Once Saved, Always Saved

Once Saved, Always Saved

By

John E. Shaffett

            William Lynch asserts, “Magical or instantaneous methods of getting at God are marked by a hatred and fear of human time and the full human process” (Lynch, 77). To further clarify, he states, “because of this hatred of time they wish to use but a single, special moment of it, one that by some strange, inexplicable ‘trick’ will lead them to full glory” (Lynch, 77). Some evangelicals believe in the idea of once saved, always saved. They believe in an instantaneous new birth when they believe in Christ, and they believe at this moment they are completely saved. In addition, they believe that the only reason that they are not immediately lifted into glory is that they can save others. This belief seems to indicate magical thinking and a hatred of time. In contrast, Ignatius Loyola and his spiritual exercises presents a completely different relationship to time. Lynch states, “An analysis of his method will show in detail that, as a seeker of God, he is completely devoted to the time process and completely to its definite actuality, no matter what it is at each particular moment” (Lynch, 78). Loyola’s Catholic theology teaches that the journey of the soul to God is through time and the particular. The last part of the essay will apply the two views to literary criticism.

            Lynch states that there are “basically two contrary and hostile positions now held by the contemporary imagination regarding time” (Lynch, 50). One position thinks of time as something individuals need to escape from because it does not lead to “insight, beauty, God, peace, nor to anything else” (50). One can see how time is related to the body, the particular, and the finite. To get to the eternal, God, one must leave time or the body. The alternative view thinks of time as “nothing but ourselves, as we move without pause through all the phases and stages of our lives” (Lynch, 51). One view focuses on escaping time to reach the eternal; in contrast, the other view reaches the eternal through the temporal. These two views are related to the once saved, always saved doctrine and Loyola’s spiritual exercises. The once saved, always saved doctrine emphasizes a one time experience where the person is completely saved. There are no stages to go through. It does not seem to accept the gradual process of salvation. For example, physically, humans go through different stages of development: birth, childhood, youth, young adult, middle adult, old age, and death. The once saved, always saved doctrine does not see the believer going through these stages spiritually, but being completely saved in an immediate experience. In contrast, Loyola’s exercises and Catholic theology presents salvation as a life-long process in which believers go through various stages on their journey to God.

The hostile view to time seems to be also hostile to the temporal, the body, and this world. This thinking affects the way this believer practices moral criticism. For example, some evangelicals want to read only “pure literature.” The type of literature that does not have the messiness of sin in it. Instead, it is geared to having the character make a one-time decision of faith. James Vanden Bosch asserts, “There is also the potential irony of the moral or theological critic keenly alert for blasphemy or heresy in literature but willing to view third-rate ‘Christian” literature, hymns, and essays as acceptable. And there is the odd irony of Christian critics who know, intellectually and doctrinally, that ours is a corrupt and corrupting culture , but who don’t like literature to take a prophetic stance against our materialism, our higher consumerism, our debased taste, our vulgarity” (64). Bosch’s description identifies a good portion of the popular Christian literature consumed by evangelicals. A second point is that these same believers believe there must be a moral or message in the literature. They do not understand Flannery O’Connor’s point that the whole work is the message. In contrast, the Jesuit view would affirm the humanness in literature. It would not argue that “pure literature” is great literature.