StudyGrowKnow

Can You Know for Certain?

August 28, 2026 at 12:46 PM 2 comments

There are essentially four specific views of our salvation. There is the Classical (or Free) Grace view that teaches “once saved, always saved;” that once a person receives salvation by faith alone in Christ alone, it can never be lost or removed. A second view is more in line with Catholicism or Orthodoxy. It teaches salvation can be lost if a believer does not continue to consistently serve God until the end of their earthly life (persevering). In this view, everything rests on a person’s ability to “persevere to the end” or not. Essentially, there is absolutely no guarantee of eternal life without associated continual works by the individual. Under the umbrella of this theology, a person can never truly know if they actually possess eternal life, nor is there an absolute assurance of salvation.

A third view is Calvinism or Reformed, which teaches that while salvation/eternal life is guaranteed to the recipient, there is no way for that person to know beyond doubt that they actually have assurance of that salvation. In this theology, works must continue until the end of life. The fourth view is known as Arminianism. This view says “no” to whether or not a person is guaranteed to actually have eternal life, because proponents of this view believe salvation can actually be removed. Interestingly enough, those within the Arminian camp will also say that yes, a person can know they possess eternal life or the assurance of it, but with qualifications.

A local pastor friend of mine has written a paper on this subject.[1] It is six pages in length and encompasses all of these views, with a brief history of each, especially the Catholic/Orthodox view of salvation. I highly recommend it and you can read it in PDF format through the link at the bottom.

It is interesting to me to realize just how close Reformed theology continues to remain to Roman Catholic theology in so many respects. The one is not that far removed from the other. Sadly, not much has changed since the Reformation. Many reformers started out great, insisting that the move away from the Roman Catholic doctrine and hierarchy was needed. Then slowly, due to pressures (including persecutions and even executions), from the Catholic Church, certain reformers began to pivot back toward Catholicism. This is exactly what occurred with John Calvin.

When it comes to assurance of our salvation, many within Reformed theology today tend to move back toward Roman Catholicism when addressing eternal security and whether or not a believer can actually know if they have assurance of their salvation. Because both the Reformed and Roman Catholic camps emphasize so heavily the need for the believer to continue a life of works to maintain the gift that God bestows on us freely, actual assurance of salvation is often up in the air or dismissed completely.

Can you imagine receiving a completely free gift from someone you thought loved you, only to learn that if you didn’t take care of that gift in a certain way and to their liking, they had the right to take it back? That would not actually be a free gift, would it? It would be on loan to you with strings attached, which is not really a gift at all. Yet, this is what Roman Catholicism and part of the Reformed movement believe. It is unfortunately, also how these systems gain control over people in the pews. It’s guilt-laden often to the extreme and it emphasizes the alleged need for the continued working by people to “persevere” in the faith to the end.

My wife was born and raised in the Roman Catholic church and that dogma carried her into her mid-twenties before she began to see a disconnect between the grace freely offered to us in the form of salvation/eternal life and the constant need to work at it to ensure that it cannot be lost. If anyone reading this is from Catholicism, I’m sure that is relatable.

Without a believer persevering and/or remaining steadfast and faithful to the end of that person’s life, it is likely that person (according to Catholicism), will lose salvation or at the very least, go to purgatory until their remaining sins are worked off (which has no biblical basis since this belief is based on aspects of the Apocryphal writings. Within Reformed theology, it is more often said that the specific individual who fails to persevere to the end never had salvation in the first place. In both cases, assurance of salvation is missing. The focus then becomes the works that the person does in order to be able to say they are continuing in the faith or persevering, rather than on God Himself and His free gift of life everlasting.

It is abundantly clear that those within the Reformed camp do clearly and often times vociferously state that no one can do anything to earn salvation because it is a completely free gift of God, gifted to those who, by faith, believe that Jesus is who He said He was/is and that His death paid the full penalty for our sin. Yet, following the receipt of salvation or eternal life, these same people will also just as clearly and vociferously state that we can never truly have assurance of salvation until we get to the end of our life and see that we did not fail to continue to persevere.

Imagine you become a Christian through faith alone, by His grace alone, in Christ alone, understanding that Jesus took your place on the cross to pay for your sin – sin you could not possibly pay for – and with that realization, you become a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). At the very moment of conversion, you are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Church, the Bride of Christ. You are also sealed unto the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30), and this knowledge frees you from your past and future sins. Beyond this, you begin to revel in the new awareness of just how much God loves you and you are filled with joy.

But then, you hear sermons that seem to create a tension within you. On one hand, yes you are saved. On the other, if you stop working, you may well either lose your salvation or learn you never really had it in the first place! The focus then is directed right back onto SELF. You begin constantly looking at your life, your motives, your words, your thoughts and your actions, always judging them by whether or not you think you are doing everything correctly. If not, then you are in serious danger of either losing your salvation or not ever having had it (depending on which theological camp you find yourself in). If this isn’t maddening enough, you are then, because of your focus, always looking inward trying to judge whether or not you are persevering in the faith, rather than focusing on God, His love for us sinners and just how great His grace is toward us.

Where does this erroneous teaching come from exactly? It comes from numerous places in Scripture, but it also comes from people’s own belief that they must “do” something to keep and maintain their salvation. Once such place is Matthew 24:13.

