The key is that the life that God gives is eternal. It has no end.
Right. The gift which Christ gives is eternal life and eternal life, by definition, has no end.
But any individual's POSSESSION of that gift can be brought to an and.
It's like my father giving me a car as a graduation gift. If I abandon the car, it still remains a car but I no longer possess it.
So my statement stands as valid. Unless one can show from Scripture that God either kills this "eternal life" or takes it away from one who He has given it to, there is no reason to accept loss of salvation.
I can show from scripture that eternal life can be lost. I've done it multiple times but OSAS folk seem to be blinded to those scriptures.
Here's your very own personal copy. (Enjoy!)
(1) JN 15:1
I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit,
15:5-6
I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. IF ANYONE DOES NOT REMAIN IN ME, HE IS LIKE A BRANCH THAT IS THROWN AWAY AND WITHERS; SUCH BRANCHES ARE PICKED UP, THROWN INTO THE FIRE AND BURNED.
(2) RO 11:17-22
If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For IF GOD DID NOT SPARE THE NATURAL BRANCHES, HE WILL NOT SPARE YOU EITHER. CONSIDER THEREFORE THE KINDNESS AND STERNNESS OF GOD: STERNNESS TO THOSE WHO FELL, BUT KINDNESS TO YOU, PROVIDED THAT YOU CONTINUE IN HIS KINDNESS. OTHERWISE, YOU ALSO WILL BE CUT OFF.
(3)1CO 9:27
No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
(4) 1CO 10:12
So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!
(5) HEB 3:12-14
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. WE HAVE COME TO SHARE IN CHRIST IF WE HOLD FIRMLY TILL THE END THE CONFIDENCE WE HAD AT FIRST.
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6) HEB 6:4-6
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, IF THEY FALL AWAY, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
(7) PHP 11-14
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
(8 )2Pe 1:5-10
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For IF YOU DO THESE THINGS, YOU WILL NEVER FALL,
(9) 2PE 2: 20-21
IF THEY HAVE ESCAPED THE CORRUPTION OF THE WORLD BY KNOWING OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST AND ARE AGAIN ENTANGLED IN IT AND OVERCOME, THEY ARE WORSE OFF AT THE END THAN THEY WERE AT THE BEGINNING. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.
Neither Col 1:23, Heb 3:14 or Eze 18:24 says that the life that God gives is "only eternal if you continue…". That's your add-on to Scripture, for which Scripture condemns..
Again, (you seem to have not grasped this point) "eternal life" is, by definition, eternal;
HAVING or
POSSESSING it is
not, by definition, eternal.
And you seem to be having the same difficulty with regard to what the word "IF" means that former President Billy-Jeff Clinton had with the word, "
IS." ("That depends on what the word "is" means.")
The word "if" introduces a conditional situation and necessarily includes the possibility of that situations opposite. The words "provided that" do the same thing in Col 1:23. (and you need to look at the whole sentence which begins at v. 21.)
So when Paul wrote: "
And you, who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him, provided that you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister." (Col 1:21-23 RSV) The words "
provided that you continue in the faith" necessarily include the real possibility of NOT continuing in the faith
and that is a condition which would result in no longer being reconciled to God. (ie: not saved)
You're going to have to do more than just quote a verse as if that proves anything. You're going to have to prove by exegesis that these verses actually speak of loss of salvation. Just assuming something is so, doesn't necessarily make it so.
I am assuming nothing. The scriptures I provided you say in very plain English that a believer can lose his/her salvation by not continuing in the faith. A believer has the ability to make a free will choice to turn his/her back on God and go back to the living death of no longer being united to Christ. When we accept God's gift of eternal life, He does not confiscate our free will and thereby diminish His likeness in us.
Yet again, EZE 18:24 "
... if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits sin and does the same detestable things the wicked man does, will he live? None of the righteous things he has done will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness he is guilty of and because of the sins he has committed, he will die.”
But you believe what you like. You can believe that, in spite of what God said by the prophet Ezekiel, if a righteous (ie: "saved") man quits being righteous and goes back to doing wicked and detestable things (which is what defines the behavior of the "unsaved"), he is still saved. God just doesn't happen to agree with that notion and has said so multiple times for those who have eyes to see.
iakov the fool
You have chosen to subject yourself to the rantings of iakov the fool. No warrantee is declared or implied. Individual mileage may vary. Enjoy the rest of your day. 
