Does the Bible really teach that once a person is saved they are always saved? The first question that needs to be answered is, what does it mean to be saved, and how does a person become saved?

A person is “saved” when they are no longer under condemnation for there sins and they now stand before God in the righteousness of His son, Jesus the Christ. At this point they have passed from death unto life, from judgment to forgiveness, Being born again by the Spirit of God, “Holy Spirit”. The Holy Spirit begins His Special work in the person, first by sealing the believer and then starting the work of sanctification. We will look at the Holy Spirits work in sealing the believer later on.

How a person becomes “saved” is by turning to Christ in faith, through repentance of their sins. Here is a very important point that gets lost in this discussion of saving faith, there is a condition for being saved or born again, the one and only condition is Faith in Christ. While all non-Hyper Calvinist understand that faith is the condition that God requires, you will never hear a one or two point Calvinist utter the word condition.

A person cannot be saved if they do not come to God, God’s way. And faith in the Son of God is the condition that God has established for a person to enter into salvation. And so we see clearly that entering into salvation is conditional. Lets drive this home with a comparison, remaining under condemnation is conditional, its conditioned on remaining in unbelief. We all understand that if a lost person repents of their sin and turns to Christ for salvation that they will be saved. And so they have left the conditional state of being under condemnation.

If being under condemnation is conditional under unbelief, we can understand that being saved is conditional upon placing our faith in Christ. But the condition does not end there, Christ himself said “Abide in me and I will Abide in you.” Abiding is Faith. How do we abide in Christ? Not of works that we have done but only by Faith.

Now that we have clearly outlined what it means to be saved and how a person gets saved, lets look at some of the most popular arguments used in defending the once saved always saved doctrine.

Here is a verse of scripture used right away to prove once saved always saved. John 3:15-18 “The Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

This is a very important verse of scripture, and if we just take if for what it says and don’t try to add anything to it, we can understand what is being said.  The problem is that Calvinist like to leave off the rules of  interpretation when it suits them.

The key words in our study of this scripture are the words, believeth (KJV). This word believeth means to have confidence in Christ, rely on Him, trust he is who he said he is, to look to no other but Him for salvation. In every use of this word we see it is written in a present tense, meaning it is the constant and ever present position of the believer.

To bring out the meaning of this word in modern English, the word pisteou coming from G4102 means to continue to believe. Now lets look at how this truth gets blown away in order to hold onto a belief system.

John 3:15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Who is it here that has eternal life? Whosoever believeth in him! And what did we say about the word believeth? We find that in the original Greek it means to continue to believe, that is the very meaning of the word. It does not say whosoever believed in him, it says whosoever believeth, its not splitting hairs, it’s a very important point to make sure we get the meaning of the word nailed down.

Now lets look at John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

The same word “believeth” is used here for the “not condemned” person and the “condemned” person. By reasoning of the Calvinist we can assume that the believer that is not condemned cannot change his mind and become an unbeliever again, just as the unbeliever cannot change his mind and become a believer. To say that the believer has eternal life and this cannot change, like wise the unbeliever is condemned already and cannot change.

We know this is false, the unbeliever can change, by the grace of God he can turn from his unbelief and receive Christ. It is also true that the believer has eternal life only because he is a believer. This great promise of eternal life is only given to those that are “in” Christ. And a person is only “in” Christ through faith. Abide in Me and I will Abide in You.

The argument that salvation is eternal and not temporary is a bad argument that comes from a desire to take peoples eyes off of the subject and elicit a positive response to the argument. Of course eternal life is not temporary, this always gets a big amen, but it is a diversion and always evokes mans reasoning rather than what scripture says. Eternal life is a promise to believers and a believer is the one that abides in Christ.

1 Peter 1:5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. See here for more on this verse

Gods power keeps us unto salvation, but he uses faith as the agent to keep us. Without faith, Gods keeping power is of none affect in our lives.

Rom 1:17 For therein is revealed a righteousness of God by faith unto faith: as it is written, But the righteous shall live by faith.
Rom 11:20 Well; by their unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by thy faith. Be not high minded, but fear:

There is a high-minded attitude in those that teach they cannot be broken off. Arrogance and Pride disguised as the doctrine of grace. Warning after warning in the scripture is ignored because the mind has already been made up and no scripture is going to convince otherwise.

Col 1:21-23 And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreproveable before him: if so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye heard, which was preached in all creation under heaven; whereof I Paul was made a minister.

God wants to present you holy and unblameable, and He has the ability to do it. But we must continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and be not moved away in order to lay hold of the promise.

About the believer being sealed. The seal “G4972” is not a seal like the rubber ring on the lid of a jar of preservatives. This is how this doctrine is treated and it is error. The seal is the mark of ownership. This truth also never gets told because we all know that the owner can break a seal of ownership. Eph 1:13 in whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation,––in whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, I think it is clear that the Holy Spirit himself is the seal, or the mark of ownership, given to us in order to confirm that we are His.

God seals the believer with the Holy Spirit when the believer comes to Christ in faith. No where can we find that God is incapable of removing His seal of the Holy Spirit. In fact we do find great warnings such as the one in

Rev 3:5 He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in white garments; and I will in no wise blot his name, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

Arrayed in white garments! This speaks of the sinless righteousness of Christ and someday those that overcome will be confessed before God the Father.

Heb 3:12- Take heed, brethren, lest haply there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God: but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called Today; lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin: for we are become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end:

Such a powerful and straight forward warning that goes unheeded in many church’s. When is the last time a Calvinist followed this scripture and warned a brother to take heed unless they develop a evil heart of unbelief and depart from the living God? Never! According to Calvinist it cant happen so why warn.
My Calvinistic Brother, we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end.