Dear Conrad -- Just a quick question. Do you believe that it is possible to lose your salvation? Do you have any verses to prove it one way or another? Thanks -- Paul

Rather than give my stance on it, I’ll give you the two main views.

Within Christianity there are two main schools of thought of salvation. You may have heard of some of these terms before – Calvinism and Arminianism.

To answer can we lose our salvation, you need to answer the bigger question – who chooses who? Calvinism believes God chooses us for salvation, Arminianism believes we choose God for salvation. Reformed, Presbyterians and some Baptists are Calvinistic. Methodist, Pentecostal, some Baptist are Arminian.

With Calvinism, since God chooses us, it would be impossible for us to lose our salvation – because how can it be that God chooses us and we end up in hell. God wouldn’t be very sovereign. With Arminianism since faith is up to us, then at any time we can go back on that faith.

So while you are looking up verses to find out about losing your salvation, you need to look at the larger picture of how salvation is accomplished. It’s like researching how to treat your neighbor, you first have to look at the bigger picture of love.

Here’s a comparison of the two: Click Here.

Here's an article on Decapolis about Calvinism. Click Here.