Once SAVED Always Saved?

by Terry Wane Benton

Of course, those words are never seen in the Bible. They are not stated, and they are not even implied. In fact, to believe such a doctrine, you would have to work against many clear verses, either outright denying them or outright ignoring them. Not only does the Bible say you can “fall from grace” (you cannot fall from something you were never in) (Galatians 5:1-4), but “the sow that was washed has returned to her wallowing in the mire” (II Peter 2:20f).

Peter does not describe an unsaved person. He says he is describing someone who escaped the world's pollution. How did they escape? He says they escaped “through the knowledge of Jesus Christ.” That is how one escapes, if they escape at all. So, Peter is definitely describing a saved person who escaped the world's pollution. He further illustrated that this person is like a “sow that was washed.” You cannot be washed and escape the world's pollution through the knowledge of Jesus Christ and at the same time not be saved. The description is of a washed, clean individual. No person “escapes” and is “washed” clean without being saved.

A person who actually escaped the pollution of the world and was “washed clean” (thus saved) is “again entangled” in the things that made him condemned before his escape and washing. Peter did not agree with the doctrine of “once saved, always saved”. He said he is now worse off after this saved person is again entangled. “The latter end is worse than the first.” He was condemned at first, then escaped condemnation, and now he is condemned again. He is worse off now because he turned from the things that could have kept him saved. He chose to reject the salvation he had experienced in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

The illustration Peter gives is disgusting. A dog vomits out what is making him sick. Thus, the dog is now unpolluted and saved from the sickness. He is rid of what made him sick but then devours what he expelled. That is disgusting, but no more disgusting than a person who got rid of sin through Jesus and then chooses to return to sin and condemnation. But “it has happened.” Therefore, it can happen, which proves beyond all doubt that “once saved, always saved” is a doctrine of demons.

The doctrine is nowhere stated, implied, and outright denied by many clear scriptures. Even Paul admitted that he could, after preaching to others, become “disqualified for the prize” if he did not run the race according to the rules (I Corinthians 9:24f). With such clear teaching, we must let God be true, and let the doctrines of men be counted as false, giving false assurance that is actually dangerous to be spreading to unsuspecting people. Beware lest confidence is based on misguided information and twisted scriptures.