I was raised a Southern Baptist in Alabama. Eternal security was taught as the way things were. I bought into it to a very extreme extent. In fact, I thought that all you had to do was pray a prayer and you were set for eternity. I had no idea that God actually wanted us to have a relationship with him. I went for years missing the entire point of scripture. I did not know God or Jesus and was headed for hell but thought I was fine because when I was 15 I had prayed a prayer. I had gone on to leave church for 5 years and then return. However, even though I went, I seldom even thought of God when I was not in church. I also had a lot of emotional problems during these years. I was in and out of psych units with major depression and the desire to end my life.
Finally in 1996 I met someone who began to work with me and taught me that Jesus came to save me and to set me free. In March of 1997 I turned my life around for the first time. I realized I could not do it on my own and I reached out to God and found him. I have not been hospitalized for emotional problems since that point. The next day I was filled with the Holy Spirit and I left the Southern Baptist Church.
However, the non-denominational church I attended still taught once saved always saved. I began to question it but still believed it to some extent. In 1999 my dad, a high priest in the mormon church, died. Before his death I asked my sister to go with me to witness to him but she saw no reason. Why? Because she was a Southern Baptist and believed once saved always saved and my dad had joined a baptist church as a child so she felt he was eternally secure even though he had abandoned Christianity for mormonism. This just did not make sense to me. My dad died still a mormon and without a relationship with Jesus Christ. I began paying attention to Christian message boards on the internet that discussed once saved always saved and finally realized the doctrine had no basis in scripture and totally turned from believing it.
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