I believe the question you read was back on August 19^th.  I would encourage our readers to go back and read that if they haven’t done so. My answer to that question deals specifically with the “unequal yoke” which was also referred to in the question. Regarding your situation, you say that your husband “was a believer,” but “for the past several years, he does not.” I would like to show you, from Scripture, that if one has truly believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and eternal life, they will continue believing on Him. In other words, a true believer will never stop believing. He/she has eternal life and they shall never perish. Here are some simple and clear scriptures that teach us this:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE” (John 3:16…NKJV).

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and BELIEVES HIM WHO SENT ME, HAS ETERNAL LIFE, and DOES NOT COME INTO JUDGMENT, but has passed out of death into life” (John 5:24…NASB).

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I GIVE ETERNAL LIFE TO THEM, AND THEY WILL NEVER PERISH” (John 10:27-28).

“These things I have written to YOU WHO BELIEVE IN THE NAME OF THE SON OF GOD, so that you may know that YOU HAVE ETERNAL LIFE” (1^st John 5:13).

These passages confirm the fact that the BELIEVER HAS ETERNAL LIFE and THEY WILL NEVER PERISH. If there was such a thing as one ceasing to believe and perishing, the Lord would have said so. Instead, He was emphatic in stating “they will never perish,” which means “they will never stop believing!”

I often encounter people who deny the eternal security of the believer and their argument usually goes like this, “I know the believer will never perish, but we have free will and just as we are free to believe on Christ, we are free to quit believing on Christ and then we will perish.” They may not realize this, but they are actually teaching that a believer can become an APOSTATE. What is an “apostate?” An “apostate” is “one who renounces a former religious belief and abandons it forever.” I would like to show you some passages of Scripture to prove that a true believer will never renounce their belief in Christ and abandon it. “Now the just shall live by faith; but if ANYONE DRAWS BACK, My soul has no pleasure in him. But WE ARE NOT OF THOSE WHO DRAW BACK TO PERDITION, but of THOSE WHO BELIEVE to the saving of the soul” (Hebrews 10:38-39). There were some Hebrews who had professed faith in Christ but were contemplating abandoning Christ and going back to the Jewish religion (i.e. Judaism). If they did, it would prove that THEY HAD NEVER REALLY BELIEVED, for the verse teaches us that the true believer in Christ IS NOT OF THOSE WHO DRAW BACK TO PERDITION; in other words, they don’t renounce the faith and abandon it. Instead they “believe to the saving of the soul.” We have this same truth in 1^st John 2:19 where the Apostle John speaks of those who “went out FROM US, but they were NOT OF US.” He then went on to say, “For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.” Is this not clear? A true believer will continue believing in Christ and remain in the Christian fellowship of believers. Yet those who had never really believed and yet had kept company with Christians, will, at some point, abandon the fellowship of believers because “they were not of us.”

If your husband has literally “renounced his faith in Christ and abandoned it altogether,” he is on very dangerous ground for this would be an act of APOSTACY and it would prove he had never really believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior. But if he has denied Christ, he could be a true believer who has backslidden and needs to be “restored to fellowship with the Lord and His people.” In that case you should seek to help him to be restored. We read in Galatians 6:1, “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual RESTORE SUCH A ONE in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.” This is a very important work and as we see in this verse one must be gentle (tender and humble) and realize that you too could fall into temptation and be in need of restoration. You may be thinking, “What exactly can I do to restore him? “First of all, it’s vital to remember that it is the Lord who actually “restores the soul,” as David pointed out in Psalm 23:3, “He restores my soul; He leads me in the path of righteousness for His name’s sake.” We read in 1^st John 2:1, “If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” An “Advocate” is someone who “comes along side someone to help them” and thus when a saint falls into sin the Lord Jesus comes alongside of them to restore them to fellowship with the Father and Himself. He wants to bring the wandering believer to “confess his/her sin” and then claim the promise of 1^st John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Your part in this restoration process is to be a godly testimony to your husband through your LIFE in order to “win him over” to the Lord (see 1^st Peter 3:1 which speaks of “winning an unsaved husband to Christ” yet it can also apply to “winning a backslidden husband back to fellowship with Christ”). The Lord may also give you the opportunity to present His WORD to him, for it is the Word of God that ultimately brings the sinning saint to repentance, confession and restoration to fellowship.  (437.3)  (DO)

To read the original question referenced above, please click on this AFTB link: