"Once Saved Always Saved"

Eternal Security and the Misuse of “Once Saved, Always Saved”

Hello, and thank you for listening to the Testing the Spirits Podcast. The title of this episode is Once Saved, Always Saved. We're not going to get into whether or not you can lose your salvation. Well, I guess we are going to get into it a little bit, but more, this is the debate, what's the proper way of understanding the doctrine of eternal security?

There was a documentary put out recently titled Once Saved, Always Saved. This was put out by Charismatics and Arminians, and they believe that, yes, you can lose your salvation. And they were speaking against the doctrine of Once Saved, Always Saved.

No surprise there. Their error is that they kind of lumped it in together with the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. So they were complaining that there's all these people out there who say that, hey, you can just say the sinner's prayer, live like the devil, it doesn't even matter because you're going to heaven no matter what because Once Saved, Always Saved.

Yeah, well, not everyone who believes in eternal security looks at it that way. Matter of fact, almost everyone I know doesn't look at it that way. They would agree with the criticism that you can just live however you want because the true biblical doctrine, yes, there is eternal security, but true believers are conformed to the image of Jesus.

True believers keep the faith. True believers, there is sanctification, and that's really the key here. There is a strain of easy believism within, I would say, Baptist churches most commonly. There is a strain of easy believism where people say, yeah, I said the prayer when I was three, I can do what I want, and I'll always be saved.

Well, listen, yeah, the statement itself, Once Saved, Always Saved, is true. But there's a lot of people who think they're saved, and they're not. There's a lot of people who have said the sinner's prayer, but they didn't really understand.

It.

They didn't really mean it. I believe, and I want to be clear on this, I believe the statement, Once Saved, Always Saved, is true. It's true enough, as long as you define it properly. I believe that a person can say the sinner's prayer when they're five and be saved.

I believe that. But you have to look at the big picture. You have to look at the totality of someone's life. You have to say, is there sanctification? Are they becoming more like Jesus? Is there evidence?

Okay, they're saying they're saved. Is there evidence of salvation? And I'll just throw out this disclaimer. You and I, we don't get the final say. Jesus, you know, he's the judge. He knows for sure. Sometimes we get it wrong.

But we are called to test the spirits. That's what we're going to do, okay? So just to back up, this documentary, it was, like I said, a documentary put out titled Once Saved, Always Saved. It was put out by Charismatics and Arminians.

The Difference Between Eternal Security and Easy Believism

And let me just kind of oversimplify for a moment. There are basically two types of Christians. On one side, you have the Baptists, non-denominational churches, Presbyterian, Reformed. This side says that you cannot lose your salvation.

The other side, the Pentecostals, the Methodists, the Wesleyans, Charismatics, Roman Catholics, they all say you can lose your salvation. I'm clearly on this side of things. You cannot lose your salvation.

Therefore, the statement itself, Once Saved, Always Saved, I believe that. If a person is saved, then they will always be saved. But, there are people, usually it's people in the pew, okay? What they hear is that, as long as I said the sinner's prayer, I'm good no matter what.

It was probably the fourth sermon I ever preached. I preached on the subject of eternal security. Afterwards, a woman came up to me and she said, I was so glad you preached on that subject. My daughter, when she was four or whatever, she said the sinner's prayer.

Now, she's in her forties and she's an atheist, but I'm so glad to hear you say that she's still going to heaven because Once Saved, Always Saved. And I thought, I was panicking because I thought, what did I say?

Did I really say that? Well, I don't think I did. I think, you know, some people hear what they want to hear. But I always try to be careful and explain this. So, yes, and I want to be careful here, yes, I believe in the statement, Once Saved, Always Saved.

That is a true statement, but if what you mean by that is what that woman said, that you can walk away from Christ, that you can become apostate, you can become an atheist, you can live like the devil and still be saved or whatever, no, obviously that's not true.

I think it's kind of a straw man argument, honestly. The guys in the documentary sort of set up a straw man because, I mean, who really teaches.

That?

Well, I guess there's somebody out there, but I don't know any church, I don't know any pastor that would get up from the pulpit and say, you know, hey, as long as you said the sinner's prayer, you got your ticket punched, you know, you're guaranteed a place in heaven even if you go out and live like the devil.

I mean, who even says that? But somebody probably said it somewhere, but that's definitely the idea that some people.

Have.

So, again, one last time, Once Saved, Always Saved is a true enough statement, but if you misinterpret it to mean that, it's totally wrong. The true biblical teaching of, if you want to put it this way, eternal security, is best characterized by the doctrine, sometimes it's called Perseverance of the Saints.

Sometimes it's called Preservation of the Saints. Jesus said in John 10, 27 -29, this is the idea of preservation. Jesus said, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.

Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. So, a true believer is preserved in Christ.

We persevere because Romans 8, 29 and 30 says, For whom God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he, that is Christ, might be the firstborn among many brethren. What is that saying?

