Once a Sheep Always a Sheep, or Salvation Deficit Disorder?

[AnotherOldGuy]

A lot of people, maybe most, do not understand Christianity and salvation. I could say that it's the fault of the generic "church", but there are an awful lot of bibles around. When the time comes, "I didn't know that" will not be an acceptable answer.

[KaiafromBergen]

http://gracethrufaith.com/ask-a-bible-teacher/still-saved-after-denying-the-lord/

Q: I have a question I have needed answered for a very long time. I can’t even get a straight answer from my own pastor. I believe in Christ’s finished work at the cross. I know that behavior cannot change our salvation.

However, if someone accepts Christ and is baptized as a young person, then loses faith and denies the existence of God, what then? I get different arguments from people on this. I have heard, “Once saved always saved” and I’ve heard that denying the Lord is unforgivable. Please help me settle this. I lose sleep over this for my dear family members.

A. The clear answer is found in 2 Cor. 1:21-22. When we are saved the Lord puts His seal of ownership on us and puts His Spirit in our heart as a deposit to guarantee our destiny. At the same time He assumes responsibility for making us stand firm. According to John 6:39-40 He will never lose even one of us. The Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) explains this in story form.

As for as denying the Lord, that’s something a saved person can never do, no matter what he or she says. Peter denied Him 3 times in a single night and yet the Lord restored Him.

These things teach us that if your family members sincerely accepted the Lord as their Savior, then it doesn’t matter what they say or do afterwards as far as their eternal destiny is concerned. The Lord has accepted responsibility for them and will see to it that they are never lost even if they’ve wandered away. That’s why we call Him the Good Shepherd.

[AnotherOldGuy]

These things teach us that if your family members sincerely accepted the Lord as their Savior, then it doesn’t matter what they say or do afterwards as far as their eternal destiny is concerned.
There is no scripture that says we obtain salvation by accepting anyone "as our Savior". Jesus becomes our Savior when we acknowledge Him as our Lord.

[KaiafromBergen]

:violin

[AnotherOldGuy]

I don't know what you mean.

[Buzzardhut]

A lot of people, maybe most, do not understand Christianity and salvation. I could say that it's the fault of the generic "church", but there are an awful lot of bibles around. When the time comes, "I didn't know that" will not be an acceptable answer.
The seeker driven emergent movement compounds the problem


There is no scripture that says we obtain salvation by accepting anyone "as our Savior". Jesus becomes our Savior when we acknowledge Him as our Lord.

It may take a little more than that
Even satan admits Jesus is lord but Jesus is not his lord anymore

[KaiafromBergen]

Deleted, BH said it better than anyone

[ZeldaCA]

I think being saved comes from a TRUE acceptance of Christ. Think about it....if you truly believe the all-knowing, all-powerful Creator of the universe came to earth in the form of a man, you will be anxious to hear everything He had to say, and to live by His precepts the best you can. You will truly believe your eternal life depends on this belief.

If you don't really believe, then your interest in learning about Him and following His ways will show no progress. You'll dabble in it here and there, but not truly take it seriously.

We ALL have sin in common; but IMO there is a difference between missing the mark, and not quite believing there is even a mark to miss.

I believe that people say they are "saved" or are Christians all the time out in this world of ours. Only God knows what is truly in their hearts though.
:hat

[Sandra17012]

Dear sopo,
I understand what you are saying, the problem is that this argument is not realistic.

I have never known anyone who claimed to be a Christian (real or not) who said it was okay to sin.

No one that I have ever known has said you could be saved and still live like the unsaved world.

I have known Christians who believed themselves to be saved, and yet struggled with sin. I could point at some of them and say they are hypocrites, and are not really saved, but who would I be kidding? Am I any more righteous than they?


These last people make it hard for others to understand the osas belief because most people don't realize that there is a difference.

Again, have you ever known anyone who actually fits this description? Has anyone ever told you that since they are saved, they can get drunk, have affairs, do anything they want to do because they are "covered"?

What we have here in reality are people who see professing Christians who struggle with sin and pass judgement on them because of their sin.

I know an atheist/agnostic in my own extended family who is moral and works hard. This person does not drink to excess or commit any other "bad" sins that anyone would notice. This person is a professional who makes a very good salary, and helps out friends who are in need, and sometimes never gets paid back. He is a very "good" person, but he is lost.

I have Mormons in my family who live moral lives. They don't drink at all, they do a lot of work for others, help those in need, they go to Temple all the time, ect...yet they are lost.

Many thousands of "good" people are lost.

Who is good and who is bad? Who is righteous, who is a sinner?
There are none righteous, no not even one.

You cannot use examples of "bad" Christians to disprove Eternal Security, it simply is not logical. If it were then all "good" people would go to heaven (Christian or not), and all "bad" people would go to hell.

Only people who have accepted Christ's completed work upon the cross on their behalf will go to heaven.

[Sandra17012]

I believe that people say they are "saved" or are Christians all the time out in this world of ours. Only God knows what is truly in their hearts though.

That is exactly right!