Hello. I see this verse used a lot by people in the "once saved always saved" camp or the "saved before you were even born" camp. Catholics, by contrast, believe you have to remain in communion with the church, where you have access to the sacraments, in order to be saved. (See
http://www.catholic.com/quickquestio...person-to-hell). But there is a third belief. The belief that while no one
else can take you out of God's hand, you can freely choose to leave if that's what you really
really want to do. Believing in sacramental salvation means that some man can indeed come between you and God. I reject that view as unbiblical. There is only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 2:5).
So how does this work in practice? I don't think if I'm driving down the street in full communion with my God and I see a sexy jogger in a bikini and "lust with her in my heart" then immediately have an accident due to my being distracted and die before I can say "Lord forgive" me (let alone die before someone can give me last rites) that I'm going to hell. Or lets make it more interesting. My death is such that, for whatever reason, no priest or fellow Christian knows I'm dead. (I'm hiking in the Amazon, see some sexy native taking a bath in a waterfall, and get eaten by a leopard.) Same thing. I don't think God's that eager to throw me away nor that He will leave my salvation to chance that some missionary may find my bones and pray for me.
But on the flip side there are those who at one time had faith in God, turned their back on God, and never came back. Charles Darwin was very much a Christian when he set out on his journey that ultimately led him to challenge creationism. Eventually he became an agnostic. All credible accounts are that he died that way. Some would say "Well he never had faith to begin with". Well...he certainly believed he had faith. So if someone might think they have faith, but they never really had it in the first place, then what kind of "assurance" is that?
Anyway, that's my belief. Nothing that anyone else can do can separate me from God. Being denied sacraments does not cut me off from God, nor does it necessarily show that God has already cut me off. God isn't going to cast me away like damaged goods for some temporary mistake. But I still have the freedom to say "Enough of this God. You go your way, I'll go mine."
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