Can you lose your salvation?

Question

I've had this debate a ton of times at school. If you are saved and then you turn into a atheist, for example, are you still going to go to Heaven, or do you go to Hell?

My personal opinion is that if you change your beliefs, you go to Hell.

Answer 1

Yes, you can lose your salvation. There are many, many scriptures that tell us that to live carnally is death. If you live spiritually, it is life. Therefore, if you quit living for God, and turn back to the world, go back to sinning, you will lose your reward. Paul makes this clear in many scriptures.

Many people argue that they were not Christians in the first place, if that happens. But we are weak. We CAN fall back into sin. That is why it is so important to assemble yourselves, in order to draw strength from fellow Christians. It is so important to study the Word, and pray without ceasing, as Jesus said. These things are vital.

The argument that if we can lose our salvation for this, it means that salvation is dependant on works does not hold water. Our works are a product of our faith, not the other way around.

Answer 2

The Bible answers this question very directly. "He who endures to the end, he WILL be saved". Matt 24:13; Mark 13:13. Obviously then, he who does not endure to the end will NOT be saved. You cannot lose your salvation, once you receive it. But you don't receive it until you walk through the pearly gates. Note the future tense in these passages - "WILL be saved". What is confusing you is the unbiblical manmade Protestant tradition that you can actually be permanently saved while you are still on earth. This is plainly false. Earth is the roadway to heaven, or to hell. It isn't the place of salvation. Satan is trying to win our souls until we take our final breath. He can't of course, if we remain close to the Lord. But some do not. The Bible tells us that we cannot be snatched away; but that doesn't mean we cannot freely walk away. And some Christians do. When that happens, Protestants say, "well, he wasn't really saved". RIGHT! And neither is anyone else as long as we are in the flesh!

Answer 3

This may seem harsh, but if you "turn atheist" as you put it, could you have ever really been saved?

You should read the whole Bible so you can rightly divide the word of Truth. Yet, start with John 3:16 and then be sure to read all of chapters 14-16. If you don't accept, believe, and confess Chirst as your Savior, then yes you are lost. God gave you free will, so the choice is yours. He will not take you dragging and screaming; He's much too loving.

I'll be praying for you. God bless.

Answer 4

If you change your beliefs then did you really believe in the first place? Just as if you are evil all your life and then find the truth and then devote the rest of your life to good you will be judged by that, if you are good all your life and then suddenly deny your beliefs you will surely be judge for that. As for deciding if you go to heaven or hell only God can decide that, and he will take into account all your instances.

Answer 5

;why do we get the answer from God? here's how Paul felt
(1 Corinthians 9:27) . . .but I pummel my body and lead it as a slave, that, after I have preached to others, I myself should not become disapproved somehow.

(2 Corinthians 13:5-6) 5 Keep testing whether YOU are in the faith, keep proving what YOU yourselves are. Or do YOU not recognize that Jesus Christ is in union with YOU? Unless YOU are disapproved. 6 I truly hope YOU will come to know we are not disapproved.

now these people were in the faith,

(Hebrews 10:26) 26 For if we practice sin willfully after having received the accurate knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins left. . .

these considered themselves "saved christians"

(Matthew 7:21-23) 21 “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will. 22 Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ 23 And yet then I will confess to them: I never knew YOU! Get away from me, YOU workers of lawlessness.

Answer 6

I come from a wesleyan arminist point of view. God may not ever leave you but you can walk away from God. It is called backsliding. You can sincerely love God but then over time move away from HIm and lose your salvation. You might find reading some of John Wesley's works helpful.

Answer 7

2 peter 2:20 - 21 says: 20For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

21For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

Answer 8

This debate is among many christian denominations, however, I was wondering that myself for so long and I came across these verses which indicates that our name may be taken off the Book of LIfe (book where the names of the saved are)
David asks God to do so:
Psa 69:27 Add iniquity to their iniquity, and let them not come into Your righteousness. 28 Let them be blotted out of the Book of Life, and not be written with the righteous.

Paul is afraid to be rejected by God: and fears for others:
1Co 9:27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
Heb 2:1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
Heb 2:2 For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;

Also God seams to say that He can errase some names by saying for some He won't:
Rev 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

and finally:
Rev 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Rev 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

ANd then there is th is one:
Heb 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

So to me it seams that God will do all He can to keeps us but if one of us decide to turn away from Him, I believe there is no more salvation.

Answer 9

I would ask was that person ever really saved in the first place - one who commits themselves to Jesus will not turn atheist -
only God knows whats in that persons heart and He will be the final judge

Answer 10

True believers don't lose their salvation. But neither do they leave the faith. "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." 1John 2:19

For studies on Assurance of Salvation see my study guides at http://www.bcbsr.com/books/1jn.html

Answer 11

Uhm, no. God gave us free will to choose what we believe in. He and -only- he is the one who can judge us. No one on this earth can condem someone and say 'You're going to hell because you did this.' Nope. Sorry. Only God decides our fate. Not human beings.