Kolten Turner Discussion Questions

1. Can someone lose their salvation and if so, what would make them lose it?
Throughout my childhood I've upheld the belief that one can lose his or her salvation once it has been given. However, I think it's important to note that it might depend on the level of enlightenment one has received. Some would say that one cannot lose his or her salvation, but rather that person was never truly saved in the first place. I would agree that a large majority of the Christian population who has turned from their beliefs was indeed never truly enlightened by God, but somehow indoctrinated to love something that they never truly understood. They merely survived on the encounters they've had with God, but never allowed God to truly transform their minds. Therefore, I would say those people were never truly saved. However, I find myself wrestling back and forth with this concept because of passages such as Hebrews 6:4-6 which states, "For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened-those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come-and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame." Because of this passage I think it's important to note that humans are inherently bad. Because of the Adam and Eve's sin, we've been given over to the desires of this world. Just as any good person has to constantly uphold their standards in order to maintain a proper reputation, so does a Christian have to constantly maintain his or her relationship with God in order to function as Jesus would have functioned. I think it's a little, for the lack of a better term, lazy to say that we can never be deceived back into the world. Our minds/opinions/emotions are constantly changing and without a constant connection to Jesus we can easily fall back into sin. If we can easily fall back into sin and we are certainly habitual creatures, is it not totally possible that what was once crucified (sin in our lives) can be resurrected by time and time again giving into temptation and then eventually becoming a habitual sinner which will only lead us further and further from the truth?

2.What image do you naturally gravitate toward for salvation and why?
For the majority of my christian life, I've always pictured Jesus on the cross when speaking of salvation. I think I relate Jesus' death to God saving us from our sin because He goes to the cross to die for the sins of humanity. It's interesting that the Catholic church chooses the crucifix over a simple cross to be mounted in the church. I've always upheld the belief that protestants choose a simple cross because it a reminder that our God is not dead but rather alive and with us. However, I always picture the crucifix when speaking of salvation, but without Jesus coming down from that cross, we could not receive it. A simple death could not save us from sin, but God had to be resurrected because He is the only one who could save us and the only one who could be resurrected.