Salvation is a gift; but like any gift, it can be lost through negligence. If you were given a free car, but neglected it by leaving the doors unlocked then the thief would come along and steal your free gift. This is much like Satan coming along and stealing your free gift of Salvation. Peter illustrates this point in what we should do to make our calling and election sure.
2 Peter 1
[5] And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
[6] And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
[7] And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
[8] For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[9] But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
[10] Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
[11] For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Salvation is given at the point of a true born again experience. This precious gift then must be nurtured; failure to do so would be willful sin, and Salvation forfeited through negligence.
The only way salvation can be lost, is if we had to earn it, and didn't do a good enough job! That is a works gospel. We are not saved by our own works, nor do our works lose our salvation. And thank goodness! I can totally rely on Christ's death on the cross and taking my punishment. And proving the power of God by being raised from the dead. I could never rely on myself, until God called me, and gave me the Holy Spirit & saved me!
If you read a contemporary Bible, instead of a 400 year old one written in a language we no longer speak, I always find it is an invitation to misinterpretation and even heresy. Although there are a few people in this forum who use a KJV Bible, and there is nothing wrong with their theology! But you are not one of those people.
Before Christ saved me, the Bible says I was a dead person. Dead people don't make decisions. Especially not salvic decisions. Dead people are just dead! That is what Ephesians says!
"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this worldand of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient." Eph 2:1-2
"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus," Eph 2:4-5
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Eph 3:8-10
Notice when the works are mentioned! At the end. Works are things like doing good, helping the poor, seeking God, evangelism & so forth. But works are also the battle to not sin! But, as was quoted,
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9
Yes, we do sin. But, as saved people, if we are walking with Christ & obeying his word, God promises he will forgive us our sin and cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness!
I don't know about the OP, but as a saved person, saved by grace, I am also a new creature in Christ.
"So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away —look, what is new has come!" 2 Cor. 5:17
Do you think every time someone sins, even willfully, God kills them spiritually? Because that is what you are saying, if you can lose your salvation! I doubt God is constantly killing that new creation within us, erasing our names from the Lamb's Book of Life, and casting us out! Then re-saving us? Then, if we repent, he re-writes our names Lamb's book?
"Everyone that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I certainly will not cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of everything that He has given Me I will lose nothing, but will raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:37-40
God promises he will not cast us out! And we will be raised up on the last day!
"For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—" Eph 1:4-5
That's right, we were chosen before the creation/foundation of the world. He didn't just choose us, he predestined us!!
As for those who stop walking with Christ, and live in the world, revelling in sin and unrighteousness!! We're they really ever new creations? Did God really revive their spirit? John doesn't think so!
"They went out from us, but they were not
really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but
they went out, so that it would be evident that they all are not of us. 1 John 2:19
Those blatant sinners never really were saved! Maybe they just jumped on the bandwagon because it was popular, or a fad. Or maybe it sounded good, but they never really knew Christ, even though they tried to follow the rules. Maybe they were raised in the church, knew all the lingo, but didn't know Jesus!
Please take your fear mongering and false doctrines away from this forum. Now, I realize Arminians do believe in decisions regeneration. That's an accepted theological view in soteriology. But even an Arminian is responding to the gospel, and being drawn by the Holy Spirit. God is not going to lose one of his children, now or ever.
