Once Saved Always Saved? – Part 2

Since my last post I’ve had other verses brought to my attention by comments both here on my blog and on a discussion on Maiden of Purity’s blog. Of course when I wrote my last post I was aware that there are other passages that seem to oppose the thought “Once Saved Always Saved”. Some of those passages were mentioned so I’ll address them in this follow up post. Once again we’re addressing the following question: “If a person has been truly saved, can they lose their salvation?”.

Some of the verses that were brought up were the multiple verses in Revelation that refer to names being blotted out of the Book of Life.
Rev 22:17 “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. 18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and [from] the things which are written in this book.”


And: Rev 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

First let’s look at what these verses are referring to with the phrase the “Book of Life”.

“Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is [the book] of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works… Rev 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”

From these verses we see that the Book of Life is the book your name must be written in for you to enter heaven. It is the guest list to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And if your name is not written in it on the judgment day then you have one destination-hell. It’s a terrible thought but it is the case. Praise God that our names can be written in that book.

This next verse concerning the Book of Life is also very intereseting:

Rev 17:8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

This verse seems to indicate that the names written in the Book of Life were written there before the world began. This would support the concept of election. Before the world began God chose which names would be written in the Book of Life. Now do you really think that if God chose to put a name there he would then later take it out. One of the many attributes of our great and awesome God is that He has been and always will be unchangeable. Therefore if your name has been written in the Book of Life you can be sure it will not be removed. Right?

But wait! The first verses we looked at in Revelation seem to indicate that names can be blotted out. How can this be? For only God has access to this Book of Life. So if a name was blotted out it would be God’s doing. Let’s take a closer look at the verses. In Rev 22:19 it says if anyone takes away from that which was written his name would be blotted out. Now who would we expect would be found guilty of changing what the Word of God says? Would it be the atheists? No for they deny that God even exists so they have no use for any part of the Bible. Would it be born again believers? No for the Bible says that they are led by the Spirit of God. So who does this leave? It leaves the religious person. The person who is either striving to enter heaven by works or is living a merely outward righteous life. Are either of these true believers headed for heaven? No. As Jesus said “They will die in their sins”. So why would their names need to be blotted out? For if they were never true believers then their names were never written in it. I found this commentary by Albert Barnes helpful:
“When it said here that “God would take away his part out of the book of life,” the meaning is not that his name had been written in that book, but that he would take away the part which he might have had, or which he professed to have in that book. Such corruption of the divine oracles would show that they had no true religion, and would be excluded from heaven”

So this is merely an expression so that, from man’s point of view, we can understand it. To those around this individual he may seem like a true believer. But in his heart he is as far from God as the vilest atheist. So, merely for our benefit, John gives this picture of the name being blotted out. But in reality it was never there.

The next verse (Rev 3:5) sheds even more light on the subject. In fact instead of being a verse disproving this concept it is actually a verse to prove it. This verse and the previous tie together in that this verse says if you have believed on Jesus, and therefore your name has been written in the Book of Life, then He will not blot out your name from that Book. Albert Barnes was again helpful on this subject:
“The expression “I will not blot out” means, that the names would be found there on the great day of final account, and would be found there forever. It may be remarked, that as no one can have access to that book but he who keeps it, there is the most positive assurance that it will never be done, and the salvation of the redeemed will be, therefore, secure.”
Now you may say “Hold on Daniel! The stipulation was given ‘He that overcometh’! This promise is only for those who endure to the end!” Yes I noticed that. But what did Jesus say before He left His disciples here on earth? He prayed to the Father in Joh 17:11 “Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we [are].” Christ here prays that God the Father would keep all those who He had given Him. Do you think that God is unable to keep believers true to the end? Certainly not! If you have put yourself in God’s hands you can rest assured that you are safe. No one can take you from that place of safety.

Once Saved Always Saved?

This question has been central to the debate between Calvinists and Armenians for a number of years. Calvinists believe in what they call “Perseverance of the Saints”. Armenians on the other hand believe that Christians can lose their salvation. Many godly men over the years have been on both sides of the argument. So how do we know which is correct. Like the Bereans we search the Scriptures.

