This Wednesday evening, Pastor Joe addresses the question of an end time apostasy or revival. He also examines the question of “can a believer fall away” and looks at scriptures in Hebrews.
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I love your messages and your ministry. I am a huge fan! 🙂 However, I am concerned about your teaching regarding Christians losing their salvation. How is this not a slippery slope that promotes salvation by works? In other words, if salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, how can we then teach that there are things we have to do to keep our salvation? For example, what if a Christian attends a wedding and at the reception has too much wine and becomes drunk? This isn’t something they do habitually, but are they then considered a “drunkard” and are out of the kingdom? We all sin everyday! What is the standard? How can a Christian have any peace? Here are two good articles to consider: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/can-christian-lose-their-salvation and https://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/don_stewart/don_stewart_525.cfm. Thanks so much. PS I am not a Calvinist 🙂
Hi Suzy, thank you for writing in. Perhaps you misunderstand our position on this topic. We do not believe one can “lose” their salvation, however we do believe (and scripture clearly teaches) that one can walk away from the faith. We absolutely believe that salvation is only by grace alone through faith alone, however scripture clearly teaches that salvation is conditional upon faith and abiding in Jesus. Some scriptures which teach this are John 15:6 (abide in Christ or be cut off), Hebrews 3:12 (an unbelieving heart that falls away), Hebrews 3:14 (be faithful to the end, don’t shrink back), Hebrews 10:26-31 (a strong warning of not continuing in sin), 2 Peter 2:20-22 (a believer again entangled in the world is in a worse state than before), 2 Peter 3:17 (a believer can “fall” from their secure position), 1 Timothy 1:19 (shipwrecking your faith), Colossians 1:22-23 (continue in the faith), Romans 11:20-22 (God did not spare the natural branches, He won’t spare us if do not continue in the faith), just to name a few. We hope that helps. God bless.