In response to a question I was asked. Who created OSAS.
--Short answer would be
5th Century-
Augustine of Hippo but not quite the the osas of today, Instead, he taught grace to persevere in faith until the end.--
--- then all they way to
Calvin---- middle
16th Century- again perseverance of the saints-
---
Southern Baptists & Plymouth Brethren Late 19th- Early 20th Centuries- they slowly began downplaying the necessity of ongoing perseverance or good works as evidence of true faith and used terms like OSAS & eternal security.
---- Teachers like
Darby/Scofield--Lewis Sperry Chafer (
early 20th century)
and later
Charles Ryrie and
Zane Hodges
(Dallas Theo Seminary) took a hard stance.-
Some within that camp above say that a person who has made a "decision" for Christ is eternally saved,
even if they live a life void of spiritual fruit or appear to abandon their faith.
It is a point of debate- many Reformed and evangelicals still hold that genuine saving faith will produce good works and perseverance.
(John MacArthur took a lot of heat from Hodges for teaching
Lordship which maintains obedience / fruits as evidence of said salvation)
It's a later doctrine and seems to keep spiraling lower.
The early Church Fathers ( Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian) did not teach "unconditional eternal security" as understood by
modern OSAS.
Many of their writings suggest that believers could, through heavy sinning or apostasy, forfeit their salvation & they stressed the need for ongoing faith and obedience.
Some scholars say that early forms of eternal security were in Gnostic heresies, the Gnostics that the Church Fathers refuted. I have never looked deeply into that. I probably won't.
AS I see it, we are to abide in him which means remain in the faith. Does that cause me fear. Not at all. Do I feel secure? Yep.