Part 1

The Greek word for “apostasy” is “apostasia” and means “a falling away or defection from the truth”. So... can we lose our salvation? Obviously the most convenient and favorable answer is NO. Who would not want to believe that we cannot lose our salvation? Satan would surely have us believe that we could not. During this series we will study this topic in depth and answer this question with Scriptural truth. We will consider numerous passages, including those that many claim to support that we cannot lose our salvation. This is by no means an exhaustive study on falling from grace, but it is a study which includes answers to many objections and some false teaching floating around the Internet.

Those is favor of not being able to lose our salvation have different doctrinal, yet unbiblical, names for their belief...

~ ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED (Once saved, we will always be saved.)
~ IF SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED (If we are saved, we will always be saved.)
~ ETERNAL SECURITY (Once saved, we are eternally secure.)
~ PERSEVERENCE OF THE SAINTS (All saints will persevere to the end.)

They all mean practically the same thing... that if and once we are truly saved, we cannot lose our salvation. Unfortunately, those that believe we cannot lose our salvation are very misguided. Most people will simply accept what their preacher tells them as the truth and never worry about it. We indeed should not worry about it if we are truly saved, and as long as we remain in Christ. The key phrase is “remain in Christ”. We cannot be lukewarm Christians. We cannot get saved and say, "Okay, I have done my part, nothing more to worry about... I am saved and my preacher says I cannot lose my salvation, so no matter what I do, I am okay."

Revelation 3:16 So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.

The question is not whether we are ever going to sin again... we all sin and even a righteous man sins and cannot always do right…

Ecclesiastes 7:20 Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.

The question is when we do sin, are we going to continue in that sin and never repent, thereby rejecting God? We will sin many times, but we can overcome it, if we choose to…

Proverbs 24:16 For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, But the wicked stumble in time of calamity.

We surely cannot say that we will not sin. When we are saved, and we sin, the apostle John wrote that we must confess our sins to God and He will forgive us our sins…

1 John 1:8-10 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

So, do we lose our salvation every time we sin and just how many times do we have to sin to lose it? There is no set number of times that we must sin to lose our salvation. We are going to sin, and we are going to sin over and over and over. We cannot be sinless. The point of losing our salvation comes when we choose to walk away from God and begin walking in darkness. Sin is what causes us to walk away. However, we can regain our salvation by repenting of our sinful ways and turning back to God. My point is this... if we obey the gospel and we become saved, but then we never do anything else for God for the rest of our life... we ignore Him, we do not live for Him, and/or we fall into a habit of sin and continue to practice that sin, we will lose our salvation. When did we lose it? At the point in time when we cared no more about the fact that we were living for sin instead of living for God. At that point we have no remorse for our sins, we do not care anymore, we do not repent... we just let sin go on and on. When this happens, we let Christ go... He is no longer in us and we are not in Him. The Bible clearly teaches us that we must be "in Christ" to be saved. We cannot be “out of Christ” and enter into heaven.

I have a few statements and questions for some of those who believe we cannot lose our salvation. For those that do not know what to believe, this will be a good way to understand how irrational it is to believe we cannot lose our salvation. When we are lost and all wrapped up in sin, we must repent of our ways and turn to God for salvation... we must obey the gospel and become saved. What is the purpose of repentance, confession and forgiveness of sins after we are saved? Think about it for a minute... why bother to repent, confess and ask forgiveness... if we do not, then what is going to happen? Obviously nothing, because you claim we cannot lose our salvation. Apparently the apostle John wasted his time writing to Christians and explaining to us that we need to confess our sins and ask for forgiveness, because according to the false doctrine of eternal security, it does not matter whether we repent and/or confess.

Many people believe that a person who claims to be saved and starts practicing sin again, falling in to a habit of sin... were never really saved to begin with. It appears most people claiming this are the ones who believe all we have to do is pray to receive Christ, or that all we have to do is simply believe. So what happened? Did these people who were never really saved not pray right, or did they not believe, or maybe both? Is it not possible for someone who is truly saved to commit the same sin over and over, because if he does then he was never truly saved to begin with? In essence you are claiming that those that are truly saved have a license to sin. You will either have to agree that we’ll never fall into a habit of sin or that we can be as sinful as we desire with no consequences. Neither of these thoughts are scriptural. There is one truth in this though… those that believe they were saved by praying to receive Christ (the sinner’s prayer) or by simply believing, were never really saved to begin with.

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In Christ,
brother Sonnie