Once Saved Always Saved Debate: How to End It
Do you join in on the once saved always saved debate? If so, what reasons convince or dispute your beliefs? Read on for possible answers.
How the Once Saved Always Saved Debate Started
Spin your spiritual wheels and Satan is happy. He enters devil heaven every time you believe you aren’t saved. For a short while, I questioned my salvation because I heard many people ask, “Can you lose your salvation once saved? I learned later, a lot of people wonder about this.
I examined my heart and knew it belonged to God. How did I know that? He’s always on my mind. Turning to my Beloved is something I do routinely. I don’t habitually ignore Him. The Holy Spirit tells me I’m His child. That settled the issue.
When Christians debate the once saved always saved doctrine, they get off course. Being right is more important than serving God. That’s because Satan uses dissension in the Body of Christ to divert attention away from God.
Can you Lose Salvation? Where’s the Proof?
Here are two scriptures people use to prove losing salvation is possible.
Hebrews 6:4-8
For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who once enlightened, and taste the heavenly gift, and share in the Holy Spirit, and taste the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then fall away, since on their own they crucify again the Son of God and hold him up to contempt. Ground that drinks up the rain falling on it repeatedly, and produces a crop useful to those for whom cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and on the verge of being cursed; its end is to be burned over.
There are four major interpretations of this scripture.
- It’s possible to lose salvation.
- The author intended to use a hypothetical example for apostasy (renouncing belief).
- Professing believers experienced (tasted) Christianity but didn’t like it.
- Genuine believers continue to sin.
Second Scripture: Hebrews 10:26-29
If we deliberately keep on sinning after we received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that consumes the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves punishment who tramples the Son of God underfoot, who treats as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who insults the Spirit of grace?
The author of Hebrews wrote to Christians to exhort them on how to live as persecuted believers. The author is actively shepherding his flock. Apparently, some continued to delight in sin without confession and repentance, because faith wasn’t present. His description is of someone that walked away from Christ because that person never united to Jesus eternally.
Guaranteeing Eternal Life
A doctrine called eternal security proposes that salvation isn’t temporary but permanent based on John 3:16 and John 10:28-30.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.
I once asked a lady at church how long she had known Jesus. She looked puzzled at the question. Her answer? I’ve gone to church all my life. Then she rattled off a list of things she did in the community. My heart sank for her. When I continued to probe for evidence of salvation, she looked very uncomfortable and changed the subject. From then on, she avoided me.
Christ’s sacrifice was enough to guarantee eternal life for anyone that truly accepts Him as their Lord and Savior. A person’s salvation doesn’t flop back and forth like a fish on dry land. Being good or bad doesn’t have anything to do with it, nor does the works of the flesh.
A genuine Christian struggles to persevere, falls short, and turns to God and asks for help. They shore up weak areas and press on with God’s help. Hebrews 3:14 – “We have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.”
Once Saved Always Saved Debate: What Do You Believe?
Christians aren’t perfect. They sin from time to time. There’s a difference between living for Jesus and going through the motions and acting like you’re saved. The next time you wonder whether you’re saved, ask yourself these questions as evidence of what you believe.
- Do you believe Jesus is divine? I John 5:20 – “We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”
- Do you believe God raised Jesus from the dead? Romans 10:9 – If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
- Can you call Him Lord? I Corinthians 12:3 – “Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.”
- How do you view sin? I John 3:9 – “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.”
1 John 5:11-12 – And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
More Thoughts about the Once Saved Always Saved Debate
There’s no need to join the once saved always saved debate when you know without a doubt you’re saved. Jesus did all the work so salvation is a free gift to anyone who believes in Him. After that, your greatest desire is to follow Him for the rest of your life. Salvation is an ongoing work in your spirit where you continue to persevere in your faith in Christ, strive for holiness, and fight against disobedience.