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The Contingent Security of Salvation: A Critique of OSAS

July 9, 2026 No Comments

Background

Now and then, a theological issue boils over into a national conversation in Nigeria. One recent such matter concerns the doctrine Nigerians dubbed “Once Saved, Always Saved” (OSAS). The theologically savvy reader might know the matter as the hotly contested issue of the perseverance of the saints. Some years ago, we explored this matter here on the blog, focusing on four various Christian positions on how to read Hebrews 6:4-6. So, this entry may be considered a continuation of that conversation.

What is OSAS?
It is a cute summary of a doctrinal synthesis that posits that once Jesus saves a person, absolutely nothing in the entire cosmos can reverse it. There are various ways a Christian might arrive at this conclusion. For most Western believers, this is just the conclusion of Calvinism. But I suspect there may be other reasons this position is appealing to African believers: our traditional worldview is deterministic. See our treatment of Yoruba cosmology, for example. Besides, OSAS can be quite comforting, as it teaches that the believer does not need to live in fear of what might happen. Her future is already settled in Christ. Christians are merely occupying until Jesus returns; we are in no doubt about our destiny.

The Hidden Premises of OSAS
Like most Christians influenced by the Word of Faith movement, I, too, initially affirmed OSAS. Much later in my journey, however, I learned more about the origin of this idea. In particular, once I learned about the ideas that underpin OSAS, I could not, in good faith, continue to affirm it. The idea that a person is always saved (in and by Jesus) if she was ever once saved is a result of other theological claims within a particular 16th-century European Reformation theology. Some of the hidden claims include the following:

1. God sovereignly chooses who gets saved and who gets eternally damned. And this divine choice has no input whatsoever from the humans affected.

2. That saving grace of God is both irresistible and efficacious. The selected humans cannot reject the grace extended, and the grace is guaranteed to do complete work for and in the recipients.

From these claims (and a few others), the conclusion follows that once a person is selected for salvation, it must be because God sovereignly chose that person. Since God is all-knowing and all-powerful, it is impossible for that person ever to become unsaved.

Furthermore, there is a Word of Faith spin on the same idea above. The apostles of the Word of Faith movement taught that when a believer gets saved, she receives eternal life into her recreated human spirit. Obviously, if it were true that eternal life is woven into one’s constitution at rebirth, then it becomes very difficult to see how one can lose it. Besides, Word of Faith theology holds that if eternal life can be lost, it is not eternal to begin with. To be eternal is to continue without end. Hence, once anyone receives eternal life, it is irreversible.

Both ideas, the Calvinistic and the Word of Faith ones, lead to the same end: a believer cannot forfeit salvation. For reasons to be explored shortly, I reject both ideas in their entirety. I shall argue that the Calvinistic premises and the Word of Faith conception of eternal life are mistaken. A believer, once saved, will always be saved provided she continues to abide in Jesus. If she fails to abide, she may forfeit salvation.

We have explored at length elsewhere reasons to reject the idea that God, by divine fiat, chooses who gets saved and who does not. Furthermore, I do not believe that Jesus’s saving grace is irresistible. In other words, I do not think that humans cannot say no to Jesus’s offer. Interested readers should see our interaction with these ideas in the entries on Divine Foreknowledge and Human Free Will. We shall soon interact with more biblical data in this entry.

Understanding Eternal Life

The Word of Faith conception of eternal life is cute, but it is an imagination foreign to the Bible. Indeed, Jesus gives “eternal life”, but this life is not what some Charismatics have imagined it to be. To begin with, eternal life is not like a substance one receives. This is a deeply Hebraic idea that must be understood on its own terms.

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On Paradise and the Divine Council

April 27, 2026 No Comments

This piece is written to address possible questions readers may have from reading the entry arguing that heaven is not the goal of the Christian life.

In this entry, I want to address well-known passages from 2 Corinthians concerning Paul’s vision and Jesus’s words to the thief on the cross. As we shall see, both Paul’s vision and Jesus’ promise rely on Second‑Temple Jewish categories that modern readers often flatten or misread. These passages, often isolated from their Jewish context, actually speak a common language about divine authority and the geography of the unseen realm. We begin with Paul:

2 Corinthians 12:1–3 (ESV)
[1] I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. [2] I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. [3] And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—

This is one of three places “paradise” occurs in the New Testament. The serious Bible student might recall that part of the Corinthian problem Paul faced was that he was being compared to some “super-apostles.” In effect, the church questioned some of the things Paul taught them. So, Paul had to demonstrate in different ways that the things he taught the church are legitimate and divinely sanctioned. To do that, Paul arguably pulled a big card from the Hebrew Bible.

In the Old Testament, the only Bible used by all early believers and Jesus, there are two major ways to tell whether someone is a true prophet who genuinely hears from God. The first is obvious: if what you claimed you received from God came to pass, you very likely heard from God. This is especially so if what you prophesied was non‑obvious, complicated, or otherwise unusual. Of course, if what you asserted did not materialize, you were not a prophet. No do‑overs. Neither could there be do‑overs because the one you claimed to hear from is omniscient. He could not be wrong. The second way is different in that it is not verifiable, but it is weighty. True prophets often participated in the divine council. Isaiah saw the LORD and other members of the council (Isaiah 6). God himself directly speaks to this point in Jeremiah:

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On Hebrews 12:1: No Human Witnesses in the Cloud

April 27, 2026 No Comments

Hebrews 12:1 NRSVUE
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,

Since I wrote the piece on humanity’s destiny being permanently tied to the earth, I have decided to keep putting out short posts to address the conceivable whatabouts bound to emerge. In this piece, I want to address the famous text above.

