Seven Lies Regarding Eternal Security
Written on 20 April 2025.
Seven Lies Regarding Eternal Security
The doctrine of eternal security, often referred to as once saved, always saved (OSAS), has been under attack by various groups who promote a salvation that depends on human performance or endurance. This article presents a biblical defense of eternal security by addressing and refuting seven common lies propagated by its opponents.
1. Eternal Security Is a License to Sin
One of the most repeated accusations is that those who believe in eternal security do so because they want to continue sinning. This argument is not only logically flawed, but hypocritical. Everyone sins, including those who preach works-based salvation. The only difference is that OSAS believers admit they are not saved by behavior, whereas works-focused individuals conceal their sins under a veil of self-righteousness.
The irony is that these accusers habitually and unrepentantly sin when they preach a false gospel. They are guilty of spiritual malpractice according to their own standards.
2. Those Who Fall Away Were Never Saved
Critics claim OSAS believers insist that anyone who falls away was never saved to begin with. While some may say this, the position presented here is different: if someone truly believed the gospel once, they are saved forever—even if they fall away. This is based on 2 Timothy 2:13:
If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
However, if someone always believed a false gospel, then they were never saved in the first place. This distinction is crucial.
3. Eternal Security Gives False Assurance
The third lie suggests that eternal security provides a false sense of assurance. In reality, biblical assurance is grounded in the finished work of Christ on the cross. He paid the entire sin debt and offers salvation by grace through faith alone. Those who reject eternal security have assurance based on themselves, which is truly false assurance.
As Hebrews 7:25 states:
Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him...
4. We Must Admit That Those Who Used to Believe Are Still Saved
Some critics challenge OSAS believers to affirm that all who once believed remain saved, even if they now deny the faith. The biblical answer is yes—if they truly believed the gospel of grace through faith in Christ alone. But most who make such claims likely never believed properly. Believing for temporary life, or believing while adding works, is not saving faith.
5. Eternal Security Was Invented by the Reformers
Opponents argue that no one believed in eternal security before the 16th century Reformation. This is demonstrably false. Anyone who truly believed the Bible before that time believed in eternal security, because the Bible itself affirms it. As John 6 clearly teaches:
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37)
6. The Early Church Fathers Denied Eternal Security
While some early patristic writings appear to deny eternal security, others affirm it. For example, Julian of Toledo and Origen expressed ideas compatible with salvation by faith alone. This indicates that eternal security was not universally rejected by early Christians. Like today, the early church had a range of theological positions.
7. Belief in Eternal Security Makes You a Calvinist
This is a frequent mischaracterization. Calvinists teach the perseverance of the saints, which is conditional security masked as eternal security. According to them, only those who persevere are truly saved. If you fall away, you were never saved. This is not OSAS. It's a backdoor works-based doctrine that undermines grace.
True eternal security means that once someone believes on Jesus Christ, they are sealed and saved forever—regardless of future behavior, faith, or perseverance. Calvinism presents a counterfeit grace, a counterfeit gospel, and a counterfeit Christ.
Conclusion
The rejection of eternal security is rooted in unbelief. Those who attack OSAS do so because they are not eternally secure themselves and have never understood the full gospel. Instead of trusting in the finished work of Christ, they rely on themselves and construct elaborate lies to justify it.
Salvation is eternal or it is not salvation at all. If it can be lost, it will be. But those who are in Christ are secure, not because of their own power, but because of His:
And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:40)