Part 2: Can Salvation Be Lost? GT 72

Other theological systems do accept that genuine believers can fall away though, but maintain that in so doing they forfeit their salvation and end up eternally lost in the Lake of Fire just like unbelievers. This study shows such a conclusion to be manifestly at variance with what both Jesus and Paul the apostle clearly taught on the subject. Beresford then takes each of theses conclusions and puts them alongside the clear teaching of the New Testament – that salvation is absolutely guaranteed, and that believers should have full assurance of salvation – and examines each in the light of it. The result clearly shows that not only does scripture clearly preclude any possibility that salvation can be lost, it also makes a mockery of the doctrine that genuine believers can’t fall away, doing so by demonstrating the simple fact that, given that no Christian can know whether or not they might fall away in the future, one can therefore never know whether one is a genuine believer or not, therefore having no basis for assurance of salvation whatsoever. Whether it is the Calvinistic theological system that teaches that genuine believers will never fall away, or the Arminian system that teaches that salvation can be lost, neither is in accord with the clear teaching of scripture that salvation is guaranteed and that believers should be fully assured of that fact. In other words, though the conclusion of each system is logical enough on its own terms, neither is what the Bible actually teaches. Whether it’s the doctrinal system that must logically conclude that salvation can’t be lost but that genuine Christians will never fall away, or the one that teaches that Christians can fall away but lose their salvation as a result, neither is consistent with the actual teaching of scripture itself, both gainsaying the clear biblical doctrine concerning the believer’s utter guarantee and full assurance of salvation.

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