New Apologetics We begin by offering the full text of the quotes you cited:
For if they, having escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of (our) Lord and savior Jesus Christ, again become entangled and overcome by them, their last condition is worse than their first. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment handed down to them. What is expressed in the true proverb has happened to them, “The dog returns to its own vomit,” and “A bathed sow returns to wallowing in the mire.” (2 Peter 2:20-22)
For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened and tasted the heavenly gift and shared in the holy Spirit and tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to bring them to repentance again, since they are recrucifying the Son of God for themselves and holding him up to contempt. Ground that has absorbed the rain falling upon it repeatedly and brings forth crops useful to those for whom it is cultivated receives a blessing from God. (Heb 6:4-7)
If we sin deliberately after receiving knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains sacrifice for sins but a fearful prospect of judgment and a flaming fire that is going to consume the adversaries. (Heb 10:26)
Look to yourselves that you do not lose what we worked for but may receive a full recompense. (2 John 1:8)
From what you have cited, it is conclusively not biblical to assert that an intellectual assent to the Gospel, devotional practice, baptism, the will of God that none be lost (2 Peter 3:9), or any other thing guarantees our salvation. However, it is also true that:
“I will not reject anyone who comes to me…” (John 6:37)
“…neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:38-39)
Since no creature can separate us from the love of God, and since God never rejects any who come to him, it follows that the *only* way a person can be lost is if they do not want to be saved. God grants each the desire of his or her heart. If it is of interest, we can get into the reason why a person would choose self-condemnation rather than to accept God’s mercy.
December 30, 2012 at 11:09pm · Like
