HEAR IT!
So you are sitting in church and the pastor says, “Once saved, always saved, amen!”
What does that even mean?
Some pastors warn that “salvation is not a ticket to sin with impunity, but you cannot lose your salvation, no matter how hard you try! You are destined for heaven and ‘no man shall pluck you from the Father’s hand.'”
(John 10:28 KJV)
Is that the end all to be all verse that proves the idea of once saved always saved? How about Ephesians 4:30 where Paul writes, “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”
That should give you comfort so you can sleep at night, knowing that you are sealed and safe from the wrath of God for your sins.
Right?
Hold up! Let’s bring that train back into the station and reexamine what Jesus and the word of God ACTUALLY says about this!
I’m going to say something that’s probably going to fly in the face of what you believe and have always cherished in your hearts. Many Christians out there, especially in my independent fundamentalist baptist movement (IFB) are not even close to what I’m about to show you, and yet there are many that fit the below to a “t” (myself included, after self reflection).
Before I get into that, let me give you some of the claims of “once saved, always saved” (OSAS for short, from here on-out). OSAS is very comforting and reassuring, so long as your walk with the Lord (or lack thereof) doesn’t fall into the criteria I’m about to disclose and prove to you. OSAS’s claims, however, are kind of out there.
- All it takes is a profession of faith followed by believer’s baptism followed by joining a church and you’re in!
- Salvation doesn’t give you the license to sin, but your sins (past, present, future) are all forgiven
- If you make one true confession of faith with all your heart, mind, soul, and you turn into Adolph Hitler, you’re still in! God won’t be happy with you but you’re in!
- Finally, if you die and go to hell, even if you say you believed and did all the right things, you were probably never saved to begin with and were just flapping your gums
That certainly is comforting to know – you believe, you fall, you are lukewarm, you produce no fruit, you don’t share the gospel to everyone, you’re unwilling to be persecuted for your beliefs, you are continuing in sin, you’re STILL getting in to Heaven through God’s grace!
Well, there’s several problems with this and I’m going to tackle this with impunity so stick around.
Previously, I called out YouTube videos that go against OSAS because they used Matthew 7 as their prime example.
I don’t need to do that to prove that the Bible does NOT support OSAS in any way, shape or form!
Take my testimony…
At the end of February and into March of 2023, I got saved. I made a full confession to Christ Jesus and I knew my name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Immediately, I joined an IFB church. I am KJV-only, I believe in the pre-tribulation rapture, I believe that the bible should be rightly divided into dispensations, I believe Jesus IS God manifest in the flesh, all of it. Because it not only “sounds right” but is 100% true and real! I’ve witnessed, and had experienced, too many miracles to deny it. I had true transformation (so I thought). God took several addictions away from me when I got saved and for a few months, I was great! I had problems with my family (unbelieving wife), work was giving me challenge, I was sharing the gospel, I was a true warrior for Christ.
Then, life hit me pretty hard. I started indulging into certain addictions once more and I never kicked them again. I kept going back to the moat.
My church life suffered greatly. My mouth was foul. I had problems in quite a few places, I was losing my job (and did lose it), and nothing was getting better. Even when I gave the whole mess to God, I was never “restored” to my “freshly saved” form.
I tried again a month or so after I lost my job and got transferred back to a previous posting for a lot less money (complete demotion which has effectively destroyed my family). I was on the right track; my prayer life was returning, I was attending church regularly, I was reading the bible daily. I was doing very well, being led by and submitting to the Holy Spirit.
Then, just two days ago, I fell back again into the same sin.
Twice.
Going to church this morning, alone as usual, I realized something…
I lost my salvation!!
I could no longer take comfort in OSAS. How did I lose it?
Those two times I sinned were with impunity. In rebellion. Because I wanted to look at something and FEEL something. So, instead of listening to the voice in my head saying, “Go read your bible,” I did that sin. I took a shower and did it again. Happily. I didn’t intend on giving God the finger, but my actions certainly did just that.
