I do not know how you can have of a fear of losing salvation when you are loving and following Him.
I don't have fear of losing salvation now, I believe eternal safety which makes me believe and follow more effectively
. I had the fear of losing salvation as a new believer for years so I'll try to explain. The thing with believing salvation loss is that the person never really feels secure in Jesus nor can really lean on promises of God (because if I mess up then promises don't apply to me anymore), and always feels on thin ice with God. If one can lose salvation, then the premise is also that they are
in control of not losing said salvation (otherwise why warn them). Your relationship with God might have started on a better footing...
This post will be a little longer since I am answering about contradictions in the Scriptures you pointed.
It's hard to measure out the full message of God righteously, without turning "to the right or to the left".
I believe irrevocability of God's gifts as stated in the Scriptures, hand in hand with
non complacency.
I believe the message you guys are actually trying to get across is non complacency about God's things.
I think we can all agree that the person who has been born again, not complacent about things of God, changed by God so that it is impossible for them to go back to the old vomit life anymore, has everlasting security with God.
I would think from what you said up there, that we agree!
Here's another interesting Scripture:
Jude 1:21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for
the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
22 And of some have compassion, making a difference:
23 And others save with fear, pulling
them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
This tells us that there are 3 different groups of people, both believers AND unbelievers, who respond to different things to bring/keep them closer to God, and also calls us to apply some discerning. First group responded to message of God's mercy, another group to Christians being loving to them, and the third group responds to fear. Some people do need to be "shaken up" a little. I take it from this that we must be led by the Holy Spirit in how to best help every individual person. I'd take it also by the order given that mercy goes first, with compassion, but if they are unresponsive to lovingkindness... do what you must!
Sometimes a sharp rebuke is what is needed, I just hate when some people step out on their own self righteousness, it's very ugly looking and does not further the Kingdom of God. We're supposed to be moved by the Spirit of God, not our egos.
I looked at the problematic Scriptures you listed. "God's people" may not actually be synonymous to "the elect" on every instance, which may cause confusion. Take per example:
Genesis 17:14 "...
that soul shall be cut off from his people;"
This very phrase. It's obviously shown here that "His people" are
not the same as "the elect" because the elect do not lose salvation, being foreknown, as in Jer 1:5. The parable of Jesus where He explains in the end "many are called, but few are chosen" confirms that the elect/chosen do not lose salvation.
In support of it, in other parables of Jesus, such as parable of the faithful servant, unbelievers are lumped together into a single group with the believers and Jesus is called their "Master". (The assembly of believers is not treated as separate group in their midst). Then they are separated, the righteous from the wicked, and rewarded accordingly.
So in some cases "His people" might mean "all the servants in the house"/"many who are called" basically, of whom some get cut off, while in some contexts it means only the faithful servants, or the "elect/chosen". This would clarify a lot of contradiction.
This one also makes me ponder:
Romans 11:2 "God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew."
Comma is inserted into text in some translations after "people" because translators
assume the meaning and add to it. Ancient Greek did not have punctuation. KJV keeps it without comma, as I quoted.
The verse suggests here that there are some of His people who are not foreknown... those that he foreknew He did not cast away. In other words God casts away some of His people... The unforeknown ones. (please bear with me)
This seems a bit mind boggling, but in the light of
Jeremiah 1:5, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, God knew Jeremiah in advance, because Jeremiah
has eternal life. Which means Jeremiah was communing in unity of being with God before his birth, and also after his death. This verse tells us Jeremiah was
with God since the beginning of time alongside all the saints, because eternal life is sharing in God's oneness of eternal being. It's easy to understand then how the unforeknown are really not foreknown. They were never the part of God's being.
I was then researching all occurrences of "elect" in the Bible, to see if any of them openly state that it's possible to lose salvation because I really want to get to the depth of this. I will bring only those that might be taken as such:
Mark 13:22 For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.
I would take this warning as "elect are not immune to deception: watch". The Holy Spirit will convict the elect when they sin, but we need to do our best to not grieve the Spirit. Gospel of John makes it clear that we all sin at times. Loss of salvation is nowhere claimed.
2 Peter 1:10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
Not salvation loss, but rather non complacency. You keep in non complacency towards God, that's how you make sure (know) you
are the elect. God doesn't half-elect. Peter is calling for diligence but also saying that if you keep going in diligence, you made sure that you shall never fall (thus "if you do this", you "shall
never fall" - that's actually eternal security)... Those who are not diligent in their faith are called to
question their election and make sure they are
among the numbers of the elect (rather than election itself being revoked, hope I'm making sense here)...
It's basically what you say here:
"I do not know how you can have of a fear of losing salvation when you are loving and following Him."
This is eternal security, my friend, in the most perfect way, and is how it should be taught... simplicity of the Gospel, like a little child. We all get lost in "doctrines" sometimes but it's clear to anyone with common sense that God did not save us to abandon us if we stumble on the way nor is He going to forever endure a corrupt person who doesn't really want Him.
I think "OSAS" is a bit of misnomer. That's half the reason why people fight.