An important doctrine that I soon learned about in my time as an Evangelical was called “eternal security”, also known as “once saved, always saved.” The idea, as I understood it, was that once a person believed the gospel of Jesus Christ, and trusted Him alone for their salvation, they were saved and could be confident that they would go to heaven when they died. After that initial moment of belief and salvation, the believer is saved for ever, and is certain of going to heaven. The believer is encouraged to live a life of obedience to Christ as an expression of thanksgiving to God for the incredible gift of salvation, but once someone believed, they could live life as an unbeliever and still go to heaven when they died. One scriptural support for this doctrine is John 10:27-28, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

I found this doctrine very attractive and comforting as a new believer, but the comfort didn’t last. The problem was I kept running into scripture that caused me to doubt it. Verses like Mark 13:13, “And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” What if I don’t endure to the end; will I still be saved?
I did an intensive study of 1 John when I was a Freshman at Texas A&M, and I found that John makes a series of statements that interrelate and bind together the following aspects of being a Christian:

• Knowing God
• Keeping God’s commandments
• Not loving the world
• Loving God
• God’s love abiding within us
• Abiding in Christ
• Having confidence at Christ’s coming
• Practicing righteousness
• Being born of Christ
• Not practicing sin
• God’s seed abiding within us
• Believing that Jesus is the Christ
• Loving our brother
• Knowing we have passed from death into light
• Laying down our lives for our brothers
• Not closing our hearts against our brother in need
• The gift of the Holy Spirit

Here are a series of quotes from 1 John that illustrate these statements.

• 2:4, Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him…
• 2:15, …If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
• 2:28-29, And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.
• 3:6-10, No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
• 3:14-17, We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?
• 3:23-24, And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
• 4:7-8, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
• 4:20-21, If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
• 5:1-5, Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world–our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

I know this is a lot of scripture quotes, but I want to demonstrate that these ideas run throughout the book of 1 John. There are many conditional statements that relate one aspect of the Christian life to another. These relationships criss-cross to create a web of conditions that ties all of the aspects together. My conclusion was then, and still is, is that John is trying to paint a picture of what a true Christian looks like, as opposed to the false Christians who were already causing problems in the Church. The Christian faith and practice is a package deal; one aspect does not exist without all of the others.

At about the same time, I got in a discipleship class taught by the College Minister at my church, and in this class, we studied the book of James. In one of the early sessions while we were finishing up the first part of chapter 1, we looked at verse 12, which says, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.” The teacher said that the “crown of life” was one of the conditional rewards that some Christians would receive in heaven. All believers will go to heaven, but some of them, who remained steadfast under trial, would receive an extra reward, called the crown of life.

I had two problems with this statement. First of all, it seemed very likely that the crown of life was a metaphor for eternal life, or heaven, rather than some secondary reward. Secondly, it is promised to “those who love him,” and my assumption, especially after my study of 1 John, was that all Christians love Christ. I asked the teacher about this, and he said that Christians do not necessarily love Christ. There are many times that he does not love Christ, but he’s still a Christian. This did not seem right to me, and I ended up dropping the class. I did some theological searching and found traditional Calvinism.

The traditional Calvinist doctrine of the “Perseverance of the Saints” is often thought to be the same as “Once Saved, Always Saved”, but it is not. Calvinism teaches that God’s sovereign power causes the elect to persevere in the faith until the end, which means they will end up in heaven. What I like about the Calvinist view is that it does fit better with the scriptures that warn against denying the faith. However, in the case of a person who early in life exhibits all of the signs of a vital faith in Christ, but later denies the faith, the Calvinist is forced to conclude that the person was not elect, so he never had faith, and the earlier Christian life was a sham. Ironically, as a Calvinist Christian I can never be sure that the same is not true of myself, so I can’t have any measure of security based on what I think is my faith.

The confusing mental gymnastics that must be made regarding election and personal responsibility in the Calvinist system, along with the unbiblical and divisive nature of the doctrine of Limited Atonement, led me to eventually leave Calvinism and float around in theological despair until I found the Catholic tradition.

Finally, in the Catholic Church, I’ve found a theology that accepts the warnings found in Scripture at face value. “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.” (John 15:5-6) It is possible for a Christian to leave Christ and reject the salvation He has for them, and thus be in danger of hell.

Salvation is God’s work in us, but He does not work in us against our free will. We must be diligent to remain in the faith and let Him do His work in us. “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13)

These are not pleasant things to contemplate, but it has been more unpleasant for me to give others a false assurance. Does this mean we have no assurance as Christians, and must be in constant fear of taking the wrong step and ending up in hell? No, we can have assurance and security, but it is based on God’s love and mercy. As long as we cling to Christ, we have nothing to fear. Even when we are weak, his strength holds on to us. However, we must diligently nurture our relationship with Christ so that some trial or attack does not cause us to forsake our faith. “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.” (2 Peter 1:10)

I will close with a passage that sums up the balance between God’s loving care for us, even in our weakness, but also warns us of the necessity to remain in the faith. “The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful– for he cannot deny himself.” (2 Timothy 2:11-13)