Ping-Pong Ball Salvation

A man was watching his wife prepare dinner.  She peeled potatoes and carrots and put them in a pot with a little chicken broth, an onion, some celery and a couple bay leaves.  She seasoned a roast with salt and pepper, then cut off a large section from the end of the roast and threw it away before placing the roast in the pot with the other ingredients.  The man asked, "Why did you throw away the end of that roast?  It looked fine!"  Perplexed, the man's wife said, "I really don't know...it's just how my mother taught me to cook a roast."  At Thanksgiving the man's wife asked her mother, "Mom, why did you always cut the end off the roast and throw it away?" Perplexed, her mother said, "You know, I never really thought about it.  That's just the way your grandma taught me to cook a roast.  Let's go and ask her."  The two ladies approached the matriarch of the family, who was warming herself by the wood stove.  They asked, "Why did you always cut the end off the roast?" The elderly lady replied without hesitation, "We had no refrigerator and only one pot, and it was too small to hold the whole thing!" Tradition can be a funny thing, can it not?  Before simply accepting and emulating practices we have been taught, it is important to understand the reasoning behind them.  Never has this truth been more important than in religious teaching and practice.


One traditional teaching we should examine is what has been referred to as "ping-pong ball salvation."  Imagine watching a ping-pong match with each contestant swatting the ball back and forth over the net.  Now imagine one side of the table with "SAVED" painted across it, and the other with "LOST" on its surface.  The ping-pong ball is a Christian, and as the ball is swatted from the "SAVED" side of the table to the "LOST" side, it is because the Christian has committed a sin.  

SMACK!

-lost, because sin has been committed-

Now the opponent volleys back, symbolizing the Christian repenting and asking God for forgiveness.

SMACK!

-saved, because the Christian has repented and asked God for forgiveness-

When the Christian sins again, they are volleyed back to the lost side, and when they repent and ask for forgiveness they are returned to a saved state, and so on and so on, back and forth.  This teaching is nerve-wracking, to say the least.  It prompts questions like, "If a Christian is driving along and they have a flash of anger and maybe utter a profanity, then have a wreck and die without having time to ask God for forgiveness, do they go to hell?"  Those who teach that this type of salvation is accurate to the Bible would be forced to conclude that the Christian whose ill-timed explosion preceded their death was raising up their eyes in the torments of Hades.  Is this in fact the way salvation works for those who have put on Christ?  

In a word, no.  

In many more words, see the following: 😏

Consider first the book of Romans.  

In chapter 1:16-17, Paul discusses "the righteousness of God."  Righteousness is a poor translation.  The Greek word is diakasune, and is better translated in Romans as "justification."  This means standing in the state of uprightness or "being a perfect 10" before God.  It is something that is done by God for the sinner, mentioned as "the power of God for salvation" in verse 16 to "everyone who believes."  Romans is about faith!  Faith - real, obedient faith (Romans 2:13, James 2:17) - is what allows God to place the sinner into the state of being justified, or "saved".  God views us and treats us just as if we had never sinned (Hebrews 10:17).  If we understand that at the point of baptism we are placed in a state of being justified before God (Romans 6:1-4), the question we must then ask is, "What causes God to STOP seeing us as a perfect 10?"

• Is it that every time we sin, we are no longer seen as a perfect 10 before God?  No.  Romans 3:23-24 says that all HAVE sinned, and FALL short.  "fall short" would be better translated, "DO FALL SHORT."  This is a present-tense word.  It means that they continually, presently fall short.  We HAVE sinned, and DO sin, and we ARE justified (made to be a perfect 10 by God) - present tense again - as a gift by His grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.  That means that as we sin, we are justified.  That's what grace does.

•  At this point, the "ping-pong" advocate might say, "Yes, but that justification from sin only happens when the Christian repents and asks God in prayer for forgiveness!"  Please note that this is not stated in the book of Romans.  Rather, we who "fall short" (present tense) are "justified" (present tense) by grace.  This reflects the reality of a Christian trying to do right (obedient faith) but falling short (sinning), and being covered by Grace.  There is not mentioned a period in which the Christian goes from saved to lost, then says a prayer and repents, then goes back to being saved.

