Can I Lose My Salvation?

An Apostate Elder

For those of you who were around last year, you may remember when Dan introduced me to this group, I told a bit about myself, like that I ha grown up in Santa Cruz, but had moved away for school a number of years ago and recently moved back to the area.

I know many of you are out of towners. You didn’t grow up here, home might be in another city or state for you. So I wonder if you will know what I am referring to when I say that one of the weirdest experiences to being away from home is hearing news about those left behind.

Since my wife (also a Santa Cruz native) and I were in Los Angeles, our place was a common crashing spot for friends and family traveling around or going to conferences and what-not. On one such occasion, a dear friend was going to a ministry conference nearby and stayed a week at our house. We were really busy so we didn’t get any time to chat until breakfast the day she was leaving to return to Santa Cruz. I made breakfast and the three of us ate out on our patio. In spite of the sunny weather, the breakfast felt a bit gloomy because I was hearing news that was shocking. Have you ever recieved shocking information about a friend you haven’t seen in awhile? What do you do with it? What I was told went against almost everything I knew about the friend in question.

This friend was raised in a Christian family, attended a well-known seminary, spent years in ministry, raised four children who are all following Jesus, was a leader in a local church plant. His ‘good Christian’ credentials could go on and on, but I was hearing that he walked away. That he didn’t believe any of this God and Jesus stuff anymore. I literally don’t have words that would adequately express what I felt.

When I moved back to Santa Cruz, one of the first questions I had for a mutual friend, who also happened to be his pastor. He told me that he was just as confused about it. They guy had experienced some tragedy, but by all accounts pretty minor stuff. His mom died, but she was in her nineties, his daughter’s car got stolen twice in a week, but all-in-all not a huge financial loss. But one day after these events had happened the two were driving to get lunch with some other leaders in the church plant. While my friend the pastor was inquiring into these events and how our buddy was handling them, he simply said he didn’t believe anymore. It’s all BS.

I have checked in with my friend a couple of times in the past year and a half that I have been back in Santa Cruz, but no change.

Essentially tonight I want to take a bit of time to unpack what you do with something like this? Not, mind you, so that we can create revisionist histories about any friends who wander from the church or belief, but so that we might think about ourselves, and understand our relationship with Jesus in times when we doubt, or God feels distant, or we find it so difficult and unappealing to act like Christians.

Can I Lose My Salvation?

Short answer is no.

The Bible speaks clearly to this in a number of places.

Does the Holy Spirit Come and Go?

What Is the Worry and How Do We Respond?