And I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father's hand. (John 10:28-29)
In spite of the rather explicit teaching of passages such as Heb 6:4-9 and 10:26-29, many Evangelicals and others who hold to this pernicious doctrine abuse the above text from the Gospel of John to “prove” their formulation of eternal security, notwithstanding the clear teaching in chapter 15 of the Gospel of John showing that a truly justified person can lose their salvation! So much for the perspicuity of the Bible Protestants claim they accept (an integral part of sola scriptura). One critic of the various formulations of Protestant soteriologies wrote the following in response to the common eisegetical approach to this passage:
In reference to Jesus giving eternal life to the sheep in Jn 10:28-29, advocates of eternal security also commonly say that "if eternal life can be lost, then it is not eternal lost." This kind of argumentation if quite naïve. It confuses the possessor with what he possesses. One can possess eternal life at one time and lost it again at another without changing the quality or nature of eternal life. For example, one can possess a license to drive a car. If he drives recklessly, the state that issued the license can take it away. However, the revocation of the licenses does not change the quality or nature of a driver's license. Anyone else who possesses a driver's license will be able legally to drive on the road, provided of course that he, too, obeys the rules. Similarly, if one's name is included in a will, we can safely say that he "possesses" the inheritance. It is just a matter of time until he will reap the benefit of the inheritance. This does not mean, however, that it is impossible to disinherit him if the benefactor judges his behavior to warrant such action. Likewise, if God disinherits us from eternal life--a possibility, as we have seen earlier, which Paul does not hesitate to warn us if we sin and do not repent (cf. Gl 5:21; 1Co 6:9-10)--this does not change the meaning of eternal life but merely defines how one can lost it. Peter tells us in 1Pt 1:4 that the inheritance itself is incorruptible, and he also tells us in 1Pt 1:5 that our possession of it is through "faith." But the individual, Peter tells us in 2Pt 1:5-10, must cultivate this faith with good works; if he does not, he is "blind" and cannot "make his calling and election sure." According to Peter, we can possess the inheritance through faith, but then lost the inheritance through faithfulness. In 2Pt 2:20-22 he writes:
If they escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are given again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: 'A dog returns to its vomit,' and, 'a sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.'
Since Jesus opened the context by speaking in Jn 10:1-10 of the robber who enters the sheepgate by stealth to steal away the sheep, and in Jn 10:14-16 of the hired and hand who does not protect the sheep when the wolf appears, it is obvious that Jesus is emphasizing his faithfulness to the sheep in contrast to the evil intent and carelessness of others. He is not attempting to teach that the individual sheep know absolutely that they themselves will remain in the fold . . . We must also realize that Jesus is speaking to Jews who consistently showed their stubbornness and hardness of heart. Other passages make it clear that Jesus experiencing repeated rejection of God's message to Jews, knew that God had blinded them so that they could not understand the gospel (Mt 13:11-17). Hence, they were not sheep of his "fold" and could not understand his voice. Jesus remarks about the inability of certain sheep to understand him and the ability of others to understand (Jn 10:1-5, 16, 26). Though some Jews did understand and follow Jesus (Mt 13:11), the nation as a whole had rejected Jesus, and Jesus in turn is rejecting the Jewish nation. He will turn to "other sheep that are not of this sheep pen" and "bring them also" . . . He is not teaching that any one individual can be certain that he will be saved. The individual can be certain of God's plan of salvation, and that if he is faithful to God that God will allow no one to snatch him out of it, but he cannot be certain that he himself will remain faithful. If he could be certain, then Paul's warning in 2Tm 2:12-13 and many other passages simply have no relevant meaning. (Robert A. Sungenis, Not by Faith Alone: The Biblical Evidence for the Catholic Doctrine of Justification [2d ed.; Catholic Apologetics International Publishing, Inc., 2009], 253-54, 256-57; emphasis in original)
