ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED?

Dr. Eusebio Tanicala

Did Esau and King Solomon lose their sonship?

There are friends who claim that a son is always a son and would never lose his position as a son to his father.  Through this illustration, it is insisted by some that a child of God is always a child of God; once a person has gained his being a son of God, he would never lose it. Such belief is sometimes expressed as “Once saved always saved.” Is this correct?

Yes and No.  We explain the “Yes” as well as the “No.”

Let us look at the case of Esau, the son of Isaac. We find the narrative in Genesis 25:19-34 and Hebrews 12:16,17.  Esau is loved by his father Isaac (Gen. 25:28), but Jacob, Esau’s younger brother, was loved by Rebekah, the mother. Having come out first from the womb, Esau possessed the birthright, the right to inherit twice the inheritance of another child.  Coming home from a hunting trip, Esau felt very hungry and on the verge of fainting, so he asked his brother Jacob to give him a bowl of stewed lentils and bread. Jacob, the younger brother made his proposal, “Sell me your birthright as of this day.” Esau commented, “Look, I am about to die, so what profit shall this birthright be to me?  …So, he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.” (Gen. 25:31-33).

According to Heb. 12:16,17, Esau, later, wanted to claim back his birthright even with tears. But he could not get it back.  He earlier despised his birthright. He did not consider it valuable. Later, in Hebrews 27, the physical and spiritual blessings were pronounced upon Jacob.

Did Esau remain forever a son of Isaac?  

Yes, biologically, Esau was forever a biological son but without the birthright, without inheritance and without the spiritual blessings of Almighty God. And without fellowship with his father and mother.  “And Rebekah said to Isaac, ‘I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth, like these who are the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?” Esau and his wives wearied Rebekah. Did Esau enjoy his birthright as a firstborn son?  

Did Esau enjoy the love and fellowship of his father and mother?

NO! According to Apostle Paul, all mankind, every individual, is an offspring of God (Acts 17:28-29), but if we remain ignorant and fail to obey God’s desired relationship, then we lose our inheritance and blessings in the heavens. One who remains ignorant of God’s will, one who continues to worship idols are not spiritual children of God with blessings.

Let us look at God’s covenant with King David in 2 Samuel 7:14-17; 1 Chronicles 22:9-10.  Yahweh promised to King David the establishment of a Davidic dynasty with physical and spiritual blessings based on the condition that David’s descendants must obey God’s commandments and statutes. “. . . I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.” (2 Samuel 7:12-14).

Solomon was considered God’s son and God is Solomon’s Father. Now read 1 Kings 11:1-43. Solomon married 700 foreign wives and had 300 concubines whom he loved very much who turned his heart away from Yahweh (Read 11:2, 3). He built worship places for gods and goddesses of his foreign wives and concubines. So, Yahweh “became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned from the LORD God of Israel,” (11:9).

Did King Solomon become God’s son?

Yes, at the start of his reign in Jerusalem.  Actually, the prophet Nathan gave the name “Jedidiah” which means “beloved of Yahweh” (2Sam.12:24, 25) to show how the young man was loved in the palace.

What were the sins of King Solomon? The following are the big ones:

1.   Marriage with heathen women was prohibited (Deut.7:3-4; Deut. 17:17; Ezra 9:1-2, 10-14).  But Solomon violated this law by marrying 700 wives and having 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:1-3) many of them from tribes and nations outside Israel.

2.  Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might (Deut. 6:5).  But “Solomon clung to these in love” (1Kings 11:2) referring to the foreign women from surrounding heathen nations and tribes.

3.  Yahweh said in the Law, “you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire” (Deut. 7:5).  But Solomon “built a high place for Chemosh, for Molech, and he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods” (1Kings 11:7). Can you imagine King Solomon building 1000 worship places for heathen gods and goddesses in Jerusalem as rivals of the Temple dedicated to Yahweh?

4.  Prohibition against keeping/multiplying horses (Deut.17:16).  But Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen (1Kings 4:26; 10:26-29).

God disowned Solomon!  God even instigated Jeroboam a favorite official of King Solomon to turn against King Solomon which eventually resulted to the split of the United Kingdom into the Southern Kingdom of Judah and the Northern Kingdom of Israel at the time of Rehoboam, son of Solomon with his Ammonite wife.

Did Solomon lose his sonship?  YES!

“So the LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned from the LORD God of Israel, who appeared to him twice” (1Kings 11:9-10).