Are we "once saved, always saved" or can we "lose" our Salvation?

Here's a hot topic for you!  Churches battle this question hard.  It divides brothers and sisters in Christ.  It causes arguments and disgruntled feelings.  Honestly, I'm writing this post because I am sick of this argument.  I think it is a way for the devil to divide the Church (the real Church, not denominational churches).  If he can get us bickering and arguing, who would want to be a Christian anyway?!

It is my goal in this post to present both sides of the debate, and to show you, that in the end, it really is not as big of an issue as we make it out to be.  I want to say upfront that your opinions are welcome (even those different from mine), but this is not the place to argue to belittle your fellow brothers or sisters in Christ who hold a different view than yours.  We are to love one another, and to work to winning souls to Christ, DESPITE our differences in interpretation of Scripture.  If we're not doing that, what does it matter who is right?  No one is getting saved anyways because we are not focused on lost souls...we are focused on being "right."  May our hearts be set upon pleasing God and not winning a debate.

Okay, here we go....



Eternal Security

1. First of all, I often hear many Scriptures of the saved having eternal or everlasting life.  I am not going to list all of these verses (for this blog would never end).  The point of using these Scriptures is to show that once you are saved, you are granted everlasting life.  If you are saved and have everlasting life, how could you ever go to Hell?  That would be the first argument.  Scriptures often include those like the following:
   John 5:24- "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."
2. The next argument in favor of eternal security is one I hear often.  John 10:28 & 29-"And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. "  Often it is considered as proof of eternal security. No man can take you out of the Hand of God once you are in it.
3. John 6:51- "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."  Therefore, this is interpreted to believe that if you are genuinely saved and eat of Christ's bread, you shall live forever.  Therefore, how could you die and be sent to Hell?
4. Ephesians 2:8-9  "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  Not of works, lest any man should boast."  Therefore, it is believed in the stance for eternal security that you have been given this gift, not because you deserve it, but because of grace.  Therefore, there is no sin that will make you "undeserving" of Salvation, because you didn't deserve it in the first place.  It's all about grace!

For further clarification on the stance of eternal security, I think Dr. Charles Stanley presents his argument very well.  You can watch his 5 minute YouTube video here.
*Update 5-13-14*  I also found another video that you might like on this topic as well:

Misconceptions about Eternal Security:  Those people and churches that preach "one saved always saved" believe you can get saved and just live the life you want and still go to Heaven.

Answer:  This is just false.  Don't get me wrong, I think many people who attend these churches believe this.  That is why they attend these churches.  It makes them feel good.  They can still be "religious" and "good" and have a way into Heaven.  However, any real leader of the church will tell you, if you are genuinely saved, you will not have a heart to sin.  You will not have that attitude.  If you are saved, you will sin, and make mistakes, but a Child of God who has the Holy Spirit dwelling within them, will have great guilt and remorse.  They can't live in their sin for the burden is too great.  If you do not have this guilt or pressing of the Holy Spirit, they would question your Salvation.

"Conditional Security"

Now I am going to talk about those who don't hold the same views as those who believe that above.  This argument is a little more difficult to lay out because it is more diverse.  While the above view is held mostly by Baptists, this argument is held by many different denominations.  Therefore, their views and reasoning is slightly different than even each other.  I have met some who believe that if you sin and are not repentant and die, you will not enter Heaven.  I have met others who believe that if you backslide and don't turn your life around, and die, you will not enter Heaven.  I have also met those who simply believe it would take a total giving back of God's gift in order to go to Hell.
I cannot lay out each individual's view of this.  I will, however, take the most popular view: "If a person is genuinely saved and enters into a life of "living in sin" and "backslides," they will be departed from God into the lake of fire." 
That is the stance that will be taken for this argument (although I know some of you may hold different views), but for the sake of time, that's what I'm going with here. 

1. Galatians 5:4- "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace."  This verse is often used to state that there can be a "falling" from grace.
2. Mark 4:16- "And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness;"  and Luke 8:13- "They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away."  This is interpreted as those who believe upon the Word of God, but in time fall away through temptation and not being properly rooted.
3. I would say one of the most common and strongest arguments against eternal security are these verses in Hebrews 6:4-6: "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
    If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."  This is believed to show that you can saved, but if you "shall fall away" it is though Christ would have to die upon the cross again in order to enter Heaven.
4. Revelatoin 2:4-5 says, "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.  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."  This is believed to be able to love God, but to fall from Him.  Then it shows that if you do such, He will "remove thy candlestick" unless you repent.
5. I have found a video that you can view from a holiness preacher's perfective here.  If any of you have a more updated video, I'd appreciate it!  This preacher uses other verses in addition to those above, like Revelation 22:18-19. 

Misconceptions about "Conditional" Security- You can "lose" your Salvation.  I hear this often.  Maybe they are out there, but I actually have not met anyone who believes you can "lose" your Salvation.  It almost sounds like you can "lose" your car keys...."Now what did I do with that Salvation" today.  I think a better statement would be that believers of this doctrine say that you can "give up" your Salvation.  In other words, Salvation is eternal on God's end, but since it is a gift, you can choose to keep or not.  You can choose to stay in the Hand of God or to get out of it on your own.  Your choice doesn't end once you accept Christ as your Savior.

