Can a Christian lose his/her salvation? This is a subject that has divided denominations for years and the present brief article is certainly not meant to settle the question once and for all. Discussions on this subject usually center around a number of phrases such as “lose one's heavenly reward,” “fall from grace,” “backslide,” “assurance of salvation,” “persistence of believers,” etc. Whatever one's belief, I think that there are two extreme views on this subject that must be firmly condemned when all the biblical evidence is taken into account.
At one end of the spectrum are those who teach what is usually called “cheap grace.” I once had a Sunday school teacher who was a good example of this doctrine. His stated belief was that a mere profession of faith was enough to guarantee a place in heaven no matter how one acted afterward or even if he openly renounced his faith later. Thus, he said that (1) he knew that Judas was in heaven today; (2) we should not be praying the Lord's Prayer with its request for God's forgiveness, since it was only for a previous dispensation; and (3) the NT teachings regarding confessing our sins to God simply meant admitting what we had done. Even if we were totally unrepentant, God was compelled to forgive us anyway.
At the other extreme are those found mainly in fundamentalist churches who, whether they realize it or not, are quite works-oriented and agonize over the uncertainty of their salvation. As an example, a dear relative of mine, now deceased, was the wife of a pastor and about the most godly woman I have ever known. But she once confessed to my wife that every night before going to bed she recited all the sins she felt that she had committed during the day (although they couldn't have been many). If she didn't remember every one of them and ask for God's specific forgiveness, her fear was that she might die during the night and would wake up in hell.
There is still plenty of room in the middle concerning this issue, but one must honestly grapple with all the pertinent biblical passages, some of which appear to be contradictory, if one wants to thoroughly settle the matter in one's mind. As just one example of the difficulty in interpreting some of these passages, consider the present text in II Peter from the point of view of those who dismiss the possibility of Christians ever losing their salvation. One note of definition to start with: apostasy is never a matter of mere backsliding, i.e., not fully living up to God's expectations for us or stagnating in our Christian walk. Apostasy is a deliberate and permanent turning one's back on God and renouncing Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf.
There are generally two approaches that “once saved, always saved” proponents take toward passages such as the one in question today that appear to teach the possibility of apostasy.
I. First Approach This is to state that the people being condemned were never really Christians. That may mean one of two things:
A. They never seriously considered the issue but just felt they were Christians since they lived in a “Christian nation;” their parents were Christians and perhaps took them to church; they were christened as an infant; and/or they knew they weren't Jewish, Hindu, or a Muslim, etc. In other words, they were nominal Christians in the true sense of the word, i.e., “in name only.”
Does that definition fit those being described in the II Peter passage, whether it refers to the false teachers or those being influenced by them? (Commentators are somewhat divided on this point, but the majority appear to feel it is the teachers themselves that are being condemned.) Verse 20 describes these people as having escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Verse 21 says that they knew the way of righteousness. It is therefore difficult to label these people as nominal believers. And it is even harder to see that this description could fit those in the parallel teachings in Hebrews 6 who had been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, shared in the Holy Spirit, and tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age. In the same vein, Hebrews 10 considers that such people had received the knowledge of the truth and been sanctified.
B. Another explanation of why such people were never really saved to begin with is to say that they were never saved in God's eyes. But that statement is just a truism. And it provides no assurance at all to those who are in every way sincere and godly Christians who treat Christ as their Lord and Savior only to be told that God in His infinite wisdom, which we will never be able to comprehend, may never have considered them to be one of His own.
II. Second Approach
Another way of explaining away some of these difficult passages is to say that such apostates will not lose their heavenly reward, only their rewards once in heaven. The first problem with this teaching is that the very existence of differential rewards in heaven is not clearly taught in the Bible, although there may be hints pointing in that direction. The bigger problem is to line up this teaching with what is actually said in the passages regarding the fate of the apostates.
The clear statement in II Peter 2:20-21 is that such people will be in a worse state than if they had never believed at all, and that it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness. Whatever such a final fate means (and almost identical language appears in Hebrews), it certainly can't be interpreted to say that it will be worse to live eternally in heaven without extra rewards than to be eternally damned.
This brings us to the proverbs in verse 22.