Hebrews has a long history of torturing exegetes, especially those who come to it with unyielding preconceived notions. This work is full of warnings and encouragements to believing Christians facing severe hardship. The author draws copiously on the Hebrew Bible to encourage believers. For instance:

Hebrews 2:1-3 NRSVUE
[1] Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. [2] For if the message declared through angels proved valid, and every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty, [3] how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? It was declared at first through the Lord, and it was confirmed for us by those who heard him,

The contrast here is that just as unbelieving Israelites perished in the Hebrew Bible, so will believers perish, even more severely, if they “neglect so great a salvation.” Of course, much of Western Christianity has strongly disagreed on the question of the perseverance of the saint – whether a believer can forfeit salvation. I’m not going to rehash the points, but I will include links to my entries on the various positions below. But if we read Hebrews on its own terms, there is no escaping the fact that the author believed and argued that a Christian can forfeit salvation. But that does not have to happen precisely because of Jesus. The first 10 chapters detail Christ’s priestly work, established on firmer grounds than the Levites’. Jesus has opened access to God in ways the old order of priestly functions only dreamt of. Indeed, Jesus is right now functioning as a priest on humanity’s behalf as he intercedes for us:

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Proverbs 8, Philo, and Early Christian Thinkers

March 10, 2026 1 Comment

The following piece is adapted from a longer entry that argues that the New Testament identifies Jesus as the cr eator.

Proverbs 8 is a highly influential text within Second Temple-era Judaism and its first-century mutations. Jews and Christians alike engaged with it, each trying to understand the passage’s contribution to the identity of the creator. Many great Christian thinkers have read this passage as descriptive of the Trinitarian Father-Son relationship. Justin Martyr and Origen were among the first to use Proverbs 8 in this way, a move that would later influence Nicene theology. They read the passage as saying that the Father created with the aid of, or through, Wisdom, later identified with the Son. Below is the relevant portion:

Proverbs 8:22-31 NRSVUE
[22] “The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. [23] Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. [24] When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. [25] Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth, [26] when he had not yet made earth and fields or the world’s first bits of soil. [27] When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, [28] when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, [29] when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, [30] then I was beside him, like a master worker, and I was daily his delight, playing before him always, [31] playing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.

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On the Identity of God in 2 Corinthians 4:6

March 10, 2026 No Comments

This entry is adapted from a longer piece that argues that New Testament authors identified Jesus as the creator of the cosmos.

In a recent entry, I argued that three New Testament authors see Jesus as the creator of the cosmos, including Paul. However, Paul also pens 2 Corinthians 4:6. Traditionally, commentators take “God” in this verse to refer to the Father. There are good reasons for doing so. Typically, when Paul says “God” in proximity to terms referring to Jesus (e.g., Jesus, Christ, Jesus Christ, the Son, etc) as a distinct person, “God” refers to the Father. For instance, “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus” (1 Corinthians 1:4). If we apply the same reasoning to 2 Corinthians 4:6, “God” will refer to the Father. This may then imply that the Father is the divine person in Genesis who says, “Let there be light,” and hence the immediate creator. Furthermore, the same divine person would be shining “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God” in human hearts by the gospel that Paul preached to the Corinthians. However, in light of the christological saturation of the passage, I shall argue that Paul’s language in 4:6 allows “God” to include Jesus and that this verse does not invalidate the conclusion that Jesus is the immediate creator of the cosmos.

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Rootedness in Christ

March 5, 2026 No Comments

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Jesus as the Creator

February 27, 2026 4 Comments

Three New Testament texts by different authors explicitly claim that Jesus is the creator of the cosmos. For some strange reasons I do not fully understand, many in the church have historically been uncomfortable with the claim and have found ways to blunt the force of the assertion:

John 1:1, 3, 14 ESV
[1] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
[3] All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
[14] And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Colossians 1:15-17 ESV
[15] He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. [16] For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. [17] And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Hebrews 1:1-3 ESV
[1] Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, [2] but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. [3] He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

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Who Incited David in 1 Chronicles 21:1-2 and 2 Samuel 24:1-2: God or Satan?

February 1, 2026 No Comments

This entry is adapted from a longer one here.

Consider the following texts:

2 Samuel 24:1 ESV
Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, number Israel and Judah.”

1 Chronicles 21:1 NRSVUE
Satan stood up against Israel and incited David to count the people of Israel.

These texts record the same event. Yet, the first account says it was God who incited David, while the second says it was Satan. Which is it?

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A Brief Note on the End-Times

January 31, 2026 No Comments

Typically, eschatology is taught as the doctrine of end times, encompassing final things such as death, judgment, and humanity’s ultimate destiny. I had an unease with this subject and avoided it for a long time. In hindsight, I can think of reasons I did not care enough about it. First, I always had a visceral rejection of the idea of some Christians predicting when the world would end. It seems to me that even with a perfect understanding of everything the Bible says on the eschaton, we still would not be able to map out the future with precision. One reason is that if humans can figure out such things, so would devils and angels. But the Bible seems to suggest that God has not revealed such things to humans. It seems like the end will be just like the first advent:

1 Peter 1:10-12 ESV
[10] Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, [11] inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. [12] It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

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Romans 13:1-7 and Conservative Politics

January 24, 2026 No Comments

This Pauline passage has recently come into the limelight. It is a tough one deserving of a careful wrestle. I’m not interested in the politics. My concern is about making sense of the passage within Romans and the Pauline corpus as a whole:

Romans 13:1-5 ESV
[1] Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. [2] Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. [3] For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, [4] for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. [5] Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.