Losing My Religion - Final Questions

I've offered a series of Scriptures that argue both that we must persevere and that God insures that He keeps His own. And I've offered a way to put them together. Because, you see, if you go with either the "Conditional Security" or the "Unconditional Security" views, you wind up slightly askew. Either you work out your salvation and have something to boast about or you don't and have dead faith. So, what about those who fall away? I mean, we all know there are those who do. How do you explain that?

The Parable of the Sower (Matt 13:3-23) describes several types of soil. There is, of course, the hard soil that never gets the Word and there is the good soil that bears fruit, but between these two there are two others. One is the "rocky soil" that "receives it with joy" when he hears the Word, but affliction kills it. And there is the "thorny soil" that hears the Word, but it is choked out by the world. The key thing in both cases is that they appear to make a start. They appear to "come in faith", to "receive Christ". And in both cases they fail. They "fall away". If God insures that He loses none, how do we explain this?

According to the Bible, those who "fall away" were never "of us".

They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us (1 John 2:19).

No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him (1 John 3:6).

Notice that it isn't unclear. "If they had been of us, they would have remained with us." This is agreement that those who are in Christ will remain in Christ. So what about these who left? "They went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us." Pretty clear. John says that the one who is perfectly happy remaining in sin has never seen Him or known Him. This isn't vague.

Look at this one from Hebrews:

But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end (Heb 3:13).

Yeah, I know. Verb tense again. We have this phrase, "have become partakers of Christ", which is in the present perfect tense. Present perfect shows actions that were finished recently or ones that were completed at an indefinite time in the past. It's done. You are "partakers of Christ". End of discussion. But wait! There is an "if" clause: "if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end." Now that's interesting. That's future tense. It's something we don't know about now. But what we can say with certainty (because we assume the Bible is true) is that if you will not hold fast until the end, you are not now a partaker of Christ. See how that works?

So what are we to do? "Be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure" (2 Peter 1:10). "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!" (2 Cor 13:5). How? Well, there is the internal evidence. "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost" (1 Cor 12:3). No one willingly, joyfully submits to Christ as Lord unless the Holy Spirit does it. And there is the external evidence of works (2 Peter 1:5-9). Making sure you are in Christ is a good idea. Assuming you are without evidence is not wise. Ultimately, we trust to a Sovereign God, and I can think of no safer place to rest.