That a true believer will be conformed to the image of Jesus. A true believer will be sanctified. A true believer will grow in the grace and knowledge and become more like Christ. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called.

Whom he called, these he also justified. Whom he justified, these he also glorified. So everyone who is predestined, everyone who is saved or justified, is also glorified. No one is losing their salvation according to Paul in Romans 8, 29 and 30, or Jesus in John 10, 27 through 29.

And it's very clear. And yeah, we can stack up our verses a mile high and say, see, all these verses say that you can't lose your salvation. But we know that the Armenians and the Charismatics and the Catholics, they have their verses that they stack up and say, see, these verses say you can lose it.

I would say every time they quote a verse that says supposedly you can lose your salvation, it's almost always out of context. The key passage they quote is Hebrews 6, 4 through 6, you know, for it is impossible for those who are once enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, you know.

And they quote that verse to say that people lose their salvation. You have to understand it in context. If you read it, Paul is clear, and I think Paul wrote Hebrews, but I think Paul is clearly giving a hypothetical.

Besides, if Paul was teaching you could lose your salvation, he's saying you could never.

Get it back.

Apostasy, the Wheat and the Tares, and How to Judge a Life

Here's the thing. We didn't do anything to earn it, we can't do anything to lose it. But the reason why we're having this debate, the reason why some people think you can lose your salvation is because of apostasy, right?

So yeah, you can stack up Bible verses on one side, and then stack up verses on the other side. First thing to point out, the Bible doesn't contradict itself. You can't pit verses of the Bible against one another.

So somebody's taking something out of context, I mean that's clear. But the key is understanding apostasy. I will admit that it really does appear as though people lose their salvation. From a human perspective, it really does look that way.

But from God's perspective, going back to Romans 8 .29, for whom God foreknew, we could all agree, the very least, God knows the names of the elect from the foundation of the world. From God's perspective, nobody loses their salvation.

God knows the wheat and the tares. God knows who's who. He gets the final say, He knows who is who, and the whole point of the wheat and the tares, that parable, is that we shouldn't go out and try to pull up the tares because we can't always see.

You have to look at the totality of a person's life and say, okay, did they keep the faith.

Their whole life?

Was there evidence? Was there growth? Was there sanctification? And even then, you can have assurance of salvation for yourself. You never really know about someone else. But you have to look at the totality of someone's life.

Oftentimes, what we do is we look at how someone is living right now. We look at a snapshot in time, what they said today, what they did today, what they've been doing recently. And that is not always the whole story.

King David was a man after God's own heart. He was living in habitual adultery for a time. Did he repent of that?

Yes.

Did he pay a severe price?

Yes.

David even had a man murdered. Is David in heaven? Absolutely. So, you know, I like to paint in extremes. That way it brings clarity. We can say, okay, this is definitely wrong and this is definitely wrong.

And you know, there are some things in between that I'm not really sure about. So you know, one time somebody said, hey, you know, my child, they came to know the Lord at age two. And now they're, you know, they've renounced Christ, but they're still going to heaven no matter what.

I mean, that's absurd, right? But then on the other hand, you know, you have say like the Catholic Church who says you can lose your salvation over one mortal sin, even one. You can live a righteous and holy life for 80 years, but one mortal sin will cast you into hell forever.

I mean, that's, that's equally absurd, but yeah, there's a lot of things in between that I don't, I don't have all the answers as far as, you know, do you think this person saved? What about this situation?

What about that? Like, I don't know. I don't know everything. What I do know is what the Bible says, and we can try to follow it. Let's say someone like King David was in your church and they were living in habitual adultery.

Well, they should be put out of the fellowship. And Jesus said in Matthew 18, if they don't repent, they're to be treated like a heathen and a tax collectors. Is that proved that they're a heathen?

No.

Did they lose their salvation?

No.

But if somebody in the whole whole issue, again, last thing I'm going to say, the reason why this debate even exists is because there are people who fall away from the faith.

Yeah.

It looks like they lose their salvation, but here's the key.

Okay.

And we'll close with this. First John two 19, they went out from us, but they were not of us for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest that none of them were of us.

According to the apostle John, a true believer is going to stay in the faith. If they depart, if they commit the sin of apostasy, if they fall away, some people fall away into atheism today. More often people fall away into heresy and, you know, deny the true gospel and accept some universalistic doctrine or something like that.

Did they lose their salvation?

No.

According to John, they were never truly saved to begin with. So in conclusion, the once saved, always saved documentary, I mean, they had some valid.

Points.

I mean, that, that, that is an abused idea, abusing the doctrine of eternal security to say that you can just live like the devil and no matter what you're saved, no matter.

What.

Yeah, that's wrong. They had a valid point there, but they failed to differentiate between that wrong idea and the true doctrine of perseverance of the saints. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me and until next time, may the Lord be with you.

Have a great day.