Paul describes life lived by faith in Christ’s sacrifice as being analogous to a “race” (cf. 1 Cor. 9:24; Gal. 5:7; 2 Tim. 4:7), wherein conversion is the starting line and the day of the Lord is the finish line. How you start is not as important as how you finish, though obviously you cannot finish without starting. Who puts blood on their door at dusk, but then goes down to frolic in the Nile before midnight? Who looks at the snake on the pole once, but then goes about tending to his wounds? The dead man does. The atonement only applies if faith is held unto the time of judgment. The Scriptures leave no room for the popular notion of “once saved, always saved." - John P. Harrigan