I received a comment on yesterday's Daily Bible Reading post that I wanted to respond to.  I tried to respond in the comments but my comment was too big to post!  Here is the comment I received and my response follows.  

~beginning of comment~

Dear Mrs H,

Scripture teaches that one’s final salvation depends on the state of the soul at death. As Jesus himself tells us, "He who endures to the end will be saved" (Matthew 24:13; cf. 25:31–46). 

One who dies in the state of friendship with God (the state of grace) will go to heaven. The one who dies in a state of enmity and rebellion against God (the state of mortal sin) will go to hell. 

For many Fundamentalists and Evangelicals it makes no difference—as far as salvation is concerned—how you live or end your life. 

You can heed the altar call at church, announce that you’ve accepted Jesus as your personal Savoir, and, so long as you really believe it, you’re set. 

From that point on there is nothing you can do, no sin you can commit, no matter how heinous, that will forfeit your salvation. You can’t undo your salvation, even if you wanted to.


~end of comment~


I wanted to respond to two statements the reader made.


The reader stated "You can heed the altar call at church, announce that you’ve accepted Jesus as your personal Savoir, and, so long as you really believe it, you’re set."


This is my response.


Scripture teaches -


Romans 10:17 "Consequently faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ."


John 8:24 "I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be."


Acts 17 :30 "In the past God overlooked such ignorance , but now he commands all people everywhere to repent."


Romans 10:9-10 "That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord', and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."


Acts 2:38 "Peter replied, 'Repent and be baptized everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.  And you will received the gift of the Holy Spirit."


The reader also stated "From that point on there is nothing you can do, no sin you can commit, no matter how heinous, that will forfeit your salvation. You can’t undo your salvation, even if you wanted to."


This is my response. 


Scripture teaches -


II Peter 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."


I Corinthians 15:2 "By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.  Otherwise, you have believed in vain."


Colossians 2:22-23 "But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel."


I Corinthians 10:12 "So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!"


I Thessalonians 3:8 "For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord."


John 8:31 "To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, 'If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples."


James 5:19 "My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this 'Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins."


Hebrews 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 subjected him to public disgrace."


II Peter 3:17 "Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position."


Philippians 2:12 "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling."


II Timothy 2:11-13 "Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will disown us; if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself."


I Corinthians 9:25-27 "Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.  They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.  Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.  No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified from the prize."


I Timothy 1:5 "The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.  Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk."


I Timothy 6:20 "Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care.  Turn away from godless chatter and  the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith."


II Peter 1:10 "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, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."


I John 2:24 "See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you.  If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father."


II John 1:7 "Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully.  Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues  in the teaching has both the Father and the Son."


Matthew 6:14 "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive you sins."


Matthew 24:9-11 "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.  At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.  Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved."


Luke 12:8-10 "I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God.  But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against theSon of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirt will not be forgiven."


Revelation 2:10 "Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life."


Hebrews 10:26 "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgement and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.  Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony  of two or three witnesses.  How much more severely do you think man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?"