“If you ask Jesus to be your Savior, you are saved forever. Nothing you do could ever take you from God’s hand.” Many pastors boldly proclaim this doctrine of eternal security, or “once saved, always saved,” claiming that those who have prayed the sinner’s prayer are always saved and cannot lose their salvation.

The early Christians denounced this doctrine as completely contrary to everything that Jesus and the apostles taught:

• “Take heed, beloved, lest His many kindnesses lead to the condemnation of us all. [For thus it must be] unless we walk worthy of Him, and with one mind do those things which are good and well-pleasing in His sight.” – Clement of Rome (c. 96)
• “We ought therefore, brethren, carefully to inquire concerning our salvation. Otherwise the wicked one, having made his entrance by deceit, may hurl us forth from our life.” – Barnabas (c. 70-130)
• “The apostates and traitors of the church have blasphemed the Lord in their sins. Moreover, they have been ashamed of the name of the Lord by which they were called. These persons, therefore, at the end were lost unto God.” – Hermas (c. 150)
• “We . . . hasten to confess our faith, persuaded and convinced as we are that those who have proved to God by their works that they followed Him, and loved to abide with Him where there is no sin to cause disturbance, can obtain these things.” – Justin Martyr (c. 160)
• “And let those who are not found living as He taught, be understood to be no Christians, even though they profess with the lip the precepts of Christ; for not those who make profession, but those who do the works, shall be saved, according to His word: ‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven’ [Matt. 7:21].” – Justin Martyr (c. 160)
• “Those who believe God and follow His word receive that salvation that flows from Him. On the other hand, those who depart from Him, and despise His teachings, and by their deeds bring dishonor on Him who made them . . . heap up against themselves most righteous judgment.” – Irenaeus (c. 180)
• “With respect to obedience and doctrine, we are not all the sons of God. Rather, it is only those who truly believe in Him and do His will. Now, those who do not believe and do not obey His will are sons and angels of the devil. . . . Those who do not obey Him, being disinherited by Him, have ceased to be His sons.” – Irenaeus (c. 180)
• “These men of old time . . . for whom the Son of God had not yet suffered, when they committed any sin and served fleshly lusts, were rendered objects of great disgrace. Accordingly, what will the men of the present day suffer, who have despised the Lord’s coming, and have become slaves of their own lusts? Truly, the death of the Lord brought healing and remission of sins to the former. However, Christ will not die again on behalf of those who now commit sin, for death will no more have dominion over Him. . . . We should not, therefore, as that presbyter remarks, be puffed up, nor be severe upon those of olden times. Rather, we should fear ourselves, lest perchance, after [we have come to] the knowledge of Christ, if we do things displeasing to God, we obtain no further forgiveness of sins, but are shut out from His kingdom. And for that reason, Paul said, ‘For if [God] spared not the natural branches, [take heed] lest He also not spare you’ [Rom. 11:21]. . . . It was not to those who are on the outside that he said these things, but to us – lest we should be cast forth from the kingdom of God by doing any such thing.” – Irenaeus (c. 180)
• “It is neither the faith, nor the love, nor the hope, nor the endurance of one day; rather, ‘he that endures to the end will be saved’ [Matt. 24:13].” – Clement of Alexandria (c. 195)
• “God had foreseen . . . that faith – even after baptism – would be endangered. He saw that most persons – after obtaining salvation – would be lost again, by soiling the wedding dress, by failing to provide oil for their torches.” – Tertullian (c. 213)
• “A man may possess an acquired righteousness, from which it is possible for him to fall away.” – Origen (c. 225)
• “Being a believing man, if you seek to live as the Gentiles do, the joys of the world remove you from the grace of Christ.” – Commodianus (c. 240)
• “It is a small thing to have first received something. It is a greater thing to be able to keep what you have attained. Faith itself and the saving birth do not make alive by merely being received. Rather, they must be preserved. It is not the actual attainment, but the perfecting, that keeps a man for God. The Lord taught this in His instruction when He said, ‘Look! You have been made whole. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you’ [John 5:14]. . . . Solomon, Saul, and many others were able to keep the grace given to them so long as they walked in the Lord’s ways. However, when they forsook the discipline of the Lord, grace also forsook them.” – Cyprian (c. 250)
• “There is need of continual prayer and supplication so that we do not fall away from the heavenly kingdom, as the Jews fell away, to whom this promise had first been given.” – Cyprian (c. 250)
• “A son . . . who deserts his father in order not to pay him obedience is considered deserving of being disinherited and of having his name removed forever from his family. How much more so does a person [deserve to be disinherited] who forsakes God? . . . Of what punishments, therefore, is he deserving who forsakes Him who is both the true Master and Father?” – Lactantius (c. 304-313)

