Once Saved Always Saved?

 

REGARDING “ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED.” (OSAS)

By Barbara Gunter

Once saved, always saved isn't true to God's Word. If we lose our Faith and turn away from Him to make another object our main focus of faith, we lose our salvation.

If your faith always remains in the Cross, but you stumble and make a sinful mistake, you don't lose your salvation, you repent and ask for His forgiveness and put on His Grace.

You can lose your salvation. Once saved, always saved is a dangerous damnable doctrine.

A sinner does not get a pass from God. When we sin (not IF we sin...but WHEN we sin!) we must run TO God and repent with Godly sorrow.....just like Peter did!

Judas had regrets, but "NO repentance!”
We don’t walk around in fear of losing our salvation. We have PEACE like a River because OUR faith is daily in Him and His finished work on Calvary’s cross.

A person who has gained salvation by faith in Jesus Christ can lose that faith AND the salvation that comes with it. The Bible says that maintaining faith requires great effort, a “hard fight.” (Jude 3, 5) Early Christians who had already accepted Christ were told: “Keep working out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” ~ Philippians 2:12.

The Bible warns against sins that will keep a person from entering God’s Kingdom. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Galatians 5:19-21)
If salvation could not be lost, such warnings would be meaningless. Instead, the Bible shows that someone who has been saved can fall away by returning to a practice of serious sin. For example, Hebrews 10:26 states: “If we practice sin willfully after having received the accurate knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins left.” ~ Hebrews 6:4-6; 2 Peter 2:20-22.

Jesus emphasized the importance of maintaining faith by giving an illustration in which he likened himself to a vine and his followers to branches on that vine. Some of them would at one time demonstrate faith in him by their fruits, or actions, yet would later fail to do so and be “thrown out like a [fruitless] branch,” losing their salvation. (John 15:1-6) The apostle Paul used a similar illustration, saying that Christians who do not maintain their faith “will be lopped off.” ~ Romans 11:17-22.

Christians are commanded to “keep on the watch.” (Matthew 24:42; 25:13) Those who fall asleep spiritually, whether by practicing “works belonging to darkness” or by not fully performing the works that Jesus commanded, ”lose their salvation”. ~ Romans 13:11-13; Revelation 3:1-3.

Many scriptures show that those who have been saved must still endure faithfully to the end. (Matthew 24:13; Hebrews 10:36; 12:2, 3; Revelation 2:10) First-century Christians expressed joy when they learned that fellow believers were enduring in their faith. (1 Thessalonians 1:2, 3; 3 John 3, 4) Does it seem reasonable that the Bible would stress faithful endurance if those who did not endure would be saved anyway?

Only when his death was imminent did the apostle Paul feel that his salvation was assured. (2 Timothy 4:6-8) Earlier in his life, he recognized that he could still miss out on salvation if he gave in to fleshly desires. He wrote: “I pummel my body and lead it as a slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself should not become disapproved somehow.” ~ 1 Corinthians 9:27; Philippians 3:12-14.

Something else regarding ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED.....
How can names be blotted out if they were never there before?
No, no, no! “Once saved, always saved” (OSAS) is a lie from the pit of hell.

“He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father....” (Revelation 3:5)

One more thing.......
Think on this.... There are many Atheists who were once raised in the Faith, and they know very solidly the Word of God. At some turning point in their lives, they turned their back on Righteousness (Justification) and Salvation and did a 180 and walked away from God. They refuse to ever address Him and yet can write and profoundly quote scripture. A few even become extremely angry if Jesus or God is brought into conversation. They will tell you that they once walked with Jesus. Quite personally, they do not often share what caused them to turn away again.

It is easy to say that they probably were never saved to begin with, to protect the "once saved always saved" doctrine, but I have heard many people who have first-hand knowledge of many years of ministering to these individuals will tell you that they once made a true confession with their mouths and with their hearts for Jesus, and yet, eventually left their salvation tossing it to the ground as a filthy rag.

We like to believe that this doesn't happen because it is very sad when it does, but that belief isn't real. It's very unfortunate when it does happen.

Many people mistake justification for salvation. You are saved, justified, sanctified and made whole. Salvation occurs at the moment you accept Jesus. So does justification. Sanctification is a step-by-step walk, daily. We grow in sanctification.

We are justified by the blood of Jesus Christ shed for us at the Cross. God looks down upon us when we repent and sees that blood justification. If we are "once saved, always saved", why do we need repentance? Why do we need Grace to overcome sin?

Scripture is clear when it tells us that "all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God." We can sin as Christians. We also can repent when the Spirit of God convicts us. We put on His Grace....God's unmerited favor to refrain from sinning, but we will not be wholly sanctified until we put on eternal immortality.

 

 
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