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Thesis 1: Once Saved, Always Saved: The Toxic Root of the Dead Church

July 18, 2024

Thesis 1: Once Saved, Always Saved: The Toxic Root of the Dead Church

This post will dicuss whether the doctrine of “Once Saved, Always Saved” is based on Scripture or is just another deceptive pathway to hell. I ask readers who believe in this view to set aside all preconceived notions and truly examine the evidence provided in this post, especially if raised in a church that emphasized this viewpoint.

“Beware of manufacturing a God of your own: a God who is all mercy, but not just; a God who is all love, but not holy; a God who has a heaven for everybody, but a hell for none; a God who can allow good and bad to be side by side in time, but will make no distinction between good and broad in eternity. Such a God is an idol of your own, as truly an idol as any snake or crocodile in an Egyptian temple. The hands of your own fancy and sentimentality have made him. He is not the God of the Bible, and beside the God of the Bible there is no God at all.”

― **J.C. Ryle**

At the end of this post, I will include a wonderful sermon from J.C. Ryle from the 1800s, which is more relevant today than ever before. Ultimately, people have manufactured their own doctrine to make Christianity more “friendly” to the masses, and this is true of many popular doctrines in the end tiemes churches.

Introduction: Thesis 1 - One Can Lose Their Salvation in Christ

Can a Christian, once saved, lose his/her salvation?

This is perhaps the most important question a Christian can ask, and this is Thesis 1 of the “End Times 95 Theses by The Two Witnesses of Revelation.” In 1517, Martin Luther wrote a series of theses he presented to the corrupted church, sparking the Protestant Reformation, and in a similar way, we are presenting a new 95 theses to the modern corrupted church, with an emphasis on false doctrine, in hopes to spark a spirit of repentance and rejuvenation in these dark times.

To note, Witness 1 has already written that we are not saved by works, while I have written how faith without works is dead, and works are still an important part of faith. This post is not centered on the subject of salvation based on faith and/or works, but it will be discussed in another of the 95 theses (or however many God leads us to write).

Before I present my claims, I plead with readers to drop any preconceived notions or biases and consider everything I present here before forming a conclusion. I spent hours upon hours on this, including praying and fasting to ensure I am writing what God wants me to write. Let us not idolize any doctrine; rather, let us evaluate every doctrine presented to us and only choose the beliefs that will lead us to Heaven.

With that being said, the central question of this post is this - can one lose salvation once they are saved? The thesis of this post is that yes, one can lose their salvation even after being “saved”, and before going into Scriptural analysis, let’s start with the most important argument of this post.

Only God knows who is saved, and man cannot see from God’s perspective. Therefore, the question of salvation is only in His eyes and His hands, and there will be many surprises on Judgment Day. Every man is rightful in his own eyes, but only God sees the heart. Can any man see another man’s inner heart? No. Only God. Does the Bible say that any man knows who is saved? No, only God knows who is saved. Because of this, judgment is not in our hands. Only Jesus is the judge, and only He knows who is, can be, or will be saved. There is not one human who can prove to anyone in any way 100% without a doubt they are in this moment saved. How could one prove it other than with a claim? It would be impossible because there is an invisible, spiritual seal that only God can see, and any man who claims to see it cannot prove that claim. Therefore, many who claim salvation from God’s perspective have already failed by the arrogance of trying to claim they can see from God’s eyes. None of us are God, and therefore, we can only view the status of one’s salvation through the eyes of men. So, as Paul said, we should work out our salvation on a daily basis, with fear and trembling. This verse implies that salvation is in flux - that it is, perhaps, a variable state of being. At the conclusion of this post, there will be a response to the question, “Am I saved?” with help for those who are fearful. For now, ask yourself, “Can I see the salvation of myself or others through God’s eyes?” The answer is no - we are not God.

Of course, this is just the beginning of the claim that one can lose their salvation. This post is not one of hopelessness or fear. It is one of the truths that will help motivate readers to do the work God wants them to do. The OSAS doctrine has created a “culture of complacency" in the church, and we will explore this idea later in this post. Freeing yourself from this doctrine will help you be who God wants you to be.

This post will go into the history of the “eternal security doctrine”, examine key scriptural viewpoints, and finally, go into logical and philosophical arguments against this dangerous doctrine. This doctrine, in fact, is so dangerous that it is the rotten core of the modern, dead church, and hence, Thesis 1 of the 95 theses, so let’s begin with its history.

The History of “Eternal Security”

When looking into doctrine, it is often important to find out where a specific doctrine emerged and why. In other words, in order to understand a doctrine, one must first understand its emergence in the church itself. Before going deeper into the points against “once saved, always saved” (OSAS) doctrine, let’s figure out where it first appeared on the Christian scene.

