Posted on 10/20/2013 11:29:26 AM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
Once upon a time, Groucho Marx hosted the popular game show, “You Bet Your Life.” At the start of the show, a “secret word” was revealed to the studio audience. If a contestant said the word during the course of the show, a reward would descend from the rafters (a one hundred dollar bill).
Whether we know it or not, we are all, Christians and non-Christians alike, contestants in the spiritual equivalent of “You Bet Your Life.” If we bet wisely, our reward is eternal life. But if we bet foolishly, we condemn ourselves to eternal damnation.
That brings to mind Pascal’s Wager, credited to the seventeenth-century French philosopher, mathematician and physicist Blaise Pascal. He famously posited that every human being bets his or her life on whether or not God exists.
“Let us,” he wrote, “weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.”
To put this in terms to which most of us can relate, even if the odds of God’s existence are, say, 1 in 175 million – the odds of winning Powerball on a single ticket – it is worth the wager.
Because, if we have bet on God, and God does not exist, we lose nothing. That is, save for indulging in certain behavior proscribed by God, including sexual promiscuity, idol worship, adultery, homosexuality (and other sexual perversions), thievery, greed, substance abuse, slander and robbery.
But if we bet against the Almighty, and indeed He does exist, we shall be cast into the lake of fire, eternally separated from God. We shall be condemned to place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Where we will be burned with unquenchable fire. Where we will be tormented day and night forever and forever.
Most of us are rationale. So we heed Pascal’s advice.
Even if we are uncertain there is a God, we hedge our bet. We respond to an altar call at some point in our lives. We say we accept Jesus as our personal Savior. We get baptized.
In so doing, we believe we have ensured our eternal security. We believe that, because we went through the ritual of being “saved,” we have a lifetime “Get Out of Hell Free” card. And that we can live our lives as it pleases us – not God – with impunity.
But what if we are wrong? What if this doctrine of “Once Saved, Always Saved,” espoused by many Godly pastors, preached in many purpose-driven churches, is errant? What if it actually is possible for us to forfeit our eternal salvation, to condemn ourselves to hell, by living brazenly and unrepentantly in defiance of God’s law?
That presents a corollary to Pascal’s wager, one that has not been considered by those who profess themselves Christ followers, but who are not truly leading a Christian life.
Let us call this corollary the Salvation wager, in which we weigh the gain and loss in betting on “Once Saved, Always Saved.”
Those who reject the doctrine, who believe those of us whom the Son sets free, must go and sin no more, must faithfully strive to live in obedience to God, have everything to gain if the doctrine is wrong and nothing to lose if the doctrine is right.
But those who subscribe to the doctrine, who believe that, having been saved, they can commit any and all manner of sin and it doesn’t matter in the eternal scheme of things, have hell to pay if they are wrong.
So what might Pascal advise?
That even if it’s more likely that once a person is saved, there is absolutely nothing they can do to lose their salvation, and that even if the odds are, say, 175 million to 1 that the widely-accepted doctrine of “Once Saved, Always Saved” is right rather than wrong, it still is wise to bet against the doctrine.
Because there are many who claim themselves Christians, who think their names have been written in the book of life, who will appear before the great white throne of judgment, who will find themselves sinners in the hands of an angry God.
They will look to Jesus and say, “Lord, Lord,” hoping He will spare them from punishment. But He will declare to them, “I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice wickedness.”
That’s a warning to those abiding unabashedly and unrepentantly in sin. They have bet their lives on “Once Saved, Always Saved.” And if they are wrong, eternal torment awaits.
That’s because they don’t follow 2 Tim. 2:15. I’m convinced that all the error taught today could be corrected if people read and heeded that verse of scripture.
Narses, my sins are not overlooked. They are paid for. ALL of them. Past. Present. Future. Now pick yourself up from off the floor and breathe deeply. You’ll be back to your normal self soon...
And in those written words of God, there was only one single occasion where Jesus brought up the term 'born again', and He did so in reference to one thing and one thing only. And that thing happens to be the recurring topic in most of his teachings. It is in essence the gospel of Christ.
But if you happen to have more scriptural support in reference to the term 'born again' that gives that term meaning above and beyond what Jesus taught, then I am all ears.
There ya go - you and the other “once saved, always saved” crowd are free to sin at will.
Odd how that just doesn’t sound even close to Christianity.
Oh, what does it mean “Christianity”, narses? You tell me. Tell me the gospel. I can’t wait.
Sounds like something a Pharisee would say. Doesn't sound like something Jesus would say though.
"Examine yourselfs, whether ye be in the faith, prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ IS IN YOU, except ye be reprobates?" (2Cor. 13:5).
Any idea what that means?
Yep, that's the part that disgusts me. Obviously, Paul was a fool to go off preaching all those years, because once he got 'saved', he could have become a satan worshiper with no ill effect because he already had his free pass into heaven.
I am amazed by this mindset. Such thinking basically makes God out to be a complete fool. He is offering the opportunity to spend eternity with Him - an eternity of relationship with Him - yet He doesn't care if we reject Him in this trial run called 'life' as long as we claim we believe and declare ourselves 'saved'. As far as I can tell, this OSAS mindset reduces the Bible down to about a page and a half. All that talk about the kingdom of heaven and dying to self is just wasted ink.
OH, are you “disgusted” and “amazed” Hoodat? Fortunately for me, you didn’t die for my sins. See, I did not receive a “To Do” list from God. I received a “DONE” list. BTW: That’s what the FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST IS. It means FINISHED. DONE.
Smvoice isn’t being rude. Narses is Catholic, and one of the more loud ones on the forum. (But not a lot to say.) Smvoice is merely responding to Narses’ misrepresenting our position. Obviously no one actually believes that the elect can sin all they like. Our position has already been firmly stated in other posts in this thread, so all of this is really just going over old ground again.
It means that we should know whether Christ lives in us by our experience, behavior, and fruit. It has nothing at all to do with comprehending what you happen to say. Paul wasn’t arrogantly telling them, “Hey, if you can’t comprehend what I the great Paul am saying, then you need to examine whether you are even in the faith or not”.
Ah I apologize and you are correct. I, We, should make no attempt to apprehend God, or the world we live in. We should rather, sink into the soothing opiate of platitude and tradition without examination.
I wasn’t debating what Christ did. It’s about what we do. Faith requires action on our part. Merely saying we believe in something does not equate to getting out of the boat and doing something about it.
I will offer my Rosary for you tonight.
I agree...
“I will offer my Rosary for you tonight.”
You might as well sacrifice a baby goat to Beelzebub. It’ll have about the same effect.
If I have to know whether Christ lives in me by my experience, behavior, and fruit, then I say to you, I don’t know if His finished work for me saved me at all. Now, if you’re speaking about how OTHERS see me, that is different. But if a person has put his faith in the fact that if God says His Son’s death was the payment for his sins, that person is depending on God to keep HIS WORD to him. THAT’S eternal security. And that is what I’m saying, and doing. If God says it’s enough, then it’s enough.
So what? What does being Catholic have to do with scriptural truth?
I acknowledge that I am coming in at the middle of the discussion, but I am in steadfast agreement with anyone - Catholic or not - who points out that OSAS is bunk.
The Bible is quite clear that we will be judged for unconfessed sin. And that covers sin both before and after the point we declare ourselves 'saved'. Revelations is quite clear that even believers can end up in the burning lake of fire.
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