Transcription
One of the most common slogans in modern Christianity is this. Once saved, always saved. That idea sounds simple. If you've accepted Jesus, trusted in Christ, made a profession of faith, or been genuinely converted, then your eternal destiny is permanently secured. Nothing can change it. Nothing can undo it. Nothing can separate you from salvation.
But is this actually what scripture teaches? Is this what Christ and his apostles describe in their teachings? Before we go any further, there is a big difference between the historic reform doctrine of perseverance of the saints and the popular slogan once saved always saved. These are not identical doctrines. The classic reform position was articulated most famously at the Synod of Dort in 1618 and 1619. The popular evangelical version often found in Baptist non-denominational and free grace circles can be significantly different.
But I want to be clear. Both of those theological frameworks the Catholic Church rejects. Not because the church doubts the faithfulness of God, but it doubts our faithfulness to God. So let's talk about why the church rejects those ideas in the most fair way we possibly can. Let us still man the Protestant case and then we'll look at scripture. Then we'll look at history and finally we'll look at what the Catholic Church actually teaches.
Welcome to Lexio. I'm your host Sean Hiller. Today we are discussing the topic of once saved always saved. Is it a legit Christian doctrine or is it a heresy? Let's get into it.
So it's first thing first still man the Protestant case. And I think the strongest Protestant argument does not begin with man. It begins with God. Jesus says, "I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand." In John 10:28 and 29. And Paul writes, "Neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." He says that in Romans 8:38 and 39. And again Paul says, "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in the day of Jesus Christ in Philippians chapter 1:6." And again, "You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance in Ephesians 1:13-14." Those are powerful texts.
Catholics believe every single one of those texts. The Synod of Dort taught that believers could not persevere if left to themselves, but that God mercifully preserves them to the end. It reads exactly. It reads this: "By reason of these remains of indwelling sin and also because of the temptations of the world and of Satan, those who are converted could not persevere in the grace if left to their own strength." Dort also explicitly rejects the accusation that assurance encourages sin. It states, "The certainty of perseverance, however, is so far from exciting in believers a spirit of pride or of rendering them carnally secure that on the contrary, it is the real source of humility, filial reverence, true piety, patience in every tribulation, fervent prayers, constancy in suffering and in confessing the truth and of a solid rejoicing in God. So that the consideration of this benefit should serve as an incentive to the serious and constant practice of gratitude and good works as appears from the testimonies of scripture and the examples of the saints."
Likewise, the Westminster confession states, "They whom God hath accepted in his beloved can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace." It says that in its chapter on faith in chapter 17. But notice something important. Westminster does not say Christians can live however they want. In fact, it says, "Nevertheless, they may through the temptations of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them and the neglect of the means of their preservation, fall into grievous sins, and for a time continue therein whereby they incur God's displeasure, and grieve his Holy Spirit, come to be deprived of some measure of their grace and comfort, have their hearts hardened, and their consciences wounded, hurt and scandalize others, and bring temporal judgments upon themselves." That matters because I do not want to character confessional Calvinism. The serious reformed position is not sin all you want. The serious reformed position is if someone finally falls away, he was never truly saved in the first place. That argument is grounded primarily in "they went out from us, but they were not of us" in 1 John chapter 2:19. John Calvin repeatedly appealed to this text in his institutes. That is the strongest version of the Protestant case.
Now, let's take a detailed examination of it. And we're going to go to the scriptures and see what they actually say. So, first off, Catholics do not reject the assurance passages. The question is whether scripture also teaches that a person who truly possesses saving grace can later lose it. And the answer is yes.
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Consider Hebrews. The author describes people who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, and who then have fallen away. It reads in Hebrews chapter 6:4-6: "It is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come and then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance since they are crucifying once again the son of God to their own harm and holding him in contempt." Notice the language. Those are not fake Christians who fell away. Those are people who genuinely participated in God's grace.
Also, Hebrews chapter 10:26 and 27 says, "For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries." Paul himself says in 1 Corinthians chapter 9:27, "I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified." Paul does not sound like a man who believes final salvation is impossible to lose. He also warns in 1 Corinthians 10:12, "Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall." And of course in Philippians 2:12, "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only is in my presence, but much more in my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." Paul tells the Galatians in chapter 5:4, "You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace."
St. Peter writes in 2 Peter chapter 2:20-21. "For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them." Jesus himself says in Matthew 24:13, "The one who endures to the end will be saved." Alluding to maybe a person who doesn't endure to the end, would they not be saved? He also in John 15:6, Christ says, "If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers." Paul likewise warns the gentile Christians in Romans 11:22, "Provided you continue in his kindness, otherwise you too will be cut off." These warnings only make sense if falling away is genuinely possible. Otherwise, they just become hypothetical threats directed at people who could never actually experience the outcome being described.
