Can a Christian lose their salvation?

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Can a Christian Lose Their Salvation:

This is point of vehement controversy within the Christian church. While many Protestants make the claim that salvation, once earned, can never be lost. Many Catholics make the claim that salvation is conditioned upon whether or not an individual still wishes to be saved.

The primary reason for this conflict is a misunderstanding of what exactly “salvation” means. More specifically, when exactly salvation is obtained.

Many Protestants mistakenly believe that salvation is finalized in this life. While the path to salvation begins in this life, and the assurance of salvation can be enjoyed in this life, and even one could say they are “saved” during this life; salvation is not finalized until we enter heaven.

Until that moment we are only on the “path” to salvation:

For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Matthew 7:14

At any moment the Christian may choose to forsake their salvation. We still, though we may be saved, possess freewill. It is our responsibility as Christians to utilize this freewill to actively observe penance (i.e. repentance).

However, it is also our right, as free individuals, to utilize our freewill to actively violate the laws of God. This act of willfully violating the law of God; choosing your own will above his, is known as a mortal sin. This is an active denial and rejection of one’s own salvation.

Catechism’s statements about conditional salvation:

(c.c.c. 1854) Sins are rightly elevated according to their gravity. The distinction between mortal and venal sin, already evident in Scripture, became part of the tradition of the church. It is corroborated by human experience.

(c.c.c. 1855) Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by grave violation of God’s law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and his beatitude, by preferring inferior good to him.

(c.c.c. 1856) Mortal sin, by attacking the vital principle within us-that is, charity-necessitates a new initiative of God’s mercy and a conversion of heart which is normally accomplished within the setting of the sacraments of reconciliation.

(c.c.c. 1857) For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: “mortal sin is sin whose object is a grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.

Biblical passages supporting conditional salvation:

For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.

Hebrews 6:4-6

These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved. For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”

2 Peter 2:17-22

For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.” And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Hebrews 10:26-31

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:19-21

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.

Matthew 7:21