Once Saved Always Saved
By Arlo Moehlenpah

Once saved always saved? It is true Jesus said that no man can pluck you out of your Fathers hand. If you keep your hand in God’s hands there is no height, depth, devil or any other creature that can pluck you out. But does this mean you can live as you please and there is nothing you can do that can cause you to lose your salvation?

Backsliding

If it is impossible for a person to backslide why did Jesus ask us to remember Lot’s wife who turned back, five foolish virgins who no longer had any oil, and a person who put his hand to the plow and looked back was not fit for the kingdom? Why did Luke mention Ananias and Sapphira? Why did Paul write that Demas forsook him, having loved this present world? Why did he write that it is impossible for those who have tasted of the heavenly gift, the word of God, the powers of the world to come and were partakers of the Holy Ghost, 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? Why did Peter write that it had been better for people not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them? It is like the dog that turned to his own vomit and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. “Once saved always saved” is a damnable doctrine.

What Must We Do?

It is true we are saved by grace. There is nothing that we did or could have done to deserve salvation. We were purchased by the precious, sinless blood of Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost is a gift and not earned. Yet we were told to do some things to be saved such as believe, repent, and be baptized. We don’t even deserve to keep our salvation. All of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Yet we are told to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. There are many things the Bible tells us to do. There are things we put on and things we put off and put away, things we should think on and things we should not, things we should love and things we should hate. Jesus came to save us from our sins and gives us power to be overcomers.

moehlenpah@aol.com

This article “Once Saved Always Saved” by Arlo Moehlenpah was excerpted from: Doing Good Ministries, www.DoingGood.org. Used by permission. June 2011. It may be used for study & research purposes only.

This article may not be written by an Apostolic author, but it contains many excellent principles and concepts that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying goes “Eat the meat. Throw away the bones.”