Expert: John Fields - 10/2/2011

Question
Thanks for your time,  my question is can a christian go to hell? Can one loose their salvation?

Answer
Josh, that's a good question. MANY believe that Christians CAN'T lose their salvation, including John Calvin. For a thorough review of what he says about it any number of places on the Internet will give you an in-depth overview of his teaching.

That said, I disagree with Mr Calvin and his adherents since there is far more to show that a person can fall from grace than can be taken out of context to support such a view.

I could literally name dozens of scriptures to show that one can fall from grace. However, I'll just name a few with some brief observations from each.

Romans 11:17-21 (17) If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18 do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” 20 Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

The root, Jesus Christ (Romans 15:12), is where the life of the branches are found. If you are attached to the vine it means that you have been saved. Paul talks here of being both broken off from the vine and grafted back in. What can this mean except that a person can be cut off from the eternal life they’d been given and have it restored once again?

Galatians 5:4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.

Paul is addressing CHRISTIANS here; people who are being told the lie that they must follow law to be saved by a group of Christian Jews who cannot accept grace alone but are trying to add the keeping of law as a requirement to being saved. Paul has the strongest possible warning for them. If you add law-keeping as a requirement to salvation you are SEVERED from Christ and have FALLEN from grace. How could you be severed from something you’d never been joined to? How can you fall from a height you have never attained?

Hebrews 10:38 But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.” 39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.

The writer of Hebrews put forward the hypothetical that one who was saved could cease to be. Who is the righteous one who will live by faith? It is the Christian. Was the writer of Hebrews a Christian? I know of nobody who has put forward the absurdity that he was not. The CHRISTIAN writer of Hebrews, a SAVED man, said that if WE (thus he included himself in the hypothetical) shrink back (leave Christ and our faith in Him) we would be destroyed. Thus shrinking back would cause one to not be saved anymore.

Revelation 3:5 He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.

Whose name is written in the book of life? Is it the saved or the lost that are written there? It is the saved. Why would Jesus speak of erasing someone’s name from the Book of Life if it was impossible and could not be done?

There are, as stated before, many, many references that show what the few scriptures listed above show.

That having been said, how can we KNOW that we are saved? IF we have begun believing in God, have started repenting, begun our ongoing confession of Jesus as the Christ as the Son of God who is both Lord and Savior of those He protects, and have actively come to God by faith in passively receiving baptism as God has commanded we will be saved.

From that point when God has saved us, we continue pursuing His will and agenda in love and gratitude for what He has done for us. As long as we are pursuing Him in love we will continually remain justified. As our faith continually expresses itself as love God will constantly count us as saved.

Is it once saved always saved? No it's not. It's always faithful always saved, YES, DEFINITELY!