Can we lose our salvation?

[Steven C. Owensby]

As an individual that once believed that I could indeed lose my salvation, and then was shown by The Holy Spirit that I could not; I have no qualms about discussing this issue. I know that it brought about a sense of peace in my heart once I received what I did of Gos; and if I can help others find that same peace, then I would glady exhaust this subject with them.

[Steven C. Owensby]

The following is a copied version of a discussion on this very same matter that another guy and I was having. I told him that I would copy it and place it here so that we could carry on the conversation here, in a more approprite forum/platform:
Haha...I can't really come to terms with what you are saying shoot. I'm not saying you are ignorant but from your tone and using the whole "Your flesh/man reasoning is rising up here" is a bit childish. I'm not attacking the messenger here...I just think it's polarizing gibberish.

I hope that you see in my tone that I'm very pro-God saving, delivering, enduring us, teaching us, and in actuality showing us that it is a very difficult thing to be disqualified from God's grace.

It's just the circular reasoning that gets me to throw up my hands. The whole, "If you are saved you will show that you are saved and if you say you're saved but you don't show that you are saved then you were never really saved."

The reason I say that it's not my job to sort out who is saved or not saved comes from Scripture, "So don't make judgments about anyone ahead of time-before the Lord returns. For he will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives. Then God will give to each one whatever praise is due. . . it isn't my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. (I Cor 3-5...go ahead and read it)

What am I saying? I can't say definitely who is "saved and not-saved when they claim Christ". What can I judge? Well, if there is sin we talk about it...we deal with it.

However, I do believe there comes a time (and not one for me to judge) when the saved return back to a works based assumption of the Gospel (if I'm messing up I'll just do better) and therefore throw grace to the side (disqualification). . .

Hebrews 6 is a good read on this but is one of the more difficult scriptures to grasp:

4. For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened - those who have experienced the good things of heaven and SHARED in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come and who then turn away from God. It is IMPOSSIBLE to BRING such people BACK to repentance (showing that there has been that intellectual assent for repentence): by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame./

Then there's a parable about grounds soaking up rain (that the positional sanctification has happened) but one grows fruit and the other thistles. The thistles are thrown out and burned.

In light of that scripture I believe (a belief is an assumption on a truth claim that it is deemed to be true. So no man speak here...only an enlightened conclusion) any "Once saved always saved" rhetoric is moot.

* I guess I should qualify that I'm neither Calvinist nor Armenian. I actually lean more Calvinistic in my approach. Except for Limited Atonement and Perseverance and Irresistable Grace. I'm pretty comfortable with Depravity of man, though not total depravity. And I'm ok with Election, just not unconditionally. Even with all of your examples that God has used throughout history I'm not seeing the "They could have rejected their calling and God would have still saved them." In fact, what I see is that MANY men fell in the wilderness because they rejected God even though he was in their midst. I feel you're romanticizing the examples we have where they repented to bolster the "He never let them go".

Where I see human responsibility to follow through you are seeing God's sovereignty MAKE them do it or ENDURE them to do it. Correct me if I'm wrong (and please not with red fill ins)."