Can Christians Lose Salvation?
The parables of the Lord Jesus are wonderful stories that illustrate biblical doctrine, but as we read the parables we need to remember that we don’t formulate doctrine from the parables. All kinds of unbiblical ideas and unsubstantiated “doctrines” can be constructed from parables if we forget that the parables are only illustrations. For example, the parable of the sower could be made to teach that believers can lose their salvation–after all, the seed in the stony ground and the thorny ground did germinate and come to life before it died out! But the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer is clearly taught in Scripture. Does that make the parable of the sower a contradiction in the Bible? No! Even though the seed that fell in the rocky and thorny ground germinated and then died off, the parable was not teaching that you can lose your salvation, because the purpose of the parable was to illustrate the different heart responses to the proclamation of the Word of God and the
