If you would like to hear a fuller engagement of Calvinism, and what my views entail, click HERE to go to the Church & Culture Podcast where I was queried on the matter.
But here are the questions most people are really asking: “Can this happen to me? Can I lose my salvation? Can it be taken from me?” And the answer is “no.” You cannot lose your salvation that way; you cannot have it taken from you against your will. You don’t have to worry from day to day whether you are still saved.
“But I’ve had some rough patches of late.”
Well stand in line—you aren’t alone. All of us feel like our faith development is sometimes like taking three steps forward, then two steps back. As C.S. Lewis once wrote, the nearest thing we have to normalcy is an undulating pattern of ups and downs, peaks and valleys. He even called it the “law of undulation.”
But not every valley is apostasy, and not every spiritual setback is a denial of the faith. Apostasy is purposefully renouncing your faith. That is not the same as, to use the old word, “backsliding.”
So if you’ve heard the line “once saved, always saved,” it’s true. But you need to watch where you put the emphasis. It’s not “ONCE saved, always saved,” which is essentially saying: “Phew! I prayed the prayer; I’m set for life and now it doesn’t matter how I live from here on out because I’ve got it all covered. Fire insurance is in hand!” As if from that moment on it doesn’t matter what you do, how you live, or what you choose.
No, it’s “Once SAVED, always saved.”
The emphasis matters.
The final verdict on anyone’s salvation is when their final breath is taken. No one can take your salvation away from you against your will, but you can freely surrender it yourself. The final verdict on your life is when your life is over. This is why there is so much in the Bible about remaining steadfast and faithful to the end. About persevering to the end.
So lament the rise of the nones, and work at reaching out to them. And pray that for them, their current state of mind is a season,
…and not a final determination.
This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.