Does John 15:6 describe believers who fall away, or (as free grace claims) a man never joined to the vine?
A viewer asks whether John 15:6 (the branch cast forth and burned) refers to believers who were connected to the vine but stopped believing, as against the free grace claim that verse six is a random man who was never connected to the vine at all.
Answer
The free grace movement is one of the most convoluted interpretations of Scripture I have ever seen, and the reason for it is that the eschatology of dispensationalism intrudes on all their readings of the New Testament. They believe that once a person believes in Jesus, that is all he has to do; he could lose that faith tomorrow, never believe in Jesus again, and still be saved, because all it takes is one moment of belief. If there is any theme in the New Testament that is totally against that idea, this is it; it is all over the place. They make a big deal that 'the ones believing' is a substantival participle in the Greek, but all a substantival participle does is turn a participle into a noun. It does not mean the belief was a single past moment that secures salvation forever. John 15 is describing believers who were connected to the vine and stopped believing, and were therefore cast forth as a branch to wither and be burned. The free grace reading, that this is a random man who was never connected to the vine, is completely wrong.