Once Saved Always Saved?


Can One Who Has Escaped The Pollutions Of The World Through The Knowledge Of The Lord & Saviour Jesus, Later Get Entangled In It?

None who has thoroughly and holistically studied the subject of salvation in scripture, would carelessly or flippantly assert once saved always saved.

In the second epistle of Peter the word escape or escaped(apopheugō) is used thrice in a sense that denotes salvation.

1.) 2nd Peter 1:4

"through which he has given to us the greatest and precious promises, that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature, having ESCAPED the corruption that is in the world through lust."

2.) 2nd Peter 2:18

For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean ESCAPED from them who live in error. 


3.) 2nd Peter 2:20

For if after they have ESCAPED the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 

So we have three categories of persons here: (1.) Those who have "ESCAPED the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2.) Those who have ESCAPED from them who live in error. (3.) Those who have ESCAPED the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

1.) In the first category "ESCAPE" speaks of salvation from the corruption that is in the world through lusts. 

To be saved from corruption which everything in the world is subject & in bondage to, entails being born again of the incorruptible seed of the word of God which abides forever & is not subject to corruption. Peter spoke of this earlier in his first epistle👇🏼

"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." 1st Peter 1:23.

The only way one can be said to have escaped the corruption in the world is by regeneration: an inward change of nature, born again of the incorruptible word of God.


2.) ESCAPE in the second category speaks of salvation from them who live in error. These are those who though they have clean escaped from those that live in error are yet allured through lusts of the flesh 

They have experienced salvation as saved from an untoward/perverse generation(Acts 2:40); externally marked out by profession & water baptism as disciples bought by the Lord & identified with him in his death & resurrection.

They are in christendom as externally separated from the world and it's pollutions but not yet regenerated inwardly. They have clearly not escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, thus they are allured through lusts and much wantonness and fall prey to the servants/ministers of corruption ie. False teachers whom Peter had earlier spoken of in verse one (2nd Peter 2:1). There is an unregenerate and corrupt nature in them that makes them easily connect to servants of corruption(false teachers) who speak great swelling or highflown words of vanity.


3.) In the third category "ESCAPE" speaks of salvation from the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, yet here too there is no regeneration/change of nature, they thus get entangled again in the pollutions they have been washed and saved from just like a dog returns to his vomit and a pig that is washed returns to wallowing in the mire. Worse still is the verdict of scripture, that their last state becomes worse than the first, such that it's better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. In forsaking the right way and going astray they become worse than just mere unbelievers, as reprobate servants of corruption, corrupting whatever knowledge of Christ they had, and becoming tools in the hands of the enemy to deceive & lead men astray. They thus fulfill the prophecy of the first two verses which is👇🏼

"There were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of."

In forsaking the way of righteousness which they have known, they pave their own way which scripture calls "pernicious or dissolute ways" and according to the prophecy many shall follow their pernicious ways. As earlier said, the second category of people we considered, are susceptible to these false teachers and fall prey to them for they easily connect to them; their teaching full of fictitious & great swelling words resonates with them so they are the many that shall follow their pernicious ways.

Just like the earth in the days of Noah was purged of evil ones by the flood which is a type of water baptism yet not regenerated(liberated from the bondage to corruption), and today has become worse, reeling under the heavy weight of sin, lawlessness & evil, the making of these false teachers is such that they become worse than they were as unbelievers, though they received the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus, believed in and identified with him as disciples externally by water baptism; reformed as men may say and even known the way of righteousness, yet with no inward regeneration/transformation. 

Peter lifts a proverb to describe the state of these people spite of their exposure in christendom👇🏼

"But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." 2nd Peter 2:22.

Whatever pollution of the world they vomited/renounced to become disciples of Christ, and whatever dirt/filth of the world they were washed from, they return to them and become entangled in them.

They were saved from pollutions of the world and washed, yet unchanged in nature, it is thus not the washing of regeneration & renewing of the Holy Spirit(Titus 3:5).

Hebrews 6:4-8 paints a picture of those who have tasted of the heavenly gift & made partakers of the Holy Spirit; partakers of course in the sense of relating to the things of the Spirit, functioning in the gifts of the Spirit, and not as born of the Spirit, for scripture goes on to reveal their nature & state as "a ground that bears thorns and briers" in other words an unfruitful ground where the incorruptible seed of the word of God cannot thrive in & spring unto life thus though they have tasted of the good word of God it cannot bear fruit in them, they remain unregenerate as a dry ground that is of no use & yields no fruit to them that labour to till & plant it, it is thus "rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned."

Now it is important to note that the proverb Peter used to describe the state of these unregenerate men/ministers in christendom is consistent with the words of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 7:6 👇🏼

Give not what is holy to dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swines, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. 

Souls exposed to the way of salvation and righteousness with no regeneration/inward transformation are like dogs to whom a holy thing is committed and like swines that have pearls cast before them, they will trample on them. 

In speaking of our "common salvation"(koinos soteria. ie. salvation shared by all in professed christendom) & the need to earnestly contend for the faith, the inspired writer in Jude 1:5 lifts the history of the children of Israel who were saved out of Egypt but later destroyed in the wilderness. 1st Corinthians 10:1-12 shows that the things that happened to the children of Israel in that history of their deliverance/salvation from Egypt & their wilderness journey, are types of us, and have been "written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages are come. The apostle thus went on to warn: "So let him that thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall."(vs.12).

In conclusion, there can be salvation without regeneration and this is what explains how close people can come in being washed/baptised as new converts, in being discipled into the kingdom and in relating with the things of the kingdom, tasting of the powers of the age to come, of the good word of God, partaking of the Holy Spirit and yet end up being cast out as rejects/reprobates.

Where there is the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit in salvation, scripture contemplates no such thing as the regenerated becoming unregenerated, and he that is born of the incorruptible seed ending up in corruption and destruction. Whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world. 1st John 5:4.

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