The OSAS doctrine does not appear to be part of the primitive church. Justin Martyr, one of the early founders of Christianity, wrote,

In fact, if one looks to the early church, there is little to no evidence of “eternal security” or OSAS.

Unfortunately, Protestants and Wikipedia have been dishonest about attributing this doctrine to Augustine. Augustine explicitly said salvation could be lost, and others have loosely interpreted his work to fit in with their man-made doctrines:

The next historical place we see the possible appearance of this doctrine is not until Jovinian, who is a man riddled with controversy, such as his dubious belief that Mary ceased to be a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus Christ. He is one of the first to speak of the “perseverance of the saints”, which says that one who is indwelt with the Holy Spirit will continue to do good works until they die. This seems to be the beginning or root of the OSAS doctrine - that once someone is baptized, they will just be so full of the Holy Spirit and live a glorious life with little to no sin.

Let me ask - is that true of you, the reader?

This doctrine merged into the doctrine of eternal security, which essentially formed into Calvinism, which we will talk about in a moment.

Before we do, it is important to reiterate that these are the only early church people that one can find truly promoting the eternal security doctrine: Jovinian and John Calvin, who are both men associated with deep controversy. So, again, in all of early Christianity, we have two men with this view, which transformed into what it is today - the OSAS doctrine that has infiltrated the modern, dead church. So, then, what did the early church mostly believe about salvation?

They almost universally believed that obedience played a role in salvation, and here are some quotes from these early Christians showing this:

Of course, this is not to say that just because the early Christians believed this that it is right. However, from a historical perspective, the church was absolutely not founded upon an OSAS doctrine. Rather, it appears that faith and works were emphasized, and therefore, many believed salvation may be lost due to works that do not show faith.

The historicity alone does not prove the claim of this post yet. However, consider next where the idea of OSAS truly flourished - with John Calvin and the gnostics.

John Calvin, The Gnostics, and OSAS

To generalize, the Calvinists believe it is impossible to lose one’s salvation, and I am going to quote Thomas Taylor Ministries for an analysis of this belief:

Later, we will go into examples of how one can lose salvation, but it is important to understand the Calvinists have had great impact on this view of OSAS that has now infiltrated mainstream Christianity.

John Calvin’s views of predestination also deeply contributed to the belief that the wealthy are predestined to be wealthy and the poor to be poor. As one can imagine, this was used for justification of opulence and the prosperity gospel. John Calvin also believed that the Eucharist (communion) guaranteed the assurance of eternal life, among other controversial views. Just to note, Witness 1 has recently written how communion or baptism do not guarantee salvation.

Further, Calvin did not believe all Old Covenant laws should be set aside, and he used this to justify murdering those who opposed his beliefs. Seriously. Witness 1 and I have written extensively on how we are no longer under the Old Law, and how dangerous this viewpoint can be.

Calvin used Augustine as justification for his “eternal security” views, but again, a closer examination of Augustine’s work shows that he did not necessarily support this doctrine and there is some misinterpretation by Calvinists of Augstine’s works.

Even so, no one can argue the impact Calvin has had on modern Christianity, with the major belief of OSAS:

At first glance, this doctrine does not sound “wrong”, and therefore, many Christians jump to the conclusion that it is right without examining it.

Here is just one rebuttal to this doctrine, but again, we will examine Scripture soon.

In a moment, we will more closely examine the Scripture to truly see which viewpoint is correct. Before we do, do you all believe John Calvin was saved after his ordered murders?

Again, I will go back to my initial argument. Man cannot know who is saved and who is not saved. Some readers will believe he is still saved, and others will not believe he is saved. What will it matter about the opinions of men? Only God will ultimately get to decide if John Calvin made it to Heaven, though I personally do not think so. By the way, you might have to explore the issue of John Calvin on your own, but remember, the internet favors Calvinism, and so do modern churches. As J.C. Ryle explains, “True religion will never be popular”, and we must question why the OSAS doctrine is so exceptionally popular today. Now, let’s examine more of the history of OSAS.

Gnosticism, Augustine, and Calvin

Some have traced the roots of OSAS to Gnosticism, which made its way into Augustine’s and Calvin’s beliefs.

Adventist scholar Samuele Bacchiocchi wrote:

Gnosticism is anti-Christianity. Gnostics essentially believe in “do what thou wilt”, and if you examine the OSAS viewpoint, it is “do what thou wilt” but with justification through Jesus Christ.

