Once Saved, Always Saved?

On Sunday, I heard yet another pastor come out and say that salvation is permanent. “No matter what you do,” he argued, “you cannot lose your salvation.” I don’t know why so many pastors deny that apostasy is a real thing. I have known and met several former Christians who have renounced their faith and do not believe anymore. Many of those have become very active proselytizers for atheism, denouncing Christ and God at every opportunity.

Analytically, the stories for the people in that group are generally the same: saved at a young age, atheist by first year of college, and by their late 20s and early 30s they are anti-theistic, slandering all religious belief and all who believe. In light of that trend, are we to believe that because someone accepted Christ around age 5, and then around the age of 30 begins to denounce Him openly and starts calling all of Christianity a scheme, that his proclamation at age 5 trumps his near continuous denunciations in adulthood? These denunciations are active campaigns to keep people from finding God and getting saved. People like this are warring against Jesus regularly, yet some pastors would have you believe that when the Kingdom comes, Jesus will still tell them, “Well done, good and faithful servant! Enter into the Kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world.”

Scripture is very clear on this subject. Those that believe in Jesus and ask for salvation, have it. It does not say “those that have believed,” or “those that believed once,” still have it. If someone ceases to believe, they no longer meet the criterion. They are no longer saved. It is that simple. Simon-Peter writes on this: “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.” 2 Peter‬ ‭2:20-22‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Now, in the interest of being complete, I’m going to show what happens if that 30 year old atheist finds Christ again. The apostle Paul taught on this very point. In Hebrews 6, he wrote, “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” - Hebrews‬ ‭6:4-6‬ ‭KJV‬‬

What Paul is saying is that we do not get to rewash ourselves in the blood of Jesus to avoid being judged at the Judgment Seat of Christ. This means that all the blasphemy spoken against Jesus and the Holy Spirit, must be answered for. The standard for that Jesus gives in Matthew 12: “And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.” - Matthew‬ ‭12:32‬ ‭KJV

That means whoever becomes an apostate and speaks against the Holy Spirit does not get to be in the 1,000 year reign of Christ. They have regained the conditions of salvation, and will be given that gift when it is given at the White Throne, but as for this world and the world to come (1,000 year reign), they’ve sealed their fate by activating the condition of a promise of Jesus.

Not every promise from God is there to take care of us or make us more comfortable. Apostates, whether they repent or not, are destined to learn that fact firsthand. Don’t be one of them. And don’t believe in this “once saved, always saved” belief. It’s not scriptural, and it does nothing but promote the devil’s agenda.

May the peace and love of God fall on all of you.