Can a Christian Lose Their Salvation?

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned." -Jesus (John 15:5-6)

Can a Christian Lose Their Salvation? Can someone who is saved later be condemned? Does the Bible say we can lose our salvation?

Why do Christians ask these questions so frequently? -Because new Christians read the Bible and see verses that clearly state that Christians will lose their salvation if they continue in sin, and then they get scared. When these things scare them, they go to some pastor or Bible teacher that explains those verses away as if they did not exist telling them not to worry because God would never allow them to lose their salvation.

Who do you believe? Do you believe what the Bible says, or what men tell you?

The Bible is so absolutely crystal clear that Christians can lose their salvation if they do not continue abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ, that only those whose minds have been twisted by the doctrines of men would deny it. However, to some people, this truth is so frightening that they do not want to believe it, so they heap to themselves teachers who will tell them what they want to hear (2 Tim 4:3-4): That once a Christian says some magic words (like the infamous sinners' prayer) and possibly has some sort of magical experience at an alter call; or if a person has some sort of  'change of life' for a time, they are saved and can never lose their salvation no matter what they say or do --Thus was born the doctrine of "Once Saved, Always Saved," or "eternal Security;" a heresy absolutely contrary to God's Word.

In fact, the Bible makes it so crystal clear that a Christian who does not continue in righteousness will lose their salvation, all that I really need to do is give you some of the Scriptures which speak on this topic and you can study them for yourself.

40 Scriptures that destroy the "once saved, always saved" and "eternal security" lies: 

1. "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." -Hebrews 10:26-31 NIV

2. "If a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live. Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord God, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live? But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, because of them he shall die." -Ezekiel 18:21-24 

3. "If you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." -Matthew 6:15

4. "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." -Matthew 7:21

5. "But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven." -Matthew 10:33


6. "The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful." -Matthew 13:20-22

7. "But he who endures to the end shall be saved." -Matthew 24:13

8. "But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers." -Luke 12:45-46

9. "He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down." -Luke 13:6-9

10. "I am the true vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit." -John 15:1-2 

11. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned." -John 15:5-6

12. "[Jesus] “will render to each one according to his deeds”: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek." -Romans 2:6-9

13. "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." -Romans 8:12-13

14. "Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches [the Jews], He may not spare you either. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off." -Romans 11:20c-22

15. "And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?" -1 Corinthians 8:11

16. "But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified." -1 Corinthians 9:27

17. "Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." -1 Corinthians 10:12

18. "You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace." -Galatians 5:4

19. "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." -Galatians 5:19-21   

20. "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart." -Galatians 6:7-9

21. "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." -Philippians 3:10-11

22. "Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 3:12-14

23. "And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister." -Colossians 1:21-23

24. "This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme." -1 Timothy 1:18-20

25. "Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons..." -1 Timothy 4:1

26. "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame." -Hebrews 6:4-6

27. "Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you did not give him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man that the righteous should not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; also you will have delivered your soul." -Ezekiel 3:20-21

28. "but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end." -Hebrews 13:13-14

29. "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." -James 1:22

30. "But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment." -James 5:12

31. "Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins." -James 5:19-20

32. "For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now “If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?”" -1 Peter 4:17-18

33. "For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”" -2 Peter 2:20-22

34. "You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked." -2 Peter 3:17

35. "If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death." -1 John 5:16-17 

36. "Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent." -Revelation 2:5

37. "Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life." -Revelation 2:10c

38. "And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations." -Revelation 2:26

39. "He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels." -Revelation 3:5

40. "Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown." -Revelation 3:11