But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

Jesus is speaking there to His disciples and that particular verse is often yanked out of context and used as a hammer to knock people over the head. “See? If you fail to ‘endure’ to the end you won’t be saved. You must continue to ‘endure’ in order to be saved!”

The problem with this view is that the context of Matthew 24 does not support it. This chapter speaks of the time just prior to the physical coming of Jesus at the end of the age we are currently living in and specifically, during the Tribulation period of seven years. Jesus is not saying that everyone who perseveres to the end will be “saved” as in eternal salvation. He is saying that those who manage to persevere to the end of the Tribulation without dying (temporal “salvation”), will be “saved” to enter into the Millennial Kingdom over which Jesus Himself will rule. They will enter with the physical bodies they had prior to the start of the Millennium. In other words, they will not die physically! It’s really that simple, yet often mischaracterized, which occurs a great deal when people yank one or two verses out of natural context.

Jesus is saying absolutely nothing about persevering as a believer in order to be sure of one’s eternal (spiritual) salvation. He is talking about the physical aspects of living through the coming Tribulation period. Believers who die during the Tribulation period of seven years will be resurrected at the Second Coming of Jesus (Revelation 20), as will the Old Testament saints.

In Matthew 24, Jesus spent time warning His disciples (and ultimately us), about what was coming. He warned that a few decades after His death/resurrection/ascension, Jerusalem would be surrounded and destroyed. This occurred in AD 70 by Roman armies. But Jesus was also pointing to the far future from His perspective then to the end of this age warning us living today.

Interestingly enough, Roman Catholic leadership, mainly because of Augustine, began to see any areas of Scripture that dealt with future prophetic discourse about the end of the age, as allegorical. This is in spite of the fact that when we see prophetic discourse in the Old Testament/Hebrew Scriptures, when it became fulfilled, it was always fulfilled literally, not allegorically. Even though there may have been an allegorical interpretation applied by certain commentators way back then (rabbis, etc.), the fact that God’s Word was always fulfilled literally, in its most plain and ordinary sense, is clear from history. In spite of this fact, too many theologians today choose to allegorize any Scripture that points to the future and they almost universally state all of it has previously been completely fulfilled.

Many theologians within the Reformed camp have continued to follow this allegorical line of thinking with respect to prophetic discourse. They will take the Bible most often literally (in its most plain and ordinary sense), until they come to a portion of Scripture that appears to be dealing with end times or the future that is still in front of us. At that point, they will stop taking things literally (in their most plain and ordinary sense), and see everything allegorically. This means that symbol means this or something else entirely. It’s as if God’s Word and its meaning is left totally up to how they see things and it doesn’t even matter if it makes sense or not. I have read so many commentaries from Reformers (or Preterists), who have some of the most wild interpretations of the Bible’s eschatology, they leave me a bit speechless.

One good example of this is how Preterists seem to completely ignore the actual verbiage of the angels in Acts 1, where the men of Galilee were told that this same Jesus (who was just taken up and hidden in the clouds in His ascension to heaven), would come again to the earth in like manner (or the same physical way), where every eye would see Him return to this planet. This is also echoed in Matthew 24-25. Yet, these facts are conveniently ignored when Preterists say Jesus returned “spiritually” in AD 70 and has been reigning since. It makes zero sense and is not in keeping with the actual intended meaning of Scriptural content, not just in Acts 1, but throughout the Old and New Testaments.

Since Roman Catholicism became securely established as the only religious system for centuries, allegorical interpretation of prophetic areas of Scripture became the norm. When the Reformation occurred, people like Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and others were mainly concerned about what the Bible said about salvation as a free gift completely, bestowed on the believer by grace, through faith alone, with no strings attached. Their concern was not about prophetic portions of Scripture at that time. It was to ensure that people understood that salvation was by grace alone, received through faith alone, in Christ alone. Unfortunately, over time, things have moved back toward Roman Catholicism where we are continually told our works play a major part in the salvific process.

Many to most within the Reformed camp will agree with these statements about salvation being a completely free gift and nothing we can actually earn. Unfortunately, many also emphasize the need for our “works” to maintain our salvation, which includes the believer’s need to walk rightly before God. If they don’t, they believe they can question that person’s sincerity of heart.

I know people who are alcoholics and also claim to be believers. Their lives are a mess. They essentially show little to no fruit of God’s Spirit within them. Should I assume then they are not actually believers, but simply kidding themselves? Is there a place for people who are believers who live totally messed up lives yet might actually be saved? I believe there is and Paul assumes as much (1 Corinthians 3:15). I leave that to God to sort out. It’s not for me to judge. I can come alongside them to encourage and coach them and even officially biblically counsel them, but I dare not judge them because that is not my job as I have no ability to see into their hearts. At the same time, part of my encouragement/coaching may well include ensuring that they truly know they are saved or not.

Next time, I’ll look at aspects of John 15, where we learn several things that Jesus teaches regarding assurance of salvation or eternal security. We already went over certain aspects of Jesus’ teaching there in John 15 in a previous blog article [2], but there’s more to discover. Join me then.

[1] Assurance of Salvation – Tom Eckman

[2] https://studygrowknowblog.com/2026/08/24/true-antidote-for-vanity/

Entry filed under: Atheism and religion, christianity, eternity, Religious - Christian - Prophecy, Religious - Christian - Theology, salvation, sanctification, second coming.