Can we lose our salvation?

Question

The verses below seem to state we can lose our salvation. In Hebrews 3:6 is says we are of the house of Christ IF we hold firm to the end. Verses 12-14 warn of departing from God and hardening our hearts. It tells us to hold steadfast to the end.

Hebrews 4:1 warns us of falling short.

Revelation 2:4-5 warns the church of Ephesus. They are told to repent and do their first works again or else their candlestick will be removed.

There are many more verses but the point is we can turn our backs on God. If we do then don't we lose our salvation?

Heb 3:6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

Heb 3:12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
Heb 3:13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Heb 3:14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

Heb 4:1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

Rev 2:4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Rev 2:5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

Answer 1

Yes, absolutely we can, and God tells us to hold on to the free prize of salvation that we are given. So that alone tells us that we can lose it, or why would we have to hold onto it. BUt, God is a loving God, He doesnt sit in heaven just waiting for us to do a wrong, to slap us out. HE will work with us for awhile and give us every opporrunity to know and love His word and to obey Him. There are so many things in scripture that show we can lose our salvation. BUt we cant blame God, if we dont go to heaven. GOd tells us what to do to be in Heaven, and waht to not do to be sure we dont go to hell. If ppl wont hear it , believe it and obey Him, its not His choice. God will be forced to do soething with the wicked rebellious ppl that wont ever hear Him. WOuld would HE do, let them go to heaven with the rest of us, that are HIs, and bring all their stuff of the devil up there too?? Murder, rape, adultry, lying, cheating, al of it?? I dont hardly think so. Either they give up the leis of the devil and turn to Jesus, repent of their sins and stop it or they will be lost. Obedience still leads to blessing and disobedience stil lleads to curse. Nowhere in scripture does God say that changed. This once saved always saved thing is nonsense. God said IF YOU LOVE ME< OBEY ME> HELLO< HOW Much clearer can you get, and thats just one thing. When asked if grace will cover continued sin since Jesus died, what was the response? GOD FORBID. Grace was for past sins, and for sins now that we dont know as sin, or something we just had revealed as sin and still struggling to overcome, and God will work with us for awhile, but reality is< He doesnt toss us out of His kingdom. PPL toss themselves out by listening to the devil instead of God. Its all a choice to believe or not, and its a choicd if we obey or not. And our decision will either bring tremendous rewards, or awful horrible consequences.
Remember, its all our choice. Jesus is coming soon, and we need to be getting ready and staying ready. As we are either fully His or we arent His at all.
Jesus gave us His all, HOw can we give any less. Why would anyone that claims to love God believe or want to bleieve they could continue to sin and be saved/ INstead of saying, how little do we have to give to get thru those gates, just squeezing barely in. WE NEED TO BE ASKING what more can I do for you Lord. Faith without works is dead. We show our love by obeying God. 1 John 3:9 says those born of God cannot sin. HELLO FOLKS. We wont want to sin because when we are born again, we no longer have a fallen sin nature, we have taken on the nature of Christ, and sin will be as vile to us as it is to HIM.
Great question. God bless you for asking.
No, God doesnt eaglerly pluck us out, but we can sure walk away and pluck ourselves out, that is CHOICE. and we leave God no choice when we do that but to say No you cant enter heaven, as we are like the non believers when we dont obey Takes more than believing, you wont see the devil in heaven, will you? I REST MY CASE>

Answer 2

there is more bible for losing salvation than getting it in the first place. God will not force anybody to serve him. we serve out of free will. free to come and free to go. I like these
Mat. 25:30 and cast out the unprofitable SERVANT into outer darkness.
Luk 9:62 Jesus said NO man having put his hand to the plough (thats a worker) and then looking back (having regrets) is fit for the kingdom of God.
John 6:66 and from that time many of his DISCIPLES went back and walked no more with him.
HEb 10:38 the just shall live by faith, but if any draw back I wilkl have no pleasure in him.
Gal 1:6-7 I marvel that you are so soon removed from him
then Gal 4:9, 1 Tim 1:6, 2 Pet. 2:15, 2 Pet 2:20-22, Jam 5:19

Answer 3

Personally, this is a concept, or belief that I truly struggle with. Even after studying scripture, and so forth.

Say for example, that someone truly accepts the Lord as their Saviour. God changes them and they live a wonderfully Christian life for years. They hit an exceptionally rough time, and end up completely turning from God. They being to live a life of excess in everything, drinking, sex, money, and so forth. They have even wind up, in drunken stupor, killing someone, committing murder.

They never repent these new sins. They die in jail. Will they spend eternity with the Lord? We are taught we cannot lose our salvation, so this would mean yes.

In this part of our Christian walk, I think our feeble human minds and hearts cannot imagine anyone forgiving and loving that much. I think it is this sinful nature of ours that cannot imagine it. But God is so much more than we can imagine, more than we can begin to wrap our mind or heart around.

Anyway, I still struggle with this in my head and heart. I know it's wrong, and we are to forgive and love all. Part of our sinful fall from grace back in the garden.

God bless.

Answer 4

Thank You !
The once saved always saved theory Is just that a theory !
The Bible Is very plain about this.
Revelation 3: 4-6
4 Yet you still have a few names In Sardis who have not soiled their clothes,and they shall walk with ME In white,because they are worthy and deserving.

