Salvation - If Achieved, Can it Be Lost?

Once Saved Always Saved?

"Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Personal Savior?" When I lived in New Jersey, this is a question I often heard when I visited people in the door-to-door ministry. What I found particularly interesting is the almost word-for-word way this question was repeated by different individuals. Once in the town of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, I met a female member of the clergy who said, "I am saved". I politely asked her what she was saved from. She replied, "That's a good question." She wasn't really sure.

In the Bible, the concept of being saved applies to a number of different things. Inasmuch as nearly all uses of that expression tie in with everlasting life, however, they may be lumped together loosely. Such salvation is inextricably tied in with the promised messiah or savior, Jesus Christ. For that reason, what the Christian apostle Peter said under inspiration to some leaders of the Jewish people, formerly God's Chosen People should be of interest to us all.

Peter's Proclamation to the Jewish Religious Leaders

Filled with holy spirit, Peter advised Annas the Chief Priest, Caiaphas, and others using these words found at Acts 4:8-12,

"Rulers of the people and older men, if we are this day being examined, on the basis of a good deed to an ailing man, as to by whom this man has been made well, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you impaled but whom God raised up from the dead, by this one does this man stand here sound in front of you. This is 'the stone that was treated by you builders as of no account that has become the head of the corner.' Furthermore, there is no salvation in anyone else, for there is not another name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must get saved." ("New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures") (Italics mine)