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Responding to Verses that Seem to Say Salvation Can be Lost
Feb 20, 2010
Soteriology – Workbook
Copyright © 2004-2006, Reclaiming the Mind Ministries. All rights reserved.
Response to the Conditional Security arguments:
1. Two things are wrong with this argument:
• It is based on a faulty notion of free will. Our “free will” is limited by ability, and no one has the ability to choose God on their own (Rom. 3:11).
• Even the conditional security advocates believe that in eternity we will not be able to reject God.
2. None of these Scriptures teach that a person can lose his or her salvation:
1 Jn. 5:16: Death here is not spiritual, but must be physical. If this was a reference to an unforgivable sin causing spiritual death, God did not do a good job of covering such an important topic.
Matt. 3:28–29: The unforgivable sin, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, is the sin
of unbelief or rejection of Christ.
Heb. 10:26–27: The argument of the book of Hebrews is to encourage people to be diligent in their belief and not fall away. The author does not know who are the true believers and who are the false ones. He warns them all not to
fall into the sin of unbelief (3:12; 10:38). The “willful sin” is not any sin committed with the consent of the will, but the sin of unbelief. There is no sacrifice for perpetual unbelief.
2 Pet. 2:19–22: The false teachers were never true believers. They escaped the things of this world in that they made an outward change, but they never really had a change of heart.
Gal. 5:1–4: “Falling from grace” does not mean that they fell from saving grace but from sanctifying grace. This is the entire argument of the book. Paul is wondering why people think that it is possible to be sanctified by the Law
when they have been saved by grace (3:1-3). When a person tries to be
sanctified by the Law, he or she has fallen from grace in that the power to grow in Christ has been lost.
Matt. 18:23–25: This passage is not speaking about salvation, but about forgiveness.
3. This Scripture (Heb. 6:4–9) does not suggest that true believers can leave the faith, but that if they could, they could not be restored to repentance. This is made clear in verse 9: “But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation.” Things that accompany true salvation must not include apostasy.
4. These Scriptures are real warnings. The writers all encourage their readers to persevere in the faith, but they are not suggesting that one can lose true faith. The Scriptures do, however, teach that many people have a nominal or “said” faith. People are encouraged to examine their faith to make sure it is true. If people do not persevere until the end, they were never true believers.
Matt. 24:10-13 “At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.”
Heb. 3:6 “But Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.”
Jn. 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes [present active, “keeps on believing”] in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
2 Cor. 13:5 “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you––unless indeed you fail the test?
2 Pet.1:10 “Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble.”
1 Jn. 2:19 “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.”
Matt. 13:20–23 “The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”
Matt. 7:21–23a “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you.”
5. While it is true that the majority of Church history has believed that people could forfeit their salvation either through mortal sin or apostasy, this does not make it correct. The majority of Church history also believed in baptismal regeneration.
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