ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED?

Once we're in God’s good books, will we always remain so?

Proponents of easy believism support the doctrine of “once saved, always saved”. Once you have accepted Christ, you can relax; you have bought your ticket to heaven and nothing can change your fate. 

However, both Paul and Jude warn of the danger of resting on our spiritual laurels as God afterwards destroyed those He had saved because of unbelief.

Lest we say these things do not apply to us but only to those living in Old Testament times, Paul expressly says that what happened to them should serve as a warning to us; it’s for our admonition (Jude 1:5  ¹    ;   1 Corinthians 10:1-11 ²).

At the Mount of Olives, Jesus warned that false prophets will arise and deceive many, even the elect (as error is so skilled at imitating truth that the two are often being mistaken for each other). Only those who “endure to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13).

Indeed, deception coupled with ‘itching ears’ (2 Timothy 4:3) will spell doom for many. Didn’t Jesus warn that “the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many” (Matthew 7:13)?

Coming back to the original question: Once we're in God’s good books, will we always remain so? 

To answer that, it is better for us to go back to the Bible – back to the basics, back to the source, like the Berean believers ³ –  and search the scriptures for ourselves, rather than get it “second-hand” through a illustrious personality or teacher.

For a more detailed coverage of this subject:
SAFE AND SECURE?
http://limpohann.blogspot.com/2013/01/save-and-secure.html

Footnotes:

¹    “I wish to remind you, as you all know, that God, when once he had brought the people out from Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe” (Jude 1:5).

²   “For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did —and were killed by the destroying angel.

These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come” (1 Corinthians 10:1-11).

³  “And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth” (Acts 17:11).

No matter how highly esteemed he is in the eyes of his followers, a respectable teacher worth his salt should have no fear in being probed by scripture.

If he is, in fact, teaching the truth, he should welcome such “cross-examination” because scripture then will validate his teaching.