Debunking the dangerous doctrine Once saved, always saved

One of the more common unbiblical doctrines in churches today

Today many churches are teaching the unbiblical doctrine Once saved, always saved, as one of the main parts of their Gospel.

Even though this false doctrine has been rejected by leading Christians over the centuries, the once saved, always saved doctrine has started to get a foothold within many churches and denominations over the world once again.

This unbiblical doctrine, that comes mainly from Calvinism, teaches predestination, that once you receive Christ you can never lose your salvation, and that if someone backslides the person was never truly saved.

This heresy is obviously dangerous, because it encourages a casual lifestyle where people really don’t care if they sin or not, because they have a fire insurance, a guarantee to go to heaven no matter what they do.

And when combined with a false, cheap gospel, where people don’t have to give up everything to follow Jesus and just a simple prayer is enough to get saved – this doctrine is perhaps one of the worst heresies out there.

Many things can be said about this false doctrine. But I will let one of the greatest Christians the last 500 years, John Wesley, do the work for me. He perfectly debunks this heresy in a sermon from 1754, which I will quote below:

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John Wesley on the once saved, always saved doctrine

Calvinists, who deny that salvation can ever be lost, reason on the subject in a marvelous way.

They tell us, that

- no virgin’s lamp can go out [Matt 25:1-13];

- no promising harvest be choked with thorns [Mark 4:7];

- no branch in Christ can ever be cut off from unfruitfulness [John 15:1-6];

- no pardon can ever be forfeited [Isa 63:8-10],

- and no name blotted out of God’s book! [Rev 3:5]

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They insist that

- no salt can ever lose its savor [Matt 5:13];

- nobody can ever “receive the grace of God in vain” [2Cor 6:1];

- “bury his talents” [Matt 25:14-40];

- “neglect such great salvation” [Heb 2:3];

- trifle away “a day of grace” [Heb 3:7-15];

- “look back” after putting his hand to the gospel plow [Luke 9:62].

- Nobody can “grieve the Spirit” till He is “quenched,” and strives no more, nor “deny the Lord that bought them” [1 Thess. 5:19, Gen. 6:3, 2 Pet. 2:1]; nor “bring upon themselves swift destruction.”

- Nobody, or body of believers, can ever get so lukewarm that Jesus will spew them out of His mouth [Rev 3:16].

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They use reams of paper to argue that

- if one ever got lost he was never found. John 17:12;

- that if one falls, he never stood. Rom. 11:16-22 and Heb. 6:4-6;

- if one was ever “cast forth,” he was never in, and “if one ever withered,” he was never green. John 15:1-6;

- and that “if any man draws back,” it proves that he never had anything to draw back from. Heb. 10:38,39;

- that if one ever “falls away into spiritual darkness,” he was never enlightened. Heb 6:4-6;

- that if you “again get entangled in the pollutions of the world,” it shows that you never escaped. 2 Pet 2:20;

- that if you “put salvation away” you never had it to put away, and if you make shipwreck of faith, there was no ship of faith there!! [1Tim 1:19]

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In short they say: If you get it, you can’t lose it; and if you lose it you never had it.

May God save us from accepting a doctrine, that must be defended by such fallacious reasoning!

Quote from John Wesley’s sermon “Serious Thoughts Upon the Perseverance of the Saints” in 1754. (Since many who read this don’t read their bibles, the bible verses are put in brackets.)

Portrait of John Wesley

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The once saved, always saved doctrine has no biblical support

I don’t think I need to add much to this. Wesley perfectly exposes how unbiblical and outright insane this theology is.

But I will anyway myself address two of the most common arguments used to defend this doctrine today, and explain why they are completely unbiblical and taken out of context.

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- That salvation is a gift from God and God’s gifts cannot be revoked

The bible is very clear in Ephesians 2:8-9 that salvation is a gift from God, and is not a result of human effort. However some people try to use this verse to say that it means a person cannot lose their salvation, because God’s gifts cannot be revoked (Rom 11:29).

However just because God’s gifts are irrevocable, it doesn’t mean that a person loses their free will and cannot choose to reject God’s irrevocable gifts.

Let me present this another way;

You give someone an expensive present. You will never take it back. But its up to the other person to keep it, and that person can choose to throw your beautiful gift in the garbage bin. And it doesn’t have to be today, but it could happen in a year or two in the future.

In the same way, God will never revoke his gifts because God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent.

But that of course doesn’t mean a person cannot choose to reject God after receiving the gift.

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- God predestines some people to be Christians

This is based on Romans 8:29-30, that God predestines some people to heaven and others not.

First we know from 1Tim 2:4 that “God will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” So we already know that God doesn’t want anyone to go to hell and would of course not send people to hell just because He decides so.

But the explanation is actually very simple. Because God is all knowing, and He knows what choice a person will make and if they will decide to make Jesus their lord. And God is outside of time. So a person is in one sense predestined, seen spiritually. But from a human’s point of view, we don’t know what a person ultimately will choose.

That’s also why God for example hated Esau (Rom 9:13) and hardened the heart of Pharaoh (Exo 7:3). Because God knew where their hearts were, and knew that they will not repent no matter what and as such were predestined to hell.

But that doesn’t mean that they didn’t have a free will and could be saved. It means that God knew they wouldn’t. The same with Christians. God knows who will choose to follow Him, those who won’t and those who starts on the way but backslides.

Also, we know in Matt 22:14 that “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

So when reading this, and the rest of the bible, it’s impossible to come to the conclusion that these verses means you cannot lose your salvation. It is to take a verse completely out of context and try to twist it to mean something that’s completely against the rest of the bible.

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Why do people still believe this false doctrine?

One question you might ask after reading this: Why do some people still believe this, even though it’s contrary to what the bible teaches?

Well one explanation could be because many people haven’t experienced true salvation, and doesn’t have the salvation assurance in their hearts like 2Cor 13:5 teaches.

Then they try to find a fire insurance somehow, and with this teaching they can try to deceive themselves that they are saved, whilst in reality they aren’t. These people are like those described in 2Tim 4:3.

The bible tells us to “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” - 2Tim 4:2 KJV

And I will continue to expose false doctrines.

JESUS IS KING!