This is going to be a hard post for many who wish to cling to the modern church's teachings on this matter. I'm probably going to step on a few toes and shatter a sacred cow or two, please bear with me and before the shouts of "Heresy!" arise listen to me thoroughly to understand just what I am saying, and what it means in the end. Because, as I hope you will see, in the end it is no more than an alternative stance to the age old argument of if we can loose our salvation.
See, I had a theory come to me a few months ago as I was reading my bible. I came across a passage, and this long after I couldn't think of it to save my life, but it hit me funny. It didn't read 'right', there where funny key words in it like "to come" and "will happen". A Future tense to a passage I'd previously associated present application. The thought came to me, 'What if we aren't saved - Yet?' Now, I'm not one to go off claiming this was Elohim speaking to me. That's way more authority than I am willing to give this claim, especially as a woman. But I could not shake this thought and so for the last long while I have been doing biblical study into it. Now that I feel I have something to stand on, and unable to disprove my claim, I felt it was now time to lay it out.
I do not believe anyone on this earth or in sheol is yet saved. Let the screams of terror commence.
More seriously, allow me to explain. We all agree that we must stand on judgement day. that unbelievers will be judged for their actions, their sins, and believers granted grace on account of the atonement of Yeshua. Absolutely, without a doubt. We are believers by trusting in out heart and professing with our mouth to follow Yeshua the Messiah, allowing our faith to create works; ultimately relying on Yahweh's grace through Yeshua's atonement for our sins. Romans 10:10, Acts 16:31, James 2:14-26, 1 John 2:2, John 3:16-36, Romans 8:1 and so on.
But how can we already be 'saved' if judgement has not yet come?
When we look at passages about salvation they actually end up talking in a future sense. Luke 12:8-9 says, Moreover, I tell you, whoever acknowledges me in the presence of others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge in the presence of God’s angels. 9 But whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before God’s angels. See the key words there? Will also acknowledge, Will be disowned. I don't think anyone would argue this passage is speaking of the future judgement. But a verse commonly used to make the claim that we already are saved is Acts 16:30-31, Then, leading them outside, he said, “Men, what must I do to be saved?” 31 They said, “Trust in the Lord Yeshua, and you will be saved — you and your household!” Saying that the moment we place our trust in Yeshua we are already saved, before we face trial at judgement. Why then would we face trial at all? Instead this verse also has those key words, You Will Be Saved. Not, you are saved. Acts 2:21 has the same key wording, And then, whoever calls on the name of Adonai will be saved. 1 Peter 1:8-9 drives this point home, Without having seen him, you love him. Without seeing him now, but trusting in him, you continue to be full of joy that is glorious beyond words. 9 And you are receiving what your trust is aiming at, namely, your deliverance. The TLV puts it another way, Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. And even though you don’t see Him now, you trust Him and are filled with a joy that is glorious beyond words, 9 receiving the outcome of your faith—the salvation of your souls. That it is the outcome of our faith that we receive the salvation of our souls. We could go through many, many more verses all leading to the same point, that salvation is a future event.
So how then can we get an argument about the loss of it? Until we face judgement the bible is clear that we do not have it! You can not lose what you do not possess. Indeed, rather than pitting two sides of scripture against each other we must apply scripture with scripture. Both sides, the assurance of salvation an the ability to fall away are both maintained in scripture. They must both be a reality. Instead we have proponents of these two sides arguing back and forth, creating division, dismissing scripture of the opponent in ridiculous fashions and showing poor hermaneutics. The whole argument has really become a mess. Instead, let us look objectively and find the fit in light of this new opponent to the discussion.
First we look at assurance of salvation, which I firmly believe all believers have the ability to do. As we saw in aforementioned verses, if we trust in Yeshua, proclaim him and obey him we Will be saved at judgement. Yahweh always keeps his word and with his repetition of this we can be secure in this. John 3:36 says, Whoever trusts in the Son has eternal life. But whoever disobeys the Son will not see that life but remains subject to God’s wrath. John 13:16 is of course a solid point for this. We know that Yahweh will keep his word!
