Saved today, and lost tomorrow? (Part 1)

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By Charles E. Wigg

About forty-seven years ago, my wife and I attended a meeting at the Salvation Army. Though we had been in fellowship with the Exclusive Brethren, yet we had a great respect for this particular denomination, largely because of their social work, and also because they were considered to be quite evangelical. (Sad to say they seem to have largely lost their evangelical zeal, and have become a social organization).

The preacher, (at the meeting which we attended), happened to be a lady officer, (which we considered to be quite un-scriptural); and at the end of the message she made an appeal for people to go forward to the ‘mourner’s bench’. As the response was not as great as she would have liked, she drove home her message and made the following statement: “Remember that you can be saved today, and lost tomorrow. Yesterday you may have been firmly on the way to heaven, and today you may be just as firmly on the way to hell!” One poor fellow of limited intelligence, who was addicted to smoking, went forward weeping, and knelt at the mourner’s bench. It seemed that the sin of smoking was to land him in hell. (Though I must make it plain that I do not believe that smoking is proper for the true believer). I was disgusted at the whole procedure, and I have never been near the Salvation Army meetings again.

However we need to examine the claim that the aforementioned lady made, as to whether the doctrine stands, or falls, in the light of Holy Scripture. Hence this paper! First let me make it plain that it is not my intention to launch into an attack on the worthy institution. The Salvation Army has been in existence over more than a century. It has done an enormous amount of good over many years, in going into the dens and hovels where the poor miserable slaves of sin and Satan have been held captive, and delivering many a fallen wretch from their slavery. “God bless them”, is all I would say. However this particular doctrine is quite another thing. I know that it has been held, like the sword of Damocles over the head of many, in an attempt to keep them on the “straight and narrow”. However it is not fear alone that is used by God to keep His children true to Himself. If the faithfulness of any true believer is not born out of love in the heart of such a believer, if the fear of evil that should grip each of God’s Children is not based on love for God, then it is of little value. But let us examine what the scripture says about this matter!