Consider second the book of 1st John.  

In 1st John 1:5-10, we read about walking in the light vs. walking in darkness. Many who teach the ping-pong salvation will say that sinning is walking in darkness, and thus when we commit a sin, we are out of fellowship with God.  However, examine verse 7. 

"If we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin."

Just as in Romans the Christian is continually falling short and is continually being justified by grace, in 1st John the same is true.  When the blood of Jesus "cleanses" us, it is a present-active Greek word, which means that it is a continual, perpetual action.  It doesn't stop, provided that we walk in the light.  The assertion that "walking in the light" is living without sinning falls apart at this point, because here "walking in the light" is directly connected to being "cleansed from all sin."  This means that there must be sin to cleanse.  Thus, we sin while walking in the light.  What is NOT mentioned here is that every time we commit a sin, we go into a lost state, then we must repent and ask for forgiveness in prayer and then be in a saved condition again.  Those who walk in the light (that's someone who is attempting to walk in a way that is in agreement with God but can't do it perfectly, but is continually cleansed from those sins as they try to please God) are in a state of fellowship with God!  

So...committing a sin does not place the Christian in a lost condition.  The Christian who while walking in the light sins (making a mistake while TRYING to do right) is continually covered by grace and continually cleansed by Christ's blood according to Romans and 1st John, respectively.

BUT WHAT ABOUT...

• Simon the sorcerer in Acts 8?
• Acts 8:9 - Simon formerly was astonishing the people and claiming to be someone great.
• Acts 8:13 - Simon became a Christian, and was constantly amazed by the miracles that were happening.
• Acts 8:17-19 - Simon saw that these great miracles could take place if the Apostles laid their hands on someone, and attempted to purchase this ability to bestow the Holy Spirit from the Apostles.
• NOTE:  This is what Simon had come out of.  He was previously astonishing people, being called "the power of God," and was claiming to be someone great.  He wanted to get that back, and tried to purchase the ability to lay on hands.
• Acts 8:20-23 - the problem identified by Peter is that Simon's heart was not right before God.  
• NOTE: This would not be someone who was "walking in the light."  One who walks in the light is trying to please God.  It is their intent to practice the things that God desires, though they cannot do so perfectly.  Simon was willfully pursuing something other than pleasing God.
• NOTE: In this situation, Peter then demanded that Simon repent from pursuing his course, and pray that the intention of Simon's heart be forgiven him.
• Acts 8:24 - we have an example of one Christian praying for another that they be forgiven.  
• See 1 John 5:16.  
• The "sin to death" is the willful, habitual WALK of darkness that is in 1 John 1.  It is a refusal to please God.  It is a denial of God's authority and standard.  This is a sin that is no longer covered by the blood of Christ, nor God's grace.  Simon the Sorcerer had begun walking in darkness when he intentionally, willfully, and purposefully attempted to serve his own desires with the gift of God.
• The "sin not unto death" is a sin committed while walking in the light.  The Christian who witnesses another committing a sin while trying to serve God is instructed to pray for that sinner, but the sinner is continually cleansed by the blood of Christ, 1 John 1:7.
• Conclusion - Simon's problem was that he had willfully turned to the way of sin.  He had lost sight of the goal upon which Christians are to focus - pleasing God.  He was walking in darkness.  Upon walking in darkness, a Christian most certainly needs to repent of their actions and pray that God forgive them.

THE END OF THE MATTER - Christians have the benefit of grace, and have the gift of Christ's cleansing blood.  Both of these continually cause the Christian who is walking in the light to stand as a perfect 10, in a justified state, "just as if I'd" never sinned, before God.  So, Christian, if you make a mistake while trying to serve God, do not fear that you have been swatted to the "lost" side of the table.  It was still a sin, and when we are made aware of our shortcomings we must work to improve them.  Keep walking in the light, and sing with confidence and understanding O Thou Fount of Every Blessing, when it says "Oh to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be!  Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee!"  Be thankful for God's grace, and be thankful for the blood that continually cleanses us.