Do Free-Will Baptists believe in losing salvation?

[BlackSaab52]

I'm just curious, because I thought they did, but I was not sure. I thought that with the "Free-Will" in the denomination's name that they would believe so.

[Moma E]

Yes, they do. My cousins are FWB (used to be). Went to church there every summer, and still do visit. Last summer I actually heard a message explaining that particular doctrine.. I will have to look up the verses they used. (cause I am old and can not remember them.)
But the short answer is yes.

[rural_preacher]

Here is the official statement from the National Association of Free Will Baptists:

Perseverance--We believe that there are strong grounds to hope that the saved will persevere unto the end and be saved because of the power of divine grace pledged for their support. We believe that any saved person who has sinned (whether we call him a backslider or sinner), but has a desire to repent, may do so and be restored to God's favor and fellowship. Since man, however, continues to have free choice, it is possible because of temptations and the weakness of human flesh for him to fall into the practice of sin and to make shipwreck of his faith and be lost.
http://nafwb.net/tp17/page.asp?ID=766

[Moma E]

Thanks for digging that up for us.

[aReformedPatriot]

Yup, And I agree.

[BlackSaab52]

I was just curious about it. The good thing about being a Baptist is that if I changed my more Calvinist convictions to more Arminian ones, I can still do so and remain a Baptist, because sometimes I wonder which side is more right. I feel very strongly about election, though, so I doubt that I would become a Free-Will Baptist.

[FranklinNoble]

I don't know about Free-Will Baptists, but I don't believe that your salvation can be lost. That seems to cheapen the power of Christ's blood.

[rural_preacher]

I was just curious about it. The good thing about being a Baptist is that if I changed my more Calvinist convictions to more Arminian ones, I can still do so and remain a Baptist, because sometimes I wonder which side is more right. I feel very strongly about election, though, so I doubt that I would become a Free-Will Baptist.
Neither one is "more right". Both Calvinism and Arminianism are theological systems of human origin. They are both an attempt to use mere human reasoning to explain the truth of an infinite God. Because the natural mind cannot find a way to logically accept the fact of human free will and divine election, they come up with systems to explain it using natural reasoning. One decides that only God's sovereignty and election can be true; the other decides that only man's free will can be true.

God's Word clearly teaches both...God is absolutely sovereign and has a perfect plan in election. And God has created man as a free moral agent. Both are equally true in Scripture and both are in complete harmony in God's mind. The two cannot coexist in human logic but "the foolishness of God is wiser than men" (I Corinthians 1).

One can resolve all of this by setting aside these finite human systems and submitting themselves to the mind of Christ through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit and the Word of God.

"But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is rightly discerned by no one. For 'who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?' But we have the mind of Christ" I Corinthians 2:14-16.

(Just for the record: I believe in the security and perseverance of the true believer. Ephesians 4:30.)

Praise God!:clap:

[daveleau]

I'm just curious, because I thought they did, but I was not sure. I thought that with the "Free-Will" in the denomination's name that they would believe so.

I am a free will Baptist, of sorts, and I believe in eternal salvation. I believe that those that "backslide" are either diminishing their riches in Heaven or were never saved (only God knows).