A Question About Salvation And Apostasy

Salvation And Apostasy

Mr. John:
My friend was "saved" according to the Baptist teaching (but fallen away from even that). He died in that state. Can he hope to go to heaven? I believe it is only by God's grace that any of us will make it, but couldn't this even extend to those who are lost? I'm trying to comfort someone who has lost a loved one and not sure of the direction to take.
--Jenny

Dear Jenny:
All who enter heaven will do so by the grace of God (Eph. 2:8-9). No one will earn or deserve his salvation, nor can he purchase it (Tit. 3:5). However God's grace is not unconditional. To be saved by his grace we must believe in Jesus and be baptized in order to be saved (Mark 16:16). A fundamental teaching of the Baptist Church is that man is saved by faith alone, before and without water baptism. This flies in the face of the clear teaching of the New Testament. (See Acts 2:38; 22:16, etc). So your friend who thought he was once saved in the Baptist Church very likely was not baptized to be saved, for remission of sins, to wash away his sins.

A second fundamental belief of all Baptists save those of the Freewill Baptist Church is that once a person is saved he can never be lost. They insist on this even if the person turns his back on Christ and returns to the most vicious or wicked way of life. If he believed this doctrine of once saved, always saved, then he probably thought he would be saved in spite of his sin and neglect. His church teachers would have thought so. But the careful student of the Bible knows that a saved person can fall away from God's grace and be severed from Christ (Gal. 5:4). Like Simon the Sorcerer, a person can be saved and then revert to sin and be once again "in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity," and in danger of perishing (Acts 8:20-23). Christ expects us to be faithful unto death if we hope to receive the crown of life (Rev. 2:10).

We cannot offer false hope to people who have not obeyed the teaching of Christ relating to salvation or to those who have turned their backs on Christ. Yes, we should comfort those who sorrow. We should ask God to help them with their grief, but we must not encourage them in their error. The best we can say to them is that it is not our prerogative to determine the fates of men. The Judge of all the earth will do right by their loved one (Gen 19:25).

Sincerely,

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