Can a Saved Person Be Lost? Dogs and Sows

There are many Scriptures which doubtful Christians think teach that a saved person can be lost. I want to review those Scriptures and show you that none of them teaches or implies that a saved person can be lost. —John R. Rice

II Peter 2:20-22
"For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire."

Notice that the escape was through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Scripture does not say that these trusted Jesus. Many lost people know about the Gospel and about Christ. We see from verse 21 that they knew the way of righteousness, but the Scripture does not indicate that they ever walked in it.

The dog is still a dog and the sow is still a sow. God never calls His people either dogs or hogs anywhere in the Bible. Both are used as symbols of the unsaved. In this chapter, verses 1 & 2, it is easily seen that the Lord is not talking to saved people at all but to enlightened lost people who return to their sins and do not accept Christ.

—abridged from Can a Saved Person Ever Be Lost? by John R. Rice. To read the full article, order the pamphlet here.