P - Perseverance of the Saints (Five Points of Calvinism, Part 5)

Intro to the Five Points of Calvinism

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

The Five Points of Calvinism

Part 1 - T - Total Depravity
Part 1a - Total Depravity and Free Will
Part 2 - U - Unconditional Election
Part 3 - L - Limited Atonement
Part 4 - I - Irresistible Grace

Well, I’m finally finishing up my series on the Five Points of Calvinism with the last letter of the acrostic – “P” for “perseverance of the saints.” 

When I hear non-Calvinists talk about Calvinism I will often hear them say something to the effect of “I can accept the ‘T’ (total depravity) and the ‘P’ (perseverance of the saints) but can’t accept the three parts in the middle. But usually I think that their understanding of the “T” and the “P” are faulty. As regards the “T” they may be totally depraved, but yet still able to exercise saving faith. As to the “P” they believe that once they are saved they are always saved, but they don’t believe that salvation necessarily implies any kind of continuation in the faith.

This is seen most famously (infamously?) in the words of Zane Hodges in his book Absolutely Free, where he claims that dead faith is true saving faith. If you look on pages 124-126 of his book he goes through a bunch of rigmarole to explain away the force of James 2:14-17. He says that a dead faith is a faith that was once alive, therefore the person in question must still be saved. When James says that this “dead faith” can’t save, he isn’t speaking of salvation from hell, but apparently from death. I’ve read over these pages a few times to try to understand where Hodges is going with this and each time I feel like the AFLAC duck in the commercial with Yogi Berra. If you remember, after Yogi befuddles some customers and the duck in a barbershop the AFLAC duck walks out shaking his beak and going “huh.” Of course Yogi is far more lovable and endearing than Hodges is here.

But this is typical of what most folks mean when they speak of the “perseverance of the saints.” By this they mean the modern evangelical doctrine they call “once saved always saved.” In modern evangelical terms this means that once a person has prayed the sinners prayer in some form or fashion they are saved inviolably. They are never to question their salvation at all for any reason.

I saw an example of this many years ago reading a biography of a very famous Christian. This famous Christian came to Christ and then became burdened about the eternal condition of his now deceased father. Knowing that his father had never shown any interest in the things of Christ he couldn’t help but consider that his father might not be in heaven, and this greatly troubled him. So, he sought to make contact with some people that knew his father when he was younger and he finally made contact with someone who told him that his father had walked an aisle or prayed a prayer in a church or revival service when he was young. This gave the famous Christian a great assurance and great sense of peace, knowing that he would see his father in heaven.

 At this point I need to digress for a moment and acknowledge that it is not my place, or anyone else’s, to judge who will be in heaven. We are not privy to the spiritual transactions that go on between another person and God.

 On the other hand, Matthew 7:15-23 and the entire book of I John (along with many other passages – the book of James, for instance – contra Hodges) are written to show that there is concomitant fruit that goes along with a true profession of faith. And while praying a sinners prayer is not wrong in and of itself, you will never find a bible verse that grants assurance of salvation based upon a one time prayer. In fact, you will never find saving faith being expressed through anything like a “sinners prayer.” As one of my fellow preachers has told me – in the bible you are nowhere told to go pray a prayer to invite Jesus into your life, you are simply told to believe. Having said that, a sinners prayer is not necessarily harmful, so long as it is understood as one possible expression of faith (not the essence of faith), and as long as one’s assurance of salvation is not based upon this.

 But I digress. This discussion of the “sinners prayer” is related to the doctrine of “perseverance of the saints” only in a tangential sense, as it deals with assurance of salvation. Getting back to the “perseverance of the saints,” what is meant by the doctrine is that God keeps those He saves. It’s emphasis is on the fact that God perseveres with the saints. When God saves someone, their salvation is dependent upon His grace and He will not reject those whom He chooses to save.

 You can see this in verses like John 10:28-30:

²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.”

 Also, there is Romans 8:29-30: 

²⁹ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰ And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

 Romans 8:29-30, show that God’s grace is operative in the salvation of a Christian from first to last. He keeps us all the way through our glorification. Also, consider Philippians 1:6

being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

 God begins a work in us and He carries it on until it’s completion. Since God is the one who has given us salvation, it would be up to Him to withdraw our salvation from us, and this is something He will not do. Since our salvation is not based upon anything we have done, it cannot be lost based on something we have done.

 So, the doctrine of the “perseverance of the saints” does assure us that those who are truly saved can never lose their salvation. But there is a very important corollary to this doctrine that addresses the issues raised by Hodges and the other famous Christian that I mentioned above.

 Because God perseveres with us, we will persevere with Him. This doctrine also implies that the true Christian will never fully and finally fall away. We do believe that a true Christian can fall away for a time, with David being the classic example of this. In his descent into adultery and murder, David fell away terribly, yet God still saved him. This should be a great comfort to those who think that they have committed the unpardonable sin. Whatever the unpardonable sin is, it must be something greater than adultery or murder, both of which David was guilty of.

 Yet, with David, as with all true believers, there was not a full and final falling away. God humbled him and brought him back to Himself. The Westminster Confession speaks of this “falling away” and being brought back to repentance in Chapter 5, paragraph 5:

The most wise, righteous, and gracious God doth oftentimes leave, for a season, His own children to manifold temptations, and the corruption of their own hearts, to chastise them for their former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled; (2 Chron. 32:25–26,31, 2 Sam. 24:1) and, to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon Himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends. (2 Cor. 12:7–9, Ps. 73, Ps. 77:1,10,12, Mark 14:66–72, John 21:15–17).

So truly, even when we do fall away, there is hope that all is not lost. But having said that, we must give full weight to the warning passages of the Bible. Matthew 7:15-23 tells us very clearly that there are some (many?) who know Jesus but whom Jesus doesn’t know. The book of Hebrews is full of warning passages – most notably Hebrews 6:4-8 and 10:26-31. Arminians argue that passages such as these in Hebrews show that a genuine Christian can lose his salvation. We Calvinists demur. For considerations such as those I have mentioned above, we do not believe that these passages should be understood to teach that a genuine Christian can lose his salvation. On the other hand, neither do we want to denude such teachings of their full force. As such, the Calvinist takes such passages very seriously and says that they speak to false professors of Christian faith. This is the common thread of Matthew 7:15-23 and the Hebrews passages. There are many who profess faith who don’t possess faith. The Westminster Confession speaks to this in Chapter 18, paragraph 1 as it contrasts false professors and true professors:

Although hypocrites and other unregenerate men may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favour of God, and estate of salvation(Job 8:13–14, Micah 3:11, Deut. 29:19, John 8:41) (which hope of theirs shall perish): (Matt. 7:22–23) yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus, and love Him in sincerity, endeavouring to walk in all good conscience before Him, may, in this life, be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace, (1 John 2:3, 1 John 3:14,18–19,21,24, 1 John 5:13) and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, which hope shall never make them ashamed. (

Rom.

5:2,5).

So, while the Calvinist takes issue with the Arminian who says that we can lose our salvation, he also takes issue with modern evangelicals who denude the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints of much of it’s meaning with a very weak doctrine of “once saved always saved.” As a former pastor of mine once saved “Yes I believe in once saved always saved, but you better be saved.”

T

he common evangelical understanding of “once saved always saved” weakens the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints by ascribing to God the power and ability to save us from the penalty of our sins, but not the power of sin over us. The perseverance of the saints ascribes to God the power and ability to do both.

For more on this subject, here is Adrian Warnock’s post on the same, and here is another post on assurance of salvation.