Does it seem to you that a person having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God?

I know of no clear passage in the Scriptures that states once we accept Christ we can never be lost. Do you? Scholars support this position with deductive reasoning, analogies, assumptions, appeals to God's loving Nature, and sometimes with the intricacies of the Greek language.

On occasion they quote the passages assuring the believer what Christ has started He will finish. They neglect, however, to point out that while Christ will never break the contract of salvation, we can. Christ has the power and the willingness to keep us victoriously to the end of our discipleship. But if we do not pray each day and get help from God to enable us to keep the commandments of Christ and His Apostles, we disqualify ourselves from the program of redemption.

Those who teach once we have been saved we never can be lost have no clear passage kept in context to verify their conclusion. But we have just presented several clear passages kept in their immediate contexts, the contexts of the books in which they were written, and the context of the entire Scriptures, Old Testament and New.

The parable of the sower alone tells us that the Word of life can germinate in our personality and then be choked out so it bears no lasting fruit.

We maintain therefore, believing we have solid scriptural support, which the upholders of the six traditions do not appear to have, that we are in dire need of a reformation of Evangelical thinking.

From our point of view:

In no way can the tradition that the Lord is coming to take His Church to Heaven be supported with clear passages of Scripture kept in context.

In no way can the tradition that Heaven is the eternal home of the saint be supported with clear passages of Scripture kept in context.

In no way can the tradition that every believer when he or she dies will live in a mansion and walk on a golden street be supported with clear passages of Scripture kept in context.

In no way can the tradition that we shall receive our reward when we go to Heaven be supported with clear passages of Scripture kept in context.

In no way can the tradition that our physical body will not be raised from the dead be supported with clear passages of Scripture kept in context.

In no way can the tradition that we can never be lost once we have been saved be supported with clear passages of Scripture kept in context.

If this is so, and we are open to anyone who can show from the Scriptures we are incorrect, then pastors and teachers need to modify their preaching and teaching in these terms.

All of us know God desires righteousness and that the goal of the new covenant is to produce righteous people. No true Christian would disagree with this statement.

All of us know the new world will be, as Peter says, a world of righteousness. It will not be a world of imputed righteousness, because the behavior of citizens whose only righteousness is that which is imputed would soon turn it into Hell. It will be a world of actual righteousness. Perhaps most Christians believe this in their heart if not in their mind.

To be continued.