Bible Study: Can I Lose My Salvation?

Those who are familiar with my theology know that I'm not a Calvinist. But I do believe that I cannot lose my salvation. However, the eternal security that I have is very different from the P of TULIP which is what Calvinism teaches. I would in fact argue logically that it is absolutely impossible for a Calvinist to have assurance of salvation, and that ultimately Calvinism teaches an inverted works-based salvation, which I will delve into first. Notice that I'm not going to quote a lot of scriptures in this article, but rather use simple logic to explain why I hold this position. If you want more scriptures, resources and materials on the subject, I would advise you to look into Dr. Leighton Flowers' research on the subject; you can find his stuff on Soteriology 101.

According to the U of TULIP in Calvinism, or 'Unconditional Election', even the faith that is required to receive the gift of salvation is itself a gift from God, therefore election unto salvation is completely out of our hands and up to God in an absolute sense. Non-Calvinists reject this theology and teach that the faith that is required to receive the gift of salvation is man's responsibility and ultimately the reason why some will end in the lake of fire. Now putting on the Calvinist's worldview, assuming their understanding of the Bible is correct, how can a Calvinist possibly know that they have been elected by God unto salvation? Notice that they cannot possibly appeal to anything subjective because according to their worldview, election unto salvation is completely and absolutely unconditional, regardless of our subjective desires, beliefs or works. They can either derive their assurance from their "faith" or what they believe, but as John Calvin taught, some are predestined to believe for a season, and then fall away. So how can they possibly know that they are not one of those. Alternatively, they can derive their assurance from their works which confirms what I said above that consistent Calvinism is an inverted works-based salvation. In other words, consistent Calvinists have to ultimately derive their assurance from their works.

I on the other hand, and those who agree with me can in fact make a logical case for eternal security. We can look at salvation like a surgery that is needed to be done on our hearts. We visit the doctor and decide to exercise faith in the doctor. Once we sign the forms and give consent to the doctor as part of exercising faith in the doctor, we will end up in the surgery room and once the doctor is done, we will be healed from whatever kind of heart disease we were suffering from. In my systematic, I choose to exercise faith in the doctor and therefore, I can derive my assurance from what I know about the doctor who is God and all-powerful in this case. While in the Calvinist's systematic, the doctor has to choose them and since the doctor is God in this case, and we do not have access to the book of life, which according to Calvinists is a list of those who have been chosen and predestined before they were even born, or had done anything good or evil, there will be no way of knowing whether they are in the list or not, so they have to ultimately trust themselves; their feelings, beliefs, and works. While putting on my worldview, people like me can actually trust God directly. In other words, logically speaking, given the two different systems of thoughts, I can trust God directly to save me because I believe God wants to save everyone, while the Calvinist has no option other than trusting himself/herself that God has chosen to save them.

I believe those who have saving faith and are therefore truly saved will not shrink back, and will ultimately persevere to the end as we read in Hebrews 10:39. This does not mean that those who are truly saved, will never lose faith or will never backslide at any time, but rather they will ultimately end the race, not because of their grip on Christ, but because of Christ's grip on them. In fact, in Ephesians 5:30, we read that we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. In John 6:37, Jesus says, "All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away." He continues on and says, "For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those He has given me, but raise them up at the last day." Notice how Jesus says that He is not going to lose any of the ones the Father has given to him. But the question is who are the ones the Father gives to Jesus? The very next verse, John 6:40, gives us the answer to this crucial question. "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 them up at the last day."

In John 10:27, Jesus says, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me." He continues on and says, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one." At the end of Romans 8, Paul tells us that he is convinced that nothing can separate us from God's love. He tells us that God works in all things for the good of those who love Him. In Ephesians 1:13-14, Paul tells us that when we believed, we were included in Christ; that we were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession. If you are truly born-again, and if you have truly received the Holy Spirit, and are in Christ, and if you have truly drunk from the well that Jesus spoke of, then you shall never thirst again, as Jesus Himself prophesied in John 4:14. And finally, in 1 John 2:19, we read that those who have left us, did not really belong to us, for if they had, they would have remained with us.

What about the warnings? What about Romans 11:21 or 2 Peter 2:20? What about Hebrews 6:4-8 or Hebrews 10:26? Is God just bluffing? I do not believe so. We should never dull the edge of God’s warnings with our systematic. I believe these warnings are real and they are for those who may be self-deceived into thinking they have something that they don't. In fact the context of these warnings is quite clear that it's talking about false converts. For instance, the warning in Hebrews 10:26 ends with Hebrews 10:29 which I used above to support my case for eternal security. This is why in 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul exhorts his listeners to, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith.” Paul is not concerned for those who are truly in the faith, but for those who may be self-deceived. The only way the self-deceived may come to realise their error is by examining themselves to see if Christ is truly in them. Also, notice that in Hebrews 12:6, we read that the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as His son. As we can see, God disciplines those He adopts; so this idea that God's grace can be used as a licence to sin is purely fictitious. God's grace is a license FOR sin, not a license TO sin. And if you love sin and hate discipline, then embrace yourself for trouble, distress, wrath, punishment, and ultimately death.

