19/05/2026
ONCE SAVED FOREVER SAVED....HOW TRUE? - Evangelist Ikechukwu Peter Nnajiofor
This has been a very controversial topic in the body of Christ. Many sound preachers have also tactically avoided this debate. We can not run away from this matter that is stirring us at the face.
I will have to establish the definition of terms first of all and then navigate from there.
Salvation is eternal, and the scriptures clearly affirm this. However, eternal salvation is not the same as eternal security. Eternal salvation means that the salvific work of Jesus is eternal, not subject to amendment or reviews....it's perfectly complete in Him, who is the author.
though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec. Heb 5:8-10
On the other hand, eternal security states that once you are saved, no matter whatelse you do, there can not be the possibility of losing your salvation.
The core of OSAS is anchored on the eternal security theory. Our job in this post is to set the narrative correctly.
Sadly, many people do not even understand what salvation is all about. I will further press into the definition of terms and then a final scriptural analysis to establish the true biblical position.
Everyone who will ever be saved is already known to God, and anyone who will never accept the Gospel is also already known to God. This is known in the doctrine of salvation as foreknowledge. (Rom 8:29).
Based on God's foreknowledge, an election was done in eternity past. Listen, election, not selection. What does this mean? It means that Salvation from God was presented to all men, and God foresaw all who would accept it and documented their names before time began. This is contrary to Calvanism that claims atonement was limited to a selected few. This calvanist theory is not true. God saw your decisions from eternity past, and that informed His enlistment. This is why I know names are not written on the day you gave your life to Christ on the Crusade ground.....God saw that day, and based on His infinite knowledge, He wrote your name down;
1 Peter 1:2
New International Version
2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood:
Grace and peace be yours in abundance
This Scripture is clear....your election was according to God's foreknowledge. He knew your decision before you took it. That's why He said Jacob I love and Esau. I have hated.....He saw their choices before they were born....and it was their choices He loved and hated respectively....not them as humans.
After this election in eternity. God made plan for the elect in Christ.....this is called predestination. The Greek word for predestination is proorizo, and it means to make a design or plan ahead of time.
Romans 8:29-30
New International Version
29 For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
Now, this tallies to the fact that both election and predestination are the outcome of God's foreknowledge. This clearly means no one is predestined for hell, but on the basis of our choices known to God before time began , was this arrangement made.
This is why I know there won't be any extra seats in heaven because the plan to accommodate people will not be based on the invitation sent out but on the basis of the invitations accepted. Even we, when we throw parties, we plan according to RSVP
RSVP is a French word 'respondez still vous plait', meaning reply to an invitation indicating whether or not you will attend. From the responses, the organizer already knows the scope of his planning.
God doesn't need RSVP to know who is accepting or rejecting His invitation. He gave a general invitation (Titus 2:11), and from eternity past, He knew those that would accept. This was the basis for both predestination and election.
Even Moses in the Old Testament knew that the matter of names in the book of the Lamb was concluded from eternity past;
Exodus 32:32-33
New International Version
32 But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”
33 The Lord replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.
All those whose names weren't written were also from eternity past based on God's foreknowledge;
Revelation 17:8
King James Version
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.
Moses made an interesting comment in verse 33 of Exodus 32 that will help or guide us through this exposition. He said blot my name from your book, and God said I will only blot the names of those that sin against me.
This brings us to a position.....while no more names can be added...names can be blotted. God didn't tell Moses that he was wrong in mentioning that names were already captured and can be blotted. However, I will not establish a position yet because I know many of us are inimical to the Old Testament. Also note that God knows all who will become apostates.
Let's proceed...please bear with me. The journey is still a bit far.
We have established so far that Salvation is eternal but the security is in the continous believe in the finished work of Christ. Predestination and election are both products of God's foreknowledge.
We have also achieved the fact that Salvation wasn't limited to a few but for all. This suggests clearly that atonement, propitiation, justification, sanctification, reconciliation, and redemption weren't limited to a few selected persons.
Quickly for those who are not familiar with some salvific terms....let's run through few definitions of the terms highlighted above;
Propitiation: This simply means satisfaction. God became satisfied when the blood of Jesus was shed, and it was on that basis that we can now approach God. God's demand for justice was fulfilled by Jesus, and He was the PROPITIATION for our sins and that of the world [1 John 2:2]. In the Old Testament, propitiation was temporal because there was still a yearly remembrance of sin [Heb 10:314].
Reconciliation: This means that the war between God and man is over because of the sacrifice of Jesus [2Cor5:17-21]
Justification: Jesus is taking our sin and making us His righteousness. This came by Grace and not by our work [Rom 3:4, Titus 3:7]
Redemption: Simply means buying back. He bought us back with His blood [Rev 5:9]
Now, the question is this....if God has done all this for us, will He be willing to let us perish? The answer is NO! This is why we must understand that He is committed to keeping us;
John 10:28
New International Version
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will sn**ch them out of my hand.
Many other scriptures guarantees this. However, we must know that God gave us free will. If God told Moses that He would blot out the names of those that sin against Him, then we must search in the New Testament to know what this means.
There is a sin unto death, and there's a sin that is not unto death. The Bible shows this clearly.
1 John 5:16
King James Version
16 If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.
A sin unto death is a clear rejection of the salvific work of Christ, and on this basis, such a one is under condemnation. The question is, can a Christian commit a sin unto death? The answer is an emphatic YES!
Those who refused Him and those who denounced Him and exchanged their souls can never find salvation again. This is a hard saying. This is the summary of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
The problem with hyperspace messages is that in a bid to correct hyper legalistim they went to the other extreme. This means what brought hyper Grace was legalism.