Am I permanently in this state, however? I don’t know. This timeline’s future will be the judge of that, so will the Lord. However, as of this writing, if I were to die right now, I’m absolutely LOST WITHOUT HOPE!!
That’s because of one very troubling fact.
THERE IS NO TRANSFORMATION WITHIN ME!
It is true that we, even as believers, are sinners. Paul said this in his opening of the first letter to Timothy, 1:15, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”
Paul recognized that he is, in fact, still a sinner and the chief of them. Paul was once Saul, one of the greatest murderers of Christians ever to walk the Earth. Christ took him, blinding him, gave him charge of spreading the Gospel to the gentiles, was born again as Paul, and became the greatest of the apostles (proving Matthew 19:30 KJV right on the money… of course, they were the words of Christ! “But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.“)
Paul’s life, however, illustrated how ours should (and must) be at a minimum!
First, there was sin – we are dead in our sins and dead in Adam’s sin.
Then, Christ finds us where we are and transforms us after we believe on Him.
Our lives are never the same and we do NOT go back to the same sins!
The old us is dead and buried and the new creature lives on!
Indeed, I charge that if your pattern of living your Christian life does not mimic Paul’s in theory, then either you lost your salvation or are not saved to begin with. I’ll even go so far as to say that OSAS only applies to believers whose life pattern follows Paul’s.
If it doesn’t, just like me, you are in terrible danger!
Let this serve as a warning!
I’m not going to use a passage from scripture that isn’t meant for believers (Matthew 7 which talks about false prophets and NOT believers).
Instead, I’m going to give you some passages and a whole biblical book in the New Testament that proves OSAS is NOT for you to find comfort in!
If you are a professing believer in Christ but your life…
- Shows no evidence of transformation, being….
- You are still enjoying the same sins even if they come sporadically…
- You keep “repenting” over and over again…
- You justify NOT sharing the Gospel as commanded…
- You justify your sins…
- You CHOOSE to do things contrary to God’s command (i.e. sin)…
- You continue to be angry for no reason…
- You have no love for people…
- You have no desire to minister…
- You have no desire to change…
…then you seriously need to examine yourself and really think on whether or not you’re actually saved… or if you were and you DID show these things, but not any longer, then there’s a possibility (biblically) that you LOST your salvation and are headed for hell even as a Christian!
Sorry, but some YouTubers get this idea right even if they get the passages wrong.
For me, I am absolutely GUILTY of ALL of these. This weekend, the day of this writing even, was my personal reflection on my life and where I’m headed in God’s eyes. The Lord is weeping right now because I chose the mess, I chose cowardice, I chose pleasure over His instruction for me. I will pay the price eternally for it if these don’t change (I can’t imagine them changing anytime soon to be completely honest with you – a story for the Japan section, I think).
First, the passages in Matthew 7 and John 15 absolutely do not apply! In Matthew 7, Christ is talking about fraudsters. In John 15, Christ is talking about those who do not abide, not the branches that do abide in Him.
Next, I’m going to make this statement: If you are a believer, you once showed a changed mind, body and heart, and yet you are still indulging in sin with impunity (like me), we are called lukewarm Christians. We are neither on fire for Christ nor are we cold to the truth of Him. This is a very bad place to be and I’m going to show you next why the bible hints that Jesus will judge us worse than Atheists who flat-out attack Christians.
Knowing this, let’s look at Revelation 3:14 through 16:
And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Applying 2 Timothy 2:15 to rightly divide this, we are looking at Jesus dictating a letter to the Laodicean Church. IFB Pastors associate this church to the Roman Catholic Church. This is not wrong in any way to think that this is Rome and the corrupt Catholic cult, but notice one particular word that Jesus uses in this…
He says “church.”
In Colossians 1:18, Paul writes “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.”
Further, Ephesians 1:22 and 23, Paul states, “And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.“
Catholics are not really part of the church as defined by Paul in Colossians and Ephesians. Not, “not really,” let’s be real: they’re not and definitely NOT part of the Body of Christ.
We are. Christians who professed their faith in Christ but have lost the plot when it comes to their walk with the Lord (such as myself)!
