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Once Saved Always Saved Versus Born Again Again
Author: Creflo Dollar

Summary
There are Christians who believe that once we are saved, we are always saved, and we can never do anything
that will cause us to lose our salvation. On the other hand, there are Christians who believe that once we are
saved, if we do fall into sin, we are completely lost again. While there are bits of truth in both doctrines, they are
still erroneous beliefs, according to the Scriptures. We must rightly divide the Word in order to truly understand
salvation.

A. The Once Saved Always Saved doctrine teaches that:
1. No amount of goodness can save us; therefore, no amount of bad behavior will cause us to
become unsaved.
B. The Born Again Again doctrine teaches that:
1. Once we become born again, if we sin, we are lost again. Therefore, we must confess our sins in
order to be born again again.
C. Both doctrines are erroneous. Here is the truth we know for sure:
1. Our spirits are sanctified and perfected forever.
2. Since we are not saved by our own goodness, a lack of goodness cannot un-save us.
a. We cannot obtain our righteousness (right standing with God) through our own works; we
receive righteousness by faith (Galatians 3:1-3).
b. Everyone can receive salvation, but not everyone will (John 6:36-40).
3. When we confess our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are born again.
a. Therefore, we should hold fast to the profession of our faith without wavering (Hebrews
10:23).
b. We do not have to confess every sin, all the time, in order to go to heaven.
D. From God s perspective sin is sin. We all fall short of perfection.
1. To sin means to miss the mark. The only person who has ever walked the earth without sin is Jesus
Christ.
2. Ministers with legalistic, religious mind-sets have taught us that sins such as murder, adultery, and
sexual immorality are worse than sins like gluttony or breaking civil laws (James 2:10; Romans
13:1-7).
a. However, we also sin when we fail to do the good we know to do (James 4:17).
b. All sin is equally bad in Gods eyes.
E. We know that the once saved, always saved doctrine is incorrect because the Scriptures
indicate that there is a possibility of losing our salvation (Hebrews 6: 4-6).
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1. There is an unpardonable sinmature Christians are held accountable and are damned when they
knowingly and willfully reject Jesus Christ.
2. There are certain criteria we must meet in order to commit the unpardonable sin.
a. We have to be enlightened (John 6:44).
b. We have to be truly born again.
c. We have to be made a partaker of the Holy Spirit, which refers to being baptized in the Holy
Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues.
d. We have to have revelation knowledge of the Word.
3. When we knowingly turn away from God as mature Christians, and continue in a direction that
rejects Him, God turns us over to a reprobate mind (Romans 1:28, 32).
1. Reprobate literally means beyond hope. God takes away the Holy Spirit, and we begin to do
things without His conviction.
2. A person with a reprobate mind displays a total lack of desire for, or response to, God.
3. As long as the Spirit of God deals with us, we know that we have not been turned over to a
reprobate mind.
4. If we turn away from God, and become committed to living a sinful lifestyle, we will be deceived by
sin (Hebrews 3:13-14).
1. Sin hardens us to God and the things of God.
2. If we continue to have a wayward mind-set and deliberately sin, even though we know
better, eventually Satan will deceive us into renouncing our faith.


Scripture References
Galatians 3:1-3
John 6:36-40
Hebrews 10:23
James 2:10
Romans 13:1-7
James 4:17
Hebrews 6:4-6
John 6:44
Romans 1:28, 32
Hebrews 3:13-14