I have been thinking about the notion of can a Christian loose their salvation a lot lately.
The only verse that I can find to the contrary is "I shall loose none of who the father has given me. No one can snatch them out of my hand."
But is this verse just referring to Satan? Does it just mean Satan and no other human can snatch us out of God's hand? Like the verses that nothing can separate us from the love of God?
But can we choose to walk away ourselves? Like the prodigal son? Or the parable of the seeds where the plants sprang up for a time but then died?
When I was at Biola I found that most people there believed in Calvinism, meaning God destines some for heaven and others for hell arbitrarily. I disagree with this view and I firmly believe that every single person has a choice at some point in their lives to choose or reject God, because otherwise then how can God be just in sending some to hell?
Someone raised a good point about this though. They said, "But if we choose God of our own will doesn't that mean that we can un-choose God of our own will?" And yes it does. We choose to put our faith in God and at some point many choose to not have faith in God and Jesus anymore. An example may be a person may go from believing Jesus is the only way to heaven, and then decide to believe that all roads lead to God. Someone cannot be saved and believe that all roads lead to God.
This is what the Bible refers to as "falling from grace" or the warning that in the last days "many will fall away." What else can that mean except that they were saved and then were not, of their own will and decision?
I cannot think of another explanation for certain people that I have seen walk away from God and the church. They once seemed quite saved and then they didn't.
We've all known people like this. It is a mystery to be sure. But I think, yes, people can loose their salvation. But it's not God's fault, so no one can get mad at God for it, it's their own fault. They chose to not remain in the vine etc. They chose to walk away. They chose to change their beliefs. They chose to love the world more than God, perhaps.
God is still loving. He still loves them, because God loves all people. But some people chose to love God back and some choose to not. We have a free will.
The Bible is full of cause and effect. God responds based on what we as humans do.
Adam and Eve sinned and ate the forbidden fruit, so God kicked them out of the garden. Cain chose to kill his brother, so God cursed him. Sarah laughed when God said she would become pregnant, so God made her mute for a time. Pharaoh hardened his heart, so God hardened his heart even more. The Israelites complained in the wilderness, so God did not let any of that generation enter the promise land.
The Jews rejected God time and again and worshipped idols, so God had them sent into exile with the Babylonians. The Jew constantly rejected God's prophets, so he cut part of the Jews off from the promise and grafted in us Gentiles. I'm sure I could think of hundreds more. :)
On the flip side when people were obedient to God they were rewarded. Abraham was willing to offer his son Isaac on the alter, so God "credited it to him as righteousness." Joseph was faithful to God and patient even though he had to stay in prison for about 13 years, and God made him ruler over Egypt.
What we do as humans does affect what God does. We put our faith in Jesus and believe that he is the only way and our name gets written into the book of life. Likewise, we may at some point in our walk, sadly, choose to no longer put our faith in Jesus, and God blots out our name from the book of life.
It's not a convenient or happy belief by any means, but I think it is the truth and how God functions with us.
May God increase our wisdom about this and may we have eyes to see the truth. Amen. :)
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