This is Part 2 of the Series on Those Who Claim They Were Once a Christian.

See Part 1

In John chapter 3, Jesus told Nicodemus, the esteemed Teacher of Israel, that he must be “born again” before He can see (understand) the kingdom of God. A person is born a second time of the Spirit when they admit they are a sinner, come to Jesus in sorrow over their sins, and ask Him to forgive them. At that moment, Jesus gives this person the Holy Spirit to live within them for the rest of their life. This is what it means to be “born again.”

When the Holy Spirit comes to live in us, Jesus said, “He will never leave us.” It is the Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth and reveals the deep things that are contained within the Bible.

Without the Holy Spirit, no person can understand what the Bible is teaching. This knowledge is only given to those who come to God for salvation, and they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

John 3:3: “Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

Galatians 3:5: “Does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.”

It is the Holy Spirit living in us that gives us the ability to know Jesus and understand the Bible. Before I was born again by the Spirit of God in 1975, I read the Bible, but I didn’t understand what I was reading. After Jesus came to live in me, everything changed. Today when I study the Bible, I depend completely on the Holy Spirit who lives inside me, to open my mind and heart and help me to understand the scriptures. Every time I do this He always speaks to me through the word and shows me what the text is saying. When I stand before the church and teach the Bible, I depend completely upon the Holy Spirit to guide and remind me what I have read, and reveal to my mind what the Spirit wants me to say to the people gathered to hear the Word of God.

This is what Jesus promised us in John 14. After He departed from the earth and returned to heaven, Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to teach us and remind us of what He has said:

John 14:15-17: “If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.”

John 14:25-26: “I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.”

Two kinds of people listened to Jesus teach by Parables. Those who were simply listening to the stories He told, and those who were seeking the deeper meaning. To people who are not seeking to know Jesus and understand what He is saying—the Parables are just stories. To those who genuinely want to know Jesus and are seeking to understand the deep things of God—the Parables open the door of the mind to begin the search for the truth God wants to reveal.

It is a fact of God that He only reveals Himself and the depth of His Word, to people who genuinely want to know Him.

The people who were listening to Jesus and sincerely wanted to understand what He was saying, would not be content to simply hear the story. They would want to know what He meant, and they would actively pursue the truth to understand the deeper meaning. In this Parable Jesus defines the heart as the part of us that determines our ability to understand.

When the disciples ask Jesus why He speaks plainly to them but not to everyone in the crowd, He tells them that they are permitted to understand, but others are prohibited. This response sounds strange to people who assume that God wants everyone to hear the Gospel, understand, and make a decision for Jesus. The problem is that God knows all things. He knew before He created anything—who would listen, seek to understand, and be saved. He also knew who would not care, not seek to know, and refuse to turn from their sins and be saved.

Matthew 13:10-17: His disciples came and asked Jesus, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?”

11 He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. 12 To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. 13 That is why I use these parables, for they look, but they don’t really see.

They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand. (Then Jesus quotes Jeremiah 5:21) 14 This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that says, ‘When you hear what I say, you will not understand. When you see what I do, you will not comprehend. (Then Jesus quotes Isaiah 6:9-10)

15 For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes—so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.’

16 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. 17 I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.”

Most people have ears, but they don’t want to listen to the truth of salvation in Jesus. In John chapter 3, Jesus said that people love their sins more than they love Jesus, and they choose not to believe and be saved:

John 3:18-21: Jesus said, “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. The judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

When I first began to try to reach atheists and critics of God and the Bible, I thought that they simply needed to be educated to believe and be saved. Today I understand that people are not saved because they choose to not believe, not for lack of evidence.

You remember earlier in this chapter that Jesus said many people saw Him perform the miracles that prove He is God, but they still didn’t believe.

John 12:37: “But despite all the miraculous signs Jesus had done, most of the people still did not believe in him.”

In the Parable of the Four Soils, Jesus explained that the problem is the heart, not the mind. People don’t need to be convinced as much as they need to choose to believe. Jesus taught that most people remain unbelievers by choice, not because they lack knowledge.

This is not true of everyone. I was one who believed after I studied and found evidence that what is written about Jesus in the New Testament is historical and accurate. I wanted to understand; I wanted to learn; I was seeking to know if God was real—with all of my heart.

