A question about what Scripture actually says There is a question that keeps coming up whenever Christians discuss the Sabbath. It usually goes something like this: “The Sabbath was part of the Old Covenant. We are under the New Covenant now.” Fair enough. But that statement raises another question. Where does the New Testament actually say that the seventh-day Sabbath was abolished? Or transferred to Sunday? Or replaced by another day? That is a different question from wheth

From Abraham to Adam, and from Adam to Christ Part 1 ended with Paul moving from Abraham to Adam—and from Adam to Christ. But before we follow Paul into that comparison, there are two things we need to notice about faith itself. God Remains Faithful Paul's argument raises another question. If Israel has been entrusted with the oracles of God, what happens when some of God's covenant people do not believe? Does their unbelief mean God's promises have failed? Paul's answer is e

Paul says we are justified by faith apart from works of the law. So why does he immediately say, “We establish the law”? There is a moment in Paul's letter to the Romans when the argument seems to collide with itself. First, Paul says: “We conclude that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.”— Romans 3:28 Then, almost immediately, he asks: “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”— Romans 3:31

Election, Covenant, Apostasy, and the Warning of Israel Next, we go back to the beginning. We've spent the first four articles following the development of a doctrine. We watched the early Christian understanding of perseverance develop through the centuries. We followed Augustine. We followed the Reformation. We followed Calvin. We watched perseverance become increasingly connected with election. We followed Dort, Westminster, Owen, the nineteenth century, the Plymouth Breth

Security, Perseverance, Apostasy, and the Warning Passages We have spent the first three articles following a historical trail. We started with the earliest Christians. We followed the development of Christian teaching through Augustine and the medieval church. We watched the Reformation reshape the discussion. We followed Calvin, Dort, Westminster, Owen, the nineteenth century, the Plymouth Brethren, dispensationalism, and eventually the modern doctrine commonly called “once

How “The Saints Will Persevere” Became “Once Saved, Always Saved” In the first article, we asked what the earliest Christians believed about falling away. In the second, we followed the theological development from Augustine to Calvin and watched an important change take place. The question gradually moved from: Can a believer fall away? to: Who is a true believer? And eventually: If someone is truly elect, regenerated, and united to Christ, can that person finally fall away?

From Augustine to Calvin—and the Changing Meaning of Salvation Security In the first article, we asked a deceptively simple question: Did the earliest Christians believe that a person who genuinely entered the Christian faith could later turn away? The evidence did not give us the simple answer many modern Christians might expect. The earliest Christian writers repeatedly spoke about perseverance, falling away, repentance, restoration, and the danger of apostasy. They certain

What Did the Earliest Christians Actually Believe? There is a phrase millions of Christians have heard: “Once saved, always saved.” For some, it is one of Christianity's greatest assurances. For others, it raises a difficult question: What happens when someone who genuinely believed in Christ later walks away? Was that person never saved? Was the earlier faith never real? Can a Christian abandon Christ? And perhaps the most important question of all: Did the earliest Christia

Hebrews 10, Unbelief, and the Danger of Rejecting the Gospel There is a passage in Hebrews that has frightened Christians for centuries: “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.”Hebrews 10:26 What does that mean? Does it mean that after becoming a Christian, committing a serious sin means there is no more forgiveness? Does it mean that one deliberate act of disobedience places us beyond the reach

Three Tenses. Three Dimensions. One Savior. When Christians talk about salvation, we often speak as though salvation belongs to only one tense. “I am saved.” Or perhaps: “I will be saved.” But the Bible speaks about salvation in more than one way. There is something God has already done. There is something Christ is doing now. And there is something Christ will complete in the future. These are not three different salvations. They are three dimensions of the one salvation acc

“How can the Christian Gospel be morally just if God punishes an innocent person for the guilt of someone else?" How the incarnation, corporate solidarity, and the law reveal what God actually accomplished in Christ There is a way of explaining the cross that most Christians have heard many times: We sinned. God required punishment. Jesus took our punishment. He paid our debt. Therefore God can forgive us. There is truth in the language of substitution. Christ died for us. Ch

The Sabbath, sanctification, righteousness by faith, and the question of worship We've followed the Sabbath question a long way. From Creation to Christ. From Jesus to the apostles. From Paul to Hebrews. And along the way, we've discovered that the Sabbath is much bigger than a question about which day appears on a calendar. It touches Creation. It touches rest. It touches sanctification. It touches righteousness by faith. And ultimately, it touches worship and authority. Now

If Christ has objectively accomplished salvation as humanity's Representative, an obvious question arises: Why are people ultimately lost? This question has been one of the greatest theological challenges in the history of the church. It lay at the heart of the debate between John Calvin and Jacobus Arminius. Both sought to explain why, if salvation is entirely God's work in Christ, not everyone is ultimately saved. Yet they arrived at different conclusions. Calvin emphasized

What Romans 7 Actually Says About the Struggle Within Us Have you ever wondered: “If I really belong to Christ, why am I still struggling with sin?” For many Christians, that question eventually becomes something much darker: Maybe I'm not really converted. Maybe I don't have enough faith. Maybe God is disappointed with me. Maybe a genuine Christian shouldn't struggle like this. But Paul gives us a remarkably different picture in Romans 7:14-25. He doesn't hide the struggle.

The first public announcement of Christ's birth beautifully illustrates this truth. When the angel appeared to the shepherds, he declared: "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:10–11) Notice the announcement carefully. The angel did not proclaim a possibility or a provision. He proclaimed an accomplishment. He did not

There is a word in Scripture that is easy to read past. All. We see it so often that we can become almost immune to it. But what happens when we stop and put the verses together? Not one verse. Not two. But the whole witness of Scripture. The Bible repeatedly speaks about what God has done in Christ using words like all, every, the world, everyone, and the whole world. And when those texts are placed side by side, something remarkable begins to emerge. The Gospel Is Bigger Th

Welcome to BornSaved.org. If you found your way here because you picked up our pamphlet, we're glad you came. Maybe one sentence caught your attention: “The Gospel is not self-help.” Maybe it was this: “You cannot rehabilitate Adam.” Or perhaps this: “Faith is resting entirely in what Christ has already accomplished.” Whatever caught your attention, we hope you'll stay long enough to explore the question behind those statements. Because this is what Born Saved is about. The G