We can not, however, fall into a false argument for this. Many will say that we can not be snatched from Yeshua's hands, and they're absolutely correct. John 10:28-29 says, and I give them eternal life. They will absolutely never be destroyed, and no one will snatch them from my hands. My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; and no one can snatch them from the Father’s hands. The problem comes in when people use this to say that once we believe we can not fall away, but that simply isn't what the verse is saying. When the verse starts out that "I give them eternal life" we then see that they are in Yeshua's hands. Not before this occurs. So this verse is saying is instead that once we have faced judgement and granted eternal life nothing can take it away from us. Security! The next most common trap people try to use for this argument is Romans 8:38-39, For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers, neither what exists nor what is coming, 39 neither powers above nor powers below, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which comes to us through the Messiah Yeshua, our Lord. The problem with that is that Yahweh loves all of his creations, whether we are believers or not, desiring that none of us should perish. So this statement is entirely accurate, his love does not stop for anything, but that has nothing to do with our salvation in this context.
Next we need to look at the side of the argument which would say we can loose our salvation. Hebrews 6:4-6 says, For when people have once been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, become sharers in the Ruach HaKodesh, 5 and tasted the goodness of God’s Word and the powers of the ‘olam haba — 6 and then have fallen away — it is impossible to renew them so that they turn from their sin, as long as for themselves they keep executing the Son of God on the stake all over again and keep holding him up to public contempt. Making it very clear that someone who has been a believer can fall away and be away so long as they remain unrepentant. Hebrews 10:26-27 says, For if we deliberately continue to sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but only the terrifying prospect of Judgment, of raging fire that will consume the enemies. So we can see that there 'no longer remains' the sacrifice for sins, showing that it indeed would have been there. Making the direct link again that you can indeed be a believer and fall away. Matthew 24:13 says, But whoever holds out till the end will be delivered. Why be told to hold on or persevere if it is impossible not to? It simply wouldn't make sense. Instead we are told this because to keep the faith is something we aught to activity do!
In order to reconcile the two halves then we must ask, can we loose what we do not yet have? Indeed not! As a believer we must persevere, keep the faith, and hold on until the end of our lives. It is indeed possible to fall away, loose the faith, and renounce Yeshua. All of us know of someone who we saw as a solid believer, producing good fruit, and fell away. I can not buy for a moment the weak claim that they 'never where saved', the bible says we will know by our fruit and their fruit was good for that time although it has turned bad. The only possible way to reconcile such passages is to understand that there is no salvation to be lost as salvation comes upon judgement. A believer may fall away, or they may stand firm - this isn't a loss of salvation.
Indeed ultimately it is all on Judgement Day. We look forward to being saved at judgement, to having Yeshua stand for us, but this has not happened yet so what is there to lose or keep? We have security in the words of our Elohim. We can ultimately see that it comes down to the Book of Life as to if Yeshua stands as our atonement. Luke 10:20 says, Nevertheless, don’t be glad that the spirits submit to you; be glad that your names have been recorded in heaven. And many passages in the Old and New Testaments show us reference to it, but Revelations holds the largest keys. 3:5 makes it clear Yeshua stands for those written in the book, He who wins the victory will, like them, be dressed in white clothing; and I will not blot his name out of the Book of Life; in fact, I will acknowledge him individually before my Father and before his angels. This also makes it very clear that a name can be written in, and removed from the book as well. Revelations 20:11-15 finishes with, Next I saw a great white throne and the One sitting on it. Earth and heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, both great and small, standing in front of the throne. Books were opened; and another book was opened, the Book of Life; and the dead were judged from what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 The sea gave up the dead in it; and Death and Sh’ol gave up the dead in them; and they were judged, each according to what he had done. 14 Then Death and Sh’ol were hurled into the lake of fire. This is the second death — the lake of fire. 15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the Book of Life was hurled into the lake of fire.
It is indeed integral to have our names in this book of life right now, as we do so we can be comforted and assured of our future salvation by Yeshua the Messiah. We can know we are in this book by believing in Yeshua, which includes repentance of sin and learning to obey him, and in proclaiming our faith. But this my no means ensures we will stay in that book unless we continue to hold this faith and persevere through everything believers are delt. It is not based upon a sin that we could fall away, but upon our belief, that we renounce Yeshua as Messiah. This is one reason it is so integral to study and be approved, to be able to stand firm in the Word of Yahweh, that we might not be shaken.
Take courage, my brothers and sisters in Yah, we are secure in the knowledge that Yahweh will keep his word. That through our Faith in his Son, the Messiah Yeshua, we will be saved upon Judgement Day and receive the treasures we have stored up.