When a person comes to Jesus with genuine sorrow for their sins, and they decide to trust Him for their salvation, He says they are born again by the Spirit of God. At the moment a person believes, Jesus comes to live in them, and through the Spirit, He reveals the truth of the Bible.

John 3:3: Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see (understand) the Kingdom of God.”

Revelation of God and His Word only comes to us when we are sincerely seeking truth. The crowds of people who heard Jesus were not interested in the truth. Most of those who heard Him only wanted Jesus to feed them, heal them, and perform a miracle to entertain them.

John 6:26-27: Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you.”

The disciples wanted to know why Jesus didn’t openly teach the crowds of people what He meant. He said that these men whom Jesus called to follow Him, “were permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others were not.”

The key to understanding the Bible is to first decide to follow Jesus. None of the men whom Jesus called to follow Him were saved when they were first called. It was by following Jesus and seeking to know Him, that they came to a knowledge of who He is, and then they were saved. It does not appear from the texts of the New Testament that the disciples of Jesus were saved until after He was crucified and rose from the dead. Before that time they had doubts, they didn’t understand who He was. they were learning and coming into a knowledge that Jesus was the Messiah God promised. It was the resurrection that changed everything and caused these men to believe and be saved.

John 12:16: “His disciples didn’t understand at the time that this was a fulfillment of prophecy. But after Jesus entered into his glory, they remembered what had happened and realized that these things had been written about him.”

The true followers of Jesus are people who recognize that they are sinners, feel regret over their sins, and come to Jesus in faith—believing that His death on the cross paid for their sins.

When genuine salvation takes place, the Holy Spirit is given as a gift by the Lord. When the Spirit comes to live in the true believer He never leaves. It is upon these facts of salvation that a person is given access to the deep principles of the Bible.

No person, regardless of their academic degree, is given access to the deep principles of the Bible, without repentance from all sins, and a complete commitment to Jesus for life. These are the people to whom God reveals His secrets.

The point of Jesus’ teaching in these parables was that people who will not believe, are not permitted to know and understand the important principles of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Critics scoff at this idea because they often assert that if God existed He would want everyone to know Him. The idea of many scoffers is that because God does not visibly show Himself, or at least, vivid irrefutable evidence that He exists, He does not exist.

What critics don’t realize is that God has done these very things. Jesus came to earth from heaven. He is the Eternal God who took the body of a man so that we could see God, know He exists, and have a relationship with Him.

The entire New Testament was written as a testimony that these things are true. The men who saw and heard Jesus, say they saw Him with their own eyes and heard Him teach that only through His death and resurrection can our sins be removed. There are 203 eyewitness statements about Jesus in the 260 chapters of the New Testament.

Hebrews 2:3: “So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak?”

Only if Jesus removes our sins can we have eternal life. There are no sinners, imperfect people, in heaven. God must first remove our defect of sin and make us into a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) before we can inhabit heaven. Jesus’ death for our sins makes us perfect if we believe it does and we turn from our sins.

God wants everyone who believes in Jesus to know Him and understand His words. God also knows who is genuinely sorry for their sins and truly trusts in Jesus. He knows who will continue to trust in Jesus for all of their life. These are the persons He chose for eternal life.

People who claim they were once a believer but now no longer believe, God did not choose these persons for eternal life because He knew before they were born, that they would not continue to believe.

In John, chapter 17, verse 6, Jesus said that people who truly believe in Jesus and will remain faithful to Him for their entire life “were known to Him” from the beginning, and they were “always His.”

Before God created the universe, He knew who would believe, continue to believe, and be saved for eternity. He also knew who would claim to believe, but later stop following Jesus and not be saved. In John 17, Jesus is praying to the Father concerning those who believe. He speaks of these individuals as “always His.”

John 17:6: “I have revealed you to the ones you gave me from this world. They were always yours.”

Because God knows all things, He knows who the true believers are and who the pretend believers are. In this definition of salvation, it is the people who believe in Jesus after repenting from their sins and continue to trust in Jesus for all of their lives who are saved. If a person stops believing, they never were His, and they were not chosen for eternal life.

God makes His choices to save people for eternity, based upon His eternal knowledge that they would exercise their choice and trust in Jesus forever.

