Posted on 09/25/2002 8:43:53 PM PDT by grantswank
ETERNAL SECURITY IS ONLY FOR THOSE WHO OBEY
J. Grant Swank, Jr., POB l984, Windham ME 04062 Pastor, New Hope Church, Windham ME
The popular Calvinistic teaching of eternal security is colloquially referred to as "once saved, always saved." That is, one cannot lose one's salvation once being saved by the grace of Jesus Christ.
In other words, once one becomes saved, he cannot be "unsaved." He is locked into salvation / heaven forever, even if he should so decide at some point that he does not wish to go to heaven.
Further, once one is saved, free will ceases for one then becomes automatically locked into salvation regardless of one's daily free will choices.
The above teaching is biblically false.
Scripture does not teach a "lock in" of salvation / heaven. Scripture does not teach that free will ceases at the moment of the born again experience. Scripture does not teach that on-going salvation is automatic.
(Those who oppose Calvinism are referred to as Arminians / Wesleyans in that Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius (l560-l609) countered Protestant reformer John Calvin (l509-l564) on this point and English evangelist John Wesley (l703-l79l) popularly furthered the Arminian position in a significant way.)
Eternal security, so-called, is usually supported with corollaries such as "All believers sin in word, thought and deed every day". . ."Once born into the family of God, one cannot be unborn out of the family of God". . ."Nothing can separate a believer from the love of God, even one's own sinning lifestyle after being born again".
The favorite verse of the eternal security proponents is "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand" (John l0:28).
Eternal security, so understood by Calvin and propagated by Calvinists, is not according to Scripture; further, it is very dangerous to eternal destinies in that scores of souls have believed it and gone to hell because they continued in a sinning lifestyle while believing they were going to heaven.
First, eternal security proponents do not understand Scripture's definition of sin: James 4:l7 states that to know good and not do it is sin. Further, I John 3:4, 7-9 states that sin is breaking the laws of God. In addition, this latter passage states that "he who commits sin is of the devil. . ." Therefore, to "sin in word, thought and deed every day" is not of God but of the devil.
Understanding the biblical definition of sin, then human foibles, lapses of memory, rough edges of one's personality, the need for growth in character and refinement are not sins. They are evidences of our fragile, spiritually fallen mortality--clay, dust, smoke vapors--to use biblical imagery.
To sin, therefore, is a conscious disobedience of God's way of life: "to KNOW to do good and to do it not is sin". Sin is knowable when committed. Conscience flags the mind immediately upon temptation in hopes of warding off the committing of sin. Free will then concludes at that point whether to disobey or obey the Spirit's move upon the conscience. To choose disobedience is to sin; to choose obedience is not to sin.
In other words, sin is NOT UNknowable. It is NOT UNconscious. It is NOT vague in that we simply slide into it throughout the day without being aware of sinning.
Therefore, one can be tempted all day long and still not yield to sin. Temptation in itself is not sin; yielding is sin. Jesus was tempted but did not sin. One can, by an act of free will, maintain the obedient lifestyle toward God. When one does do that, one is living out the holiness lifestyle provided by the indwelling Holy Spirit.
On another point: being born into the family of God is an act of one's free will. Being born into a biological family is not an act of one's free will. Therefore, one can activate one's free will out of the family of God. Being born into the family of God is spiritual, not biological; therefore, the analogy of biological to spiritual at this juncture does not hold up. What is true of biological family is not necessarily true of spiritual family.
Further, one can activate free not to be separated from the love God; however, one can also activate one's free will to be separated from the love of God.
About no one taking the believer out of the Father's hand, that is true as long as the believer activates free will to remain in the Father's hand. Countless persons have withstood unbelievable torture and yet remained true to God. However, one's own free will can remove one from the Father's hand. "No man" can take me from the Father's hand, but I myself can take myself out of the Father's hand.
Countless Scriptures point to the possibility of losing one's salvation if one so chooses: Ezekiel l8:24-26; Matthew 24:l3; Luke 8:ll-l5; l2:42-46; John 8:5l; l5:l-6; Acts l:25; l4:2l-22; Romans l:l8-23, 28, 32; 2:6-8; 6:l2, l5-l6, 23; 8:6, l2-l4; ll:20-22; I Corinthians 9:24; l0:12; l5:1-2; Ephesians 6:l3; Colossians l:2l-23; Galatians l:6; 5:l, 4; I Thessalonians 3:8; I Timothy l:l8-l9; 4:l; 5:ll-l5; 6:l0-l2; Hebrews 2:l-3; 4:ll, l4-l6; 5:8-9; 6:4-6, ll-l4; 8:9; l0: 23, 26-29, 35-39; James l:l2, l4-l6; Il Peter l:l0; 2:l5, l7, 20-22; 3:l7-l8; I John 2:3-4, 24-25; 3:6-9; 5:ll-l2; II John 9; Jude 5; Revelation 2:7; 3:5; l6:l5; 2l:7-8.
Why does eternal security fill churches? Because it allows one to be saved and sin at the same time; therefore, this preaching is popular, though it is not biblical.
Why does holiness teaching not fill churches? Because the holiness lifestyle is the most unpopular concept known to spiritually fallen human beings; therefore, this preaching is not popular and never will be, though it is biblical.
