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I am sorry, but I did not say "God removes free will and protects faith."
Sir, I fear you are presenting man-made doctrine with no foundation is scripture.
Believers do not lose their free will but at the same time we are new creations in Christ and have been made partakers of the divine nature. (2 Corinthians 5:17; 2 Peter 1:4) We have been changed. Praise God! There are warnings about falling away because there are genuine Christians and "nominal" Christians mixed together throughout Scripture. (Matthew 7:15-23; 13:24-30; John 6:60-64; Acts 20:29-31; Hebrews 4:1-3; 10:39; 1 John 2:19 etc..).
No, I prefer exegesis over eisegesis. We need to properly harmonize scripture with scripture before reaching our conclusion on doctrine.
1 Timothy 4:1 - Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, 3 forbidding to marry, (reminds me of Roman Catholicism) and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. The faith in this context means the apostolic faith, the New Testament apostolic body of doctrines. Some who are in a state of professing adherence to the apostolic faith, nevertheless, will in both doctrine and practice depart from it, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. Some "nominal" Christians/superficial believers will abandon the Christian faith, the New Testament apostolic body of doctrines for cults or false religions. That does not prove they had saving faith in Christ and were previously born again. (1 John 2:19)
Those who draw back to perdition do not believe to the saving of the soul and those who believe to the saving of the soul do not draw back to perdition. In context, going back to Hebrews 10:26, to "sin willfully" here carries the idea of deliberate intention that is habitual, which stems from rejecting Christ deliberately. This is continuous action, a matter of practice. Now we don't walk along our daily life and "accidentally" fall into a pit called sin. We exercise our will but, the use of the participle clearly shows continuous, willful, continuous action. The unrighteous practice sin (1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19-21); not the righteous, who are born of God. (1 Corinthians 6:11; 1 John 3:9) Confidence is rooted in the sacrificial death and blood of Jesus, yet those who draw back to perdition and do not believe to the saving of the soul (Hebrews 10:39) demonstrate a lack of full confidence which culminates in a lack of perseverance.
Those who are truly born of God are partakers of the divine nature. (2 Peter 1:4) They have been transformed from pigs and dogs into sheep. The change is more than just cosmetic, as in 2 Peter 2:20.
Well then show me the specific words "lose or lost salvation" in scripture or perhaps the words UN-regenerated or UN-sealed by the Holy Spirit. That would be conclusive proof for your argument. One can fall away from a position they professed to hold after considering the truth for a time, then a hardened heart and departure from God became their final answer. Such people were exposed to the truth and may have even been on the verge of embracing the truth, but they chose to permanently fall away instead. We see this throughout the book of Hebrews. (Hebrews 3:6-14; 4:1-11; 6:4-9; 10:26-39; 12:15) I may decide that I'm going to walk across the Brooklyn bridge and walk right up to the bridge and just before I take one step onto the bridge turn away and depart from the bridge. I don't actually need to be on the bridge in order to depart from it.
The word "IF" in Colossians 1:23, having here the idea of "assuming that you continue in the faith." That is, continuance would show that the person's faith was firmly rooted and established in the hope of the gospel to begin with. Failing to continue demonstrates otherwise.
All the letters in the NT are written to Christians, but that does not mean that everyone in these large groups of professing Christians are all genuine Christians. Once again, it makes sense that Paul would speak this way because he is addressing groups of people who all "profess" to be Christians without being able to infallibly know the actual state of every person's heart. How can Paul avoid giving them false assurance of salvation here when in fact some of them may not be saved? Paul knows that faith which is firmly grounded and established in the gospel from the start will continue. Those who continue in the faith demonstrate that they are genuine believers. Those who fail to continue demonstrate otherwise.
Nominal Christians outnumber genuine Christians by far in the "professing" Christian world. If you attended a very large church on Sunday and the Pastor greeted the congregation that morning with, "good morning brothers and sisters in Christ" would you automatically assume that everyone who attended church that Sunday morning must be a genuine brother or sister in Christ because of that greeting? The Bible talks about wheat and tares and the tares outnumber the wheat.
Must read Hebrews in the context of a community gathering assembly, as author wants to make very sure that during hard times for the church, those who profess to Know Jesus actually will confirm and prove it by preserving unto very end, and if they turn aside, were never really one of his own, but a goat acting as a sheep for awhile
Calvinism takes faith out of the equation. Eternal security takes faith out at the moment one accepts Christ. Arminianism taches that one is saved by grace through continuous faith (the present participle in Romans 4:5) and believers have the assurance of salvation because they maintain that kind of faith (the participle in 1 John 5:13).
2 Peter 2:21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
Present participles confirm what I said about genuine faith continuing vs. a shallow or spurious faith that does not continue. In regard to Matthew 5:29-30, Jesus' audience was primarily Jewish and He was bringing things to light for those who looked to the law and the prophets.
If the theology you once loved is Reformed theology then you will know that it does not speak of "once saved, always saved," but "the perseverance of the saints." This comes from Matthew 24:13, "But he who endures to the end shall be saved." I think the Reformers and Puritans would be astonished at your diatribe against Reformed theology.
I read through the thread and saw that no one has answered your points from the Greek, so I will. (Full disclosure: I am a Greek prof.) The "continuous" thing you are talking about is called verbal aspect, or "the view of the action that the speaker chooses to present to the hearer" (David Alan Black, Learn to Read New Testament Greek, p. 14). Aspect is a little different from aktionsart, which is the "kind of action" the verb represents. Black teaches that the present tense (including the participles) can be either aoristic (one time only) or imperfective (continuous) in aspect. When you interpret all Greek present participles as being continuous, you are mistaken. They can also represent one time action. Black says, "The present is basically imperfective ('I am loving'), though it may also be aoristic ('I love')" (p. 15). (There is also perfective aspect in Black's scheme.)
Just because someone was saved in the past when they believed, does not mean that somehow they stopped believing. I believed in Jesus Christ when I was saved, and I still am continuously believing in Him. That verse does not prove you can lose your salvation in any way, shape or form.
The verb tenses of John 10:27 are all present active indicative. They are not participles. According to verbal aspect, the present active indicative can be either aoristic aspect (one time only) or imperfective (continually) aspect. You have gone a bridge too far in your interpretation.
I agree and I would value your input on this. How would you explain what seems to happen occasionally where people seem to leave the faith, even after seeming to be saved and in some prominent and public cases, seeming to be greatly used in ministry for a long time? I tend to agree with the explanation @Martin Marprelate gave above. I came from a IFB background and some of those churches, and some of the evangelical churches in the US at least seemed to drift into a kind of easy believism where once you were save it didn't matter what you did later, you simply were saved, and living a Christian life, or avoiding sin, was a good but not essential option.