Once saved always saved? How can you be so sure?

Question

People become Atheists every day for many reasons, why are you so sure it can't happen to you? Your child dies, or the obstacles in your path become too large, or something inside of you just starts to feel empty. I could lose my salvation over one freaking beer, crawl back into the bottle and never care about God, Jesus, my son or anything besides where my next drink is coming from. Why are you so harsh to unbelievers? Why do you think it's impossible for you to join them at any time?

Answer 1

I wish I could think of something profound to say, because I like reading your questions, and I'd like to create the illusion of being able to 'keep up'.
You're a genuine human being, and you come across as one, not some manufactured online personality.
You get me thinking, snap me back a bit, to reality, and I like that. You don't hide behind rhetoric or repetition.
Sometimes I think a lot of us here lose sight of the frailties of being human. We're all so "ten feet tall and bulletproof" behind our avatars and mickey mouse screen names.
Personalities that are larger than life, hiding people who are too afraid to face the fact that we're afraid of life.
I can't answer your question, I don't think I'd know where to start, to be honest.
All I can say is I like the way you express your thoughts, and hope to read more of your work in the future.
Take care.

Answer 2

You don't understand the concept.

The concept, which I don't agree with, is if you become an Atheist you are STILL SAVED.

That doesn't fit the Bible.

The Bible says if you follow the wrong leader or prophet you can get the MARK of the BEAST and hence not be in God's graces.

This leaves open the possibility a Christian or Jew can have the mark and an Atheist NOT have the mark.

This, however, does not mean God may not take you to task for Atheism, but it could mean you get to stay with God no matter what, unless you CHOSE to return to the lakes of fire along with those who HAVE the mark!

You're choice. Free will.

Answer 3

I don't ever want to lose my salvation. It can happen, just look at Solomon in the O.T.
It never says that he came back to God... I guess we will find out in heaven.

I know that my husband left Christianity for 30+ years when his wife and son were killed by a drunk driver. He thought God was blaming him for the things he did in Vietnam.
I am not sure how God would have judged him in that wandering time, but He gave him grace to come back again.

I asked my hubby the other day,as we talked about this very thing. Why are Christians so quick to point the "mean finger" at someone. Do they all forget so quickly that we were sinners such a short time ago.
Jesus didn't point a finger on the cross, just had both hands extended for each one of us.

Answer 4

Hebrews 10:26-29 warns against the sin of apostasy. Apostasy is an intentional falling away or defection. Apostates are those who move toward Christ, hear and understand the Gospel, and are on the verge of saving faith, but then rebel and turn away. Willful sinning in this passage carries the idea of consciously and deliberately rejecting Christ. The apostate has knowledge, but no application of that knowledge. Judas Iscariot is the perfect example – he had knowledge but he lacked true faith. The apostate is then beyond salvation because he has rejected the one true sacrifice for sins: the Lord Jesus Christ. To turn away from Him leaves you no true alternative. This passage is not speaking of a believer who falls away, but rather someone who may claim to be a believer, but truly is not. Anyone who apostatizes is proving he never had genuine faith to begin with (1 John 2:19).

Answer 5

Once saved, always saved is not a concept taught in the Bible. Some people believe that once a person is saved, he cannot be lost. This contradicts what the Bible says in Hebrews 6:4-6

"...for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

In the above verses, the Hebrew writer is describing those who "fall away." If they never truly believed and were never truly obedient, then they could not fall away! Clearly the writer is speaking about true believers who first had and then abandoned their faith thereby putting Christ to open shame.

Finally, Jesus himself warned of following Him and then later abandoning Him when He said in Luke 9:62 -

"...No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

Answer 6

HoB, I would think it would be rather obvious that if you believe you have free will to "opt in" to salvation, then almost by definition you would have to have the ability to "opt out" if you wanted to. It's strange that some churches firmly believe in a choice being necessary, but they will not waver from their "once saved, always saved" stance and will find all kinds of verses to support this, meaning that we lose our free will once we are saved.

Calvinism by the way doesn't have this issue. If God is the one to choose man rather than the other way around, then we have salvation completely in his hands from start to finish -- actually from eternity to eternity! Of course we don't know who is and isn't written in the book of life, but if the shepherd knows his sheep, and his sheep know his name, I think it's pretty safe to say that God enough power to do the saving and the keeping both.