The early Christians clearly taught that those who continue to follow Jesus’ teachings will be saved, and those who do not will be condemned. Cyprian, a third-century believer from Carthage, North Africa, shows that this principle underlies the teachings of both the Old and New Testaments:

• “Those who are snatched from the jaws of the devil and delivered from the snares of this world should not return to the world again, lest they should lose the advantage of their leaving it in the first place. . . . The Lord admonishes us of this in His Gospel. He taught that we should not return again to the devil and to the world, for we have renounced them and have escaped from them. He says, ‘No man looking back after putting his hand to the plough is fit for the kingdom of God’ [Luke 9:62]. And again, ‘Let him that is in the field not return back. Remember Lot’s wife’ [Luke 17:31-32]. . . .
• “So we must press on and persevere in faith and virtue. We must complete the heavenly and spiritual grace so that we may attain to the palm and the crown. In the book of Chronicles it says, ‘The Lord is with you so long as you also are with him; but if you forsake him, he will forsake you’ [2 Chron. 15:2]. Also in Ezekiel, ‘The righteousness of the righteous man will not deliver him in whatever day that he may transgress’ [Ezek. 33:12]. Furthermore, in the Gospel, the Lord speaks and says, ‘He that endures to the end, the same will be saved [Matt. 24:13]. And again, ‘If you will abide in my word, you will be my disciples indeed’ [John 8:31]. . . .
• “In the gospel according to Matthew: ‘Every tree that does not bring forth good fruit will be cut down and cast into the fire’ [Matt. 3:10]. . . . Even a baptized person loses the grace that he has attained unless he remains innocent. In the Gospel according to John: ‘Look, you are made whole. Sin no more, lest a worse thing happen to you’ [John 5:14]. Also in the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: ‘Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God abides in you? If anyone violates the temple of God, God will destroy him’ [1 Cor. 3:16-17]. Of this same thing in the Chronicles: ‘God is with you while you are with Him. If you forsake Him, He will forsake you’ [2 Chron. 15:2].”

A Gnostic heresy, or worse…

The teaching of eternal security originated – not in Scripture or in the writings of the early Christians – but in a heretical movement called Gnosticism. The early Christians, the apostles, and Jesus Himself vehemently opposed the Gnostics, calling them “deceivers” (2 John 2:7) and warning true Christians to “hate the works” and teachings of these people (Revelation 2:6, 15). One of their teachings was an early form of eternal security – that those who are saved will never lose their salvation, regardless of their actions:

• “The teachings of both the Old and the New Testaments are unnecessary if a person is saved by nature (as Valentinus [a Gnostic heretic] would have it) and is a believer and an elect man by nature (as Basilides [another Gnostic] thinks).” – Clement of Alexandria (c. 195)
• “Certain ones of those [heretics] who hold different opinions misuse these passages. They essentially destroy free will by introducing ruined natures incapable of salvation and by introducing others as being saved in such a way that they cannot be lost.” – Origen (c. 225)
• “Although they forsake the fountain of life, the [heretics] promise the grace of living and saving water. . . . Begotten of treachery, they lose the grace of faith.” – Cyprian (c. 250)

Not only is eternal security a doctrine of heretics, but it could be said that it is a doctrine of the devil himself. What a cunning strategy it is to disguise heresy in the garments of theology, much as Jesus said that wolves would be disguised in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15). Rather than being exposed as heresy, this lie is given a theological title, proclaimed as inspired truth, and touted as one of the fundamentals of the faith. As a result, countless people are assured that they are “eternally secure” because they prayed a prayer once in their lifetime, regardless of whether their lives demonstrate a true commitment to Christ.

How many millions of people will find themselves condemned on Judgment Day because they were led away by a theologian boldly proclaiming what they thought was an inspired doctrine when in fact it was (in the words of Charles Finney) a “grand device of the devil”?

Will we join the preachers who tickle the ears of their congregants, assuring them of their salvation through Gnostic heresies, commandments of men, and “doctrines of devils” (1 Timothy 4:1)? Or will we preach the unpopular truth given by Jesus and faithfully taught by the apostles and early Christians?