Jesus further defines this phenomenon of the false believer by stating that the prophets from the Old Testament predicted that this would happen. Jeremiah 5:21 says that certain people will “hear what Jesus said, but not understand.” They will “see what Jesus has done, but not comprehend.”

Isaiah 53:1, 3  states: “Who has believed our message? …He was despised and rejected.”

The inability of some people to understand what Jesus is saying or what He has done is because the heart of the person is not willing, not because God doesn’t want them to know Him.

The vast majority of people who came to hear Jesus when He spoke, were not interested in turning from their sins and believing in Him for salvation. The crowds of people came to get material blessings from Jesus; healing, food, and to satisfy their curiosity and desire for entertainment.

Among the crowds, there were a few who heard the parables Jesus taught and wanted to know Him.  There were a few in the multitudes of people who wanted to understand who Jesus was and what He was talking about. These people would continue to pursue Jesus, with the intent of understanding Him.

This is the reason that Jesus taught by Parables; to separate the superficial from the serious.

It’s the same today. Most people are not interested in what Jesus said or in learning what He taught. They want to live their own lives the way that they please. They don’t want to change how they live, and they reject people who try to convince them to change.

Some people feel the guilt of their sins, and they know that their hearts and lives are not right. They hear the words that Jesus said, and they want to understand and discover what Jesus is saying.

People are not lost because God doesn’t love them and He loves others. It is not because God rejects some people and accepts others. The reason people are not saved is because they don’t want to be saved.

John 3:17-21: (Jesus said:) “God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. The judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

It’s a love for this world and the sins that people enjoy—with a lack of desire to repent and follow Jesus—that keep most people from being saved. It is not God who prohibits people from believing; it is a hardened heart and resistance to change that prevents people from being saved.

Jesus Explains The Parable of the Four Soils

Jesus now turns to the men who have been following Him because they want to know and understand what this Parable means.

Matthew 13:18-23: “Now listen to the explanation of the parable about the farmer planting seeds: 19 The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the Kingdom and don’t understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts. 20 The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. 21 But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. 22 The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced. 23 The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”

Jesus defines the farmer (Him) as one who is planting seeds, which is the word of God. Matthew doesn’t tell us that the seed is the word of God; Luke adds this detail in his Gospel, Luke 8:11 “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.”

The Word of God is spread across the world by those who share it with others. Jesus said that there are four types of soil, or hearts, that hear the Good News about Jesus (the Gospel).

The seed that falls on the footpath is an example of the well-traveled journey of people in the world. There is a way the majority of people who live on earth go, that Jesus later defines as “broad.”

Matthew 7:13-14: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

The world system, how human beings reason and understand the world, is different from how God understands the world. In this world, you will be loved and accepted if you go along with the way they think and act. Jesus said that if you choose to believe in Him and follow His manner of living, you will not fit into this world, and they will hate you because you love Jesus.

In John 15:18-21: Jesus is speaking to His disciples: “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. 19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. 20 Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. 21 They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the one who sent me.”

In this Parable of the Four Soils, Jesus warned that one of the ways people fall away from Him is when it starts to cost something. Persecution is an experience that every Christian will experience, but no one likes. People are going to come against you if you fully commit yourself to Jesus. Following Jesus and living your life as He lived His, is not the way the world lives. People will mock you, scoff at what you believe, and hate you because you tell them that God requires repentance from sin and a new life of righteousness after you believe in Jesus.

John 15:18-19 Jesus said: “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.”

The first type of heart is the hardened footpath. These persons hear about Jesus, but they don’t understand what He requires. The enemy, satan, comes to steal away this news of salvation, and people are saved.

The second type of heart in the Parable of the Four Soils is the person who hears the message and immediately receives it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots (in the Bible), they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word.

The third type of heart is those who hear the good news about Jesus, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced.

The point of this Parable is the human heart. Jeremiah said that in our present fallen condition, we cannot trust what our heart tells us. People in the world say that we should follow our hearts, trust our hearts, and be directed by our hearts. The God who created us said that our heart is deceitful and desperately wicked:

Jeremiah 17:9-10: “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the LORD, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.”

The Parable of the Four Soils reveals the deceitfulness of our hearts by the response we have to the Gospel message about Christ.

The hard soil hears, but due to the hardened condition of the heart, this person cannot live for Christ.

