Once Saved Always Saved?

       There is a large group of people in Christendom today who follow the belief that once you have been saved, no matter what you do in the future, there is nothing you can do to fall out of favor with God. In short, once saved, always saved. This is a concept that is nothing new, and one that John Calvin and his followers faithfully believed. But when one thinks on this logically, it really doesn't make any sense. Do we really think that after we have been saved, we can do whatever we want without repercussions? What if we converted to Islam, or became Agnostic? Would God still be happy with that decision? Let's look at this in another way besides logic, let's see as we always should do, what the Lord says about this important topic.
       Calvinism, to be fair, doesn't actually say you can do whatever you wish, but they say basically that the Holy Spirit will force you to obey and stay faithful. John Calvin wrote this, "They, whom God hath accepted in His beloved, effectually called and sanctified by His spirit, can neither totally or finally, fall away from the state of grace: but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved." So, God will not allow one to fall away and be eternally lost, at least according to John Calvin. Is this in agreement with the scriptures, or is this simply a doctrine of man? Calvinists like to use 1 John 3:9 which they say means the child of God cannot fall from grace because he cannot commit sin. Part of the reason for this is because the KJV wrongly used the word commit here. According to Vine's Expository, the correct translation should be "doeth" as the RSV and ASV uses. In this sense, what the Bible is saying is that if you are walking with God, you can do no sin. If you sin, you are not with God!
       This thought continues with Paul in his letter to the Romans in chapter 6:1-2. "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound? God forbid. We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein?" And in Hebrews 10:26 the author (most likely Paul) says if we sin after we have received the knowledge, there is no more sacrifice of sin, but we must repent of those sins. Why would Paul bother to tell us what we must do after we have been saved, if we can't sin after we've been saved? It seems there is a contradiction between Calvin and the Apostle Paul! John, one of the 'Sons of Thunder' writes in 2 John 9 "Whosoever goeth onward and abideth not in the teaching of Christ, hath not God". This is important, for he states 'onward', meaning from baptism. Again, why would John need to state that anyone who falls away after being saved, falls away from God if he is automatically saved? When we depart from the Word we no longer abide in Him, there is no preservative.
       Other verses that we can see the truth are as follows: Eph. 4:30 says we are sealed by the Spirit unto redemption only as long as we do not grieve Him. Jude 24-25 says God is able to keep us from falling but we must allow Him to lift us up. It isn't a question of God's ability but of our willingness to allow Him to do so. No one can separate us from Christ, not even Satan, if we don't allow it to happen. 1 Cor. 10-12 and James 4:10 says God provides a means of escape if we are willing to walk after Him. What more evidence do we need?
       Just in case you still aren't sure there is enough evidence, let's see what the Bible says about someone falling from grace. Gal. 5:4 says "Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law; ye are fallen away from grace." Paul again is showing there were some who had fallen away from Christ. The Apostle Peter also tells us that if we return to sin AFTER having obeyed the truth, we will fall from grace. There are many more verses that support this, but let's look at two examples in the Bible of this happening.
       The first one would have to be one of the closest men to Jesus. That of course would be Judas. Now some like to argue that Judas never was faithful to Christ, but by reading the scriptures, that would be a complete assumption. Nowhere does it say that Judas was a spy, or always knew he would betray Christ, but leans more to temptation and a moment of weakness and love of money. We must also not forget about the angels, who were created by God, yet some of them fell as well (Jude 5-6 and 2 Pet. 2:4). In short, our name can be removed from the book of life (Rev. 20:14-15). If it is, we will be eternally lost. The proof is right there before us, it is just a matter of whether we want to believe God, or the doctrines of men.

