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Once Saved Always Saved?

Once Saved Always Saved?

Victor A. Feria

St. Michael Apologetics Society

There is an ongoing disagreement between non-Catholics and Catholics on the idea of “once save always saved.” Non-Catholic position is that a person, once saved, cannot lose salvation and is guaranteed eternal salvation no matter what one does. They also claim that losing salvation meant that the person was not saved or had no faith to begin with. They claim that if one has faith that person will live a righteous life and will not lose the faith. However, Scripture never supported this teaching. It is more of a perversion of the idea that one cannot lose salvation. St. Peter warns us on this type of false security:

[2 Peter 3:17] “You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware lest you be carried away with the error of lawless men.”

The verses in the following scripture also indicate that people can fall away and lose their faith. This cannot be taken lightly or even ignored. The letter to the Hebrews definitely defined that people can fall away and lose their faith:

[Hebrews 6:4-6] “For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt.”

Falling away from the faith meant that at a moment in time you were part of the faith. To start with, you can’t fall away from something you were never a part of. As they claim, that belief in once saved always saved – that when those who fall away from the faith were not truly saved anyway. The previous verse explains that this is not so. It speaks about them being partakers of the Holy Spirit which indicates they were saved and give an indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But it says if they fall away(commit apostasy) which indicates that it is possible even after being enlightened and receiving the Holy Spirit.

How is this possible? How could someone who is truly saved fall away? Our Lord said that we must remain in him or else will be cut off:

[John 15:4-6] “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.”

This means that those who abide in him and are broken off were believers but did not hold on to their faith. They fell away and were broken off. The obvious explanation is that some start out in the faith but do not stay on thereby losing the salvation that was promised. The following verse shows the once faithful walking out of their faith: Paul wrote as a warning to those who break away:

[1 Timothy 4:1] “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,”

Salvation presupposes that you have faith. We are saved by having faith in the Lord. to have faith to start with then it is possible to unbelieve. The following verse shows what happen to those who have fallen off because of unbelief. It also shows that unbelief is a real possibility:

[Romans 11:20-23] “They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off. And even the others, if they do not persist in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.”

Paul is saying that we must remain, we must continue, we must persevere in the faith or else we will be cut off. one must have faith to begin with if they are expected to persevere in it. He is writing about people who are already grafted into the tree. They already have faith in the Lord they are joined with God’s people and he said they will be cut off because of unbelief. Peter also writes about those who have receive salvation but turn back to a life of sin:

[2 Peter 2:20-22] “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 overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 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. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “The dog turns back to his own vomit”, and “the sow is washed only to wallow in the mire.”

He’s showing us that it’s possible for someone who has escaped sin and found salvation to once again return to sin and loses his salvation. The proverbial dog returning to his own vomit ultimately, I believe, the once saved always saved argument is based on a faulty premise-the premise is that we can’t lose something we’ve already attained.

This may be true for those who persevere. However, persevering onto the faith meant that one can fall at any moment because of our free will on his journey unto the final judgement.. But if we continue to persevere without failure then we can have the confidence to attain eternal salvation but not an assurance of salvation. However, the Bible indicates that we have not fully attain salvation yet.

[Matthew 24:13] “But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

Our Salvation has not been completed yet. When we believe and you’re sure, when we come to faith in him, we start the salvation process. We are in the process of being saved. The book of Acts refers to new Converts as those who are being saved:

“… the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” [ Acts 2:47]

Paul says the message of the Gospel is powerful to those who are being saved

[1Corinthians 1:18] “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. “

He also speaks about those who are being saved in contrast with those who are perishing:

[2 Corinthians 2:15] “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing,”

The Bible speaks about salvation in past. present, and future tense: We have been saved; we are being saved; and we will be saved. Paul explains that we have already been justified by the blood of the Lord but our Salvation from wrath has not yet happened:

[Romans 5:9-10] “ Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Notice he said we shall be saved through Jesus. It’s only through him that we are able to attain salvation if we remain and insure and endure to the end shall we be saved. We have been saved by grace through faith and we are being saved by remaining in the Lord and we will be saved when he returns i.e., if we endure in our faith to the end.

There are other ways we can lose salvation. Those who believe that “once saved always saved” and if this is a doctrine your faith relies on you will be saddened to find out the inaccuracy or untruth of such teaching as explained here:

[Galatians 5:18-21]“For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would. But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Is there an assurance of salvation? St. Paul disagrees in the following verses:

[1 Cor 4:1-5] “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then every man will receive his commendation from God.”

