Is there ever impossibility of salvation? (Long post)

[megusta]

Hello, new here. Made this thread just for this.

In summary im legitimately terrified that there may be no hope of salvation for me due to professing faith, then falling away for years into horrible sin and now repenting and giving my life to God only to think that scripture may say that its hopeless... (My story of the application of Hebrews 6:4 & 10:26)

I grew up in a Christian family and always went to church, but to be honest was never really excited about it. Mostly went because of my parents. However, I always knew the truth about God and what Jesus did for us. Guess i was sort of indifferent but still lightly considered myself a christian I guess. When I moved out at 20 I may have only went to church every few weeks or so when my parents asked. Instead I was usually hungover or something stupid. I always knew what was right but just cared too much about my own desires, but still when anyone would speak of being atheist or God not being real I would always disagree because I still believed in God. Blah blah, living my early 20s partying and sleeping around with a couple girlfriends. Still go to church now and then but wouldnt think much of it. Occasionally a message would speak to me but I wouldnt think much of it after service.

I remember one time around 22 or so I was camping alone and was thinking a lot to myself, thinking about God, got pretty emotional about my life and asked the Lord to come into my heart and forgive me of my sins. From what I recall I was genuine, but then I never really applied it to my life as my life just continued in the same sin as usual. Same life as said earlier, rinse and repeat. I would very seldom pray, and don't even ask about reading my bible because that was such a rare occurrence and if I did i would read maybe a chapter and just look forward to finishing the chapter so I could close it. I still believed in God and salvation though. I would sometimes say that I was a Christian but "not a good example of one".

Around 24 I really fell hard into unrepentant sin. Hard drinking, smoking weed and psychedelic drugs, my language was vile, always angry, and though I had always been sexually immoral with girlfriends and inappropriate contentography, now I was paying for sex with escorts on multiple occasions. At this point I still knew that my behavior was wrong, but I would think of it less and less as "just having fun, I can turn my life around (and even get saved) later". This practically became my life for the last year and a half.

I recently moved out of state on my own (another long story) and before leaving home my dad asked if I was going to bring my bible, which I wasnt planning on it but said sure, and I did. I continued this lifestyle after moving. However, I did decide to find a local church to go to. I went to a few services about every other sunday while still living in filthy sin. I made another confession of faith but continued to live in sin. Skip to one day a few weeks ago I was sitting in my apartment getting high and watching TV like usual, when I honestly felt like I heard the Lord say to me, out of nowhere "Nomegusta, if you love Me, youll read my word" or to that extent. I immediately opened my bible to Hebrews (Randomly) and started reading. Then I got to Hebrews 6:4-6 and 10:26 and felt my soul practically fall to a void of dread. I felt like this was me. I had heard the word, I had made a profession of faith, and had continued to live in unrepentant sin because I always thought I could change later because I was just having fun. Never before had I realized the severity of the things I was doing. "Crucify again the Son of God" I practically had an emotional breakdown and begged God to forgive me of my sins, to take it all away and wash me clean, and I was terrified but honest. I went to bed shaking that night. Since then I have honestly been serious about my commitment to God. I have honestly asked God to save me and live in me daily. I go to church several times a week and ask God every day to give me the strength I need to overcome the world. I have been reading scripture daily not because I feel like I have to, but because I have a genuine desire for God. At first I was terrified, but now I genuinely Love God and Christ and want nothing but Christ in my heart. I honestly feel like a new person. I feel like a genuine Christian. I have read of many passages of God forgiving anyone who has the genuine desire to repent and desire for Him, and Gods mercy is endless to all who seek it. However, I cannot get this out of my head whenever I think of it. If someone is honestly saddened by their past sin, genuinely repentant, has a desire for God, will he turn them away like these two verses seem to say? Sorry for the long post and God bless anyone who is willing to help...

 

[ViaCrucis]

Read the story of the Prodigal Son.

When the son decides to return to his father he thinks his best hope is to return as a slave. When the son left and took his inheritance, this wasn't merely leaving--the son was saying to his father, "You are dead to me". It was the worst possible thing the son could have done to his father. So having squandered everything, having found himself living with pigs, he thinks he can return--not as a son, but as a slave. Thinking if he just pleads for mercy his father might allow him to be a slave.

But what does the father do? He sees his son in the distance and RUNS to meet him, embrace him, give him clothes, clean him, and throw a feast. What does the father say? "My son, who was dead, is alive".

