” First, we must decide if we believe in regeneration or rehabilitation.
Second, we must decide if God is fickle or decisive.
If we assent to regeneration and decisive, then we must come something close to a Calvinist understanding of perseverence.”
Not at all, if we believe that God’s grace falls on the wicked and the good equally, Padre. In great part, Padre, this is why so many Orthodox councils have anathemized Calvinism.
Not so, Kolo, if we believe in a second birth, a regeneration, and if we believe it is not just a metaphor for someone really being determined to change their own life, then we must believe that God has done a supernatural act in that person who has been regenerated.
As for fickle versus decisive, we have another choice.
On the one hand, we have the Christian. This month the Christian is “saved.” Next month he’s lost. The following month, he’s saved again. The next month or 2, he’s lost. Then he’s saved again. It’s a crap shoot all the way to his demise. In which month will he die? Is he saved by calendar or saved by grace? Such a fickle God I cannot believe to be legitimate.
On the other hand, there is a hope that there be a God who offers SOME degree of Assurance.
I tend toward that God and that Assurance.