To recap, based on my understanding of the Bible, salvation can neither be lost nor forfeited as Arminians generally like to argue. It can however be misunderstood, or misconstrued. This is why it's crucial to test ourselves to see if we are truly in the faith. If you want to know whether you're truly in the faith or not, consider reading my previous article.

Bible Study: What Kind of Faith Does God Require?

There are a lot of confusions among both believers and unbelievers about faith. As far as I'm concerned, the word "faith" has at least four different definitions and applications in the Bible. The first one is in light of Romans 4:5 which is man's responsibility; in other words, it's something that God expects from us. The second one is in light of James 2:19 which is something that even demons have, but it's "belief that" rather than "belief in" and won't save us. "Belief that" is a matter of knowledge, whereas "belief in" is a matter of trust. The third one is in light of Hebrews 12:2 which refers to the Christian faith or Christianity in general; not something we do, but rather something that Christ has done for us. We didn't create the Christian faith or Christianity; Christ did. The last one is in light of 1 Corinthians 12:9 which refers to faithfulness or the the kind of faith that is required to end the race after coming to Christ, which is a gift from the Holy Spirit, so that God's promise of redemption is guaranteed as Ephesians 1:14 states.

The Gospel is clear that eternal life is a gift from God, not by works so that no one can boast; we just have to receive it through faith. But how can we receive this gift, if we can't believe the Gospel? We obviously can't. And how can we believe the Gospel, if we don't trust God with all of our heart, mind and soul since knowledge and wisdom begin with God? We obviously can't. This is why it all comes down to one word, which is "faith". In general it may be said that temporal faith which does not save is grounded in the emotional life and only seeks personal enjoyment rather than the glory of God and is therefore a selfish faith that does not save. The kind of faith that God requires in the Bible in order to save us is one that is grounded in Him alone, with the ability to see beyond emotions and what might seem to be a contradiction, and is therefore a selfless faith. In Romans 4:16 and James 2:21, we read about Abraham's faith as an example of a kind of faith that saves. In Hebrews 11:17-19, we read that by faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death! As we can see, Abraham trusted God and managed to see beyond his emotions and what might have seemed like a contradiction.

Critics like to argue that we have a blind and irrational faith. But as we read above, Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead. Therefore, his faith was neither blind, nor irrational. Not only that, everybody already trusts God with their senses and cognitive faculties. It would be absolutely foolish to say that for example child molestation could be moral, and the reason we think it's immoral, could be because God is manipulating our senses. Now someone might object to me and say that what God asked Abraham was almost the same as child molestation, but that is neither true nor accurate not to mention that this objection completely ignores the historical context of this event. You have to understand that during Abraham's time, child sacrifice was a very common practice and pagans had been deceived that by sacrificing their children to their false gods, they could earn their favors. God wanted to demonstrate to the pagans that He has faithful followers who are willing to do what they are doing, but this is not what the Creator of this world wants!

Furthermore, the Bible tells us that we should not put the LORD our God to the test and there are good reasons for that. How are we exactly going to test our Creator? Everything we want to use to test God is already created either by God or through Him or is eternal and part of His nature since God is by definition the origin of everything that exists. If we already trust the things that God has created such as our senses and our cognitive faculties, wanting to test God with them or refusing to trust God with everything else is therefore nothing more than a childish tantrum. Because if God was supposedly "evil", He would manipulate our cognitive faculties, and get us to do whatever He wants, and even give us the illusion of freedom and choice. Therefore, in order to doubt God's goodness, you would have to first trust Him, and if you trust Him with certain things such as your senses and cognitive faculties, then no offense, but you would have to be a fool to refuse to trust Him with everything else!

In Isaiah 29:16, God says: You turn things upside down! Shall the Potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its Maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of Him who formed it, “He has no understanding?” This is a clear demonstration of the folly of refusing to trust God or our Maker. Proverbs 1:7 says: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Notice that fearing God in this context does not mean being scared of God, but rather having respect and reverence for God. You cannot learn from God, if you're scared of Him. You can only learn if you draw near to Him through faith with respect and reverence. Always remember that wisdom and knowledge begin with God!