We can also conclude that the letters to the “churches” are all letters to those who call themselves believers since, after these letters are finished, there is not even a single mention of the word “church” in the rest of the bible! From that point-onward, it’s all about Jacob’s Trouble (Israel).
So where does that leave us?
It leaves us with two more passages that back this up.
In his second letter, Peter writes in 2 Peter 2:20 through 22 the following…
For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
I was just looking at this passage for this piece and I started to read and think, “yeah, this isn’t talking to us.” But look at verse 20, which says, “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord…”
Look where I have emphasized: those who have escaped! Unlike Matthew 7, this is CLEARLY talking to us! Those who escaped the pollution of the fallen, cursed world, are Christ-believing Christians.
Verse 21 confirms this by saying that it would’ve been better to have never known than to have known and backslid or sin with impunity; not allowing the transformation to take hold on us permanently, going back to the old self that is dead and rotting in the ground. The latter end is worse with us than the beginning. Because we knew the truth of God and decided that “Meh, I wanna do this instead of reading my bible! I’ll repent later, it’s no big deal.
IT IS A BIG DEAL!! GOD DOESN’T PLAY GAMES WITH US!! NEITHER SHOULD YOU!!
Do you want to know if you have transformation in your heart? Then answer this…
Do you perform works gladly? No, I’m not talking about a works-based salvation. That’s Catholic dogma. I’m talking about this: do your works glorify God and do you take pleasure in glorifying the Lord through your works?
Or, do you do ANY works AT ALL?!
If you don’t answer “yes” to both questions, you’re in A LOT of trouble!
The ENTIRE BOOK OF JAMES is your domain now. You need to seriously read this book, if you are serious about getting right with the Lord. “Faith without works is dead” does NOT mean “you must do works to show faith.” It MEANS “you MUST do works BECAUSE you have faith!” You must also do them GLADLY for pleasing your Father in Heaven should be your ONLY goal AFTER you are saved, AFTER baptism, AFTER being faithful to your local church!
If you want to get right with God, AT A MINIMUM: Allow the Holy Spirit to transform you, or He will be quenched so dramatically that it will be AS THOUGH He is not with you (He is, which is why you CAN go back to Christ RIGHT NOW, FULLY REPENT, and do a COMPLETE 180!). If you don’t know what that’s like or have never had a change in life after salvation, question your salvation properly.
You may need to do the following:
- Weed out the darkness in your life
- If, for instance, you are addicted to porn, CUT THOSE TEMPTATION SOURCES OFF!
- If you are a drinker, drink heavily, and know you get into trouble when you drink, STOP DRINKING!
- If you are an angry driver who thrives in rage, TAKE PUBLIC TRANSPORT!
- You know what to do here… “And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.” Matthew 18:9 KJV
- Go soul winning whenever your church has the event
- Talk to people about Christ in casual conversation EVEN AT THE COST OF YOUR JOB AND LIVELIHOOD!
- READ YOUR BIBLE AND PRAY ON WHAT YOU’VE READ
- GO BACK TO CHURCH
These are the bare minimum things that you ought to do as a Christian in order to show transformation in your life. Do these things GLADLY and with all JOY, knowing that you are pleasing your Father which is in Heaven. These are works that PROVE your faith, not to have it in the first place, because you already do. SHOW IT and do so JOYFULLY. That’s all that needs to be done.
For each of us, our situations are different and I’m not going to go into my personal journey. But, at the very least, look within yourselves, pray and act accordingly. Because you COULD be headed for hell, and you won’t be going to a “nice place” because you knew the truth of Christ AS A BELIEVER and decided to watch that nasty film instead of listening to the Holy Spirit. You’ll be getting a WORSE punishment and torment in hell BECAUSE you are a believer who decided to indulge in sin with impunity rather than obeying the Lord who paid for you. You are not your own… you belong to God. You don’t get to have “pleasures because they feel good.” We are FREE from the curse of Adam through Christ Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection. Don’t do what I did – don’t play games with your salvation. Don’t play games with Christ. He’s not your insurance policy.
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