Don't Buy into "Once Saved, Always Saved"

Saying "yes" to Jesus once is not the way to Heaven

Today, I stumbled across this YouTube Short where two Orthodox Catholic priests are asked, “If you were to die today, are you 100% sure you would go to Heaven?” (Video here.)

“No, I’m not,” says one of them.

“Because the Orthodox understanding of salvation [same goes for Roman Catholics, BTW] is that I was saved by Jesus Christ, I’m currently saved by him, and I will be saved in the future.

So it’s not a one-time thing, it’s not a one-time decision by me. Because I change. I sin, but then I’m supposed to get up from my sin. It’s the nature of demons to fall and never get up. It’s the nature of angels to never fall. It’s the nature of humans to fall and then get up again.

So as long as I keep getting up, I can get to Heaven, but… behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight. So we don’t know when Christ is coming*; we always have to be prepared; we always have to be ready.

If salvation was a one-time decision, then I would be saved; I wouldn’t have to do anything that it says in the Gospel. But rather, faith is obedience to Jesus Christ. So I have to—like in Matthew 25—I have to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and all those things that he said.

And if I’m not doing those things, I’m falling short, and will I be saved? The Lord says ‘no’ at that time. He says, you will go to the left where the goats are. So I have to constantly work towards my salvation.”

Of course, the comments section exploded with outrage from “Once saved, always saved” (OSAS) Protestants… so I figured it’d be worth it to chime in.

Honestly, I can only assume that the OSAS folks have never really read the Bible… because literally the ENTIRE Sermon on the Mount—Jesus’s claim-to-fame piece, you could say—is about how to live in order to make it to Heaven.