John Wesley: “Once Saved Always Saved?”

“Calvinists, who deny that salvation can ever be lost, reason on the subject in a marvelous way🤔 They tell us, that somehow:

No virgin’s lamp can go out…(Matthew 25:8)

No promising harvest can be choked with thorns…(Matthew 13:7)

No branch in Christ can ever be cut off for unfruitfulness…(John 15:6)

No pardon can ever be forfeited…(Matthew 18:32)

They say that no name can be blotted out of God’s book! (Revelation 3:5; Exodus 32:33)

They insist that no salt can ever lose its savour… (Matthew 5:13)

That nobody can ever…

 “receive the grace of God in vain”… (2 Corinthians 6:1)

 “bury his talents”…(Matthew 25:18)

 “neglect such great salvation”… (Hebrews 2:3)

trifle away “a day of grace”… (James 5:5)

“look back” after putting his hand to the gospel plow…(Luke 9:62)

Nobody can “grieve the Spirit” till He is “quenched,”… (Ephesians 4:30; 1 Thessalonians 5:19) and strives no more, (Romans 11:21,22)

nor “deny the Lord that bought them”… (2 Peter 2:1)

nor “bring upon themselves swift destruction.”.. (2 Peter 2:1)

Nobody, or body of believers, can ever get so lukewarm that Jesus will spew them out of His mouth… (Revelation 3:16)

They use reams of paper to argue that if one ever got lost he was never found. (John 17:12)

that if one falls, he never stood. (Romans 11:16-22 and Hebrews 6:4-6)

if one was ever “cast forth,” he was never in, and “if one ever withered,” he was never attached to the vine and once green. (John 15:1-6)

and that “if any man draws back,” it proves that he never had anything to draw back from. (Hebrews 10:38,39)

that if one ever “falls away into spiritual darkness,” he was never enlightened. (Hebrews 6:4-6)

that if you “again get entangled in the pollutions of the world,” it shows that you never escaped. (2 Peter 2:20)

that if you “put salvation away” you never had it to put away, (Hebrews 10:35; Psalms 51:11)

and if you make shipwreck of faith, there was no ship of faith there!! (1 Timothy 1:19)

In short they say: If you get it, you can’t lose it; and if you lose it you never had it. 

May GODSAVE US from accepting doctrine, that must be defended by such fallicious reasoning”