Consider that people need to hear your point of view VERY badly!
Well... Yes I suppose you are right.. people do need my point of view very badly!
(j/k)
Anyway, It depends on how you define eternal security. We are not insecure in the sense that God's promises are unsure, or that there is something out there which might overcome God.
However, that in no way means that it is impossible for a person to "lose" salvation through abandoning faith and allegience to Christ.
So, as long as you persist in faith, you are eternally secure.
From my point of view, its abundantly clear in scripture that it is possible for people to make a real start of faith, and then to turn back and abandon it.
Parables such as the parable of the sower are good examples of this. Then there are the numerous passages through out the new testament that warn believers to be watchful, and to be careful, lest they fall away, and the words which fortell that many shall indeed fall away "first there shall come a great apostasy" "in the last days many shall depart from the faith" etc.
Many people won't like this, because it is different than the traditional protestant view of how salvation works, but I am convinced that our western protestant understanding of salvation is not entirely correct. It is incomplete and leaves some things out. It also makes some assumptions that I think are false.
The most basic assumption that I don't agree with is that the "conversion" experience and the "born again" experience are the same thing. I don't think they are, and I don't think that the bible teaches that they are.
Biblically, being born again is linked to baptism, not to "making a decision". One of the most important things about this is that biblically being born again is a completely sovereign act of God's mercy and it is not contingent upon the person.
However, it is also abundantly clear in scripture that God requires obedience, and he requires transformation of the person. This is accomplished by the power and work of the Holy Spirit, but it absolutely and necessarily involves the will of the person.
One common way of phrasing this transformation is "conversion" or sometimes "heart conversion".
When a person is born again, they are made part of the covenant. Part of the Kingdom of God. However, I am convinced that scripture clearly teaches that those who are part of the covenant, and part of the Kingdom, must still undergo the conversion experience, which may begin with a momentary experience, but is fundamentally an ongoing process of transformation.
So, when a person is born again, God gives them a new spirit, which enables them to be transformed and to become united with Christ. At that point they are really in the covenant, and in the kingdom. However, their final judgement will ultimately be based upon wether or not, they truly followed the conversion experience, the process of conversion.
This is why in a some of the parables Jesus makes the clear statement that some who are part of the Kingdom, will be cast into outer darkness.
You see the gift God gives us in being born again is completely unconditional. Yet, final judgement is based upon if that gift bore fruit in your life.
Final judgement is not based on whether or not the seed was planted.. it is based on whether or not the plant bore fruit.
This is why in the parable of the sower, some of the seeds are planted, and they begin to grow.. but then they fail to produce fruit and they die.
This, also, is not about works. I am not remotely saying that if you do enough good deeds, then you will be approved. Rather it is about who and what you become. If you become loving, it is not a work that you did. If you become patient, it is not a work that you did. It is a work of the Spirit, that you allowed God to bring to fruition through your spirit.
You can, however, choose to cooperate with God's work in you, or to oppose it.
Ultimately its about life. When we are born again, we are given the means to partake and to participate in the life of God. However, God does not force us to do so.
in many charismatic circles you hear all sorts of talk about the promises we have in God, who we are in God, etc... yet it is often fairly rare to see those things actually realized in many Christian's lives.. why, if they are promised?
Because people do not avail themselves of the life that God has made available to them through being born again. Our spirit is not what naturally drives out being. We are in this life, natural, or "soulish" creatures. In other words it is our soul that drives us. The soul is the mind, the emotions, and it controls the body.
The life of God is made available through our spirit, but our soul does not naturally partake of it.
this is why Paul talked about the war within himself. It is the war between the spirit and the soul, the godly, and the natural, for control.
You only realize the life that God has given you, you only partake of it, when you submit yourself to the spirit that God has given you and you live by the spirit.
It is only then that you can actually begin to realize all the spiritual promises that God has made for us.
thus it is entirely possible for someone to be born again, and yet never really partake of the abundant life, never walk by the spirit, and never really be converted.
It is also very possible for someone to start on that path and begin to experience those things, and then turn back.
thats the cross,where Jesus said it is finished.