Those who believe in OSAS are saying, quite literally, that if one is truly saved, there is nothing - nothing - that one can do to fall from grace.

There is so much danger in this statement, and now we must examine Scripture to see if that is what Scripture really says. In the next section, I am going to deeply examine every piece of Scripture used to justify OSAS.

Examining Scripture

For this next section, nearly all Scripture used will be quoted from Strong’s Concordance, so that one can ensure that we can get as close to the true translation as possible. One must examine Scripture both for and against the OSAS doctrine in order to make a choice on the correct view. First, let’s start with Scripture used to defend OSAS. These verses, also, were taken from Gotquestions.org, which promotes OSAS [Note from Witness 1: This is the worst GotQuestions article I have ever had the misfortune to read].

Scripture Used to Defend OSAS and Rebuttal

1) John 3:3

Nowhere in this verse do I see anything that implies eternal security. One must be born again, yes, and as mentioned above, we believe we are saved by faith. In John 15:5 and 6, Jesus then explains that one must make a choice to abide in Him or not.

In John 15, Jesus later goes on to explain the commandments that one must follow to keep in Him.

In order to be saved, it appears, one must keep Jesus’s commandments. What are the commandments that Jesus lists?

We are to set out and love each other as He loves us, which is a heavy command to follow. Jesus died for us, after all, which is why he brings up the point of dying for a friend.

As written all throughout this blog, if you truly love Jesus and believe in Him, you will follow His commands and sacrifice for Him. Your faith will often be shown through acts or works.

So, John 3:3 in and of itself does not say anything about eternal security, and the verses that follow show that we must have obedience to “abide in” Christ or maintain salvation. In other words, in order to be saved, we must continually abide in Him. Abide means to live or stay in - to literally live in Jesus or let Him live in you, or alternatively, we may lose this abode somehow.

2) John 10:27-28

This verse is commonly quoted in OSAS doctrine, so does it imply eternal security? Jesus says He will give eternal life, but does this verse show one cannot lose eternal life?

Since this passage is used extensively to promote OSAS, I have sought a well-written rebuttal, since it answers what I am trying to say in this post perfectly:

John 10:24-30

24 Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.

25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me.

26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. (So the sheep of Christ believe in Him)

27 **_MY SHEEP_** hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (the sheep also hear His voice and follow Him)

28 And I give unto them (who is this “them”? It is the same sheep who believe in Jesus, hear His voice and follow Him) eternal life (1st promise); and they shall never perish (2nd promise), neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand (3rd promise).

29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.

30 I and my Father are one.

Do you notice the characteristics of who the sheep will be? The Word of Truth is great! The apostle John told us what Jesus said about His sheep. Notice also the threefold promise: first, we are promised eternal life, second, we are promised that we should never perish and thirdly we are promised that no man will be able to pluck us out of our Father’s hand.

These three promises are given, as clearly shown, to the sheep who:

believe in Him

know Him (John 10:14)

hear His voice

follow Him

You see, my friend, to have these promises apply to us, we have to be part of the sheep of Christ. Our Lord used that analogy for a reason: the sheep in a fold have a shepherd, they hear His voice and follow Him wherever He goes. This act of following is continuous: a sheep that starts with the shepherd (Jesus), has to hear His voice and follow Him always. If that sheep no longer hears the voice of the shepherd and no longer follows Him, that sheep is lost and no longer part of the fold of Jesus Christ.

[Note from Witness 1: No human being knows who is part of Jesus’s “flock”, so this argument utterly fails. Only God knows the mind of God, do not presume to know you are saved.]

3) Romans 8:30

If God has indeed predestined, that is beyond our scope of understanding and our human perspectives. We cannot know who is predestined, how, or why. We can’t know if a predestined person can temporarily fall away or come back.

If you look at the word predestinate, however, you will see it isn’t so clear cut. In Godrule’s text above it says the word comes from two words, which is unusual, and also shows this word may be hard to define:

4253 means before and 3724 can have several meanings:

So, the word in and of itself may not necessarily mean predestination as we understand it. It could simply mean that God knows things beforehand - he defines certain things beforehand. The point is that it would take deep study and prayer to fully understand the view of this verse, and there are many translations, many discussions, and many understandings. Again, this post is not about predestination, but if it was, this verse does not conclusively prove that anything or anyone is predestined for salvation.

Further, we must always look at Scripture in context. Cherrypicking Scripture is dangerous, and all Scripture works in conjunction with other Scripture. So is there any verse in Romans that goes against the OSAS doctrine?

Let us look to Romans 2.