That is God's love for us. When we have despised Him, left Him, spit in His face, and done the very worst things we could ever do--He rushes out to meet us when we return. He loves us, proactively, He gives us everything. He rejoices, all of heaven rejoices.

There is a feast in heaven and you have a seat at the Table.

Your sins are forgiven. Rejoice in Christ who loves you and saves you. He is the Good Shepherd who goes and searches for the lost little lamb--and He has found you. He has returned you to the sheepfold. Put your trust in the Shepherd. Know that you have a Father in heaven who loves you, who sent His Son to die for you--for you. For every wretched thing you've done. For every betrayal, for every sin, from the smallest sin to the gravest sin, Christ died. His blood covers you.

There is a God who loves you, and there is nothing you can do to change His mind. Welcome to the Feast, celebrate at the Table. Christ says you are His, and He shall not let you go.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Emerald518]

Hebrews 6:4-6, while it does teach about salvation, means something entirely different than what I think you're taking it to mean. This passage talks about unsaved people who God had brought to the point of realizing their need for salvation, but who rejected that conviction, turned away and hardened their hearts toward Jesus before they could accept Him as Lord. Think of Pharoah in the Book of Exodus...Moses preached about God's wrath and Judgment to Him before it came, but Pharaoh hardened His heart toward God and even after the plagues came, he continued to harden his heart toward God until God eventually "gave him over" (Exodus 7-11). Also, look at Judas Iscariot..this was a man who basically spent 24/7 with Jesus, witnessing His Miracles firsthand and hearing His teachings directly from His own mouth, yet still betrayed Him...and even when he realized that He'd done wrong, he said, "I have betrayed an innocent man" (Matthew 27:3-4)....even then, he never confessed Christ as Lord, only as "an innocent man". Basically, if you were beyond the point of salvation, your heart would be so hardened toward God that you wouldn't even care enough to be asking this question...

However, there is another matter here...Jesus said that even the demons believe and tremble (James 2:19) and they're definitely not saved. Salvation does not come about as a result of believing that God exists or by going to church...it comes as a matter of knowing that you need a Savior, accepting what Christ has done and believing in your heart that He died and rose again...perhaps, while you've always believed, you've never truly accepted Christ for yourself, because in scripture it also says that the mind in the flesh doesn't obey God because it can't (Romans 8:7-9)...I think the real question you should be asking is not "am I able to be saved", but "have I accepted God's offer of salvation/do I actually know Jesus?".

 

[Soul_Tsunami]

Anyone and everyone can be saved...Only those whose lives end not believing commit the unpardonable sin.

 

[Thijs Hottenhuis]

Hello Megusta, with God nothing is impossible. Let go and let God! Amen.

 

[Stephen3141]

Hello, new here. Made this thread just for this.

In summary im legitimately terrified that there may be no hope of salvation for me due to professing faith, then falling away for years into horrible sin and now repenting and giving my life to God only to think that scripture may say that its hopeless... (My story of the application of Hebrews 6:4 & 10:26)

I grew up in a Christian family and always went to church, but to be honest was never really excited about it. Mostly went because of my parents. However, I always knew the truth about God and what Jesus did for us. Guess i was sort of indifferent but still lightly considered myself a christian I guess. When I moved out at 20 I may have only went to church every few weeks or so when my parents asked. Instead I was usually hungover or something stupid. I always knew what was right but just cared too much about my own desires, but still when anyone would speak of being atheist or God not being real I would always disagree because I still believed in God. Blah blah, living my early 20s partying and sleeping around with a couple girlfriends. Still go to church now and then but wouldnt think much of it. Occasionally a message would speak to me but I wouldnt think much of it after service.

I remember one time around 22 or so I was camping alone and was thinking a lot to myself, thinking about God, got pretty emotional about my life and asked the Lord to come into my heart and forgive me of my sins. From what I recall I was genuine, but then I never really applied it to my life as my life just continued in the same sin as usual. Same life as said earlier, rinse and repeat. I would very seldom pray, and don't even ask about reading my bible because that was such a rare occurrence and if I did i would read maybe a chapter and just look forward to finishing the chapter so I could close it. I still believed in God and salvation though. I would sometimes say that I was a Christian but "not a good example of one".

Around 24 I really fell hard into unrepentant sin. Hard drinking, smoking weed and psychedelic drugs, my language was vile, always angry, and though I had always been sexually immoral with girlfriends and inappropriate contentography, now I was paying for sex with escorts on multiple occasions. At this point I still knew that my behavior was wrong, but I would think of it less and less as "just having fun, I can turn my life around (and even get saved) later". This practically became my life for the last year and a half.