On the Armenian side they bring up these verses:
Heb 6:4 For [it is] impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
Heb 6:5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
Heb 6:6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put [him] to an open shame.

But on the Calvinist side they bring up verses such as:
Joh 6:37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
Joh 6:38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
Joh 6:39 And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

And :
Joh 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
Joh 10:28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any [man] pluck them out of my hand.
Joh 10:29 My Father, which gave [them] me, is greater than all; and no [man] is able to pluck [them] out of my Father's hand.
Joh 10:30 I and [my] Father are one.

So without going into a long list of verses we already seem to have a contradiction. The first passage seems to say that once you have been saved, if you fall away, you cannot regain your salvation. But in the next two passages Jesus assures us that His sheep will not be lost but he will raise them up again at the last day. Well let’s take a closer look at the first passage.

It begins by saying “it is impossible” and then goes through the list of different things until verse six. So you could rewrite it as “It is impossible for those… if they should fall away, to renew them again to repentance;” The activities listed at the end of verse four and through verse five quite clearly refer to an individual who has been saved. This is not merely a false profession for it says: “were made partakers of the Holy Ghost” and we know from other scriptures that this only occurs when a person has been truly saved. So it is obvious that he is referring to true believers in verse 4 and 5.
He goes on to say “If they should fall away”. Now think about this: he never says that any will fall away. He says that IF they fall away then it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance. Think about it phrased this way “Those who have been truly saved(ie. the elect), cannot fall away because if they fell away they could not be renewed to repentance.” All the elect will be saved. Once they have been saved they cannot fall away. Therefore if someone makes a profession and then “falls away” you can make one of two assumptions. Either they we’re never saved in the first place or they didn’t fall away instead they were merely experiencing a valley in their Christian walk. Many who “fall away” do come back later and say that they truly were saved. Hopefully this has been presented clearly enough. Of course I didn’t have enough time to go into all the verses on the subject. If you know of any verses that seem to say otherwise please comment and let me know. And if we disagree we can still be friends. As I said at the outset many godly men through the ages have been on both sides of this argument. I believe you can still be a Christian no matter which side you are on. I was saved in an Armenian church and am now Calvinistic. There is one way to heaven and that’s through the blood of Jesus Christ. It is not through a system. Every system made by man has it flaws. So we follow Christ our head and the commands he left us in His Word.

Thanks for Reading.
In Christ,
Daniel Turack

(911)September 11, 2001. I am sure few of us will ever forget what happened on that date. I still remember when we first heard the news. We were living in Virginia at the time. We were at home doing school and my dad was at work (he was in the Air Force at the time). Suddenly the phone rang. My mom answered and it was my uncle. The first thing he asked was where Dad was. Mom told him at work and he asked where. He was relieved when mom told him 5 miles away. Dad would take frequent trips to the Pentagon for his work so my uncle was worried that he was there when the plane hit. We were glad dad was safe but there are other families whose dads were not safe, who never came home. Because of them we will never forget that day.

(Stomping in puddles)My little brother and I were in town walking across a parking lot when I noticed something that started me thinking. I noticed that every puddle we passed he would stomp in. Thinking about it I realized that stomping in puddles is common among kids. So I began wondering why that is the case? Any thoughts?

(A unique time)Since this rarely happens I figured I would post about it. As of this moment the time is 09:09:09 and the date is 09/09/09. Of course this only occurs once a year and in a few years will cease to occur. So right now I'm headed to the shop on my bike to do the nightly cleanup. What were you doing during this unique time? Let me know.

(Labor Day)Well today is Labor Day. I was working all day first on the grain bins in the morning and then the rest of the day over at the house. So I did pretty much what I always do. So how was your Labor Day? Did any of you do anything interesting? Or was it the standard daily routine like mine?

Yesterday at church there were some missionaries who recently got back from Africa. They were ministering to the deaf through sign language. I was able to sit with them for lunch which was nice. My oldest sister, Bethany, was in a ministry to the deaf at one of the churches we used to attend. Now she is with her husband and their two daughters serving as missonaries in Malawi, Africa. So I had a nice conversation with the missonaries yesterday. After lunch I talked to William Wattermann for awhile. Nice conversation there as well.