Can a once truly saved believer backslide too much and lose the gift of salvation? If so do they need to repent and ask for forgiveness through Christ again? Thoughts are welcome and scripture too!
I'm still waiting for someone to create a graph that clearly differentiates between saved and unsaved by showing a line of distinction between saved and unsaved (or loss of salvation dare one dip below the line). All kinds of preachers out there talk about losing one's salvation, but none of them ever show where that line is. The only definitive answers I have ever heard any of them attempt to establish is habitual sin, which we ALL do on a daily basis, so that descriptor fails to show anything with it being so vague.
Others make mention of some other extremes, such as robbing a bank or torturing babies, or burning down high rise buildings full of people or sleeping with the wife of another man. Some point to 1 Corinthians 6, claiming that doing THOSE things will blot out one's salvation, even though the concept of salvation isn't even mentioned, with most laying claim that inheritance is akin to entering into, the case for which I have yet to see made with a solid foundation of evidence. I mean, think about it: Salvation is a gift the scriptures nowhere state as being taken back. Inheritance of reward and stuff, that can be removed from promise to a descendant, and yet that descendant cannot be disowned as a family member. It doesn't cut off that descendant from being the offspring of the parent, for example. So, I'm still waiting for that case to be made without the usual warps and twists of language, key words, or just outright adding something that's not in the context.
Those who refuse a literal interpretation of scripture as a rule of thumb, therefore, always jump to the allegorical, that way they can try to make scripture say whatever they want, or they will stick to the perceived rules for allegory by claiming that they're allegedly allowing scripture to define scripture when they draw parallels to other contexts that simply don't align...again manipulating their interpretation into alignment with personal bias and personally constructed interpretational criteria.
Bottom line, loss of salvation is nothing more than works-based salvation, which is very much what defines Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses theology, et al. The loss of salvation gang routinely attempt defending their system of belief by examples of violation within the lives of allegedly "saved" people who do unimaginable things that then negate their salvation...as if hypotheticals prove anything. This practice of denial for the power of sanctification effected by Holy Spirit in the lives of the truly saved, the flawed argumentation of the loss of salvation gang gives me great pause for them to try positing such erroneous argumentation for alleged loss of salvation. Again, they have no solid line of definition for such a phenomenon so that we can then see what's actually differentiable within their muddled thinking. Repetition, voluminous yelling and allegory seems to be their only defense for a doctrine I can't find in scripture in relation to all who are saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves lest any man should boast.
Bottom line, the loss of salvation gang tend to be boasters for not having lost their salvation...even though some have actually claimed to have lost theirs in the past. How they know they had lost it always ends up being a matter of feeling (in other words, a deep-seated, emotional conviction for loss leading to the feeling of guilt) more than anything else. Folks, conscience and feelings are not basis indicators for loss of salvation. This line of thinking still falls within the realm of works-based salvation, period. By abstaining from those more grievous sins, and therefore allegedly avoiding the loss of salvation, that is purely works-based salvation, which inevitably leads to the fact that they must also lay claim to have earned it through their works. Those go hand-in-hand by way of a clasp that cannot exist apart from one another.
"Why should I let YOU into Heaven?"
"Oh, well, I stated my belief in you and was water baptized, AND I abstained from those more grievous sins that would otherwise negate my salvation."
"So, you dare come before me and boast...GET LOST!"
See the problem here?
MM