John 10:
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
30 I and my Father are one.
Hebrews 13:
5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Heb. 3:14
14 For we actually become partakers of the Christ
only if we make fast our hold on the confidence we had at the beginning firm to the end,
Those are very nice scriptures but really don't deal with the whole story plucked out like that - As Jesus will not forsake anyone unless they forsake him. It's pretty obvious by the scriptures that even the apostles were afraid of backsliding and warned against it many many times. Why would they do that if you couldn't lose salvation? People back then would have looked at them like they were nuts for even mentioning it. No, but that's not how their message was received in the Congregations.
Jesus himself said "he that endures till the end" (possibly even to the death) is the one he saves.
Matt. 10:22; 24:12, 13; Mark 13:13 --
There actually would be no point in the law of Christ or of any God's laws if you are saved no matter what you do. After all God himself says "the soul that is sinning will surely die". The purpose of cleansing the earth is to get rid of those sinning not to make a way for sinners to continue sinning.
Of course that doesn't mean you have to die nor will everyone but it does mean just because you have the chance for eternal life you automatically receive it because you simply believe in Jesus. I realize the scripture that people think "entitles" them to this however, it doesn't in any way exclude them from these other scriptures that state other wise - including ones Jesus himself said in Matthew. He's not contradicting himself, but better telling those that would follow him that if they do indeed follow "every utterance from his mouth" they will be able to obtain the gift of everlasting life.
The wolves are not saved people, they aren't sheep.
Yet Jesus said when he was talking to the apostles not to look down on them because MANY of them (the apostles) were once as they were (Wolves). Take Paul himself -- actually was there and HELPED in the mob murder of Stephen.
And looking from the other direction Paul told the disciples of Christ that they should be on guard against apostasy -- those leaving Christs fold and returning to teach apostasy to the Congregations and stumble or mislead those brothers - there by costing them their lives. That was a warning to you also...
That is the point...
Surely Paul was a saved Christian? Yet Paul was the one that gave the illustration of running a race
1 Cor. 9:24-27, and believed that even he could be “disqualified” from the race. As he pointed out.
Yet as long as he continued to ‘run that he might obtain’ the prize, thus remaining in the race, salvation was assured. This is why Christians who remain in the race can be said to ‘have everlasting life.’ But if they should ever quit the race, they are “disqualified,” losing their hold on everlasting life.
Paul followed up his remarks on the Christian’s race by cautioning about the danger of overconfidence.
1 Cor. 10:1-12.What would be the point of stressing any of this at all - if once saved always saved?