5 Thus shall he who conquers be clad In white garments, and I will not ERASE or BLOT OUT HIS NAME from the Lamb's Book of Life; I will acknowledge him and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.

6 He who Is able to hear, let him listen to and heed what the Holy Spirit says to the churches.

That sounds like your name can be removed from the Lamb's Book of Life to me.
Nobody can remove us from God's hand. But we can walk away or backslide,turn away from God.
The Bible has much to say about Backslidding.
I wouldn't allow myself to be deceived by a church doctrine or tradition about the once saved always saved theory.
Your soul Is eternal,and will be somewhere Forever...
We're told to examine ourselves to make sure we're still In the faith.
I would make sure of where I was going for ALL eternity.
Jesus Christ Is Lord Of Lords & King Of Kings.

Answer 5

None of the verses you show here is speaking of eternal salvation.Salvation isn't mentioned in any of them.A candlestick isn't talking about
salvation.I would sugest more bible study before you come to a conclusion on this doctrine.
I am departed from my father at the moment,but I am still his son.I can't become unborn no matter how hard I try.

Answer 6

Once saved always saved. You can't lose it. Remember there are two judgments, one for salvation and the other for your life in heaven.
You can move so far from God that He doesn't reach you anymore, but you can always move back.
The Prodigal Son!

Answer 7

Yep, we have a free will and we can reject God if we want at any time. This idea we are saved once and always saved is erroneous. We can always fall back into sin and turn away from God.

Answer 8

God will not drop us. But we certainly have the ability to jump out of His hand!

Since Brother Edge likes Scripture so much...I'll even include a few extra...just 'cause I like him!

Matt. 7:18 - Jesus says that sound trees bear good fruit. But there is no guarantee that a sound tree will stay sound. It could go rotten.

Matt. 7:21 - all those who say "Lord, Lord" on the last day will not be saved. They are judged by their evil deeds.

Matt. 12:30-32 - Jesus says that he who is not with Him is against Him, therefore (the Greek for "therefore" is "dia toutos" which means "through this") blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. This means that failing to persevere in Jesus' grace to the end is the unforgivable sin against the Spirit. We must persevere in faith to the end of our lives.

Matt. 22:14 - Jesus says many are called but few are chosen. This man, who was destined to grace, was at God's banquet, but was cast out.

Luke 8:13 - Jesus teaches that some people receive the word with joy, but they have no root, believe for a while, and then fall away in temptation. They had the faith but they lost it.

Luke 12:42-46 - we can start out as a faithful and wise steward, then fall away and be assigned to a place with the unfaithful.

Luke 15:11-32 – in the parable of the prodigal son, we learn that we can be genuine sons of the Father, then leave home and die, then return and be described as "alive again."

John 6:70-71 - Jesus chose or elected twelve, yet one of them, Judas, fell. Not all those predestined to grace persevere to the end.

John 15:1-10 - we can be in Jesus (a branch on the vine), and then if we don't bear fruit, are cut off, wither up and die. Paul makes this absolutely clear in Rom. 11:20-23.

John 17:12 - we can be given to Jesus by the Father (predestined to grace) and yet not stay with Jesus, like Judas.

John 6:37 - those who continue to come to Jesus He won't cast out. But it's a continuous, ongoing action. We can leave Jesus and He will allow this because He respects our freewill.

John 6:39 - Jesus will not lose those the Father gives Him, but we can fall away, like Judas. God allows us not to persevere.

John 6:40 - everyone who sees the Son and believes means the person "continues" to believe. By continuing to believe, the person will persevere and will be raised up. Belief also includes obedience, which is more than an intellectual belief in God.

John 6:44 - Jesus says no one can come to me unless the Father "draws" him. This "drawing" is an ongoing process.

John 10:27-28 - when Jesus says, "no one shall snatch them out of my hands," He does not mean we can't leave His hands. We can choose to walk away from Him.

Rev. 2:4-5 – EXACTLY right!! Jesus tells the Ephesians that they abandoned the love they had at first and have fallen. Jesus warns them to repent and do the works they did at first, otherwise He will remove their lampstand (their awaited place in heaven).

Rev. 3:4 - in Sardis, Jesus explained that some people received the white garment and soiled it with sin.

Rev. 3:5 - Jesus says whoever conquers will not be blotted out of the book of life (see Exodus 32:33). This means that we can be blotted out of the book of life. We can have salvation, and then lose salvation by our choice.

Rev. 3:11 - Jesus says to hold fast to what we have, so that no one may seize our crown. Jesus teaches us that we can have the crown of salvation and lose it.

Rev. 13:10; 14:12 - we are called from heaven for the endurance and faith of the saints, keeping the commandments and faith.

Rev. 21:7 - we must conquer in order to share in our heritage and become a true son of Jesus.

Rev. 22:19 - we can have a share in the tree of life in God's holy city and yet have that share taken away from us.

Answer 9

It is impossible to lose salvation (1 John 5). You're twisting those verses to say something they're not.

Answer 10

Once we have accepted Christ, we cant lose our Salvation, but if we fall away from his teachings, we can lose the benefits they could have brought to our lives. In Ephesians, wasnt he talking to people that hadnt been saved yet?...and by the way, we ALL fall short, that is why Christ died for us.