2. Verses 7-8 were enough, but Paul went even further and made the point even more clearly in verse 9. In this verse, Paul says of those to whom he speaks that he is “confident of better things” in their case “ - things that accompany salvation.” In other words, the people he described in verse 4-6 did not have the “better things” that Paul was confident of and the things described in verses 4-6 DO NOT NECESSARILY “accompany salvation.” So in verses 4-6, Paul was not describing people who have lost their salvation, but people who had tasted of it, tried Jesus out, and seemed real for a while (maybe even years), but in the end were not true believers because they didn't have the “better things… - things that accompany salvation”. Otherwise, there was no point in Paul saying verse 9 at all. This verse literally makes no sense if you believe Hebrews 6:4-6 describes true believers (and neither do the many other passages we have gone over).
3. Hebrews 3:14
14 We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.
The same writer, earlier in this passage, made clear that in his mind, persevering to the end proves faith to be genuine. In the greek the verb tense here literally means “We have NOW come to share in Christ, if …”
So the verse literally means that if we hold firmly to the end, it will end up being proof that we have truly come to share in Christ now.
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(There are more passages that, when taken at face value and out of context, seem to contradict this article. I would be happy to try to explain why they don't if you care to send them to me via email at akeresey@hotmail.com)
Other common objections
--“Believing that you can lose your salvation makes you live holier.”
--Believing anything that is false will NEVER produce true holiness in anyone's life. It may produce false fruit for a season, but it won't last. If you told someone that they'd inherit 1 million dollars if they lived holy, would it produce real holiness in their life, or would it be false holiness arising out of greed? Similarly, the lie that a person can lose their salvation will produce a false holiness called legalism that arises out of the slave/master relationship we described above, not the father/son relationship of trust.
--“Believing in eternal security makes you lazy.”
--Anyone can mentally assent to the truth of eternal security but it may just be head-knowledge to him or her, which can produce all sorts of error, not just laziness. If we threw out all truth that Christians took for granted, we'd have only the covers to our Bibles left!! To “believe” something biblically, you must embrace it with your life and live it from your heart. If the Holy Spirit reveals this truth to anyone's heart, it will set him or her free in their lives from much bondage, because the truth sets us free.
--It should also be noted that this objection is really just the same objection that unbelievers make about the lives of Christians in general.
-“I know people who were definitely saved and now they're not.”
-First of all, are we so arrogant to think that we can look into a person's heart and know whether they're real or not? I'm not saying that we can't ever tell, but from my experience, almost every person who has mentioned this objection to me, when I questioned them further about the person, its someone they didn't really know that well or had never really been close with.
-Second of all, this is the essence of walking by SIGHT and not by FAITH, when we begin to let what we see with our senses and feel with our emotions determine what we believe is true about God and life. It seems so easy for so many people to just ignore countless passages of Scripture, just because they have one experience that seems to contradict it. To the person with this objection, I urge him to take heed or he will “blown and tossed by the wind; unstable in all he does” (James 1) and “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching…” (Ephesians 4:14).
-Last, please refer once again to 1 John 2:19.
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Conclusion
I've heard some speak of God's Grace as a net underneath us as we walk a tightrope. If we fall (sin), His Grace catches us, but then if we lay on the net too long, we can eventually fall off that and lose our salvation. What a sad view of God's Grace!! This puts us in the center of our salvation and not God! Yeah, God has given us grace, but the bottom line is US! If we could lose our salvation by sinning, then we gained it by NOT sinning. The underlying foundation here is Salvation by Works. Satan and his continual effort convince man of the need for works to gain salvation is at the bottom of this. If you are having a hard time seeing how this puts you and your works and merit, and not Christ's merits, at the center of your salvation, then ask yourself this question: If believers can lose their salvation, and God loves them all the same and exerts the same influence on all of them to "stay saved", then what would ultimately determine why "Believer A" retains their salvation, while "Believer B" loses it? Sure God is at work in "Believer A", but He's at work to the same degree in "Believer B", right? So then God is not the deciding factor -- there must be inherent differences between the two. "Believer A" must ultimately have more goodness or pureness of heart than "Believer B". So then "Believer A" is somehow a better person than "Believer B", and ultimately "Believer A" is finally saved as a direct result of his/her level of goodness. "Believer B" didn't have quite enough goodness and tenacity as "Believer A", so he/she finally loses their salvation. Do you see what this does to the gospel? There is no way around this. If a person believes that true believers can lose their salvation, then what they actually believe to some degree, is that salvation is decided by our goodness ultimately and not the Grace of Christ.
What does this do to the Blood of Christ, our Savior? It tramples it underfoot. When Christ died on the cross as the substitutionary payment for your sin, how much sin did he pay for? Some of your sins, most of them, or ALL of them? Any true believer should know the answer is that Christ paid for all the sins we've ever committed and ever will commit (including the most heinous sin of rejecting Christ, of which we are all guilty). He took all of those offenses with him to the cross and paid our debt IN FULL. If you believe that you can be truly saved and then lose that, what you really believe when you break it down is this: That Christ paid your debt IN FULL, but you can still possibly go to hell and pay your own debt IN FULL. This is a slap in Christ's face and declares God to be unjust. Would he exact the payment for your sins from both you and from Christ? Or maybe you believe that when He died on the cross, He wasn't literally making a binding transaction of atonement for sin, but simply dying to provide an opportunity for people to come and have a transaction made. This is watering down the awesome power in the Blood of Christ. It is man-centered and is slowly working in our society to break down the Foundations for true and lasting revival in our land. It breeds unbelief and bondage, because it darkens and skews our picture of God, who He is, and of the Blood Atonement of Jesus Christ. It is plainly and simply a watered-down, easy to swallow gospel.
So, in closing, can you say with the writer to the Hebrews, that Jesus is the “author and finisher” (Hebrews 12:2) of your faith? Is He just the author, but you're the finisher? Or can you wholeheartedly sing with Edward Mote (from "The Solid Rock", 1834):
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.
Is Christ and nothing less than Christ your hope? Do you also place your hope in what the state of your heart ("sweetest frame") will be in 10, 20 or 50 years, trusting that your own heart will remain faithful to God while some other believers hearts have not had "what it takes" to stay in Christ. Or do you believe with Edward Mote that a believer's salvation is secure in Christ - that Christ is all your hope and stay -- literally that He is the one who will make you "stay":
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.
O God, send the rains of your Spirit upon our dry land, that your church may rise up with faith and sound in unison with Paul:
18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen. -- 2 Timothy 4:18
Here is a small list of biblical passages that provide foundation for the Doctrine of Perseverance (there is much more):
Philippians 1:6
John 6:35-40
John 14:21
Psalm 138:8
1 Thessalonians 5:24
1 Peter 5:10
1 Corinthians 1:8-9
Psalm 57:2
Ephesians 1:14
Romans 8:38-39
1 John 2:19
Romans 11:29
2 Timothy 1:12
1 John 3:6
1 John 5:4, 18
John 8:27-36
Jeremiah 32:38-40
2 Thessalonians 2:13
2 Thessalonians 3:3
2 Corinthians 1:21-22
Romans 14:4
Matthew 7:23
John 15:8
2 Timothy 4:18
2 Corinthians 13:5
2 Timothy 2:19
John 5:24
John 10:1-29
John 14:21
Hebrews 3:14