There is no hypergrace message, we have grace message.
Legalists preach that any time you sin, you lose your salvation. This is not true...if this is true, it will mean that one can lose his salvation 10 times a day. Now, if you live comfortably in sin it's because you don't have God's seed in you.....He that has the seed of God does not continue in sin. Ten again, if you are struggling with sin, it shows you are a babe. Apostle John wrote to them and said little children your sins are forgiven for his name sake but when he addressed the young and elder he didn't mention sin. You don't lose your salvation because you sinned(sin not unto death).
Again, remember the scripture says He is the author of eternal salvation to those that obey Him......this means your responsibility of continous faith in Him is demanded.
Let's examine the possibility of a believer committing a sin unto death;
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, 6if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace." (Hebrews 6:4-6)
Enlightened (4:4a)
The author first describes them as "enlightened." The Greek root, phĹŤtizĹŤ is used figuratively of heavenly light, and means to "enlighten, give light to, shed light upon."3 Grammatically, this and the following descriptive verbs are Aorist participles, which probably refer to action prior to the present,4 indicating the background of the people to whom the warning concerns. F.F. Bruce believes that the term "enlightened" may refer to baptism -- a sense it bore among Christians in Rome in the middle of the second century.5 If so, the author of Hebrews sees the objects of the warning as having intimate knowledge of Christ and having been baptized.
Tasted the heavenly gift (4:4b)
Next, the ones being warned are said to have "tasted the heavenly gift." "Taste" is from the root geuomai and means to "taste, partake of, enjoy," and then in a figurative sense, as in this text, to "come to know something, obtain a gift"6 Ellingworth says the word means to "'eat' (or 'drink'), not merely 'taste,' hence figuratively, 'experience (to the full).'"7 Later, this idea was used of the Eucharist,8 though, I look instead to the idea of the "gift of the Holy Spirit" promised to believers (Acts 2:38), which is referred to in the next clause. Whatever the exact reference of dorea, "gift," the subjects here had eaten or drunk of that gift (1 Corinthians 12:13b) and were not outsiders to the central blessings of Christianity
Shared in the Holy Spirit (4:4c)
Those being warned were also "sharing" or "participating in"9 (metochos) the Holy Spirit. Metochos is also used for business partners and companions. In other words, they had received the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38) and could even have been used in miraculous spiritual gifts (Matthew 7:21-22). They were not mere observers but full sharers in the Christian experience.
Tasted the goodness of the Word of God (4:5a)
That they were not just onlookers is confirmed here by their interest in God's words. The word here is rhēma, which emphasizes the immediacy of "that which is said," as well as "word, saying, expression.""10 They had fed on the teaching of the congregation and may have heard words of prophecy in the congregation" (1 Corinthians 14).
And the powers of the Age to come (4:5b)
The word "powers" (dunamis) here refer to outward expressions of power: "deed of power, miracle, wonder," though also refer to the more basic definition: "power, might, strength, force."11 In other words, they had experienced God's power in their own spiritual lives and had probably witnessed miracles in the congregation as well" (2:4).
The question is... Does this not describe a true believer? If it doesn't, then I doubt if there ever is a true believer.
The context of the above was to warn Jewish believers not to turn back to Judaism and reject Christ, and it's worthy of note to know that there were few Gentile believers among them too. This was a letter to believers against apostasy.
This clearly means that believers can commit apostasy, and when salvation is lost, it can never be gotten back. This is why Jesus said it's unpardonable.
This clearly means salvation can be lost.
Paul also captured this in his letters;
1 Timothy 4
King James Version
4 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
He tells us of the possibility of a departure from faith (Apostasy).....why is this hard to understand?
He mentions the falling away also.....you don't fall if you weren't standing.
But on a final note.....we must understand that when a so-called believer continues to sin, there is a possibility that he was never saved or he got to accept Christ on a wrong Gospel. If you tell someone that he should come to Christ and Jesus will give him money....he may accept, but that's not salvation. If you tell a thief come to Christ no matter what you do, you are still saved..he may accept and continue to live in sin, and none of those folks were saved because of a wrong Gospel....one was the gospel of materialism, and the other was liberalism..
None of these gospels can get anyone saved. That's why when people say they are believers, you hardly can tell the difference between them and unbelievers. They were never Christians and will end in Hell if they die in that state.
No true believer will die in a sinful state. God knows how to deliver His own from evil. Sometimes, He will have to call them home to avoid certain disasters. There is a way the righteous dies:
Numbers 23:10
New International Version
Who can count the dust of Jacob or not even a fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my final end be like theirs!”
There is a way the righteous dies, and God will preserve him before the last moment of His life....this I'm so convinced about;
deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord Jesus. 1Cor 5:5
Some go to the extent of asking what happens to a believer if he dies on top of a woman.....?
Well, there is no such example in the Bible, and God will never in His mercy allow a believer to end like that. Anyone who dies that way is not a believer and is headed for hell.
Isaiah 57:1
The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil.
Finally....it's worthy of note to understand that believers who live in the flesh will be highly restricted in eternity if not God will not be seen as a just God;
Amplified Bible
But if any person’s work is burned up [by the test], he will suffer the loss [of his reward]; yet he himself will be saved, but only as [one who has barely escaped] through fire 1Cor 3:15
The fire there is not a sweet experience. Anyone who tells you to continue in sin is preparing you for a regretful eternity.
Stay blessed, and thanks for your patience!
