OK I'm Baptist, and I'm very confused on the question of salvation. Here are my questions:
1. Is OSAS (Once Saved, Always Saved) Biblical?
Hello. Both people who think OSAS is true and the people who think that it is false base their view on their interpretation of the Bible, so people who think it is true will say it is biblical while those who think it is false will say that it is not. The issue is whether it is the correct interpretation. I see verses that encourage perseverance to the end and warn against falling away as being a fairly clear indicator that OSAS is false.
2. If a Christian refuses to spread the Gospel, are they going to hell?
For what it is worth, the Great Commission is a command to go and make disciples of all nations, which is about forming relationships, not just about spreading the Gospel. In other words, if you were to set up loud speakers around the planet and made it so that everyone on the plant heard the Gospel, you would be spreading it, but you wouldn't be making disciples. The issue of whether are are saved is not determined by our actions, but by whether we have faith in God to guide us in how we should live, and it is our faith that determines our actions. However, I do not think that the Great Commission means that we all need to be seeking those personal relationships because we are members of one body and all have different callings and gifts. For example, someone who works a full-time job who gives generously so that missionaries are free to work full-time in service of God play an equally important role in making disciples of all nations.
1 Corinthians 12:12-30 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves[d] or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts,[e] yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
3. Is it truly by faith, and not works that we are saved?
In Hebrews 11, every example of saving faith is also an example of someone living in obedience to God's commands, so faith is always associated with requiring us to do good works, and living by faith has never referred to living in a manner that does not seek to obey God's commands. So while we are saved by faith alone apart from works, faith is never alone apart from works, but rather our faith upholds the Law (Romans 3:27-31). According to Titus 2:11-14, our salvation from sin involves being trained by grace to do what is godly, righteous, and good and to refrain from doing what is ungodly and sinful, so while our salvation is not earned by doing good works, our salvation from sin necessarily involves being trained by grace through faith to do them. We have been saved by grace through faith not by doing good works, but for the purpose of doing good works by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-10).
