The Fourth Wise Man Story

Yesterday, while my husband and I were having lunch, we were discussing about a question brought up by EY and her mother at the end of the last Friday Bible study. As far as I can remember, she asked something like this, "If someone is elected to be saved, will one lose one's salvation?" Nn, who was not the leader that time, offered her answer to EY's question, which is, "not necessarily, for Judas was chosen by Jesus, but he didn't receive salvation." The end answer "...he didn't receive salvation" was right, but her answer was wrong. Because Judas was never chosen to be saved, but only as a disciple, according to my husband's explaination, which I agree. This brought us to think of a situation where if someone is Christian, but then later on, (s)he switched to another belief, would (s)he still be saved? We both believed that (s)he would not receive salvation at the end. Why not?? Then my husband told me the story of "The Fourth Wise Man" by Henry van Dyke in 1895. Here is the short summary I got from wikipedia.org:

The story is an addition and expansion of the account of the Biblical Magi, recounted in the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.^[4] It tells about a "fourth" wise man (assuming the tradition that the Magi numbered three to be true), a priest of the Magi named Artaban, one of the Medes from Persia. Like the other Magi, he sees signs in the heavens proclaiming that a King had been born among the Jews. Like them, he sets out to see the newborn ruler, carrying treasures to give as gifts to the child - a sapphire, a ruby, and a pearl of great price. However, he stops along the way to help a dying man, which makes him late to meet with the caravan of the other three wise men (from the Bible). Since he missed the caravan, and he can't cross the desert with only a horse, he is forced to sell one of his treasures in order to buy the camels and supplies necessary for the trip. He then commences his journey but arrives in Bethlehem too late to see the child, whose parents have fled to Egypt. He saves the life of a child at the price of another of his treasures. He then travels to Egypt and to many other countries, searching for Jesus for many years and performing acts of charity along the way. After thirty-three years, Artaban is still a pilgrim, and a seeker after light. Artaban arrives in Jerusalem in time for the crucifixion of Jesus. He spends his last treasure, the pearl, to ransom a young woman from being sold into slavery. He is then struck in the temple by a falling roof tile, and is about to die, having failed in his quest, and yet he knew that all was well, because he had done the best he could. A voice tells him "Verily I say unto thee, Inasmuch as thou hast done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, thou hast done it unto me," and he dies in a calm radiance of wonder and joy. His treasures were accepted, and the Other Wise Man found his King.

After hearing that story, I did somehow agree with the ending...just for a few seconds...until my husband reminded me of the Truth in the Bible when Judas Iscariot suggested to sell the expansive parfume Mary was using to wash Jesus' feet and gave the money to the poor.  And Jesus responded, "You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me" (John 12:3-8) which is completely against the ending of the story of The Fourth Wise Man.