The rocky soil cannot overcome persecution and the trials that Christians all have; this person cannot live for Jesus.

The thorny soil cannot resist the temptations this world presents—to have money, possessions, and the pleasures of this life.

The fertile soil is a person who has likely experienced the three conditions of the heart mentioned before: (1) They have hardened their heart. (2) They have been persecuted for believing in Jesus. (3) They have felt the attraction of this world, and all the temptations it presents.

The difference between the fourth heart and the other three is that with the fourth heart, this person has removed these obstacles and decided to follow Jesus, no matter the cost.

The person who has a fertile heart that is ready to hear what Jesus said, turn from their sins, and fully trust in Him no matter what comes against their faith—these are the people who inherit eternal life. Before Jesus created the universe or any human heart, He knew who would cultivate a heart that would stay faithful to Him until the end. These are the people He chose for eternal life.

Christianity Hijacked

The reality of the pretend Christian is seen most clearly in people who claim to be a Christian but live lives contrary to Christ. Critics use these bad examples as evidence that Christianity is a farce.

It’s important to understand that anyone can claim to be a Christian, but not everyone who says they are—is. According to Jesus in John chapter 3, there is only one kind of Christian; those who turn from their sins and are born again by the Spirit of God.

Most people think that if a person says they are a Christian, they are. The problem is that Jesus said that a person is not a part of Him until they are born again by the Spirit of God.

When Nicodemus, the esteemed “Teacher of Teachers,” came to Jesus at night, he also presented his questions to Jesus from the perspective of religion. It was to these religious precepts that Jesus answered:

“You must be born again” (John 3:3)

There is no place in the New Testament where Jesus said that a person should become a Christian. That term was created by men in Antioch who began to call the followers of Jesus, “Christians:” Acts 11:26: “…the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.”

Jesus did not come to establish a religion; He told people, follow Me. If any of us believes that our church or religion is the right way to heaven, Jesus said: in John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

The way into salvation and eternity with God is through Jesus, by our repentance from sin and a lifetime commitment to Jesus as our Savior. Religion cannot save anyone; church membership does not convey salvation. We obtain the forgiveness of our sins when we are truly sorry for our sins, and we come to Jesus in sorrow that compels us to end our sins and begin a new life of righteousness following Him.

With these things being true, there are some who have evil intentions and take the name “Christian” so that they can use this good name to fulfill their evil intentions. Jesus said in Luke 6:43-45:

“For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

If we see a person who claims to be a Christian, committing evil, this person is not a part of Jesus. Critics who use the bad behavior of pretend Christians to condemn all Christians, have an agenda. Much like condemning everyone with a particular skin color because one person or a group commits evil, is a racist statement; condemning all Christians as evil because one group or individual commits evil, is equally prejudicial.

There are people who hijack the name “Christian” and use it for evil. This does not define everyone who claims to love Christ as evil.

The Claims of Former Christians

There are people today who claim they were once believers in Jesus, but now, no longer believe. These persons vary from celebrities, musicians, and the super-rich, to common everyday ordinary people.

The attribute that is common among these persons is their blame for similar defects as the cause of the loss of faith.

The Bible warns every believer that a love for the things in this world can take us away from Jesus. The third soil that Jesus described in the Parable of the Four Soils, was the thorns. The thorns are the attractions of this world that overcome the believer: money, fame, power, possessions, and the pursuit of these things—which can rob us of our relationship with Jesus.

In Luke 18:18-24, when the rich young ruler came to Jesus, he wanted to know what he must do to have eternal life. Jesus told him to go and sell all that he owned, then come and follow Him. His excuse: he owned so much, that it was impossible for him to give these things up to follow Jesus.

In reality, the problem was not the riches the young man possessed; it was the riches that possessed the young man. If this young ruler had been willing to give up everything to follow Jesus, the Lord would likely have told him that he did not have to sell all he possessed. In his willingness to rid himself of anything that would hinder his relationship with God, he would show that the Lord was first in his life and the things he possessed were secondary to God.⁠

Today the lure of fame and fortune has ruined the lives and witness of many people who began well with Jesus. Being constantly in view of the public often causes committed Christians to compromise. Pressure from secular sources causes believers to compromise. Over time, little by little, before the believer realizes, they have left Jesus and joined the world.