I recently moved out of state on my own (another long story) and before leaving home my dad asked if I was going to bring my bible, which I wasnt planning on it but said sure, and I did. I continued this lifestyle after moving. However, I did decide to find a local church to go to. I went to a few services about every other sunday while still living in filthy sin. I made another confession of faith but continued to live in sin. Skip to one day a few weeks ago I was sitting in my apartment getting high and watching TV like usual, when I honestly felt like I heard the Lord say to me, out of nowhere "Nomegusta, if you love Me, youll read my word" or to that extent. I immediately opened my bible to Hebrews (Randomly) and started reading. Then I got to Hebrews 6:4-6 and 10:26 and felt my soul practically fall to a void of dread. I felt like this was me. I had heard the word, I had made a profession of faith, and had continued to live in unrepentant sin because I always thought I could change later because I was just having fun. Never before had I realized the severity of the things I was doing. "Crucify again the Son of God" I practically had an emotional breakdown and begged God to forgive me of my sins, to take it all away and wash me clean, and I was terrified but honest. I went to bed shaking that night. Since then I have honestly been serious about my commitment to God. I have honestly asked God to save me and live in me daily. I go to church several times a week and ask God every day to give me the strength I need to overcome the world. I have been reading scripture daily not because I feel like I have to, but because I have a genuine desire for God. At first I was terrified, but now I genuinely Love God and Christ and want nothing but Christ in my heart. I honestly feel like a new person. I feel like a genuine Christian. I have read of many passages of God forgiving anyone who has the genuine desire to repent and desire for Him, and Gods mercy is endless to all who seek it. However, I cannot get this out of my head whenever I think of it. If someone is honestly saddened by their past sin, genuinely repentant, has a desire for God, will he turn them away like these two verses seem to say? Sorry for the long post and God bless anyone who is willing to help...

It is helpful to consider theological positions that have been
spoken AGAINST by the historic Church (I'm talking about the
Church in the first 5 centuries).

1. One position that was rejected, is that, if we commit even one sin,
after we become a member of God's People, then we will be
condemned forever. This was the misunderstanding of a number
of historic people, who converted to Christianity just before they
died, so that they would not sin before they died.

2. Another strange theological position (I will get pushback on this)
is that we are irreparably sinners, and can do nothing good by our
own choice. This denies that God can change our character, and
free us from the slavery of sin. And this denies that the commands
in scripture that we are to be holy, actually mean that we should
stop sinning (some theologies assert that we are only "seen" by God
as holy, due to the sacrifice of Christ).
---------- ----------

The New Covenant in the New Testament, is a covenant from God.
His covenants have 2 parts...

-- what the People of God are required to do, to keep the covenant
-- what promises God will keep, for members who (are trying to)
keep the covenant.

Although some verses in the Bible may be read as saying that, if
a Christian sins, then he will be forever condemned, this is not the
case when ALL of Scripture is taken together, on this topic.

For example, Jesus gave us the Lord's Prayer, that is to be prayed
daily. And it asked God to (again) forgive us our sins.
For example, if you look at the context of John's letters, he is writing
to Christians. Some of John's writing, is misunderstood as being
addressing non-Christians, and their sins.

5 Now this is the message that we have heard from him and proclaim to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” while we continue to walk in darkness, we lie and do not act in truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say, “We are without sin,” we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing. 10 If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
New American Bible, Revised Edition. (Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2011), 1 Jn 1:5–10.
---------- ----------

Although it may be the case that God would go beyond the bounds of the New Covenant,
to extend mercy to those who we may think cannot be redeemed, we should not count
on this. Nor should we demand that God should not show this outside-of-covenant
mercy. But, in his Gospel teaching, Jesus often shows mercy to those who are
living in ways that are outside of the Mosaic covenant, and its requirements.

There are many people who would try to describe precisely what it means to
commit apostasy, and walk away from the New Covenant. I think that
committing apostasy involves conscious knowledge of what one is doing,
and involves a wish to go on with this activity. Although external behavior may
be observed, it may involve a lot more work to find out the intention of
the person, engaging in the behavior.

I don't think that it is proper for lay people to try to determine the intentions
of someone who is engaging in sinful behavior, if there is a question of the
person committing apostasy.

I think that at least, these things should be said.