OSAS - The Baptist Advantage

[rockytopva]

I was baptized three times in my teenage years. As a teenager my main thought was that it was fun. I do not regret it either.

1. GARBC Baptist - In a Baptistry
2. Freewill Baptist - In a River
3. Pentecostal Holiness - In a River

There are issues of the foundations of salvation in all the churches I have attended. If I were to "threaten" someones salvation...

OSAS - Raise eyebrows.... "Are you trying to threaten my salvation?"
Non OSAS - Probably wouldn't see them again

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he... - Proverbs 23:7

Believing in your heart that you are secure in your salvation is huge.

 

[David Lamb]

I was baptized three times in my teenage years. As a teenager my main thought was that it was fun. I do not regret it either.

1. GARBC Baptist - In a Baptistry
2. Freewill Baptist - In a River
3. Pentecostal Holiness - In a River

There are issues of the foundations of salvation in all the churches I have attended. If I were to "threaten" someones salvation...

OSAS - Raise eyebrows.... "Are you trying to threaten my salvation?"
Non OSAS - Probably wouldn't see them again

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he... - Proverbs 23:7

Believing in your heart that you are secure in your salvation is huge.

Why (if you don't mind me asking) were you baptized three times? Were the first two not valid baptisms?

 

[rockytopva]

Why (if you don't mind me asking) were you baptized three times? Were the first two not valid baptisms?

I was a teenager. It was fun. I had thought that if one joined a church one ought to be baptized into it as well. Once learned in scripture I found out one baptism was enough. No regrets. No need also for a fourth baptism.

 

[Wesley Briggman]

There are issues of the foundations of salvation in all the churches I have attended. If I were to "threaten" someones salvation...

I am not aware of "issues of the foundations of salvation" in the churches I have attended over the past sixty years. I am curious to know what your experience was, if you care to share.

 

[rockytopva]

I am not aware of "issues of the foundations of salvation" in the churches I have attended over the past sixty years. I am curious to know what your experience was, if you care to share.

The term "backsliding" for one. If the foundations of salvation are set you won't hear of that individual backsliding back into the world. Thus the saying....

The Baptist don't believe in backsliding
The Methodist practice it

With the Methodist type revivals it seems like the whole country is getting saved. And then... What happened?

 

[rockytopva]

I have attended charismatic churches in which people are so weak in their salvation that just looking at them wrong is enough to drive them away from church.

 

[MMDAN]

On a different Christian forum, someone who suffers from a severe case of anti-OSAS derangement syndrome keeps saying that OSAS is Gnostic heresy. I have never read anything about that, but I have read that Gnosticism was a second-century religious movement claiming that salvation could be gained through a special form of secret knowledge and that adherents believed the material world was created by a lesser divinity, and only through this esoteric wisdom could one transcend this flawed reality. Central to Gnostic thought was the idea that the true "divine spark" resided within individuals and could be liberated through spiritual enlightenment.

 

[Nada]

The way I understand it is, in John 3 Christ said “ye must be born again to enter God’s kingdom.” So how can a person be unborn?

There was once a famous pastor within the pentecostal religion whom referred to OSAS as damnable false doctrine. Not to bust on him but something to consider. He was involved in multiple sex scandals and my question to him and his adherents would be, at what point did he lose his salvation? Was it when he looked upon the prostitute with lust? Was it when he solicited her? Was it when they went to the hotel room and engaged in the act? Was he ever saved to begin with?

 

[Wesley Briggman]

The way I understand it is, in John 3 Christ said “ye must be born again to enter God’s kingdom.” So how can a person be unborn?

There was once a famous pastor within the pentecostal religion whom referred to OSAS as damnable false doctrine. Not to bust on him but something to consider. He was involved in multiple sex scandals and my question to him and his adherents would be, at what point did he lose his salvation? Was it when he looked upon the prostitute with lust? Was it when he solicited her? Was it when they went to the hotel room and engaged in the act? Was he ever saved to begin with?

What does it mean to be a born again Christian? | GotQuestions.org
"The phrase translated “born again” can also be translated as “born from above.” Nicodemus had a real need. He needed a change of his heart—a spiritual transformation that could only come from above. New birth, being born again, is an act of God whereby eternal life is imparted to the person who believes (2 Corinthians 5:17; Titus 3:5; 1 Peter 1:3; 1 John 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1–4, 18). John 1:12–13 indicates that being “born again” also carries the idea of becoming “children of God” through trust in the name of Jesus Christ.

The question logically comes, “Why does a person need to be born again?” The apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:1 says, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins” (NKJV). To the Romans he wrote, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Sinners are spiritually “dead”; when they receive spiritual life through faith in Christ, the Bible likens it to a rebirth. Only those who are born again have their sins forgiven and have a relationship with God.

"Was he ever saved to begin with?"

(Heb 12:7 KJV) If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
(Heb 12:8 KJV) But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

Based on my experience dealing with God's chastisement, I have serious doubts about his salvation.
Twice in His conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus stressed the truth that one must be born again to enter the kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5). Being born once makes us children of Adam, and we share Adam’s corruption. We need a second birth—a spiritual birth—to make us children of God. We must be born again."

 

[Van]

Just a quick comment on the concept of "Backsliding."

Let's consider two cases, someone walks forward, and joins your church with a profession of faith, but like the folks of Matthew 7, is not actually born anew. This person can continue to believe they are saved, yet disavow their effort to follow Christ, and embrace "Easy Believism." They might be called "backslidden" but in fact they were never saved.

In the second case, someone walks forward, joins your church with a profession of faith, and God causes him or her to be born anew, thus they will enter heaven, but as someone escaping from a fire, bringing little or no rewards with them. If they engaged in ministry, the result will be burned as something not of eternal value. Fellow members are supposed to try to turn the individual back to Christ's effective service, because he or she may be "backslidden."