“Can a Christian apostatize?” It is one of the most pivotal questions
in Christian soteriology, dividing scholars and theologians since the
time of Augustine of Hippo. Its mere discussion sparked one of the
most schismatic contentions in the Protestant church – the Calvinist-
Arminian debate – whose effects linger among Christian scholars
to this day. As if to settle the debate once and for all, Anastasios
Kioulachoglou defends the view that Christians can indeed fall away
from the faith, and presents a multitude of New Testament passages
to support his stance in this short work.

While its title may seem a bit vague, Kioulachoglou’s book does it full justice: The Warnings of the New
Testament is a ground-and-pound work that gives no quarter. From start to finish, the book is an absolute
onslaught of New Testament passages appealing to the author’s point that “once saved” does not mean “forever
saved.” Kioulachoglou’s succinct and straightforward writing is quite evident in this work, with the author
wasting little time on theological theories and postulations, preferring to draw his support straight from the
biblical canon. He lays out the conditions for salvation as established by the New Covenant in the first chapter:
“Salvation is given free, by grace, as a gift to everyone who believes in Jesus Christ as his Lord, the Messiah, the
Son of God.” From then on, Kioulachoglou lists an impressive amount of passages that support his premise of conditional preservation, as well as excerpts from Bible commentators (notably Albert Barnes). The author is also careful to provide the original meaning and context of specific key terms employed in some of these passages, and after presenting all his biblical evidence for the possibility of falling away from the faith, Kioulachoglou concludes his book by addressing the most common objections he has found while teaching this view of salvation.
Kioulachoglou’s examination of apostasy and backsliding in The Warnings of the New Testament stacks
evidence with persuasion. Rather than becoming tangled with the history and the polarizing opinions concerning these two subjects, the book is devoted unswervingly to “tell it like it is” and to show how Jesus and the Apostles address falling away from the faith and its dire consequences. This work is currently available as a free PDF on the Journal of Biblical Accuracy website, while its eBook and printed versions can be acquired on Amazon.

BY DANIEL GOMES

APOSTATIZING AND BACKSLIDING
IN TOUGH TOPICS
Losing salvation and apostatizing are
included in Sam Storms’ Tough Topics,
which argues for the Calvinist view
of eternal security. Storms relies heavily
on the concept of unconditional
election of the predestined saints as
described in Romans 8, as well as Jesus’
sayings as recorded in John 6, to
prove that losing salvation is impossible.
The theologian also uses John 10,
Philippians 1:6 and Jude 24-25 to support
his claim – passages addressed
by Kioulachoglou as some of the most
common objections to backsliding. In
turn, Storms claims that Hebrews 6
and 10 – two passages that Kioulachoglou
presents as “warnings” – do not
actually advocate apostasy, devoting a
section of his book to this argument:
“whereas all true Christians have been
enlightened, not all those who are enlightened
are true Christians.” Kioulachoglou
counters this by presenting
Albert Barnes’ take on Hebrews 6, which
backs up the Greek author.
As made plainly clear in the review’s
introduction, the subject of apostasy
is a divisive one. The possibility of its
fruition and the consequences of such
have been debated for several centuries,
with no end in sight. That being
said, this is not a subject to be ignored;
a careful cross-examination of both
authors’ works may enlighten different
people in different ways – and that is
fine, as long as Christians do not forsake
the brotherly love they are supposed
to share with one another.