This argument seems to set the decisive
moment about whether and when someone is saved at the time they confess faith.
They either pass or fail at that moment, with no second chance at growing after
a less-than-stellar moment of conversion. According to the argument, those who
lack the “real saving faith” at that moment are not saved, period.
(Because if they are still saved but later do not demonstrate the necessary
deeds during trials, then they will lose their salvation which is the
possibility that this argument tries to preclude.) In that case they are doomed
without recourse, since if they are not saved at that moment of opportunity
when they think they are — with everybody congratulating them while the Holy
Spirit flunks them quietly — they really don’t have the sense of urgency to do
what they can to turn the situation around. Besides, justification is by faith,
not works, so they are still doomed regardless of what they do. This argument
seems to imply that if someone is not “up to standard” at the moment
of conversion then nothing can help them make up for it. In that case all the
encouragement about attending church, reading the Bible etc. appear moot in
terms of salvation, because if they do have the “real saving faith”
then nothing can knock salvation off them (once-saved-always-saved), whereas if
they don’t then no amount of efforts can save them.
What you described is a case of false
conversion, someone who thinks he/she is saved, but who really lacked saving
faith. What happens to them? If the church is doing her job, she would follow
up the individual, visiting him to see whether he has assurance of salvation,
encourage him to attend worship, and teach him to pray, read the Bible and join
fellowship or a cell group. They would monitor his progress to see if there is
any change in his behavior, as evidence that he has been “born
again”. People progress at different pace, but if after a period of time
there is still no sign of life they would doubt whether his
“conversion” was genuine in the first place.
What next? His Christian friends, assuming they
are concerned about his spiritual well-being, would question his “faith”
and witness to him as if he were an unbeliever, since his conduct leads them to
such a conclusion. Is he doomed without recourse? Not necessarily, because
although “once (genuinely) saved, always saved” is true, the converse
“once lost, always lost” is not true. That person may not have any
sense of urgency to repent, but neither has any non-believer until the Holy
Spirit convicts his heart.
All of us start out rebellious – it’s in our
fallen nature. The false convert has an extra hurdle of self-delusion, thinking
he’s saved when he’s not, but it’s not insurmountable. With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. (Mt
19:26) He may send other Christians besides his friends,
even total strangers e.g. a short-term mission team, to witness to him. I take
“the Lord does not wish for any to
perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9) at face value.
“Any” would include “false converts”, so it is not hopeless
as you’ve described.
7) Some people explain the
situation this way: There are those who believe with real saving faith at the
moment of accepting the gospel. They are justified by their real faith which
will be reflected in their deeds going forward. They are saved once and for
all. Nothing can knock them out of salvation. On the other hand, there are
those who say they believe but actually don’t really have the faith required.
This will be reflected in their deeds going forward. They were never saved to
begin with, presumably because the Holy Spirit knows their heart, so they did
not lose the salvation which they never obtained. So then the
once-saved-always-saved assurance applies to the first group only. This is the
only group that has ever been saved. Do you agree with this?
Properly understood, yes. But let me
clarify. When I was a young Christian I attended a church that taught
Dispensationalism and “once-saved, always saved (OSAS)”. The moderate
form proposed that a believer is eternally secure, because he is in the Lord’s
hands:
Jn 10:27-29 My sheep hear My voice, and I know
them, and they follow Me;28 and I give eternal life to them, and they
will never perish; and no one
will snatch them out of My hand.29 My Father,
who has given them to
Me, is greater than all; and no one is
able to snatch them out
of the Father’s hand.
I held this doctrine to be true, and
still do. As I learned more from the Bible, I found my views on eternal
security to be most closely aligned with the Reformed doctrine of
“perseverance of the saints”:
Jn 6:37, 39-40 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and
the one who comes to Me I will certainly
not cast out. …39 This is
the will of Him who sent Me, that of all
that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.40 For this
is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son
and believes in Him will have
eternal life, and I Myself
will raise him up on the last day.”
The saints are preserved by our Lord,
and therefore will persevere.
The ultra form of OSAS, however,
proposed that once a person “confessed Christ as his personal
Savior”, he is saved forever, even if later on he backslides, drifts away,
and lives in unrepentant sin. According to them, “once a son, always a
son”. I reject this as contrary to
what Scripture teaches:
1 Jn 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained
with us; but they went out, so that it
would be shown that they all are not of
us.
The above summarizes my current
position on eternal security, so a “qualified yes” to your question.
It seems that this argument uses
real saving faith to defend the once-saved-always-saved assurance, but does not
offer any insight about what is real saving faith. So then the question still
remains: How does anyone know whether they have “made it”?
You can know “real saving
faith” by its “fruit”:
Mt 7:16, 20 You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from
thorn bushes nor figs
from thistles, are they? … So then, you
will know them by
their fruits.
Mt 12:33 Either make the tree
good and its fruit good,
or make the tree bad and its fruit
bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.
Lk 6:44 For each tree is known by its own fruit.
For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar
bush.
There are many passages indicating what
type of fruit genuine saving faith will bear, but one book in particular is
written so that we may know we have “made it” – 1 John:
1 Jn 5:13 These
things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you
have eternal life.
What are the signs given in 1 John? Commentators
have different views. I summarize my observations into the following groups:
1. In
relation to God – Keep His commandments; does His will
2:3-5 By thiswe know that we have come to know Him,
if we keep His commandments. 4 The
one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in
him;5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of
God has truly been perfected. By
this we know that we are in Him.
2:17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives
forever.
2:29 If
you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices
righteousness is born of Him.
3:24 The
one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know
by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
5:3 For this is the love of
God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.
2 In relation to others – Love the brethren
2:10 The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for
stumbling in him.
3:10 By this the children of
God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice
righteousness is not of God, nor the
one who does not love his brother.
3:14 We know that we
have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides
in death.
3:18-19 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. 19 We
will know by this that we are of
the truth, and will assure our
heart before Him.
3:23 This is His commandment, that we believe in the
name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.
4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God
is love.
4:12 No one has seen God at any
time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
4:16-17 We have come to know
and have believed the love which
God has for us. God is love,
and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God
abides in him. By this, love is
perfected with us, so that we may have confidence
in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.
4:20-21 If someone says,
“I love God,” and
hates his brother, he is a liar; for the
one who does not love his
brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not
seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves
God should love his
brother also.
3. In relation to the world – Overcome; do not
love
2:15 Do
not love the world nor
the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father
is not in him.
5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes
the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
4. In
relation to self – Purity; clear conscience
3:3 And everyone who has
this hope fixed on
Him purifies himself, just as
He is pure.
3:6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him
or knows Him.
3:21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we
have confidence before God
I hasten to add that the above
indicators are a matter of degree. None of us is perfect; we are sinners saved
by grace, in the process of sanctification. Some of us do better than others,
but no one is blameless. All of us fall short many times at different points in
our lives, but the overall pattern should be upwards, striving towards the
goals God has for us, growing more like Him as time progresses. But
notwithstanding our stumbling, by His grace we press on.
Pastor Ray's blog: rayliu1 