Wading into the dangerous waters of the OSAS debate...

::::::::

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me. - Philippians 2:12-18 (ESV)

Click Here

There are certain biblical subjects that there is simply no consensus for. They usually have good interpretations on both sides, supported by compelling scripture. They often also, lead to fruitless arguments to debate. One such topic is "once saved always saved. (OSAS)" This devotional will first deal directly with the topic directly and then respond to the above linked article from Charisma News that ponders this debate in light of the recent falls from grace of well-established ministers. So, let us once again reason together beloved.

I understand why people gravitate towards OSAS. Who would not enjoy believing they have a get out of hell free card? For years I have addressed this simply by pointing out that perspective is what creates our view. We all know people who once seemed very "saved." They attended church, maybe bible study and prayer meetings, and at some point, they seemingly walked away. Maybe they returned to an old life of sin. Maybe it was some kind of sin such as infidelity that led them astray and away. Now, the obvious first point is we do not really understand what happened in their lives and faith just like our assumptions of their salvation prior is just that - an assumption. The modern American church is largely performative and that performance mentality is taught and rewarded from the pulpit. That is why the vast amount of people shouting fake tongues or repeatedly going for altar calls to be slain occur. The "look at me" spirit embodies Charismania. The second major point as background is it is not our place to judge anyone's salvation. As the old saying goes, we will be surprised in heaven by who is there, who is not there and that we are there at all. These points aside, let us assume that the example of someone who was heavily involved and then falls away happened. The reason why it is often fruitless to argue OSAS is that if you believe in that, you will simply declare that the person was never saved, which may be completely correct.

For me personally, the first compelling fact is that nearly all false teachers believe in OSAS. They do so because it is far easier to sell and they do not preach the actual gospel or truly deal with the need to repent. The purpose driven apostate church sells a nine word "salvation prayer" after a 20-minute sermonette that never addressed sin. The business model is not to save you but to church you. They use emotional manipulation and even audience plants to compel you to raise your hand and then that is maybe followed with a quick and dirty membership class and then you are plugged into ministry, saving the church the cost of having to pay people for those roles and they hope establishing your tithe. The whole time assuring you that you are now "saved." The second compelling fact that leads me away from OSAS is that it breeds lazy Christianity. If I know that I can lead my life however I choose and still go to heaven, then why wouldn't I? What salvation is supposed to do is change our perspective of how God views sin. I always say that before I was saved, I thought I was not that bad a guy and then I was saved and I realized I wasn't very good at all. Whatever is noble within me comes from God but our flesh is constantly warring against us. To avoid belaboring the point, I present the key verses that I usually reflect on when discussing OSAS.

Paul exhorts the people in the Philippian Church to work out their salvation with fear and trembling. That seems to really fly in the face of OSAS. Note that Paul reminds them that it is God that works in them, so Paul clearly believes they are saved. He also notes that it is all so we might do works for His good pleasure. Next, we see that Paul implores them to do all things without grumbling and disputing so that we might remain blameless and innocent children of God without blemish. So, there are still things we must do to avoid blame and blemish. This is what he meant by working out our salvation. Why? So, we might shine as lights in the darkness to the world, clearly implying that we can do things that will dim that light, even though we are saved. Paul goes on to say that on the last day he does not want to discover that he ran this race in vain. The word vain means useless, or having no result. This clearly means that someone can run the race and not be saved, which is why Matthew 7 deals with the people who say Lord Lord. These people are churched but not saved. Let me be clear, the OSAS crowd can still respond that all of these examples would be examples of people who were never saved but Paul sure seems to think they are saved and since we believe God wrote the entire bible, it is God showing us these facts. Either way, I think that it is more scriptural and "safer" to deal with this topic by always on working out your salvation with fear and trembling. If I am wrong, I am still saved. If a firm believer in OSAS is wrong, they may end up saying "Lord Lord" on the last day. I have heard the cliche that if we could lose our salvation, we would, but that is so dismissive of the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Let us now turn to the above link and examine this in light of recent pastoral failings.

"The public moral failures of a number of megachurch pastors over the past few months and years have not only caused a crisis for these men, their families, their congregations and the millions who have been influenced by their ministries. Their falls have also caused a theological crisis for many pastors and leaders, especially those who believe in the doctrine known as "once saved, always saved." Now, these ministers have been forced to choose between two possible positions. The first choice is that these pastors or preachers were never saved. Or second, that even though these men were actively or previously involved in grievous sin, they were, are and always will be saved." - Rabbi Eric Tokajer

Recent failings include Robert Morris and Mike Bickle. The Rabbi correctly points out the dilemma facing the OSAS crowd. They must either state these men, who they probably believed in and looked up to, were never saved or that they still are despite overwhelming proof to the contrary. Understanding discernment makes this far clearer. Mike Bickle has never shown any fruits of being born again. Period. When he was a single twenty something Christian intern, he engaged in a multiple years sexual relationship with someone who was 15 when it started. Then in his later twenties, now married, he did the same with a different girl who was 14 when he first assaulted her. Then, when that ended and he moved on to begin to plot the IHOPKC empire, he seduced a 19-year-old, daughter of a family friend, by telling her God said his wife was going to die so that they could be together. This coercive, manipulative and controlling relationship lasted for years as he established IHOPKC. We also now know that he lied about the entire prophetic history of IHOPKC. The two other false prophets that conspired to create these lies have also been proven to be sexual predators. I do not know in what world anyone can think that Mike Bickle was a saved man of God. Only OSAS could conclude that maybe before the first victim, Bickle said some nine word prayer and was saved but the life he led after just does not support that. Let me be clear. If someone is saved, especially at a young age and then has some kind of sexually exploitive relationship with someone underage he still could be saved. He could truly repent and be honest about that failing throughout his life. God redeems beloved. He would still face the legal ramifications of such and be disqualified from ministry but he could be redeemed personally to Christ. That is not what we are talking about. We are talking about a man whose entire life was lie with multiple victims spread out across decades. Could Bickle truly repent now? Of course. Even the thief on the cross was saved at the last second. It sure seems however that it would be his first time repenting.

