Here's what I say about this whole stop believing thing.
Once you've been saying, once you've been illuminated,
once the Holy Spirit lives inside you,
you're not going to stop believing.
Now I believe you can doubt.
Most people in the Bible doubt it at some time or another.
The Bible talks about doubting, John the Baptist's dad.
Okay, but here's the thing. Think about this.
Let's say little kids are lied to and told that Santa Claus is real.
Well, let's say then they grow up and they realize, hey, that was a lie.
You know, Santa Claus is not real.
Santa Claus was not delivering those presents.
Now, thank God my parents never told me that lie.
They wanted to take credit for what they're paying for.
They're tripping into some, you know,
God, we don't even know, sorry, we bought that for you.
You know?
So, let's say I realize at some point, hey, Santa's not real.
You know what I mean?
It's my mom and dad that have been giving me this stuff all along.
Do you think later on I'm going to go back to say, no, Santa was real.
Do you think there's anybody who quits believing in Santa
and then goes back and says, no, Santa is real.
He's a real, you know.
No, it's a one-way street, isn't it?
Believing in Santa is a one-way street.
There are those who start out believing in him and then quit believing in him,
but there are not those who reject him and then later they just confess him
and realize, Santa Claus is really watching me when I'm asleep.
I mean, unless the U.S. government, Santa Claus, he ain't watching you 24-7.
You know, he doesn't have a surveillance drone or, you know,
a camera in your phone watching you.
So, you know, Santa Claus is not real and so it's a one-way thing.
I believe salvation is the same way.
You know, once you realize the truth of God and the Lord Jesus Christ
in the Bible, you don't go back because now you have the Holy Spirit inside you
bearing witness with your spirit that you're a child of God.
I'm not saying that you're not going to doubt as you quench the Spirit
as you go into sin and get away from the Word of God.
Your faith may become weaker and you're going to doubt,
but I don't necessarily believe that you're just going to completely just,
I don't believe that at all.
But here's the thing, even if you theoretically did, you'd still be saved.
Amen.
Let's say it is possible for a person to say,
wow, I don't believe it anymore.
You'd still be saved because you're still,
I mean, if my kids stop believing that they're my kids and say,
I think we have a different father.
This is not our dad.
You know what? They're still my kids.
Nothing can change that.
The same with God.
Even if I stopped believing, the Bible says if we have believed not,
yet he abideth faithful.
He cannot deny himself.
And so if we have everlasting life, we have eternal life,
there's no way to lose that even if you theoretically could stop believing.
And that could be debatable, you know, to what degree a person will stop believing.
You're still saved. You can't lose it. There's no way to lose it.