Many of these people eventually fall away from Jesus completely and later say that they no longer believe in Jesus or the Bible. What changed? Their hearts were deceived by sin and they were pulled away from Jesus by the obstacles Jesus described in the Parable of the Four Soils.

Hebrews 3:12-15: “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

People do not often wake up in the morning and immediately decide to stop believing in Jesus. It happens slowly over time. Little by compromise takes place in their walk with Jesus.

Once compromise begins, it is only a matter of time before the believer has fallen away from Jesus. In place of trust, honor, and commitment, former committed Christians find themselves criticizing God, the Bible, and other Christians in their commitment to God.

I recently read the comments of a former believer on social media, claiming they were a committed Christian for over 50 years. Now this woman spends her time criticizing committed Christians, God, and the Bible, and exalting the lifestyles of atheists and haters of God.

This is precisely what the tares are like in the Parable that Jesus described. People who pretend to be Christians but whose hearts are not right towards God. Not until much later do these people find within themselves that they can no longer sustain their pretend faith.

Being a Christian, a genuine follower of Jesus, is not a club that we can join. People who are a part of Jesus and saved by His death and resurrection—never leave Him. They endure trials, suffering, and times of doubt. They overcome persecution and trials by remaining with Jesus. They do not allow anything to pull them away from Jesus. This is how the fertile soil of the heart is cultivated to endure with Jesus until the end.

People who are genuine believers in Jesus live in a way that Jesus lived His life. The primary attribute of Jesus’ life was holiness. In all of His behavior and actions, Jesus was morally perfect. Not once, in the New Testament, does anyone who knew Jesus well say that they saw Him sin.

When Jesus stood before the scribes and Pharisees of Israel, He asked, “Which one of you can accuse me of sin?”

The Christians, those who truly follow Jesus, seek to also live lives of holiness—separation from sin. Human beings who were once sinners, now born again by the Spirit of God, will never be perfect in their behavior while living in their present bodies on earth.

We are in the process of becoming like Jesus; we are not there yet. Sanctification, the process of being completely set apart from this world to fully be like Jesus, takes an entire lifetime to accomplish. We will not be perfect while still living in these bodies. We will have times of doubt, and fears, and even fall away from Jesus for a period of time. The true believer; the persons who are truly saved and chosen by God for eternal life—always come back to Jesus and continue with Him for the rest of their lives.

When Jesus saves us, it is our spirit that is redeemed, not our present bodies. These bodies are so given to sin that they cannot be redeemed. Not until we receive our new and perfect bodies, will we live in a vessel that is capable of not ever sinning again. Until that time, we will all struggle with sin and often fail.

This does not mean that we give up, since it is not possible to stop sinning. We cannot be sinless, but we can sin, less. The power of the Holy Spirit living in us helps us make better decisions to not sin and to live a life that is near perfection in our moral behavior.

The older we become in our relationship with Jesus, the less we want to sin, the more we want to become like Jesus. We will spend decades trying to get all of the worthless and filthy things out of our lives and, at some point, we can live relatively pure lives for Jesus.

The pretend Christian is not born again. They have never experienced the transformation of their spirit into a new life. They still live in their earthly body to please the flesh and give it whatever it wants. In truth, the pretend Christian is not much different from everyone else in the world.

The problem is that people in the world don’t understand salvation. When a person turns from their sins and begins to live for Jesus, a spiritual transformation takes place.

This is not true for the pretend Christian, and many times these people don’t realize that they never were born again by the Spirit of God. Churches don’t teach repentance from sin and a second birth by the Spirit. Seldom do modern churches talk about sin at all. The result today is that we have many people who go to Christian churches, but they are not saved. The remedy is to once again preach salvation through repentance from sin and faith for life in what Jesus accomplished for us at the cross.

How Do We Know If We Are Saved?

The New Testament is clear that salvation is by grace through faith, but is there are way that we can test ourselves to see if we have truly been saved? Yes. If have turned from our sins and have believed in Jesus for salvation, and we continue to trust in Jesus for all of our lives, this proves our salvation was genuine. An abiding trust till the end is what Jesus said, is proof we are saved. In Matthew 10:22 Jesus said: “But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

Again in Matthew 24:12-13: Jesus said: “And because lawlessness will abound (in the Last Days), the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.”

