With all due respect one has to learn the truth before one can speak the truth. We all have much learning to do.
Fair enough.
People like to boast about their greatest achievements as a Christian. I would like to take a moment to boast about my absolute (second to none) greatest failure as a Christian. It bears directly on the question of "can a Christian (someone saved) actually lose their salvation".
Once upon a time (1979), Jesus Christ made me an offer that I couldn't refuse ... an exchange of my imminent death for a new life. This "salvation" came with one very serious condition: I had to exchange EVERYTHING I had for EVERYTHING that God had. It was an ALL or NOTHING offer. So I quit the gang, abandoned the suicide bomb plan well under way, left home and the neighborhood, quit smuggling drugs across state lines, gave up crime and never looked back. I spent the next 10 years working as a Fish Monger to support myself and attend college.
It was at college that I had my fledgling faith RAVAGED by both well-meaning Christians and not-well-meaning Secularists. By 1990, I was clinging to faith by a thread when I found myself with a degree, employed for 6 months and unemployed for over a year in a recession. With $500 cash standing between me and living in my car ... I concluded that God had not lived up to His half of our agreement. Without a doubt, I felt like God had both LEFT me and FORSAKEN me. To be completely blunt ... I was just TIRED of praying and feeling ignored.
To save gas, I walked to the nearest Church [Cornerstone Community, Church of God of Anderson Indiana] because when one is going to "QUIT" on God, one should at least be man enough to tell God to His face. The door was unlocked and the sanctuary was empty when I entered. I walked past the pews to a kneeling bench at the front (for Alter Calls, I think). There I poured out my heart to God ... There seems little point in lying to God about what you think or feel ... it is not like God does not already know. So I told Him just how angry I was. Just how tired of seeking and not finding I was. I asked Him to show me what I had done wrong and I would repent, but I HONESTLY had no idea why God was punishing me ... why He had abandoned me.
silence.
It was time to do what I had come to do. I informed God that I was finished waiting for Him. I was finished apologizing for sins I didn't even know I had committed. If God didn't want me then ... "To H**L with you!" ...
"NO!"
I never got to say the words. They had formed in my mind. I had inhaled and started to form the sounds with my lips, when I was interrupted by a single AUDIBLE command clearly spoken in that empty sanctuary. God said "No!" I was allowed to complain, but I was NOT PERMITTED to curse His name! I just exhaled, instead. There was nobody else in that room.
"You know where to find me, because I am finished chasing after you." was the last thing I said before I left.
That was Friday. I planned on driving 4 hours to Miami on Monday to use my last $500 to purchase a gun and return to smuggling drugs. God intervened that Saturday.
So I cannot speak for anyone else. Perhaps YOU can lose your salvation (
what do I know about such things). However, I can state as FACT that I CANNOT lose my salvation ... I know because I tried. God would not allow it.
Apparently, God has a tighter grip on His property than many give Him credit for.