II Peter 2:22 For many people, the interpretation of this whole passage hinges on the two proverbs given here. Thus, the dog obviously never ceased being a dog, and the pig never stopped being a pig . So, the Bible Knowledge Commentary, for example, states that “these apostates...never were what they seemed to be and returned to what they had been all along.” However, it is a grave hermeneutical mistake to use a figurative passage, such as this verse, to interpret literal teachings on the same subject (found in verses 20-21).
The proverbs cited come from Proverbs 26:11 and the ancient History of Ahakar, respectively. Being proverbs, their meaning is strictly limited by factors such as the presence of figurative comparisons, their general (but not universal) applicability, and their extreme brevity. In addition, proverbs (as well as parables) are almost impossible to understand on their own, but are highly dependent on the context in which they are given. And there is the additional complication that, as anyone knows who has studied the NT authors' use of OT material, it is sometimes difficult to correlate the original context of a saying with that in which its later quotation is used. As an example, Proverbs 26:11 is one of several sayings dealing with those exhibiting foolish behavior in general, whereas Peter applies it specifically to those who have turned their back on God and the teachings of Christ, both in behavior and doctrine.
The ambiguity in interpreting these proverbs can be demonstrated by considering some possible alternative ways to look at them besides just stating that the two animals were still the same animals (and thus never saved to start with). When taken by themselves out of context, the proverbs are just as likely, or unlikely, to prove points other than this common “once saved, always saved” understanding:
The unclean pair dogs-pigs also appears in the two short proverbial proverbs found in Matthew 7:6 (“Cast not your pearls, etc.”). In that particular case, some commentators feel that since the two animals were sometimes used by Jews of that time to describe Gentiles, Jesus was teaching that they were unworthy to hear the Gospel message. If so, then II Peter 2:22 could also be teaching that Gentiles will never change even if they do appear to receive the message of salvation.
On the other hand, The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (p. 835) notes that the bathing of pigs may suggest baptism as the “converts' cleaning of past sins.” Thus, it references back to I Peter 3:21 and indicates that those who were once true believers are being referred to.
Although the pigs are still pigs and the dogs still dogs, that is not the main point of the proverbs. After all, believers are still human beings before and after conversion. In fact, all of us were once as disgusting and dirty as those animals before coming to Christ. But the filth of our sins was not only washed off by God just as the pigs were cleansed by an outside party, we also vomited out the sin that was poisoning us. Notice that these two images picture the passive and active components of salvation, respectively, as we submit ourselves to God's will. But if we then gladly lick up the sin that we had once rejected or return to wallowing in our sinful nature, at that point there is little hope of ever returning to the truth.
In conclusion, here are the comments of several evangelical commentators on this passage:
Beale and Carson (Commentary on the NT Use of the OT) state that v. 22 does not apply to those who have been false teachers from the start or to Christians who have been temporarily backsliding. Instead it refers to professors of the faith who have not persevered to the end. And therefore their fate is the same as utter apostates (those who out-and-out deny God and Jesus as Lord).
“...the passage indicates that the heretics had been orthodox Christians in the first place. The strict warning implicit in these verses is thus reminiscent of several passages in Hebrews.” (International Bible Commentary)
from 'the corruption of the world'...They were in every way righteous and orthodox...it is dangerous to imply that such people are headed to heaven (even if without 'rewards'), for it “They were once orthodox Christians who were 'cleansed from their past sins,' or 'washed.' They had come to know Jesus Christ, and this was a personal knowledge that released them cheapens the grace of God and implies to others that they too...can get in without truly submitting their lives to Christ.” (F. F. Bruce, Hard Sayings of the Bible)
“There can be little doubt that the false teachers had once been orthodox Christians...Like the man of Hebrews 10:26 they had apostatized.” “ Their punishment is that they will be given over to the lot they have chosen. The awfulness and irrevocability of hell lies just here; God underwrites a man's deliberate choice.” (Michael Green, 2 Peter and Jude)
5. “The issue here is loss of salvation once truly experienced.” (Harvey and Towner, 2 Peter & Jude)
6. “The knowledge of God's truth is of equal importance with experiential profession of the Lord, and finally pushes it into the background. Hence, conversion to the Christian faith can be described almost technically as coming to a knowledge (epignosis) of the truth [as in 2 Peter 2:21 and many other cited passages].” (New International Dictionary of NT Theology, 2, 405).
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