Losing salvation? Why the Bible warns Christians
Those who believe Christians can lose their salvation have several proof-texts to support their claim, such as:
Hebrews 3:12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God …
Hebrews 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
2 Peter 2:1 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.
Galatians 5:4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
Each of those Scriptures is addressed in my piece arguing for the eternal security of Christians, which you can read here. But it can’t be disputed that these warnings against apostasy were written to churches populated by professing Christians. They’re addressed to brethren; to partakers of the Holy Spirit; to those bought by the Lord; to those who have received grace.
If a born-again Christian cannot be unborn, why bring up even the possibility of falling away?
It’s a complex topic, but there’s a simple answer:
They’ve been baptized.
The significance of baptism
That answer might elicit a shrug from many evangelical Christians today. That’s because baptism doesn’t mean nearly as much to us now as it did to Christians in New Testament times.
To the modern church, baptism is a sacrament that symbolizes our newfound faith. Many see it as just something Christians do. It’s a rite that is often scheduled, sometimes weeks in advance. Some churches have baptism candidates take a course on Christianity before bringing them into the water, to make sure they understand what they’re doing.
Baptism back then was nothing like that.
First, it usually took place ASAP upon conversion. This was the case many times in the book of Acts:
The thousands of new believers on Pentecost (2:38).
The Samaritans to whom Philip preached (8:12).
The Ethiopian eunuch (8:38).
Saul, as he regained his sight (9:18).
Cornelius and his household (10:48).
Lydia and her household (16:15).
The Philippian jailer and his household (16:33).
Crispus and the Corinthians (18:8).
No waiting. No courses. Just find the nearest water, and boom.
This was because in that culture, baptism often was their initial profession of faith; that’s why Peter instructed baptism as the response to his gospel call on Pentecost. It was a public expression of repentance. It was identification with Christ and His people. It was the convert’s initiation into the church.
Therefore, anyone who was baptized was considered a Christian, a member of the church. They fellowshipped with the saints. They partook of the Lord’s supper.
Regardless of whether they were actually regenerate.
This is not a criticism; I’m all for baptisms more closely following the Biblical practice. But here’s the point:
False converts
Since there was little or no vetting prior to baptism, many people undoubtedly went through with it even though, in their heart of hearts, they didn’t really believe. They were false Christians living among true Christians.
If such a thought is disconcerting, consider the multiple warnings of false converts throughout the New Testament:
Jesus’ foretelling of those who did great works in His name, even though He “never knew” them (Matthew 7:21-23).
Jesus’ parable of the soils, in which three of the four groups who received the seed of the gospel did not bear fruit. One of them even “receives it with joy” and surely would have been baptized.
That story is immediately followed in Matthew 13 by His parable of the wheat and the tares, in which true believers and false believers “grow together until the harvest.”
Among the baptized Samaritans in Acts 8 was Simon the sorcerer (verse 13), to whom Peter said, “your heart is not right in the sight of God” (verse 21).
Paul mentions several men who fell away from the church, such as Alexander and Hymenaeus (1 Timothy 1:19-20), and Demas (2 Timothy 4:10).
Paul warned the Ephesians of “savage wolves” and false teachers among them (Acts 20:29-30), and Jude exhorts his hearers to contend for the faith against men who “crept in unnoticed” (Jude 4).
The letters to the seven churches in Revelation spoke of false apostles (2:2), false doctrines (2:14-15), and those whom the Lord would spew out of His mouth (3:16).
1 John 2:19 says, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.” Those were people who were with them for a time but not of them.
The epistles of the New Testament that were written to entire churches were therefore certainly heard by a mix of true and false Christians — a reality that is no doubt the case for many churches today. But the writers addressed them all as if they were actual believers. Those who claimed faith in Christ — typically through baptism — were treated accordingly and held to that standard. That’s what they fall away from. The Lord held that claim against them if it was proven false. Those warnings were for the Simons of the church.
In no way does this threaten the eternal security of the true sheep, who were given by the Father to the Son and whom Jesus said He would never lose (John 6:37-40). But this should warn the church that there are those among us who will fall away from their religious façade, perhaps even deceiving themselves. Pray for them, as Peter did for Simon (Acts 8:22).
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