In 1 Cor 4:1-5, Paul, despite his own perception of being righteous refuses to judge himself: “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me” Note also that Paul emphasizes that the Lord has the final judgement. Notice that “once Saved” believers may not realize it but they are actually casting judgment onto themselves by declaring themselves “saved”. We cannot judge ourselves as saved! By our being human, being righteous does not give us the assurance of salvation. We may not be aware of some misdeeds in our past.

As shown by the arguments above we can also fall away and thus lose salvation. Persevering to the end gives us the confidence that we will be saved. Notice the difference between confidence and assurance.

How do we know we are saved for sure? The only time we can know that we are surely saved is when we are face-to-face and in communion with God after the final judgment.

Who Said the Bible is Inspired?

WHY 2 TIM 3:16 DOES NOT APPLY TO THE INSPIRATION OF THE ENTIRE BIBLE

By Victor Feria

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be equipped, prepared for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17).

Argument 1:

We have to see the context of this verse as to when it was written by St. Paul to Timothy. Looking at the verses prior to this:

14: But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15: and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

We can see that Paul was referring to the scriptures that was written at that time. He was referring to the Old Testament. Blessed John Henry Newman explained it in an 1884 essay entitled “Inspiration in its Relation to Revelation.” :

“Now, a good part of the New Testament was not written in his boyhood: Some of the Catholic epistles were not written even when Paul wrote this, and none of the books of the New Testament were then placed on the canon of the Scripture books. He refers, then, to the scriptures of the Old Testament, and, if the argument from this passage proved anything, it would prove too much, viz., that the scriptures of the New Testament were not necessary for a rule of faith.”

One may claim the verse is “self-authenticating”. This is problematic due to reasons where other books can claim as inspired. The Quran, The Book of Mormons, etc. can then claim the same argument. Self-authentication becomes a circular logic or reasoning. It is like, in mathematics, solving an equation using the same declaration as the solution itself. That gets us nowhere. An absurd claim can also be made like this: “I am God because I said so; I said so because I am God.” There is nothing more clear than this example and that proves nothing.

Argument 2:

When we rely solely on 2 Tim 3:16 that declares that “All scriptures” are inspired then we have taken the Church out of the process of compiling the books that we now have as the Bible. Most Protestants adhere to this verse in their argument of “Sola Scriptura” or Bible Alone. There is more to this which is beyond the scope of this paper. As one can see, the Church under Divine Authority, infallible and as surrogate, issued a final decree beginning with the Council of Rome. There is simply no argument against that the Church was involved in declaring the canonicity of the books.

Concluding Argument:

“Being inspired by God is, by definition, the only real criterion for a book’s inclusion in the biblical canon. This is fine, in the abstract, but useless when it gets down to brass tacks– for to respond to the question ‘Which books are canonical?’ with ‘The books that are inspired’ is just to say that we can know the inspired books by their being inspired! The question just gets pushed back a step to ‘How do we know which books are inspired?’ What the canon is does not tell us how to identify it.” – Dr. Doug Beaumont, “Evangelical Exodus”

In “Decretum Gelasianum De Libris Recipiendis Et Non-Recipiendes” at the Council of Rome (382AD) decreed which books are to be received and not received. So the Divinely appointed infallible Church, with Divine Intervention, “discovers” which books are canonical. It is worthwhile to note that there were numerous books that were disputed and some declared spurious and their “authors to be damned in the extricable shackles of anathema forever.”

At the Vatican Council I (1870), “ Dei Filius, Chapter 2” states:

“…this supernatural revelation, according to the faith of the universal Church, as declared by the holy synod of Trent, is contained “in the written books and in the unwritten traditions which have been received by the apostles from the mouth of Christ Himself; or, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit have been handed down by the apostles themselves, and have thus come to us” [Council of Trent]. And, indeed, these books of the Old and New Testament, whole with all their parts, just as they were enumerated in the decree of the same Council, are contained in the older Vulgate Latin edition, and are to be accepted as sacred and canonical. But the Church holds these books as sacred and canonical, not because, having been put together by human industry alone, they were then approved by its authority; nor because they contain revelation without error; but because, having been written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author and, as such, they have been handed down to the Church itself.

In closing, let me quote from a book written by Rt. Rev. Henry Grey Graham, 1911, “Where We Got The Bible”:

“.. We shall only be awarding a just meed of praise and gratitude if we frankly and thankfully recognize that it is to a council (or councils) of the Roman Catholic Church that we owe the collection of the separate books into our present Canon of the New Testament, and that to the loving care and devoted labor of the monks and scholars of that Church all through the ages we are indebted, not only for the multiplication and the distribution of the sacred volume among the faithful…but even for the preservation of the Book from corruption and destruction.”