And the Winner is...

Okay.  So who is right?  I tried to present both arguments clearly, and unbiased so that you can see the Scriptures, pray and seek God's guidance on this issue.  It is not my goal in this blog post to have you believe one way or another.  If you believe what I tell you, then you're not seeking God on the issue. 
The point in this post is to show you that we shouldn't be arguing over this "petty" stuff.  Petty?  Did I just say that?  I have been to churches that preach both doctrines...you go to one church and they accuse the other church of "losing" your Salvation...as though God's grace isn't enough and you can misplace it...That's a terrible accusation to make against your brother's and sister's in Christ to whom you simply 'disagree' with.  In the same manner, I have been to churches that say that "other" churches believe you can go and get saved and then live however you want.  This is just false!  They believe if you're really saved, you wouldn't have that attitude!  My point is for us to stop bickering.

Here's my take on this issue.  Now, I cannot know someone's heart.  But for the sake of arguments and "what ifs" let's say that there was an 8 year old boy named Joe.  Now Joe went to church camp and got saved.  Not one of those, "I'll go up there because everyone else is," but one who was genuinely saved.  Through life after his Salvation, he experienced many hardships.  For the next 10 years, Joe's mother and father died in a horrific car accident.  His siblings were all burned to death in a house fire.  He, himself, just found out he has a terminal cancer.  He is only 18 and is bankrupt.  These tragedies in Joe's life have caused him to greatly question God's goodness.  But when his fiancé left him for another man, he became angry with God.  He decided that if this was how God treated His "children,"  He didn't want to be a child of God anymore.  In turn, he asks God to take back the gift of Salvation.

How is this possible?  How could a true believer do this?  I can't understand it!  It's like going to Heaven and asking God to be transferred to Hell.  How could someone who was truly saved turn from God?  Well, your Baptists and such will probably say he was never saved to begin with and your Pentecostals and such will probably say he backslid.  Either way, they both agree that Joe is headed for Hell.  So my point is, why does it matter how he got there so much?  Shouldn't we be focused on his Salvation NOW?  I mean isn't this the devil getting us to focus on whether a person is saved or not to take our focus off of the true issue?  His Salvation now?!

If you are saved and living for God, what does it matter?  Both sides would agree you are Heaven bound!  Those who preach eternal security need to be careful to remind those that if you are genuinely saved,  you will not go live like the world.  God will know their heart and if they are "really saved" or not....remember, Salvation is not just confession, but repentance.  For those who believe otherwise, you need to remind those you are witnessing to that God's grace is sufficient.  Those who don't believe in eternal security, I find, are usually the ones who question if they are really saved.  Like they can sin and God won't love them anymore.  Be certain to show that God's grace is good enough to cover our unrighteousness.

My belief?  I guess I believe a little of both.  Always have.  I could always attend either type of church...it was more about the church than this issue.  For me, I cannot fathom how someone who is genuinely saved can turn from God's goodness.  But through Scripture, I believe that they can.  However, I don't believe that is what sends you to Hell.  I think for a believer to go to Hell, he would have to "give up" his salvation, which, in my opinion, would be committing the Unpardonable Sin.  To consistently reject the gift of the Holy Ghost's promptings would be blasphemy.  Otherwise, I don't believe that there is a sin that will send you to Hell as a Christian.  Certainly, it is worse to live in sin than to commit it once.  However, most Christians I know struggle with gossiping, pridefulness, or gluttony...they may not be out partying every weekend, but they, too, are living in sin.  I don't believe anyone would make it to Heaven if those were the standards.

But here's the deal.  I'm not the smartest person in the world, but I know that I am smart enough to know that I don't know it all.  I could be wrong!  It wouldn't be the first time!  My point is, I want to live a life to where this issue doesn't matter!  I know I am saved and am trying to "daily" take up my cross and follow Him.  Therefore, both sides would agree that I am Heaven bound!  I don't want the devil using me to fight and argue with my brothers and sisters in Christ and, furthermore, being a stumbling block to someone else's Salvation!  We each have to work out our own Salvation.

It is my hope that through this post, I provided you with arguments with both sides that you can take to your daily time with God, open your Bible, and seek the Spirit on this issue.  I can't tell you what to believe.  I hope that you will not try and find the more convincing argument here...but to seek God's truth.  Remember, we will answer to Him one day for how we lived our lives.  Wouldn't it be better to seek God on an issue and be wrong, than to never even seek Him at all?!

So my challenge to you is, let's not argue about it!  Let's focus on Salvation and living daily to please Him.  At the end of the day, I don't save people.  I don't even convict people.  That's not my job...it's His :)  My job is to focus on my life and to make sure I am following Scriptures based upon the promptings of the Spirit.  I want others to see my light and desire to have what I have.  I want to talk with people about Salvation and growing closer to God; not trying to convince them to believe like me (for then they're not studying the Scripture themselves).

So, I encourage your comments, but let's not focus on this issue.  Let's focus on Salvation and winning souls to Christ.  Let's let God work out their hearts on these issues that really do not affect us personally.  He is the one who makes us new again and changes stubborn hearts like mine.  We shouldn't even try to do the work that is His in the first place!!!