It seems to me that much confusion is caused by reading the New Testament without the proper understanding of true believers and false believers.

In Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8, the Lord Jesus gives us 'the parable of the sower' which I prefer to call 'the parable of the soils.' In this parable, there is one sower and one seed, but the seed is sown several different types of soils. The soils, of course, represent different types of men's hearts.

1. First, there is the seed sown by the wayside. This seed lays out in the open, and the birds come and eat it. Satan takes away the Gospel from these hearts before it can take root and bear fruit.
2. Next, there is the seed sown on stony, unreceptive ground. These hearts may have temporary gladness at hearing the word, but the Gospel never takes root here either. (Herod is a good example of this. He heard John "gladly" in Mark 6:20, but then had him beheaded rather than lose face in front of his own lords and captains.)
3. The seed also falls among thorns, the cares of this world. This heart has so many cares that the Gospel can't bear its fruit of salvation.
   
4. Finally, there is the good ground of a prepared heart. This is the only heart that experiences salvation.

At the end of this parable, Jesus says in Mark 4:13, "Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?"

He was saying that there are two kinds of hearts, the receptive and the non-receptive. The receptive has three types (30-, 60,- and 100-fold), and the non-receptive has three types (wayside, stony and thorny). That is, there are those who are saved, and those who are lost. However, there also appear to be some who are saved but then become lost again.

Possessors and professors. Some possess true salvation, some just profess to.
Jesus says that this idea is the key to understanding "all parables."

• In Matthew 13, the possessors are called "wheat" and the professors are called "tares." They look the same, both start as golden seeds. One is good and grows into wheat. The other is a tare, a poisonous wheat. They are allowed to grow together until the Harvest when they are finally separated from each other with the tares (i.e., the lost) being burned.

• Also in Matthew 13, Jesus tells the parable of the drawn net. The kingdom of heaven catches many kinds of fish. They are all in the net. However, at the time of fullness, the net is drawn to shore, and the wicked are separated from the just. The wicked fish are cast into the fire to be burned.

• In Matthew 22, the Lord gives us the parable of the marriage. Many people are invited to a wedding, but they make excuses, treat his servants poorly, and refuse to come. These are clearly the lost. Then there are those who actually come to the wedding. Most have a wedding garment, but one fella did not have a wedding garment. This fella seems to be surprised ("speechless", v. 12) that he is not welcome. Like the wicked fish and false tares, he is also cast out, "there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." ("Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Matthew 7:22-23)

• In Matthew 25, ten virgins are waiting for the Bridegroom to come. Five represent true believers, having oil (i.e., the Spirit) in their lamps. The other five are waiting also, but they seem oblivious to their true condition. They have no oil in their lamps. When the Lord came, the marriage started, and those who were ready went right on inside. And the door was shut. The five oil-less virgins wanted inside, but the Lord says to them, "I know you not." This echoes the Lord's words of Matthew 7, "I never know you." They were never saved; they just thought they were.

This theme of the truly saved and apparently saved finds its way into the New Testament in other places as well. The entire book of Jude deals with this subject.

Jude is written to the truly saved, those who are "sanctified," "preserved," and "called." He tells these true believers that some of their congregation are NOT really saved. This is the context of the oft-misquoted admonition to "contend for the faith," which has nothing to do with endless quarreling over minor doctrinal points, and everything to do with making sure that every, single member of the local church is saved.

Jude makes a plain division between the saints and the "ungodly," between those who are "sensual, having not the Spirit" and those who pray "in the Holy Ghost." He gives the characteristics of these false brethren so that they can more easily be found out, and he tells how best to convert them.

Second Peter chapter two is almost a word-for-word reiteration of Jude. Here, Peter refers to these false brethren not as brethren who have 'lost' their salvation, but as "false prophets" and "false teachers." He calls these unsaved church goers "natural brute beasts," "spots" and "servants of corruption."

2 Peter 2:20 says, "For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning." This is not a statement that the saved can lose their salvation, but rather is similar to the seed that finds its way among thorns. The cares of this world strangle and choke the word so that it can't bear the fruit of salvation. They sit in church, they hear the word, but they also hear the call of the world. They listen, but they do not receive the Gospel.

In 1st John 2:19, John also mentions 'false' conversions. "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us." John does not say that they went out from us, rejecting Christ and losing their salvation. He does say that their going out from us, their rejection of Christ, shows that they were never saved to begin with. Why is he so certain? Because, if they had been saved, they "no doubt" would have continued with us. The saved stay saved. The lost have their true colors revealed, sometimes even to themselves, when persecution arises. If not then, their true colors will be revealed when Christ returns.

Lack of proper teaching on this subject has given rise to the idea that Christians can lose their salvation, walk away from their salvation, etc. This however is just not the case.

Are you a possessor or merely a self-deceived professor? "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."