I was recently invited to see a friend of mine get baptized in water at a church here in Plano, so I said I would absolutely be there to support her and see her get baptized. She was baptized at the beginning of their normal church service, and so I stayed for the whole service after the baptism. This was on a Saturday and normally the senior pastor doesn’t minister on Saturday’s, only on Sunday’s. But this one Saturday the senior pastor decided to preach. As this was the only time I had ever attended this church, I don’t believe this was a “coincidence” because the message he preached was “once saved, always saved.” (I’m purposefully omitting the name of the church and pastor from this posting).
From how I read the bible, I do not believe that this doctrine aligns with the Word of God. I’ve heard the term “once saved, always saved” many times, but I never witnessed anybody actually preach that message. So after hearing this sermon, I believed it was right to send the church and the senior pastor an email showing them scriptures on why I believed that this doctrine doesn’t line up with the bible. Now that I’ve witnessed this doctrine being taught, I couldn’t just sit back, be quiet and do nothing because I have been called to preach the truth and people’s souls and eternal life are impacted if they believe in the “once saved, always saved” false doctrine. This is somewhat of a long post, but I would encourage you to read it in its entirety because you might be one of these people.
(The pastor was reading from the English Standard Version - ESV, so all scriptures will be in that translation unless otherwise noted).
1 Corinthians 15:1-4
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, IF you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
The key word in these verses is the word “IF.” Did you know the word “if” was in the bible? I’ve read these verses many times and didn’t notice the word “if” until recently. Actually the word “if” is in the bible more than 1,000 times. Another thing these verses say is that salvation is a process, “BEING saved,” not just a one time experience. So you are saved IF you hold fast to the word preached. The word preached is verses 3 and 4, how that Jesus died, was buried and rose again on the third day, which is also the exact definition of the gospel. Our salvation has a condition to it: we have to stand on the gospel, and hold fast to the gospel in order to continue “being saved.” That’s an ongoing task. This tells me that IF I DON’T stand or hold fast to the gospel, then I won’t be saved. You can’t just accept Jesus into your life, and then continue in your sinful ways and expect the process of “being saved” to work. You have to STAND on the gospel, and HOLD FAST to it and BELIEVE it.
Some other verses using the word “if” to look at:
John 8:
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “IF you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
There’s that word “if” again. The word “abide” means “to remain, to continue, to stand, and to not depart from.” So you are a disciple of Jesus IF you CONTINUE in his word.
Colossians 1:
21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,23 IF indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
You have to continue in the faith in order for the things in verse 22 to work in your life.
John 15:
6 IF anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 IF you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
Another case of the word “if.” I want you to really consider the word “if” and how many times it’s in the bible.
One statement this preacher made absolutely shocked me, he literally stated that “you can not fall from grace.” I would recommend re-reading the book of Galatians and see what the Apostle Paul says to the church of Galatia. Paul says the exact opposite in the following verse.
Galatians 5:4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; YOU HAVE FALLEN AWAY FROM GRACE.
In order to fall away from grace, you would have had to experience that grace in the first place. Ephesians 2:8 states “For by grace you have been saved through faith...” The Galatians experienced the grace to be saved, but then fell away from that grace because they went back under the law.
The King James Version states:
4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
Romans 3:20 states (back to the ESV translation):
For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
The knowledge of sin comes from the law. So if you continue in sin after being “saved,” then you went back under the law. And if you’re under the law then you have fallen from grace and Christ is become of no effect to you. That doesn’t sound like “once saved, always saved” to me.
John 1:17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
The law and grace are mutually exclusive.
Another thing this preacher stated was that “...your sin cannot separate you.” Another contradiction to what the word of God says. Look at this verse:
Isaiah 59:
1 Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
2 but YOUR INIQUITIES HAVE MADE A SEPARATION BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR GOD, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
Next, this preacher ministered from Hebrews 10:10-18 and talked about “salvation once and for all,” but left out the last half of the chapter which talks about what happens when we sin wilfully even AFTER receiving the word of truth:
Hebrews 10:
26 For IF we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Here are a few more sets of scriptures to consider about what can happen to someone even after receiving the word of truth.
Hebrews 6:
4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
2 Peter 2:
20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
That one got my attention. It is better for a person to never have known the way of righteousness, then to know it and then turn away from it. That’s a profound statement.
Ezekiel 18:
24 But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die.
26 When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die.
Ezekiel 33:
12 “And you, son of man, say to your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall by it when he turns from his wickedness, and the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness when he sins. 13 Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet IF he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered, but in his injustice that he has done he shall die.
To wrap things up, I eventually got a call back from one of the intern pastors at this church. We briefly discussed the scriptures contained in this post, but the answers I received had no substance because he didn’t use the Word of God in any of his responses. If it’s not in the Word, I don’t want to hear it. He stated that in 1 Corinthians 15, I needed to look at the “Greek prepositions” and that the word “if” didn’t mean the same thing back then as it does now. When we talked about grace in the book of Galatians, he said that there’s two kinds of grace: “saving grace,” and then just “grace.” He couldn’t show me a scripture telling me how to distinguish between the types of grace. Another thing he stated was that some of the things in the Old Testament don’t apply to us today. And finally he stated that, “I didn’t even know some of these scriptures were in the bible.”
Now I’m not putting this gentleman down or insulting him. The point of me telling you this is that I want you to consider the scriptures I shared in this post. Don’t assume that a sermon is truth simply because it was preached by a man behind a pulpit. Take the time and search the scriptures for yourself. I pray that God will open the eyes of anyone and everyone who reads this.
God bless,
Paul Peters
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