Lately I was introduced to this concept of 'Once saved, forever saved', where once you receive Christ in your life, then no matter how much you sin, no matter what you do in your life (even killing, having countless sex, etc etc), once you repent, you are still accepted into heaven.
Is this true? Can somebody shed some light on this issue? Preferably with Bible verses?
2007-11-29 05:51:39 · 32 answers · asked by Aleckii 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
It is a belief born out of the Protestant reformation.
They were trying to do anything to not appear Catholic, so they threw out the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) and replaced it with the once saved, always saved.
Jesus gave us the Sacraments to allow us to stay in the Grace of God even though we are never going to be perfect.
Hope this helps, you might look it up in the Catechism of the Catholic Church for the official wording!
Peace!
2007-11-29 05:56:27 · answer #1 · answered by C 7 · 6⤊ 1⤋
I have heard of that, but I consider it one of the most dangerous concepts that the world has ever known. I could examine the truth-value of that statement, but that would take a lot of writing. In its shortest form, my argument would be something like this: "Forever" is a concept that can never be proven. If--by some miracle--we actually could prove that forever exists (we can't) the next step would be to prove that a spiritual quality (being "saved") once obtained, could endure throughout this imaginary forever. This would be the equivalent of saying that a soul is a static thing that never changes. Thus we would enter an infinite regression of trying to prove that a forever exists AND that something as delicate and changeable as a human spirit can remain the same throughout the course of an un-provable forever, even if the supposed state of that soul is "good" and it undertakes to do things that are "evil".
It just doesn't make sense, not theologically, not psychologically, not by any kind of logic at all and certainly not socially.
Please strike that concept from your world-view. No good comes from it.
2007-11-29 06:14:51 · answer #2 · answered by anyone 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Galatians 5:4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law (of Moses), you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace. ---
This was written to saints in Galatia region. Saints have been or are in a saved condition. They try to keep the 10 Commandments and the rest of the Law of Moses and they are lost after having been in a saved condition.
You cannot fall from a tree if you are just sitting or standing beside it. You must be IN it to fall from it.
2Jn 1:7 Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 9 Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. 11 Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work.
2007-11-29 06:07:14 · answer #3 · answered by mesquiteskeetr 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The catch is, that if you do all those things after you are saved, then you just thought you were saved.
Saved = born again. Once this happens, you will recoil from sin. You will not be able to live in sin. You may fail on occasion-this is true, but you will not be able to stand it-you will repent. The vast majority of people who claim to be Christians have never been saved in the first place. This is why many think you can be saved and still live like hell. Its just not true.
2007-11-29 06:00:02 · answer #4 · answered by Higgy Baby 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yes that is what a group of Christians commonly known as "Calvinists" believe and teach.
Most Presbyterians, Lutherans and Baptists are Calvinists.
Most Methodists, Wesleyans, Nazarenes, Charismatics, Pentecostals, and any group with the words, "Free Will" in their name, disagree as do most other Bible believing Christians, such as myself, disagree.
Obviously the lists of denominations above are not complete.
Among non denominational Churches some do and some don't.
When someone claims to have been saved and falls away the Calvinist rationalizes that the person was never really saved in the first place.
Pastor Art
2007-11-29 06:05:09 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
OSAS is not true or scriptural or rational or just.
Its advocates can string a few Bible verses as "evidence' but the verses are out of context.
OSAS is the Calvinist(including One Point Calvinists) modern equivalent ofthe simoniac "Pardon selling' and "indulgence peddling" of Tetzel in the 1500's
Its advocates fail to see that grace and mortal sin cannot coexist and it is a dangerous assumption that God is so murderously partial to the wicked who avoid repentance taht he would deny His own holiness,righteousness and justice.
These same OSAS advocates seem so eager to have virtuous non Christians and Non Fundamentalist Protestants,Orthodox and Catholics tortured forever for not being able to accept their particular set of ( often novel Dispensationalist)dogmas without mercy but prolaim that they themselves would go to Heaven even if they did the most evil deeds.
2007-11-29 06:09:05 · answer #6 · answered by James O 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
This mocking title of a profound biblical subject - the extent of God's salvation - is always used by those who have not stopped to think long and hard about the perfect nature of God's saving grace. When God saves, he saves completely - to the uttermost. God's salvation is 100% otherwise it would not be perfect. God's salvation is not dependent on our doing anything to secure it. God's salvation is not a carrot held out at the end of a stick. When God bestows salvation, the receiver is completely bestowed and completely saved. Nothing he can do can entitle him to salvation. It is entirely unmerited. Those who receive this grace are overwhelmed with gratitude, realising they are just worms - dust - and sinful dust, at that. They never want to offend God again and the Holy Spirit begins to transform them into Christ-likeness. Only those who are still striving to earn salvation fail to understand this miracle of grace. There are far too many Bible verses to list here.
2007-11-29 07:06:51 · answer #7 · answered by Annsan_In_Him 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Oh no, not once saved, always saved. It goes further than that. How about saved from eternity to eternity -- some just don't know it yet? We know who belongs to the Lord by their fruits. He knows the hairs on their heads.
BTW if you want cherry-picked verses, you should be able to find the "hairs on their heads" verse readily enough without me jamming proof texts down your throat. If you want all of them, pick up a Reformation Study Bible.
2007-11-29 14:50:12 · answer #8 · answered by ccrider 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No, Paul says to be the servant of righteousness not sin.
old you is sinful new you is righteous. Jesus says in the Gospel to over come the world and who ever endure to
the end shall be saved.Be tried go through the fire; tempted.
Always the strait path to the end. Read the whole new testament. Live by all the words of God.
2007-11-29 06:04:10 · answer #9 · answered by jonathin l 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Some people promote a very attractive idea: All true Christians, regardless of how they live, have an absolute assurance of salvation, once they accept Jesus into their hearts as "their personal Lord and Savior." The problem is that this belief is contrary to the Bible & constant Christian teaching.
Recall this Scripture: "If we have died with him [in baptism; see Rom. 6:3-4] we shall also live with him; if we persevere we shall also reign with him" (2 Tim. 2:11-12). So, ff we do NOT persevere, we shall NOT reign with him. In other words, Christians can forfeit heaven. Jesus tells us, "He who endures to the end will be saved" (Matt. 24:13; cf. 25:31-46). Ergo, if you do not endure to the end, well........
The Bible makes it clear that Christians have a moral assurance of salvation (God will be true to his word and will grant salvation to those who have faith in Christ and are obedient to him [1 John 3:19-24]), but the Bible does NOT teach that Christians have a guarantee of heaven. There can be no absolute assurance of salvation. The Bible says, "See, then, the kindness and severity of God: severity toward those who fell, but God's kindness to you, provided you remain in his kindness, otherwise you too will be cut off" (Rom. 11:22-23; Matt. 18:21-35, 1 Cor. 15:1-2, 2 Pet. 2:20-21).
Note that this includes an important condition: "provided you remain in his kindness." It is saying that Christians can lose their salvation by throwing it away. He warns, "Whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall" (1 Cor. 10:11-12). , Paul admitted that even he could fall away: "I pummel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified" (1 Cor. 9:27). In saying this he points out that even he cannot be infallibly sure of his own present state or of his future salvation.
As a Catholic, when someone asks me if I have been "saved," I answer: "I am redeemed by the blood of Christ, I trust in him alone for my salvation, and, as the Bible teaches, I am working out my salvation in fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12), knowing that it is God's gift of grace that is working in me."
2007-11-29 06:01:28 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