If everything is planned and predestined and there is essentially no free will, why does Paul give the following warning? For the purpose of understanding and comprehension, I am linking ESV, but you can check out Godrules for the more exact words.

God’s Righteous Judgment

2 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

6 He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking[a] and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality.

These verses seem to imply that people can make a choice, and they will, indeed, be judged according to their works or deeds. There does not seem a guarantee of eternal life in any regard, and I am not sure how anyone can say these verses imply this idea.

It is important that this is in the context of Romans, as Romans is the most used for OSAS doctrine.

It seems that everyone has a choice to make, and one can know the truth and deny it. It also seems we will be judged according to our works on some level.

I feel I have addressed the main Scripture used to defend OSAS, and any Scripture I have not mentioned goes along with the themes of those I have mentioned. For example, if you cite John 3:16, all of the arguments I have written still work against it.

So, now let’s go to Scripture that completely refutes OSAS.

Scripture Refuting OSAS

While you can probably do a quick Google search for this, I want to present the most compelling Scripture here with commentary. I believe that those who believe in the OSAS doctrine are cherry-picking verses and ignoring key Scripture. This is dangerous as all Scripture should be examined. Note, throughout this post, I have used only the New Testament, whereas some try to go to Old Testament verses for the ideas of salvation. This makes absolutely no sense since we are under the New Law. I will also use the concordance for all of these verses so one can explore the meanings of difficult words. So, let us begin.

**1.** **2 Peter 3:17** - You can be led away with error.

**2.** **1 Corinthians 8:11** - A weak brother shall perish.

**3. Hebrews 3:12** - One can depart from the truth of God.

This implies that one may be with God and then fall from Him. They were in the truth, and then they departed.

**4.** **John 8:31** - Continue in the Word of Jesus to be His disciple.

There is a condition here for being saved. One must follow His word. The opposite, then, must also be true. If one does not follow His word, then they are not saved.

If you also continue reading in John 8, Jesus does not close off salvation to anyone or open the possibility of salvation to a predestined elect. He is speaking to everyone, and He is telling them it is their choice.

**5.** **Romans 11:19 - 23** - The “branches” or “believers” are broken off due to unbelief.

Paul is speaking to believers here - not unbelievers. According to this commentary, “Paul has been warning the Gentile Christians not to be arrogant and prideful about their place in God’s family. They should not be puffed up about their position on the symbolic olive tree of those who belong to God through faith.”

Further, he is explaining they are becoming haughty and that those who do not believe (The Jews) could eventually be grafted back into the branch through unnatural or unlikely processes. Basically, He is explaining to believers to not get puffed up about their salvation - nor should they judge the salvation of others. Anything is possible with God. Those lost can be found. Those found can be lost. There can be those who go in and out of being lost and found but eventually find the truth. Unfortunately, there are those who can lose God despite having faith. He warns that anyone - anyone - can fall into unbelief and be cut off.

**6.** **Philippians 2:12** - Work out your salvation with fear and trembling:

If people were eternally secure, what would they have to fear? What are they working out? This verse makes absolutely no sense with OSAS.

**7.** **2 Thessalonians 2: 1 - 3** - A Great Falling Away and Deception of the Very Elect

Who are the elect?

1) picked out, chosen
1a) chosen by God,
1a1) to obtain salvation through Christ
1a1a) Christians are called “chosen or elect” of God
1a2) the Messiah in called “elect”, as appointed by God to the most exalted office conceivable
1a3) choice, select, i.e. the best of its kind or class, excellence preeminent: applied to certain individual Christians

This verse conclusively proves that even the very elect will possibly fall away! In fact, they end up under a Great Delusion and take the Mark of the Beast, which leads to my final conclusion.

Conclusion: Philosophical Thoughts

To wrap up this writing, I want to end with a variety of philosophical points that may or may not have been addressed in this writing. These are for readers to think about.

