Depends on how one defines “once saved always saved.”

The term “once saved always saved” is used frequently among various–but not all–Evangelicals in English-speaking countries. The concept, however, is treated in one of two ways. While the Orthodox would agree with neither way, it may surprise you to learn that we would be closer to the way once-saved-always-saved is used in the T.U.L.I.P acrostic of Calvinism than the way it is used in much of semi-Calvinist Evangelicalism. What does T.U.L.I.P. stand for?

T — Total Depravity
U — Unconditional Election
L — Limited Atonement
I — Irresistible Grace
P — Perseverance of the Saints

It is the last one, Perseverance of the Saints with which I will be concerned. Now, there are always wags that like to have their little humor while trying to communicate a concept in a more understandable fashion. The B.A.C.O.N. acrostic below is one such humorous method. But, it may help you to somewhat understand without my needing to go into a lengthy discourse.

B — Bad people
A — Already elected
C — Completely atoned for
O — Overwhelmingly called
N — Never falling away

It is that last point, “Never falling away,” that interests me. You see, whether you say, “never falling away,” or you say, “perseverance of the saints,” that brings quite a different twist to the doctrine of once-saved-always-saved. The Protestant Reformed Churches in America explain:

“The perseverance of the saints simply means, as Paul expresses it in Philippians 1:6 ‘that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.’ Our Father will complete the work He has begun in regeneration. He will do this in spite of our sins which would, apart from His attentive care, separate us from Him. God will continue to perform it when we fall deeply into sin, by rescuing us from our foolishness, bringing us to repentance and confession of sin, and restoring us to His gracious favour. He will preserve us, though He may, for a time, seem to abandon us so that we roll pleasurably in the slime of our ill-chosen pleasures. The work of regeneration cannot be destroyed, for it is His work and God never abandons His own work.”

In other words, the classical Calvinist idea is that whom God elects, God will save. But, He will save that person by ensuring that, in the long run, the person’s life will show a spirit of repentance and confession of sin. In other words, in that context salvation is not a simple one-time juridical declaration, despite what various Calvinists will say. To a full Calvinist, election is a much broader doctrine than simply the juridical declaration that one is saved. Election is the doctrine expressed in a hymn that says, “But ‘I know Whom I have believed, And am persuaded that He is able To keep that which I’ve committed Unto Him against that day.’” In other words, to a Calvinist, one is not simply elect unto justification, but is also elect unto sanctification, and elect unto glorification. Election covers the complete process. Election began in eternity and finishes in eternity.

So, to a T.U.L.I.P. Calvinist, a person who is supposedly saved, but falls away, with no signs of a changed life, and no signs of being brought back, “… to repentance and confession of sin …,” was probably never elect. I add the word probably because inevitably there would be Calvinists who would say that we do not know a person’s mindset at the time of death, therefore we must always allow for the unexpected. That is actually quite improbable. That it is possible, I will not deny. That it is probable is eminently debatable. I will simply point out C.S. Lewis’ fine writing in his book called, “That Hideous Strength,” the final book of his space trilogy.

“Not till then did his controllers allow him to suspect that death itself might not after all cure the illusion of being a soul–nay, might prove the entry into a world where that illusion raged infinite and unchecked. Escape for the soul, if not for the body, was offered him. He became able to know (and simultaneously refused the knowledge) that he had been wrong from the beginning, that souls and personal responsibility existed. He half saw: he wholly hated. The physical torture of the burning was hardly fiercer than his hatred of that. With one supreme effort he flung himself back into his illusion. In that attitude eternity overtook him as sunrise in old tales overtakes trolls and turns them into unchangeable stone.”

The chances that a person who has known of Christ comes to repentance at the very last second is spelled out quite graphically in the passage above. Psychologically, it is extremely difficult to change our minds once they have been made up for years. The author of Hebrews says that to us when he states, “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame,” (Hebrews 6:4-6).

Thus the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints necessarily also implies a certain degree of visible sanctification. It is at this point that the Orthodox would agree with a T.U.L.I.P. Calvinist. Salvation does imply a certain degree of visible sanctification. For the Calvinist, there is a conviction that a Sovereign God, who has elected, will not allow His election to be null and void, and thus will ensure that a saint will persevere. The Irresistible Grace of God will ensure that the person who is elect will be brought to repentance and confession of sin so that he or she will not be lost. The Orthodox also have a conviction that he or she who is saved will show a certain constancy of life. Yet, we have the Sacrament of Confession because God knows that we are sinners saved by grace, and that without his aid, without receiving his body and blood, without confessing our sins, we could well be lost. Yet, contrary to popular slander, the Orthodox does not walk in fear, anymore than the T.U.L.I.P. Calvinist walks around wondering if he or she is truly saved when they encounter moments of sin. There are sufficient verses witnessing to the power of God, the goodwill of God, and the loving regard of God to allow a certain degree of assurance in the life of a Christian. I am reminded of my New Testament professor, now retired, who several decades ago said to us young seminarians that we most tend to doubt our salvation when we are in sin and least tend to doubt it when we are in good relationship with God. Yet, in both cases, we are still sinners. The difference is in our perception of the relationship, not in the reality of our sin.

So, in practice, both the T.U.L.I.P. Calvinist and the Orthodox insist that there must be a certain evidence, a certain change of life, a certain constancy that shows the presence of the Holy Spirit. The difference is that if those are not present, then the T.U.L.I.P. Calvinist claims that those people were never saved, otherwise they would have persevered, while the Orthodox say that the person has fallen away from the faith. Both sides, however, claim that this is difficult to accomplish. Neither side is so Roman Catholic as to claim that the commission of one sin is sufficient to sunder the relationship, even if that sin be a “mortal” sin. The difference between the two is doctrinal, not practical. Whereas for the T.U.L.I.P. Calvinist the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints provides balance, it is the doctrine of synergy that keeps the Orthodox from falling into salvation by works.

In passing, at the beginning, I mentioned two ways to understand once-saved-always-saved. The other way is a very modern way that is almost stated by some semi-Calvinist Evangelicals as meaning that if you have accepted God at sometime in your life, you need not ever doubt your salvation. This is an over-simplified version that does not take into account anything you might do in life after you are saved. Once you are saved; you are saved. Those who tend to over-simplify in this manner are usually so worried about the concept of “works-righteousness” that they have come up with an untenable doctrine that speaks of free-will to choose God, but then, regardless of how you use your free will, you cannot lose God. Thus, I have heard pastors at funerals completely ignore the life of a truly malicious person in order to laud their childhood conversion as though that were all that matters. In the case of the person of whom I am thinking, he really was truly evil with few redeeming features, yet was buried with an assurance of salvation that I would have hesitated to give. With that type of definition neither the Orthodox nor the T.U.L.I.P. Calvinist agree. Either there is perseverance or there is not. Lack of perseverance either indicates that a person has perhaps fallen away (Orthodox) or that a person perhaps was never elect (T.U.L.I.P. Calvinist). Please do not fall into this second type of once-saved-always-saved. It is not found in either Scripture or Holy Tradition (or Calvin).