Co-Host: Let’s talk with David in Portland, Oregon. Hello David.
Caller: Hello.
Pastor Doug: Welcome
Caller: My question is, I’ve heard you talk before that a person can loose their salvation. And my question is, if a person does loose their salvation, does it mean that they can never regain back their salvation?
Pastor Doug: No. It doesn’t mean that, because we have examples in the Bible of Christ addressing people who were out of His will, that repented and came back.
Matter of fact in Ezekiel, we were just talking about Ezekiel in chapter 18, where He talks about if the righteous man turns away from righteousness and does wickedness, he’ll be lost but if he repents of his wickedness and returns, he’ll be saved. Very plain.
And then you go to the statements of Jesus to the church in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, and He talks to different churches, such as Ephesus that lost their first love and He tells them how to come back and Laodicea, He tells them how to return and Thyatira and Smyrna – not Smyrna – there were two churches that were actually pretty good and those were Philadelphia and Smyrna. But the other five churches all were backslidden, and He tells them how to return.
Matter of fact, it speaks very specifically in the Bible that God will heal our backsliding so there are a lot of Scriptures. Peter denied the Lord three times and he repented. He wept bitterly and he was restored and reinstated.
King David, a major backsliding with Bath Sheba. Murder, adultery, you name it, lying and he was punished by the Lord. He repented. He said, ‘I’ve sinned.’ God forgave him. He was restored.
So there are many, many stories in the Bible that give us hope that if a person wanders from the will of God, they can return. Jonah! A good example. He repented in the belly of a whale, and his prayer managed to…
Caller: …it was actually the belly of a fish.
Pastor Doug: Right. Well that’s fine. The New Testament says a whale. The Old Testament says a fish. But the point still remains: he repented and God forgave him.
So if you’re wondering about this for yourself, then I would want to reassure you that He says return unto me and I’ll return to you.
The parable of the prodigal son is there. He was with the father, he left, he came back. I’m so thankful there are probably dozens of stories in the Bible that talk about being… Samson, grieved away the Holy Spirit, lost the Spirit of God. He repented. God gave the Spirit to him as the final act of his life.
I’m getting encouraged just thinking about it myself!
Caller: So it means that if I am a backslider, that there’s still hope for me?
Co-Host: Absolutely!
Pastor Doug: Absolutely!
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