Salvation
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14. Were there in the past any believers who lost their salvation? Are
there nowadays any believers who have lost their salvation? |
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Yes, in
the past there were such believers and today as well there are such
believers. |
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The
following words, written by the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, confirm
this: “But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I
will not be pleased with him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are
destroyed …..” (Hebrews 10:38-39 – NIV). As you can see, at that time (first
century after Christ) there were some righteous men who drew back to
perdition. Therefore those righteous men lived by faith for a while, and not
till the end of their life. The same thing happens today: there are some
people who believe for a while and not till the end. |
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Some say
that the Scripture is not speaking of true believers, of people who were
really justified; but such a thing cannot be affirmed because shortly before
the Scripture speaks of the righteous one who lives by his faith. And by what
kind of faith can a person live, even if only for a while? Is it not the
faith received from God? Is it not the same faith we have received from God?
Of course, it is the same faith. |
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The
following words of Peter also confirm what I have just said: “But there were
also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers
among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the
Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction …. But these,
like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the
things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own
corruption ….. These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest,
for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” (2 Peter 2:1, 12,17 –
NKJV). Now, I ask you, ‘Why will they bring on themselves swift destruction?
Why will they utterly perish? Why is blackness of darkness reserved for them
forever?’ The reason is evident: because they are among those who draw back
to perdition. They believed for a while (therefore they were true believers
for a while), then they denied the Lord, for the Scripture says about them: “They
have forsaken the right way and gone astray …. After they have escaped the
pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome …. It would have been
better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known
it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them” (2 Peter |
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Notice
carefully that Peter says that they were on the right way, they had escaped
the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of Christ, they knew the
way of righteousness, they had received the holy commandment, but at a
certain point they went astray, and for them it is impossible to return to
the Lord. |
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Why cannot
such people return to the Lord? Because they have committed the sin unto death,
which consists in casting away wilfully the faith, of which it is impossible
to repent. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews says about them rightly:
“It is impossible …. to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify
again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame” (Hebrews 6:4,6
– NKJV). |