Answer 7

I am a Christian but I do not subscribe to the belief of once saved always saved. I believe there are many scriptures which indicate a Christian must “walk in the light as He is in the light” in order for God’s grace to be saving. For example, Galatians 5:4 is speaking directly to CHRISTIANS who were once Jews by religion and had accepted Christ but were turning back to follow Judaistic teachings. This scripture says these CHRISTIANS have “fallen from grace”.

I posed this to a friend who believes in once saved always saved. I asked him, “If a man becomes a Christian but then 20 years later he murders, rapes, pillages, and even becomes a devil worshiper, will this man go to heaven?” He responded, “No. He never truly gave himself over to Christ so he never really was a Christian or he wouldn’t have done these things.” I then said, “If you had asked him when he first became a Christian if he was truly saved, this man would have said YES.” So what you have told me means one can THINK they are a Christian and not really be saved.” I then asked my friend, “Are YOU a Christian and are YOU saved?” He said, “Definitely.” I then replied, “How do you KNOW you are saved if you just told me the other man KNEW he was saved but you just said he wasn’t? How do you know you are not this man yourself?”

You see, the doctrine cannot logically stand on its own merits. Scripture has many examples we should look at. First Galatians 5:4. Other scriptures speak of the necessity to run the race to the end to receive the prize. Works DO NOT SAVE. But they ARE an identifier of the saved. If one truly possesses saving faith then there is no way that Christian can NOT work and do good deeds. The way we KNOW we are saved is by “Walking in the light as He is in the light.” Will I sin along the way as I walk in the light. SURELY! But these sins will not result in my loss of salvation as long as I continue to keep my eyes set on Christ. And when I stumble and sin, I pick myself back up and continue on to the goal. Sinning all the way to heaven but trying to get better and better each day.

Answer 8

I am a Roman Catholic so with all due respect and humility, I believe the "once saved always saved" dogma to be in error and it gives people a false sense of security.

Scripture says "He who endures to the end shall be saved" and there are other verses which talk about our spiritual journey as a race.

You can win or lose a race. Nothing is guaranteed. Even though I am a Catholic from birth, I am as sinful as you are and therefore I am in just as great a need of grace.

Yes, the promises of God are ironclad. But WE are quite frequently the problem. He is faithful....but we are not. Until our dying breath we must depend upon Him and have hope in His promises.

Sure, you could lose your salvation in a moment of passion....but doesn't that make sense? A man can also destroy 25 years of marriage with one act of adultery.

But then again, God can lift us back up with one word of forgiveness.

Heaven and hell are offered to us at every moment of our life.

Answer 9

Well said again. Good luck with the whole confronting people with the vulnerability of their faith thing, though.

Just one tiny thing - can you please not use a capital A for atheists? We're not a religion, we're not even a loose association. Just people of various beliefs - the only thing you can say for sure we have in common is that we don't believe in God!

Answer 10

"Once saved, always saved" isn't possible! The Apostle Paul was quoted as saying that we are "all APT (liable) to sin" and that "we die daily". We are still HUMAN even after we attain salvation, therefore it is impossible to sit back on our laurels upon being saved and not maintain that relationship with God and expect to be saved when Judgment comes! God allowed Job to be tested to PROVE to Satan that a MAINTAINED salvation was the only unflappable one. We can't live like we want to, then go to church on Sunday crying and boo-hooing about how lousy our lives are with the full intent of going on in the same vein we were in when we set foot in the door! The institution of the Church was intended for us to help one another with the leading of a God-indwelt ministry overcome the troubles and trials of the world. There's a Scripture that says "Go ye and do your firstworks over..." in dealing with repentance as it pertains to people WHO WERE SAVED BEFORE! The "firstworks" speak of repentance, water baptism and etc. as being the things we needed to perform with a GODLY SORROW to reenter God's grace. Without doing so, we continue to marry Christ to every sin we perform in our flesh and spirit, gradually pushing Him out of our lives. How then are we to be saved especially after having come to the knowledge of the truth and then sinned again? The Scripture says that in such instances ".....our righteousness (state of salvation) is as FILTHY RAGS (state of defilement with sin)"