Robert Morris' case only seems less egregious. He too engaged in a sexual relationship with a minor, who was apparently 12-years-old when he started it as a married 20-something pastor. Even though there appears to be only one victim, Morris has lied about it for forty years while pretending he repented. I think the same standard applies to him as explained for Bickle. The other point no one is dealing with is the doctrine of these two men clearly indicated they were never saved. Robert Morris is allegedly worth in excess of 100 million dollars that he has fleeced from the people seeking God. He taught some of the most abusive tithing lies known today. He wrote a book demanding that people give him the first ten percent of their money before bills, food and even medicine or God would curse all of their money. So egregious was Morris, his lies warranted a separate chapter in my book exposing the lies of tithing. Mike Bickle ran a cult with dangerous theological beliefs such as the bridal paradigm, Joel's end time army and Jesus is my lover "worship." That is just scratching the surface. Back to the Rabbi.

"This theological crisis has brought the dilemma to the forefront of the minds of many followers of Yeshua (Jesus) and is causing many to question anew their understanding of the meaning of salvation. It's one thing when Joe Nobody comes in off the street drunk, hears the Good News and repeats the sinner's prayer, only to return to the bottle and the gutter. In that case, it's easy to justify his walking away by saying, "Well, he was never really saved." With those few words, adherents can preserve their doctrine of "once saved, always saved." After all, if he were really and truly saved, he would not have fallen back into his addiction." - Rabbi Eric Tokajer

I do not like the "nobody" reference. He was somebody to God. The real problem of course is he probably did not hear the Good News at all and the sinner's prayer must have been performative. The real problem here is the minimization of the drunk and the exalting of the false preachers. Just because you built a carnal empire and made millions of dollars doesn't make you any less of an obviously unsaved individual than the drunk. The difference is that the drunk is fighting an addiction and never heard the gospel. The false leaders did and obviously used it to their own ends.

"But now we have multiple ministry leaders who have ministered for years and led thousands into a relationship with Yeshua, raised up hundreds of men who also have ministered for years, raising up their own disciples. These men served their churches and gave millions to other ministries and missionaries. They demonstrated the fruit of the Spirit and called Yeshua L-RD.

Yet each of them fell into sin"some years ago, some recently and some for many years. Those who believe in "once saved, always saved" are left with only two choices. Choice one: None of these men were ever saved, regardless of the fruit of their ministries. Or choice two: These men have always been saved, even while they were actively participating in and practicing the very things Paul said in Galatians 5:19-21 would lead people to not inherit G-D's kingdom." - Rabbi Eric Tokajer

So, we come to it. The delusion this Rabbi is under is that he believes those charlatans ran godly churches. Mike Bickle and Robert Morris did not "minister" for years. They lied and grifted for years. The apostate church and the Purpose Driven Industrial Complex has so bastardized Christianity that people think that someone as clearly unsaved as Mike Bickle "led thousands of people into a relationship with Christ." I am sorry but he did no such thing. He lied to thousands of people and convinced them they were saved. That's all. Now, some of them may have genuinely sought the Lord on their own and may very well be saved but it would be in spite of Bickle and Morris, not because of them. I always use the example of what we would tell people who escaped the lies of the Mormon Church. Would we assume they were saved because of their sincerity? Of course not. Well, IHOPKC and Gateway Church were just as false and demonic as the Mormon Church. They are both based upon lies and the twisting of scripture. As my pastor is fond of saying, we can be sincere and sincerely wrong. I do not doubt the intention and genuineness of the victims of IHOPKC or Gateway. I doubt the leaders and doctrine they followed. The disciples they raised up are akin to the converts of the Pharisees who Jesus said would be twice the sons of hell that they were. Once again, not speaking to their motive and spare me the defense that their heart was pure. The heart is the most wickedly deceitful thing according to God specifically because we allow it to lie to us all the time. The amount of money these two snake oil salesmen gave has no relevance. Especially since they still kept the vast majority of the money they scammed from people seeking the Lord.

The most disturbing statement here is that the Rabbi thinks that people like Morris and Bickle demonstrated fruits of the spirit. They absolutely did not. Sexual assault is not a fruit of the spirit. Faking prophecies is not a fruit of the spirit. Demanding people send you ten percent of their money before paying for food and medicine is not a fruit of the spirit. In fact, these things are opposite of the fruits of the spirit. Equally disturbing is the notion that these men "fell into sin." That is absurd and minimizes what was actually criminal behavior from both. When he says more recently, he is referring to Tony Evans and TD Jakes but I am not commenting on them because the Jakes story is not fully revealed yet and Evans has not disclosed what he actually did. As for Morris and Bickle, when you choose to sexually assault a 12-, 14-, or 15-year-old over many years, while married and supposedly a pastor, you did not "fall into sin." The Rabbi finishes on a correct point. The behavior of the individuals in question reveals behaviors that Galatians says will not lead to inheriting the kingdom of God. The leaves choice one as the most obvious. Charlatans lying about God and building carnal empires on the bones of child victims were in all likelihood, not saved to begin with. Being saved should result in viewing sin as God does. It is unrealistic to think we will not sin as long as we are in this flesh but it should mean something more to us now. It should grieve us. It should make us strive to do better next time. Stepping outside of the OSAS debate, we should just endeavor to do as the key verses command and work out our salvation with fear and trembling. I thank God for saving me but never want to become complacent in that salvation.

Reverend Anthony Wade - July 14, 2024

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.