Assured Salvation?

 I have avoided writing in depth on soteriology since I started this blog. The reason for my hesitancy is that I feel like I do not have an adequate understanding to properly speak about such a topic. However, recent conversations have impressed upon me the desire to write at least whatever this post will become, so please bear with me.

The first thing that brought this subject of salvation to my mind is a post shared by my aunt to Facebook - the paragon of all knowledge in the universe. Below is what she posted.

I would say that this man, whoever he is, has this quite the opposite from both an Orthodox understanding as well as from the Protestant understanding that I am familiar with from growing up in multiple Southern Baptist churches and visiting a plethora of others.

My aunt, for those wondering is Evangelical of some sort. I can't keep up with whatever denomination my family has decided to be this week, but I do know that she was Southern Baptist because my grandfather was a Southern Baptist preacher.

The other thing that has brought this subject to my mind is a posting from someone else on Facebook, who also apparently posted the same subject to a Reddit thread. Below is a picture of what he posted.

I wanted to go ahead and post both of these things this early in this post to help explain where I am coming from.

Now, my aunt, the Evangelical, posted her picture in good faith since she ascribes to Once Saved Always Saved (OSAS). 

The other poster, I'm not really sure what his motivations were, since he posted in a few different groups. I think he might be Orthodox since he posted in an Orthodox group, but that doesn't really mean much.

For those who cannot read the second picture (I can't even on my desktop), the argument is that since Southern Baptists preach OSAS, but that repentance is also necessary to get to Heaven, that these two things (OSAS and repentance needed to get to Heaven) contradict each other. This means that Southern Baptists have some kind of "sin allowance" - they are allowed some number of sins to still be saved despite being required to repent to go to Heaven.

If any of my dear readers can figure out the logic therein, please let me know. It really is making my head hurt trying to figure it out.

Now, I shall address the issue I have with both of these pictures.

While many Evangelical types preach OSAS, it is rather depressing when one thinks about it. "But, Dr. Commini, how can it be depressing if we are assured that we will be in paradise after we die?" you might ask. And I would look at you weird for calling me Dr. Commini because nobody does that. And then I would answer you with anecdotes from my life growing up in churches and schools that taught OSAS. I tried explaining this to the second poster, where I agreed with what he had posted and what I disagreed with, but I don't think it quite sunk in.

So, growing up, I was told that in order to be saved I must repent and be baptized. That already throws out the "faith only" approach to salvation that I was also taught, but I digress. So repentance, and baptism, at the very least. I was also told that I had to believe in Jesus, and invite Him into my heart - another work.

We were taught the "Sinner's Prayer" which may differ ever so slightly from one church to another, but it was basically, "Lord Jesus Christ, I’m a sinner. I believe You died for my sins so I could be forgiven. I receive You as my Lord and Savior. Thank You for coming into my life. Amen." This prayer was seen as the act of repentance. This covers the "repentance" part of the second argument that Southern Baptists require such to go to Heaven. 

Notice that it does not contradict OSAS, but it is the start of OSAS. You have repented, and asked Jesus to be your savior. This is when, according to Evangelicals, you are saved forever and ever, and ever. The repentance and OSAS go and in hand. This is one thing I disagreed with the second poster on. 

Logically, it would follow that if the repentance necessary to get to Heaven is the Sinner's Prayer, and that OSAS is an actual thing, then there would be no need for a "sin allowance" of some undetermined amount of sins before further repentance is required to gain access to paradise. Why? Repentance has been done and OSAS is a thing.

Now, this is where the second poster and I agree. It's all bunk. Why?

Because the Southern Baptists that I am familiar with are some of the most judgemental people that I have ever met, and yes, that is a judgement on my part.

Here is the thing; you are told that you are Once Save, Always Saved, and yet you will constantly see and hear others judge people for sinning. As the second picture states, if someone were to become a serial killer then perhaps they weren't saved in the first place. One might also hear that if someone backslides then they weren't sincere in their prayer and were never saved in the first place.

This is where the first picture comes in. And this is where I kind of agree wholeheartedly with the second picture. Why?

We are humans. We are prone to err, and since the fall of man our very natures are to sin. So we are going to sin. It is going to happen.

In the Orthodox view, if we do sin, we pick ourselves up again, confess our sins, and keep trying to not sin.

In the Evangelical view, if you do sin, were you ever even saved in the first place?

In many of their minds, certain sins are OK, but others are not. It is a crapshoot trying to figure out which is which since all sins are equal.

So, there is the serial killer example used above - and which I had heard before. Do you know what other examples I've heard before? "Oh, he drinks? He must not really have been saved." "Oh, he smokes weed? He must not really be saved." "Oh, she's a Democrat? She must not really be saved."

The funny thing is that many churches are split when it comes to their pastors committing adultery. For example, a pastor might commit adultery and half of the congregation leaves with him to start a new church - believing him to be sincere in his repentance of his sins since he came out in front of the church and confessed - while the other half of the congregation stays in the same church with a new pastor because the old one obviously was not a man of God and wasn't really saved in the first place.

And yes, that is a real world example from multiple churches that I attended growing up. Sometimes it was the church formed when the adulterous pastor left with a number of the congregation, sometimes it was the original church that kicked out the adulterous pastor, and sometimes it was going to both depending on how far of a drive each one was and how late we were running.

Given these examples, once can see why that even in churches that preach OSAS one can have legitimate doubts about their own salvation.

I know that I did. I sinned a lot as a child and a teenager. I am the chief of sinners as an adult. I had so many doubts about my own salvation (and I know many of my friends did as well) because we were told all of the time by our parents, preachers, teachers (if we went to a Christian school), and Sunday School teachers that if we were truly saved then we wouldn't be sinning - or committing certain sins. 

So yes, saying you hope you are saved is a legitimate response even in such churches that preach OSAS, because they teach there are sins you can commit that prove you were never saved in the first place. They just never tell you which sins those are. It isn't arrogance because you are being taught two conflicting ideas.

I would say that those who preach OSAS do not actually believe OSAS. They might believe it for themselves, because a lot of them when they sin say that they made a minor mistake, blah blah blah. But many of them will be the first ones to call into question the salvation of those who sin differently than they do.

So do we have assured salvation? Not from any denomination that I have ever attended.

I know that there will be those who read this post and say, "But it isn't like that at my church!" or, "But not all denominations are the same."

Sure, I will absolutely say that there are those denominations that may be different, but these are my experiences from growing up having attended many, many different Southern Baptist churches, as well as those of some other denominations. So, while it may not be every denomination, it has been all of the Evangelical ones that I have attended.

This has been my experience, which is why I even started a series about Christianity without Repercussions, which I have yet to finish because there is a lot to write about, and being horrible at keeping my focus, I often fall down rabbit holes when I start researching any topic. 

And that, I think, is the major problem. There are no true repercussions aside from never ending doubt if you were sincere enough in your prayer, and being asked to leave your current church home. If you truly think that you are once saved always saved, then why would sinning be a problem? Sure, we are commanded to not do this or that, we are told that doing this thing is a sin or an abomination, but what does it matter if all we had to do is just recite some prayer to get our free ticket to Heaven? Surely God will overlook all of our sins because of that prayer. And if He does not, then we do not truly believe in OSAS.

So, what do the Orthodox believe about how salvation works? Well, that is a topic for another post, that will hopefully be the second part of the Christianity without Repercussions: Salvation (part one here and part two to be hyperlinked when it is posted).

Please pray for me, a sinner.