John ten does not stand in isolation from John fifteen in which branches from the vine are pruned and burned. Those branches are in Christ until they are pruned and burned. Nobody can read the two chapters without coming away knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ wants the faithful to follow him and bear much fruit. "Once saved always saved" is a slogan that does no justice to the teaching of Christ.
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. (John 15:1-11 KJV)
Once again, no interaction with the text provided.
I noticed no interaction with either my post or the scripture quoted in it or the link between chapters ten and fifteen in the gospel according to saint John. But that is how the 'game' is played isn't it? The game is to avoid some passages so one can pretend that other passages are the clincher for one's point of view, right?
John chapter ten does not teach "once saved always saved". In the parable of the sheep fold the sheep fold is the Church: the good shepherd, and also the door is Christ: the thieves and robbers are false guides; the hirelings, such ministers as seek their own profit and gain, and a good living, as they call it; the wolves, heretics; the sheep not yet brought into the fold, the Gentiles not then converted.
Comments on John chapter 10 from The Cambridge Bible Commentary:
In chapters 5 and 6 two miracles, the healing of the paralytic and the feeding of the five thousand, formed the introduction to two discourses in which Christ is set forth as the Source and the Support of Life. In chapters 7 and 8 we have a discourse in which He is set forth as the Source of Truth and Light, and this is illustrated (9) by His giving physical and spiritual sight to the man born blind. In chap. 10 we again have a discourse in which Christ is set forth as Love, under the figure of the Good Shepherd giving His life for the sheep, and this is illustrated (11) by the raising of Lazarus, a work of Love which costs Him His life. As already stated, the prevailing idea throughout this section (5–11) is truth and love provoking contradiction and enmity. The more clearly the Messiah manifests Himself, and the more often He convinces some of His hearers of His Messiahship (Joh 7:40-41; Joh 7:46; Joh 7:50, Joh 8:30, Joh 9:30-38, Joh 10:21; Joh 10:42, Joh 11:45), the more intense becomes the hostility of ‘the Jews’ and the more determined their intention to kill Him.
