CAN A CHRISTIAN BECOME A NON-CHRISTIAN?

From the Advisory Pastor

Dear Members in Christ,

Can a Christian Become a non-Christian?

Usually an unbeliever is defined as a non-Christian who has never heard of Christ. But a non-Christian is also an unbeliever who has heard of Christ but rejects Him. What about a professing believer who later on in life says that he has stopped believing in Christ? Is this biblically possible?

Here are some recent testimonies of people who say that they are no longer Christians, implying that they were Christians before [from Christian Post, 9 April 2021]: Paul Maxwell, a former ‘Desiring God’ writer and the author of the book The Trauma of Doctrine, has announced he is no longer a Christian. “What I really miss is connection with people,” Maxwell said on his Instagram feed. “What I’ve discovered is that I’m ready to connect again. And I’m kind of ready not to be angry anymore. I love you guys and I love all the friendships and support I’ve built here. And I think it’s important to say that I’m just not a Christian anymore, and it feels really good. I’m really happy.” Maxwell has a PhD in theology. He has written topics on theology, trauma and fitness. In 2019, Joshua Harris, author of the controversial Christian bestseller I Kissed Dating Goodbye, sent shockwaves through the evangelical Christian community after he published an Instagram Post announcing: “I am not a Christian. Short time later former Hillsong singer and songwriter Marty Sampson posted on Instagram: “Time for some real talk … I’m genuinely losing my faith … and it doesn’t bother me.” [Emphasis in bold added]

The confessions and experiences of people like Maxwell, Harris and Sampson are, sadly, not rare in today’s Christendom. The last days as prophesied by God will have a fallen Christianity. It is a Christianity that has turned apostate, i.e. fallen away from the faith. As God has warned us prophetically 2,000 years ago in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” [Emphasis added] We need to take heed to God’s warning by making sure of our salvation. We need to do so with fear and trembling, for what is at stake is eternity in hell or heaven. These men, who turned their backs on Christ and confessed it so flippantly as if it is no big deal to reject Christ, are diabolically doing the work of the devil. Their followers might follow in their sinful and evil footsteps as if it is fine to one moment believe and then in the next moment to reject!

What does the Bible say regarding someone who is truly born again in Christ? Can he really revert to become a non-Christian? These key Bible passages give us the answer. Romans 8:37-39 “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” John 10:27-30 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one.” These verses declare categorically that a person who is truly born again can never become a non-Christian. To think or say so is blasphemous. It is blasphemous because it would make God a liar. The following are the key points from the above two passages that assure and guarantee every believer that if he is truly born again in Christ he can never lose his salvation.

Power to separate a Christian from God? – Romans 8:37-39 reveals that once a person is saved he can never be separated from the love of God, not just God. God will never stop loving him. The reason is it is not a sentimental love that God has for us or the love of the believer for God; but it is the finished work of Christ Jesus on Calvary’s cross. This is the unbreakable recruit. If a believer can lose his salvation, then the work of Christ is not finished and He has not risen from the dead. Sin is still the master over every sinner and death has the victory. Thank God that Christ did rise from the dead. His work to save mankind from their sins which culminated at His crucifixion at Calvary was completed to satisfy God’s holy justice fully. That God raised Christ from the dead is evidence of God’s glorious acceptance.

Pluck a Christian from the hand of God and Christ? – Is there anyone more powerful than God or Christ? Absolutely no one. Therefore, how can anyone pluck a believer from the hand of God and Christ? Christ says that He gives to all who truly believe in Him eternal life and they shall never perish, i.e. they will not die in sin and be cast into hell. To be held in the hand of God's gentle yet all powerful grip is most reassuring and comforts all believers who are called to not only believe in Christ but also to suffer for Christ’s sake. Our heavenly Father and Christ know this. Who would want to serve God if his service on earth after salvation could result in losing his salvation? No one. All believers know that the moment they are born again in Christ they can enter heaven immediately like the thief who believed in Christ while he was crucified next to Christ. Upon his death, a few hours after Christ’s, he was with Christ in paradise as Christ promised him.

Now that God has assured every believer from Holy Scriptures that once he is truly born again he can never lose his salvation, it brings us back to these men’s rejection of Christ. There can be only one conclusion: they were never truly born again in the first place. They thought they were born again because they studied Scriptures, received degrees in theology, worshipped in church and even praised God in songs. These Christian activities cannot save a person from sin. If a person can be saved from sin by doing Christian works, then it would be salvation by works which is an anathema doctrine. These Christian activities have spiritual value only when they are experienced by truly born again believers as evidence of their salvation in Christ. There is an eternal difference between evidence of salvation and root of salvation. The former comforts the heart whereas the latter condemns and deceives. If what was meant to be an evidence of salvation is converted into a basis for salvation, then it is another gospel that must be condemned. The Pharisees and scribes fell into such a trap of the devil and were thoroughly condemned by Christ in Luke 11:44 “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.”

This means that professing believers like Maxwell, Harris and Sampson were never born again and were never Christians from the beginning. Can they be saved later on in life if they come to believe in Christ? Of course they can. All can be saved if they truly believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ that is according to Holy Scriptures.

In Christ,
Rev. (Dr.) Quek Suan Yew