As both Gospel Hall and Baptists, and probably others, such as Pentecostals believe in Once Saved Always Saved, does anybody know the origin of this belief, as in time, place, who, etc.?

Calvin.

So, in a nutshell, the Once Saved Always Saved doctrine originated with John Calvin and was never a teaching of the Christian Church from its beginning until John Calvin.

Am I correct in my nutshell statement?

Now for my next question.

What texts do they use to substantiate this belief?

It seems that mainly these 8 texts:

1- My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. John 10:27-29.

2- Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35-39

3- Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6

4- Who are kept by the power of God through faith . . . I Peter 1:5

5- For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. Romans 11:29

6- All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. John 6:37

7- And this is the Father's will who hath sent me, that all of which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again on the last day. John 6:39

8- In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:13-14

http://eternalsecurity.us/eight_pillars_of_eternal_securit.htm

for the 8 texts and the link.

How do we explain what those 8 texts are really saying?

Here's another one:

Of the quotes Rosangela cited, I think 1-4 and 6 are easily dealt with simply by pointing out that the person himself can choose to leave. The fifth one is interesting:



Here's the context:



This whole section, Romans 9-11, is dealing with the same theme of how it is that the Gentiles can be saved without being circumcised, a theme which much of Romans is concerned about. Paul argues that God has chosen to save people on the basis of their faith. Those whom God calls are those who have faith. God has designated this, and not circumcision, as the method of election.



This brings out that Israel's fate was not determined by a unilateral decision or act on the part of God, but by Israel's own decision.

Another argument Calvinist's make is that if our salvation depended at all upon anything that we did (including choose to accept Christ), then it would no longer be by grace.

I think an effective counterargument against the whole Calvinistic framework is to consider what it says about God. That is, what would it say about God if it were the case that God chooses certain ones to be saved, regardless of their choice, but not others.

What this author says:


He says, "If salvation from the penalty of breaking God's laws cannot be earned by good deeds, then it cannot be lost by bad deeds."
How would you all respond to this?

First of all, it's an invalid argument. If salvation cannot be earned by good deeds, what logically follows is that if you have salvation, you didn't earn it by doing good deeds, and that's it. You can't conclude logically anything about how you would lose salvation from this premise.

Basically the question comes down to whether or not the will is involved in salvation. If our will were not involved in our receiving salvation, then it would make sense that it wouldn't be involved in our not receiving it. It would also make sense that we couldn't lose it, since if our will weren't involved in the first place, and we received it only because God chose to give it to us, why would He change His mind and take it away from us? That wouldn't make sense.

Otoh, if our will is involved in our receiving salvation, then it would make sense that we could choose to reject it, using that same will.

There is an unspoken premise that if our will is involved, then the question of earning salvation by good deeds, or losing it by bad deeds must be involved as well. But this isn't what we believe. What we believe is that salvation is by grace through faith, and that faith is evidenced by good deeds, just as unbelief is evidenced by bad deeds.



This brings out the condition of continuing in faith, not being moved away from the hope of the gospel.

Two questions to consider:

1.Is our will involved in our salvation?
2.Can our will be involved without this being meritorious, "robbing God of having all the glory."?