When people fall away from Jesus and they never come back to Him, this is evidence that they never were saved in the first place. The true believer may have doubts. They may fall away from the Lord for a time.

Many sincere Christians have moments of doubt and struggles, and they may fall away from Jesus for a time. If they come back, they always were and will be saved. If they do not come back to Jesus and continue to trust in Him for the rest of their life, they were not chosen by Jesus for salvation. Jesus said that people who believe and continue to believe for all of their lives, “were always His” (John 17:6). Those who depart from Jesus and never return were not chosen for eternal life. Our salvation depends on our choice and God’s knowledge of our choice. In the Sovereignty of God, He chose to save everyone who chose to believe in Jesus forever.

Acting Is Not Salvation

There are a great number of people who think that simply joining a church, reading the Bible, praying, paying a tithe, and serving in the church make them a Christian. According to Jesus, these things do not make us true Christians.

Romans 8:9: “Only those who have the Spirit of God living in them are truly born again and are a part of the saved: And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.”

Everyone who is born again by the Spirit of God is given the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said in John chapter 14 that when we are saved, and He gives us the Holy Spirit, the Spirit will “never leave us.”

John 14:15-17: “If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.”

If we take two verses of scripture, the one above, and John 17:6, stated by Jesus, that everyone who is saved was, “always His, we can prove that people who claim they were once a Christian but now do not believe, never truly were a Christian:

John 17:6 “I have revealed you to the ones you gave me from this world. They were always yours.”

Since those who are saved eternally were “always His,” there can never be a time when they were not His. In eternity, God knew who the truly saved were and He knew they would always be his. If people claim they were once His but now no longer are, this is in conflict with what Jesus said—they were always His.

Who is right, Jesus or those who claim they were once a Christian?

The pretend Christian claims that they were once His, but now are not; Jesus said that all true believers were always His.

Jesus also said that the Holy Spirit is only given to true believers, and He will “never leave you.” The pretend believer says they saw no evidence, felt no presence of God in their lives. This is evidence that they were never saved because the Holy Spirit did not come to live in them forever.

The Flesh and the Spirit

Before we are truly saved, we are controlled by our sinful nature. The flesh we live in controls us and dictates what we will say and do. After Jesus comes to live in us, and our spirit is made alive, we are controlled by the Holy Spirit. The pretend Christian has never had this event take place in their life.

It is for these reasons that some people who try to claim they were Christians but are not often hijack the name Christian and use this name to commit terrible acts of evil. This is what took place during the Crusades. A corrupt Catholic church with an evil Pope used Christianity to murder and take power. People who hear about these atrocities in history assume that this was the work of Christianity, when in fact it was the work of an evil and corrupt counterfeit Christianity.

The Prerequisite of Repentance

Being a Christian is only possible by sincere repentance from all sins and a complete reliance upon Jesus for the rest of our lives. If we give up and stop following Jesus at any point, and never come back to Him, we never were born again in the first place.

Only people who endure to the end of their lives are saved and counted amongst the redeemed of the Lord.

People we see who are acting in ways contrary to how Jesus lived His life are not saved. No matter what they claim for themselves, the reality of the bad language and behavior proves they are not a part of Christ.

Jesus said that we know what kind of tree we are seeing by the fruit it produces:

Matthew 7:15-20: “You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.”

Salvation begins with sincere sorrow over our sins. It is made possible only when we feel this regret and decide to take action to end our former sins. We come to Jesus in sorrow over our sins and ask Him to cleanse us from all of our transgressions. When we do this honestly, God sees our sincere heart and He takes away all of our sins, and then comes to live inside us by the Holy Spirit. This begins a new life that is guided by the Holy Spirit, where we start living the way Jesus lived.

Pretenders can not sustain this kind of life, and eventually, they are seen in their true nature as they fall away from Jesus and no longer believe.  The claim that a person was once a believer in Jesus, but now no longer believes, is a false assertion that is impeached by the scriptures of the Bible.

See Answers To The 21 Primary Arguments Made By Atheists And Critics Of God: “New Testament Apologetics: Proving The Historical Jesus By Documentary Evidence“

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See All 51 of Rob’s Books

Categories: Robert Clifton Robinson