Witness, Dialogue or Both?

In a group discussion I attended, it was said that it is “wrong” to engage in a dialogue when it comes to explaining our faith. This statement was made opposing my view of engaging another in a dialogue in order to explain what our Church teaches. The contention was that one’s witness or actions, e.g. leading a holy and spiritual life, is “the correct way.” By writing this note, it is my intention to dispel incorrect notion or misconception against what the Church officially teaches.

My disagreement to such “witness alone” concept is based on what I have learned from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. A commentary by Dr. Scott Hahn in his book, “Evangelizing Catholics: A Mission Manual for the New Evangelization” states:

The importance of witness, however, doesn’t give us license to dispense with words. Words matter too. They’re essential. And the reason they’re essential is because none of us are so truly and clearly living the Good News that the witness of our lives is sufficient for bringing people to faith.

As I tell folks when they use this excuse on me, “If you really think your witness is sufficient, that words aren’t necessary, go talk to your sister or your spouse and ask them if the witness of your life is so powerful, so moving and complete, that they can just look at you and know everything they could ever possibly need to know about God, Jesus Christ, and the Church, about sin and grace, sanctification, and salvation. Can people see it all in how you live every minute of every day? Could a complete biography of your life replace the Gospels? Or is something, at least occasionally, lacking?”

The answer, obviously, is that something is lacking. A whole lot of somethings are lacking — from my witness, your witness, and the witness of every fallen human being in this world. Even the holiest saints the Church has produced, St. Francis included, needed to use words to lead people to Christ.

The Second Vatican Council’s Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity (Apostolicam Actuositatem) acknowledged the importance of bearing witness to Christ with our lives, noting that such a witness has “the power to draw men to belief and to God.”

But it then goes on to say: However, [the lay apostolate] does not consist only in the witness of one’s way of life; a true apostle looks for opportunities to announce Christ by words addressed either to non-believers with a view to leading them to faith, or to the faithful with a view to instructing, strengthening, and encouraging them to a more fervent life. “For the charity of Christ impels us” (2 Cor 5:14). The words of the Apostle should echo in all hearts, “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel.” (n. 6) Again, both words and witness are essential. They work together. They complete each other, making our apostolate effective and whole. The Church doesn’t give us the option of picking one over the other. Nor does she give us the option of letting our preference for one mode of evangelization be our excuse for neglecting the other mode.

Instead, she calls us to overcome our reluctance to evangelize and to do it in word and deed. Not just for the sake of others, but for our own sake as well.” (Chapter 3, p34-35)

I am sure that Dr. Hahn’s commentary was based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Let us examine the following paragraphs:

[par 900] Since, like all the faithful, lay Christians are entrusted by God with the apostolate by virtue of their Baptism and Confirmation, they have the right and duty, individually or grouped in associations, to work so that the divine message of salvation may be known and accepted by all men throughout the earth. This duty is the more pressing when it is only through them that men can hear the Gospel and know Christ. Their activity in ecclesial communities is so necessary that, for the most part, the apostolate of the pastors cannot be fully effective without it.

First of all, as paragraph 900 says, we have the right and duty as a group or as an individual. We are all called and duty-bound to share our faith. In doing so, as the following paragraphs show, witness alone is not enough:

[par 905] Lay people also fulfill their prophetic mission by evangelization, “that is, the proclamation of Christ by word and the testimony of life.” For lay people, “this evangelization . . . acquires a specific property and peculiar efficacy because it is accomplished in the ordinary circumstances of the world.”

This witness of life, however, is not the sole element in the apostolate; the true apostle is on the lookout for occasions of announcing Christ by word, either to unbelievers . . . or to the faithful.

[par 906] Lay people who are capable and trained may also collaborate in catechetical formation, in teaching the sacred sciences, and in use of the communications media

In the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church, Lumen Gentium, paragraph 1285 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

…”by the sacrament of Confirmation, [the baptized] are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. Hence they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed.”

“Strictly obliged” is a very strong statement. It adds more to the reason why we, as Catholics, need to do more to share and defend our faith. More importantly, to do it within us by both witness and dialogue. As Dr. Hahn commented, “To evangelize others is to evangelize ourselves.”

By Victor Feria

St. Michael Apologetics Society