I disagree. Jesus states that some people believe for a while and then they fall away. They believed, but then they lost their salvation. You cannot lose something that you never had.
Luke 8:13 The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root;
they believe only for a while and in a time of testing fall away.
Paul states that the Galatians who became circumcised have fallen away from the faith. You can not fall away from grace/salvation if you never had it.
Galatians 5:4 You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ;
you have fallen away from grace.
In Galatians 5, Paul contrasts being saved by the works of the law with being saved by grace. He teaches that you cannot be justified by the works of the law (or works in general). Salvation is by grace. Note they
want to be justified by the law. No one can be justified by keeping the law. By wanting that, they reject grace and thus fall away from it. One could say they were on the doorstep of grace, then turned their backs and fell away from it. These verses do not teach that these people had salvation and then lost it. They heard the gospel and responded favorably but not with sincere faith. Those who are saved will not fall away.
30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. (Romans 8:30)
First God predestines those to salvation. Then He calls them. Then He justifies them. Then He glorifies them. It does not say at each step that they only go onto the next step if they have good works. They
will have good works because it is God who works through them for His glory. He prepared the good works in advance and He gives them the grace to walk in those good works. God does not call and justify and then not glorify.
Salvation is not a one-time event. It is a life-long process.
1 Peter 5:8
You cannot be damned until after you physically die. The wicked are people who do wicked things. The righteous are people who do righteous things. What we
do determines whether we are righteous or wicked.
If the righteous do evil, they lose the grace that first saved them. If they do not repent before they physically die, they will be damned. If they repent and make restitution, God will forgive them and they will not be damned after they physically die.
1 Peter 5 addresses sanctification, not salvation. We are to stand firm in our faith and resist Satan. Jesus told Peter that Satan wished to "sift you like wheat." Peter denied the Lord 3 times yet never wavered in his faith. He stumbled but did not fall, or he fell but got back up. Satan wants to rob us of our joy, make us ineffective for the Lord, and load us down with sin. We are to resist that, but Satan cannot rob us of our salvation. Not if we have true saving faith. Those who give lip service to faith but don't honestly believe will show their true colors in time.
They were never saved. You can fall away from grace and never be saved. Grace is offered to all men. That doesn't mean all are saved. Salvation is a one-time event. Sanctification is a life-long process.
The Book of Life changes according to our works.
If our names are in the Book of Life at the time of our death, we will inherit eternal life. So,
if our names were still in the Book of Life before the foundation of the world after all God's works were finished, we would inherit eternal life.
Hebrews 4:3
Revelation 3:5 If you conquer, you will be clothed like them in white robes, and
I will not blot your name out of the book of life; I will confess your name before my Father and before his angels.
Revelation 3:5 is a promise, not a threat. It does not teach that a believer's name can be blotted out of the Book of Life but rather that God will never blot their names out. Those who don't believe never had their names written in the Book of Life. The word "if" is not found in the Greek. A more literal translation would be, "The one overcoming will be clothed like them..." Naturally, all who are saved will overcome. That is a statement of fact, not a condition. The entire verse is a statement of fact and promise. Believers
will overcome, and their names
will not be blotted out of the Book of Life.
Hebrews 4:3 says nothing about losing salvation or the Book of Life.
If we do not do the good works that the Father has prepared for us to do, we will not be able to enter into heaven.
Matthew 25:31-46
Ephesians 2:10 For we are his work, created in Christ Jesus for
good works, which God prepared in advance that we should do them.
Matthew 12:50 For
whoever does the will of my Father in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.
Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will
enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
Luke 6:45-55 The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. 46 “
Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you? 47 I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. 48 That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house.”
James 1:22-27 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing. 26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
No good works, no heaven.
We do disagree. Time will tell which of us is correct.
This is where the Catholic understanding of salvation and the Protestant (and I believe Biblical) view differ. Catholicism teaches that grace is infused into the soul at baptism and baptized individual is instantly saved. They must maintain that grace through the Sacraments and avoiding a mortal sin. If they commit a mortal sin, they must repent and confess through the Sacrament of Penance. Good works are necessary in maintaining salvation.
Protestants (and the Bible, I believe) believe that when a person truly believes in their heart, the righteousness of Christ is imputed to them (imputed, not infused). They now stand judicially righteous and blameless before God but only by grace and Christ's death on the cross to forgive their sins and His righteousness imputed to them. Then begins the life-long process of sanctification, during which we walk in the good works God has prepared beforehand for us, but by His grace. He prepared those good works for us to do, and He gave us a new nature that we can now willingly obey. Not perfectly, as we still have the remnants of our sinful nature, but we will progress in sanctification by doing good works. That we will do them is not in question. We have been changed. The old man has died, and the new man lives. Just as before salvation, we could not do a single good work, after salvation, we cannot help but do good works as it is God doing them through us.
Works are the fruit, or evidence, or salvation. No one can see the heart except God. We can fool men with our words and act the part of a Christian. This is why the church is full of wheat and tares. The tares look indistinguishable from the wheat but God can see the difference. Wheat is good to eat. Tares are weeds. Those who are wheat will produce good works. Those who are tares will not. To our own eyes (for we can deceive ourselves) and to the world it is what we do and don't do that gives evidence to our state of salvation. That is why Paul admonishes us to question our salvation if we have no good works. He doesn't say to start doing good works. He says to question whether or not we are saved! If we are saved then we will have good works but if we have deceived ourselves and have no good works then we need to re-examine our faith. Some people might think that because they were baptized or responded to an altar call they are saved. Some think just being born in a Christian family and going to church makes them saved. Such people never responded in faith. The easiest way for them to test themselves is to look at their lives and see if they show evidence of salvation.
All those verses about having to have good works are true, but they will always be true of anyone who is saved. You have to understand the process. First comes faith, which leads to salvation. Then comes sanctification, which leads to good works. Sanctification follows salvation as night follows day. James's warnings are to those who are self-deceived and think they are saved but show no evidence of it. He is not teaching that works save us. Otherwise, you have Paul teaching salvation by faith alone, and James teaching it by works. God does not contradict Himself.
It is like saying you have to have a high school diploma to have graduated from high school verses you have to meet the requirements of graduation. If you meet the requirements, you will get a diploma. The diploma always follows. Both are true but it is meeting the requirements that leads to having the diploma. Salvation leads to good works. The good works don't save us but are outcome of salvation and since it is God who does them through us, we will have them.