  1. In Revelation, it says that all (or nearly all) people take the mark. That means that both Christians and non-Christians are deceived. How is this possible if OSAS is true? Already, I have proven in Matthew 24:24, even the very elect would be deceived. This shows that many in the end may be “saved”, receive the mark of the beast, then lose their salvation.
  2. Though we are not saved by works, it is clear that our works matter. If we all followed OSAS, what would our works matter to God? Why would anyone even care to do works? Romans 2:6 says each person will be rendered according to their deeds. Some claim the saved in God would escape this sort of judgment, but this doesn’t seem to be backed by Scripture. It seems we ALL have to face the Judgment seat of Christ, believer and unbeliever alike. I do understand this is an entire other post in and of itself, so I am not making any grand claims here (yet) about Judgment Day.
  3. One thing I noticed about the OSAS followers is that they start going into hypothetical argurments. So, let’s say we someone sinning and they believe in OSAS. They would say something like, “Well, they were never saved to begin with.” This is really dangerous. This viewpoint presupposes that all OSAS people are going to be full of the Holy Spirit at all times, always righteous, and never fall from grace. Let’s go back to this question: Is this true of you, the reader? Since you were baptized, have you been full of the Holy Spirit, always following God’s will? On my end - no. I was baptized and needed A LOT of time to figure things out. There was a time I believe the Holy Spirit even temporarily left me. Though this is anecdotal, it is important. Salvation is not a one time thing. It, really, is a variable state of being.
  4. Some take the stance of predestination and that everything is completely out of our control. This takes out the concept of free will out of the Bible, and if that is gone, then we are essentially just robotic AI entities, and nothing matters.

I believe God has given free will since the beginning. I believe it is even possible that God has created a system where He can know all but place limitations on Himself or what He sees. God can do anything. God can be a paradox. In fact, there are probably true paradoxes that exist with God and not on this Earth.

I believe we have free will, and He says He doesn’t want ANYONE to perish! If He had some type of predestined elect, why would He say something like this? It also says He is patient, showing that it may take time and many losses for people to come to the truth.

To note, I do acknowledge that predestination and free will could somehow coexist, but this is another complex topic for another post. For now, I believe God gave us free will because He didn’t want us to be robots. He wanted us to come to Him by choice.

Of course, it would be impossible to address all arguments in this post, but there is one thing we can look at to see how OSAS has damaged the church: its fruits.

The churches today are dead, and they are complacent. They are empty. They are empty of spirit and life.

When a pastor goes up and tells people the doctrine of OSAS, how many are truly going to be motivated to work for the Lord?

This doctrine leads people to hell.

Conclusion from Witness 1

Heb 10:26 – 31 For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins

Really, the verses debunking OSAS could not be more clear. This is a ridiculous, absurd, and illogical doctrine that is entirely unsupported by the Bible.

When I read the GotQuestions article which, suprisingly, claims to be utterly confident that OSAS is true, I couldn’t believe how bad it was. Their site has much good content, especially when it comes to Biblical history, but they really, truly, dropped the ball on this one and are directly responsible for sending people to hell by telling them not to worry about anything after they are “saved”.

Here is the crux of the argument - NO ONE CAN KNOW IF THEY ARE SAVED.

All of this writing is pointless, because that is all anyone needs to know. We spend so much time debunking idiotic, midwit-level ideas like this - it’s really a shame.

If you think you “know” that you are saved for sure, you are wrong. No one knows who is saved. It’s possible that even God doesn’t know who will be saved, as all authority to judge has been given to Jesus.

God does not judge us, Jesus does.

To that point, it’s possible that even Jesus himself doesn’t know exactly how Judgment Day will play out. They might, but they might not. From this perspective, claiming to know as a human who has been saved is utterly ludicrous.

So, if no one knows if they are saved, OSAS crumbles and burns. And the reality is, no one can prove they are saved. Think about it - you can’t even prove empirically (scientifically) that “salvation” even exists, how could you possibly prove that you are “saved”? Because you feel it?

OSAS is a form of magical, wishful thinking, in which Chrisitanity is reduced to merely a few magic words and a baptism, after which God, like a dog trained to react to certain input, must unequivocally grant you salvation.

Unfortunately for all of us, it is not that simple. We should have a healthy fear of God, and must not take anything for granted. It’s not over until it’s over, and until the day you die you can still lose your salvation.

No doubt, there has been at least one person who has been “saved”, a committed Christian, baptized, gone to church, had 100% faith, etc., and then fell on hard times, decided to rob a gas station, and ended up shooting and killing someone and not repenting before death. Obviously, committing cold-blooded murder and theft will, almost certainly, remove that person’s “salvation”.

Now, you could say that it never really existed, but does yours? Do you know the mind of God? We are not God, and we should never presume anything. You don’t know if you are saved or not, so OSAS cannot possibly be true. Hedge your bets as much as possible.

I could go on and on about this, but there’s probably not much point because people who want to believe something this dumb probably won’t listen anyways. All I can say is I hope you are right, but the odds of that are practically zero.

God bless you all.

-Witness 1

To wrap up,

Here is a great sermon that I believe supports what was written here. It was done in the 1800s but is more relevant today than ever before. It is entitled “Counterfeit Christianity.”

Finally, God does want us to have a healthy fear of Him. He is our Father. He wants no one to perish.

Thank you all for reading to the end,

- Witness 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD2rnVOUxQk