I agree and the topic is supremely frustrating.
It seems like half the verses on salvation indicate we must persevere to maintain it, while the other half indicate that the new birth cannot be aborted or forfeited or lost. I could easily make a strong case for Once Saved Always Saved, but could also easily prove that Salvation Can
Be Lost.
Salvation is achieved when we confess Jesus as Lord (we have to act like He is our master for the confession to be authentic) and believe God raised Him from the dead. We must also trust that Jesus died for our personal sins. This is called believing in Jesus Christ. Salvation seems to be a one time event, not a process that can be disrupted and fail to be concluded.
As I repeatedly state, the primary thing is to harshly examine ourselves and decide if we really LOVE God more than anything (pleasures, intoxicants, entertainment, wealth, sex, possessions, family, country, political party, education, military, denomination, music, food, etc.) and we actually obey the commands of Jesus and the instructions in the church epistles.
It is when we struggle to conquer personal sinful indulgences, or realize we have been too gleefully and obliviously backsliding, that the issue of OSAS becomes a burning issue.
Jesus said a good tree cannot produce bad fruit and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. This freaks me out sometimes, when I survey my past life. How is my fruit? I DO NOT want to hear Jesus say, “I never knew you. Depart from me you worker of iniquity.”
How often do today’s Americanized Christian preachers talk about this grim reality of assuming you are going to heaven, but are headed for hell?