There's also some history here that we have to talk about. There's a pattern. One of the most fascinating things about church history is how often the same theological mistakes reappear. The language changes, the packaging of those mistakes change, but the logic remains the same. The Valentinians around AD 180 as St. Irenaeus describes, he writes a letter to the Valentinian Gnostics in his work against heresies and he says according to he says that they believe the spiritual were saved by nature. He reports that they taught they shall be entirely and undoubtedly saved not by means of conduct but because they are spiritual by nature. He then records their famous analogy just as gold remains gold even when covered in filth. They claimed spiritual people remain saved regardless of what they do. Now our sources are a little hostile. We should not exaggerate any of this. Modern scholarship has shown that many of the Gnostic groups were highly ascetical, but the theological logic is undeniable here. The truly spiritual cannot ultimately be harmed by their conduct. That is what the Valentinian Gnostics were saying. The logic should sound familiar to what we're talking about today with once saved always saved.
Another group, the brethren of the free spirit, had a similar pattern and it appeared in the Middle Ages at the Council of Vienne between 1311 and 1312. This council condemned teachings associated with the brethren of the free spirit in the decree Ad Nostrum. Among the condemned propositions was the idea that a perfected soul becomes so united with God that it is no longer subject to ordinary moral obligations. The Church repeatedly condemned the same underlying logic of once saved always saved that the secure soul cannot truly be endangered by sin. The Church was condemning that and fighting against that.
The Catholic Church has never taught that salvation is maintained by human effort. Quite the opposite. The church teaches that perseverance itself is God's gift. In fact, Trent anathematized the idea that anyone can persevere without God's special help. It reads, "No one, moreover, so long as he is in this mortal life, ought so far to presume as regards the secret mystery of divine predestination, as to determine for certain that he is assuredly in the number of the predestined as if it were true that he that is justified either cannot sin anymore, or if he do sin, that he ought to promise himself an assured repentance. For except by special revelation, it cannot be known whom God hath chosen unto himself."
So where is the disagreement here? The disagreement is that Catholics believe grace can be lost. Or another way of phrasing that would be tossed away. The catechism states in 1855, "Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God's law. It turns man away from God who is his ultimate end and his beatitude by preferring an inferior good to him. Venial sin allows charity to subsist even though it offends and wounds it." It further teaches in 1861, "Mortal sin is a radical possibility of human freedom as is love itself. It results in the loss of charity and the privation of sanctifying grace, that is of the state of grace. If it is not redeemed by repentance and God's forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ's kingdom and the eternal death of hell. For our freedom has the power to make choices forever with no turning back. However, although we can judge that an act is in itself a grave offense, we must entrust judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God." A justified person can genuinely lose grace. This is Catholic dogma.
Many Protestants appeal to Augustine and they should. Augustine clearly taught that perseverance is a gift of God. On that point, Catholics entirely agree. But Augustine also taught something Protestants often admit. He denied that Christians possess absolute certainty that they have received this gift. "If, however, being already regenerate and justified, he relapsed of his own will into an evil life, assuredly he cannot say, 'I have not received,' because of his own free choice to evil, he has lost the grace of God and that he had received." In other words, perseverance is God's gift. We are not entitled to presume we possess it. That is exactly the balance that the Council of Trent preserves.
The Catholic Church rejects both despair and presumption. The Catechism condemns despair, the refusal to hope in God's mercy. In Catechism 2091, it says, "The first commandment is also concerned with sins against hope, namely despair and presumption. By despair, man ceases to hope for his personal salvation from God, for help in attaining it, or for the forgiveness of his sins. Despair is contrary to God's goodness, to his justice. For the Lord is faithful to his promises and to his mercy." It also condemns presumption, the belief that one can obtain forgiveness or glory without conversion. In catechism entry 2092, it says, "There are two kinds of presumption. Either man presumes upon his own capacities, hoping to be able to save himself without help from on high, or he presumes upon God's almighty power, or his mercy, hoping to obtain his forgiveness without conversion and glory without merit."
The Catholic answer is neither. I can never know anything nor am I eternally secure no matter what I do. The Catholic answer is hope. As the catechism says in 2016, "The children of our holy mother, the Church, rightly hope for the grace of final perseverance and the recompense of God their Father, for the good works accomplished with his grace in communion with Jesus. Keeping the same rule of life, believers share the blessed hope of those whom the divine mercy gathers into the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." Notice the word not certainty, not presumption, hope.
Because scripture repeatedly calls believers to persevere, remain in Christ, continue in God's kindness, and be faithful unto death. The biblical pattern is clear. The historical pattern is clear. The Catholic teaching is clear. Salvation is God's gift. Perseverance is God's gift. But a Christian can reject that gift through mortal sin. And that is why the slogan once saved always saved is ultimately incompatible with Christianity.
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