We Need Godly Zeal

       I hear so many people today complaining about the state of our society in America, and how bad it has become. They claim it is due to many different reasons such as the downfall of the family dynamic, the socially liberal movement of the government, T.V. programs, movies and even video games. These are all correct in their way, but they can also be put into one major category: We have lost our zeal for God. This doesn't mean we have lost our love for God, or we don't attend worship correctly, although that is a part of it. The biggest issue I believe, is that the majority of people are afraid to stand up for God and respect the beliefs of all others. Now I'm not condoning the disrespect of people at all, but we must stand up for God and the Bible and what is right without fear of being talked down to. Far too many Christians allow others to say evil things about God, and then just shrug their shoulders and say "Well, that's how they believe." They don't realize that 'belief' will lead to destruction.
       Our society has reached a point today where it is the popular thing to go against God and Biblical values. Now, this has always been an issue, but the difference today is that Christians seem to be too timid and let things slide for fear of offending anyone, and out of fear of being persecuted. As far as being persecuted goes, what we experience in this country is far from a true persecution that was experienced in the past. How can we put ourselves into the same category as those who were arrested, tortured and executed? Being called names and laughed or scoffed at is not persecution, it is ignorance. But, if we continue to allow this to happen, and not show our offenders that they can do or say whatever they want, it will escalate more and more. This has happened in the past many times and will again, however in the past, there were great people who stood up against the accusers and still spread the Word. When one does this, others will listen. If we remain silent, how can anyone ever learn the truth?
       As far as offending someone, we do not want to hurt anyone's feelings, but we must care for their salvation above anything else. The Bible has always been offensive to unbelievers, but the only way to get someone to believe, is to educate them, try to get them to listen to the truth. If we let others say and believe what they want without saying something, they will be lost. In order to do this properly, we must have the proper zeal, a Godly zeal to do this. Think about this, what if Paul, Peter and the other Apostles and disciples in the first century were timid and afraid to say anything? All of the Apostles suffered persecution and all but one gave their lives for their belief, and knew they would go through it, yet were unafraid and did it without violence of any kind, but out of love for the lost.
       When we have the correct zeal for the Lord, good things come from it. The first time we read about zealous workings, is in Numbers 25:11. God said He spared the people of Israel because of the zeal of Aaron's grandson Phineas, that he was able to bring Israel away from God's wrath. Much later in Paul's letter to Titus, Paul calls Christians peculiar people, wanting to have zeal in good works of God (Titus 2:14). Staying silent, being afraid to speak, is not a work at all and can do nothing for the lost. In Revelation 3:19, we are also told that we must be zealous and repent for our past sins. We can't just give lip service and simply say something, but we must truly want to this, and strive to do what is right in the eyes of God.
       I love the story of Peter in Acts chapter 2, mostly because of the zeal that he showed. Just prior to this event where he was preaching to the Jewish leaders, he was running from these same men, and even denying Christ three times. Now, Peter has been empowered and encouraged, and is no longer afraid of what men could do to him. His only goal for the rest of his life was to spread the Word of God to all who would listen, even those that would eventually kill him. Possibly no one had more zeal than Paul, who was a great example of both the wrong type of zeal and Godly zeal. When he was still known as Saul, he went out and arrested as many Christians as he could find, and did so with the love of God in mind. It wasn't until his experience on the road to Damascus that he realized Christ was the Messiah. and his zeal for the rest of his life was for Christ. He was even brought before the Sanhedrin (Acts 23:1-5), the Pharisees (Acts 23:6-10), Felix (Acts 24), Festus (Acts 25), and King Agrippa (Acts 26). Each time, even though he knew if he simply remained silent or denied his offenses, he might be released, he used each opportunity to teach the leaders about Christ. He was not afraid of what the future would bring or what others thought of him.
       The brave men and women of the Bible were not afraid to stand with God and preach the truth, no matter what might happen. In doing this, many people wanted to know what their message was, why it was so important that they were willing to risk their lives for it. Today, when we remain silent, other will simply think that our message is not important enough to speak of it, and will turn away. The American government is the perfect example of this. Politicians used to be proud to stand for their religious convictions, and oftentimes were elected for this. Now, we poke fun at the ones who have a strong Christian background, and even hold up those who have no convictions at all, or support those that lean more toward a Muslim background. What's wrong with that? Simply paying attention to Muslim countries and how they treat people will tell you that this is not what anyone wants. These people are making headway though, because we remain silent, and are afraid to rock the boat.
       One of the last thing that Jesus said to His Apostles, was to go out into the world and spread the Word (Matt. 28:19-20). Are we doing this today, and being zealous in all of our works? We might be helping the poor by feeding them, or going to other countries and building schools and digging wells, which are all good and right things to do, but our priority must be to teach the message that Christ brought, to save all those that might listen. We are judged by how we came to God and live our lives by Christ, and having the correct zeal, a loving Godly zeal, to bring other to Him as well. This is what is wrong with our society today, and I thank God that the Apostles were not like most today, and were much more afraid of doing nothing, than doing what God commanded them, and us to do.