Skip to main content

Once Saved Always Saved?

 

Before I knew anything about the connection of tzedaqah to eternal life, I simply believed the salvation doctrine I heard at my church – “we are saved by grace through faith and once saved always saved.” Two Bible verses were used to prove that doctrine was the word of God:

 

● “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

 

● “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”  (Romans 3:28)

 

Something you have probably heard me say before is worth repeating here – words taken out of context can be used to prove anything. When we read a couple of chapters later in Ephesians, we find this:

 

Ephesians 5:4-5 – “. . . no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.”

 

In that context, people committing those sins will not be part of the kingdom of God – regardless of what they believe. We have a similar situation with the verse from Romans. This time it is verses from the chapter before the verse quoted above that are important.

 

Romans 2:5-11 -- “. . . God, who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality . . . glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.”

 

Obviously, doing good works is the key factor in obtaining eternal life – not just grace. When we use the BHC Guidelines and Models we use to Explore Our Biblical Heritages, we discover the following facts:

 

● 1525 – Luther created the “saved by grace” doctrine.

 

1550 -- John Calvin’s doctrine of “perseverance of the saints” laid the foundation for the “once saved always saved doctrineto be created.

 

I thought the doctrines my church taught came directly from Jesus, but they were created over 1,500 years after he lived. My church did not teach us anything about the history of Christianity, our denomination, or the doctrines it taughtneither did the public school system I attended. Obviously, I lacked the accurate information I needed to evaluate beliefs that strongly influenced my life in many ways.

 

Identifying our most important beliefs, discovering their origins,

and understanding how they have evolved over the centuries

is one of the most important things that we can do.

 

Please share and discuss this email with others. Thank you for exploring biblical heritages with us.

 

Shalom,

Jim Myers

 

PS - Click Here to donate and help us do this work. Also, please “Like” our Facebook Page (Click Here).


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

It’s a Yod -- NOT a Jot and Tittle!

Not only did Yeshua read and speak Hebrew, so did his followers and disciples! Two very well known, but not accurately understood words in the Gospel of Matthew prove it – jot and tittle . For some reason jot and tittle stick in the minds of Christian Bible readers. But when you ask them what jot or tittle mean, you get a lot of conflicting and some really weird answers. Today, you are going to get the facts about what Yeshua originally said and how they ended up in English translations of the Bible as jot and tittle . Let’s begin by reading Matthew 5:18 from the King James translation: For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. If you have not read the article “ From Yeshua to Jesus ” in Yeshua’s Kingdom Handbook please take a moment to read it online by clicking here before you continue. In it you will see how we began with the name “ Jesus ” and traced it through Lati...

Do Not Say RAQA! - Yeshua on Anger (Part 2)

In the last blog, we covered the first part of Yeshua’s lesson on Anger -- An Angry Person Should be Tried in Court like a Murderer – keep in mind that “anger” is the focus of Yeshua’s lesson. “Whoever says to a brother, ‘ RAKA ,’ shall be answerable to the Sanhedrin.” [i] Yeshua reveals that the seriousness of the offense has become greater by elevating the crime to the next highest court – the Sanhedrin . It is the highest court in the nation and would be the equivalent of our Supreme Court. What makes this offense more serious than murder, to keep things in the context established by Yeshua? It is because of what the angry person said out of anger – “ RAKA !” RAKA is the English transliteration of the Greek word found in the ancient manuscripts of Matthew. Interestingly, the Greek word is also a transliteration of a Hebrew word into Greek. Keep in mind that when a translator working on a translation of a Greek manuscript transliterates a Greek word, he only finds ...

The Prayer Yeshua Prayed Twice Every Day

One of Jesus’s earliest memories was no doubt watching and listening to his family when they gathered to pray the Shema at sunrise before the day’s work began and after the working work day was over at sunset . He also heard and participated in praying the Shema at their synagogue. He was surrounded by neighbors who also prayed the same prayer in their homes every day. The Hebrew word for prayer is tefilah . It is derived from the root Pe-Lamed-Lamed and the word l'hitpalel, meaning “ to judge oneself .” This surprising word origin provides insight into the purpose of Jewish prayer. The most important part of any Jewish prayer, whether it be a prayer of petition, of thanksgiving, of praise of God, or of confession, is the introspection it provides, the moment that we spend looking inside ourselves, seeing our role in the universe and our relationship to God. [1] Most of Jewish prayers are expressed in the first person plural, "us" instead of "me," an...