Some theologians have made several objections to the concept that a believing Christian can lose salvation based on Scripture.  Below is a list of seven of these objections, with an explanation of why each one is false once the relevant scriptures are taken into context.

Objection 1:

Some Protestants might ask: What about Jesus promising that “all that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out” (Jn. 6:37). Doesn’t that secure our salvation?

Reply: Well, nothing in this verse establishes eternal security. It simply reveals that Jesus promised not to cast anyone who comes to Him, meaning anyone who believes and repents of their sin. Notice that the tense of the verbs in the verse doesn’t say that everyone the father gave me will always come to me.

This promise is not for those who don’t truly and continually believe. If they don’t believe, repent, and bear fruit, then they are not coming to Jesus, even if they were true believers at one point. They simply fell away. This verse means that we can be certain that Jesus will accept us any time we repent, not just once and for all, even if we remain in our sin after we believe in Him.

Objection 2:

What about the verse where Jesus said, “This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing but should raise it up on the last day.” (John 6:38-39)? Doesn’t that mean that we have eternal security?

Reply: Nothing in this verse refers to eternal security or the unconditionality of our salvation. It means that we can be certain of our salvation if we were given to Him by the Father, but only by remaining in Jesus, we can know that we were truly given to Him by the Father. Otherwise, how do we know if we are among the ones given to Jesus by the Father?

It is only through remaining in Jesus until the end of our lives. Also, the reference to the will of the Father means the will of desire does not decree. Jesus wanted Jerusalem to be gathered, but they didn’t want it out of their free will (Matthew 23:37).

Jesus also said in John 17:12 that Judas was given to Him, but Judas was lost. It is also God’s will that all be saved (1 Timothy 2:4), but that doesn’t mean it will happen. Wanting something doesn’t mean one will force it to happen.

Objection 3:

But Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand” (John 10:27–29). Doesn’t that mean that we can be certain of our salvation?

Reply: Yes, we can be certain of our salvation if we are among His sheep. Being a sheep means continuing to hear, know, and follow Jesus. Also, Jesus never says that He will never let the sheep stray. He promised that the devil can’t take us away from Him, but we can still freely leave Him. The sheep can stray, as indicated in the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 16).

Objection 4:

What about the verse in Hebrews stating: “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25)?

Reply: The verse doesn’t support eternal security. The promise here applies to “those who come to God through Him,” not those who abandon Him. The context of this verse is contrasting the priesthood of the Old Testament with Jesus’s redemption which is eternal, unlike the office of the Levitical high priest, who was replaced because of death. It means that the sacrifice of Jesus is sufficient for eternity to redeem any sin that we repent of.

Objection 5:

But we got the seal of the Holy Spirit and guaranteed inheritance, as St. Paul stated: “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” (Ephesians 1:13-14)

 Reply: The seal, like a deposit of faith, means that God is committed and able to save us if we remain in Him, not just unconditional inheritance. St. Paul clarified later in the same epistle that “no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” (Ephesians 5:5-6).

Regarding this verse, Irenaeus from the second century commented that “those who disobey Him, being disinherited by Him, have ceased to be His sons” (Against Heresies 4.41.3).

Objection 6:

Also, some may ask how we can understand that “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13).

Reply: Places where Scripture speaks of our ability to know that we are abiding in grace are important and must be taken seriously. But they do not promise that we will be protected from self-deception on this matter. In fact, the same verse instructs us to “continue to believe,” which is far from a single moment of truth that leads to eternal salvation.

In other words, if we continue to believe, we can know that we have eternal life in Jesus. This is a rule emphasised by St. John, as he wrote, “by this, we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” (1 John 2:3–4)

Objection 7:

Apostates (those who left the religion) were not true Christians in the first place. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us” (1 John 2:19).

Reply: If “true Christians” never fall away, then we can’t know if we are that kind of Christian until death. Merely trying to explain that someone wasn’t really a true believer in retrospect hardly supports eternal security. It still leaves every believer with the possibility of falling away at some point in the future and necessitates enduring until the end of our lives before we can claim that our salvation is secured. Otherwise, any Christian still falls and someone would simply explain that they weren’t really Christian!

Also, some apostates were false professors of the faith, but not all of them. Some were genuine believers with genuine faith but fell away due to temptation or persecution. As Jesus explained, “The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.” (Luke 8:13)

Conclusion

Many false doctrines can be supported by Biblical verses taken out of context, not in light of other relevant verses, and not referring to how early Christians, the disciples of the apostles, understood the Bible. As Saint Augustine said: “if you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.”

Therefore, we can claim that we are already saved by Christ’s redemption (Rom. 8:24, Eph. 2:5–8), but we’re also in the process of being saved (1 Cor. 1:18, 2 Cor. 2:15, Phil. 2:12), and that we have the hope to be saved (Rom. 5:9–10, 1 Cor. 3:12–15). Like the apostle Paul instructed, we are working out our salvation in fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12), with hopeful confidence in the promises of Christ (Rom. 5:2, 2 Tim. 2:11–13).