What are the dangerous results of eternal security teaching?
(l) Persons continue to sin while professing to be believers, thereby endangering their own eternal destinies because a sinning lifestyle is of the devil and not of God.
(2) Persons besmirch the clear biblical gospel message.
(3) God's call to holiness is negated for one cannot live in the Spirit's provision of holiness while at the same time sin in "word, thought and deed every day."
(4) Scripture becomes distorted. The biblical passages revealing the falsity of eternal security as popularly taught are not researched, taught and preached.
(5) Scores of persons live with a false doctrine which they themselves cannot accept in their inner thoughts but must not publicly refute for fear of being ostracized by eternal security proponents.
Eternal security proponents fault Arminians by stating that Arminians are forever fearful of their state before God, that is, Arminians cannot be sure of their salvation.
The truth is that Arminians are quite sure of their salvation in knowing that as long as they obey God they are assuredly saved by heaven's grace. Furthermore, If they do lapse--sin--they have an Advocate, Jesus, who is ready to forgive that sin once that believer repents, confesses and then endeavors to go on with life apart from sin.
In other words, a believer is eternally secure as long as he is obedient to the heart of God. Such is the true biblical understanding of eternal security. Obedience is the key; obedience flows from free will. Free will then is the major component in deciding one's eternal destiny as well as one's present state before God.
Salvation is not automatic, locked in.
Salvation is received by faith as God's gift and then is maintained by activating one's free will in obedience to the commandments of God.
"Work out your own salvation in fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:l2) does not point to an automatic, once-saved-always-saved, free-will-ceasing lifestyle. Instead, it underlines one's active, alive, accountable daily walk with God.
Whoa! After hundreds of years, someone finally came up with a death blow to Calvinism! </sarcasm>
The concept of eternal security is inescapably linked to the whole of Calvinist doctrine. This article does nothing more than support legalism under the guise of denouncing antinomianism, which Calvinism does NOT teach. The Calvinist position is that God's elect, once called and after responding, will perservere in their faith until the end. One who is truly in a state of salvation would never "take advantage of the system" as you imply they might. The Holy Spirit quickens within the believer a desire to please God and live according to His Word. He is accutely aware of his own sinfulness and, while he does stumble on occassion, ultimately is victorious over sin, enabled by the Spirit to combat it.
Objecting to Calvinism because of percieved licentiousness and antinomianism is rediculous because they are not Calvinist teachings.
the humble article posted is merely one of countless others more eloquently written which, as you know, have preceded the year 2002 with their biblically sound retorts to the unscriptural predestination stance of john calvin.
Huh? What do you mean by this? The doctrine of predestination did not originate with John Calvin but comes directly from the Holy Spirit of God via the Apostle Paul. In Romans 8:29-30 Paul writes:
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Paul further writes in Eph 1:11:
In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will
The word translated 'predestinate(d)' in these two verses is the Greek word 'proorizo' which is a nautical term meaning to lay out a course before hand. The word translated 'forknow' is the Greek term 'prognosis' which has the connotation of intimite previous knowlege. This is in the same sense as God knew David and Jeremiah (and all believers) intimately from before birth. God is not bound by space and time and God's will is not contingent upon any man's actions. This is why God can "declare the end from the beginning" in prophesy. We see in these verses the sound Biblical doctrine of the preservation of those God calls. God does all the work. Man cannot respond to God because he is dead in trespasses and sin. Paul also wrote in 1 Cor 2:14 that
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
So there we have it. Unless the Spirit of God works in the heart of an unbeliever, changing it so that the Gospel is no longer foolishness.
Man rejects this biblical truth because he deperately wants so be autonomous, independent from the will of a sovereign creator. Not liking a doctrine doesn't make it untrue. As R.C. Sproul said (I paraphrase because I don't have the full quote handy...) "I have a will. God has a will. When my will runs up against God's, God's will wins."
Man protests this, claiming that it is unfair. Paul anticitpated this objection in Rom 9:19-21,
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
And there we have it. God has "creator's rights" over His creation. It is not surprising that God demonstrates His justice by condemning unrepentant sinful men to the penalty for their sin. What is truly amazing is that God would choose to save any, demonstrating His grace, love and mercy by sending His only begotten Son to redeem those whom He calls.
I summarize the teaching of Scripture like this. Both salvataion and perseverance/preservation are a gift from God based only on God's good pleasure because the vile sinner was unable to respond to God without help and had nothing righteous to offer to God. Perseverance is also the sign/witness to the gift of God. We preach the Gospel to all because that is the means God uses to call believers to Himself.
We don't defend predestination, per se, but the gospel. The two are inextricably linked.
I believe in God's absolute soveriegnty. No if's, and's, or buts. I didn't always believe this; in fact, it's been a little more than a year since I became a Calvinist. You can even find some of my Arminian posts here on FR.
But there are passages the Arminian cannot expalain. Things like:
15 For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION."You can try to evade it all you want; but ultimately, what it comes down to is that a dead man cannot save himself (Ephesians 2:1-3), but rather, God must first make him alive. God does that to whoever he wills.
16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH."
18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires." -- Romans 9:15-17
It is unspeakable arrogance to insist that man is soverign, and God is not. I thank God that he demonstrated to me the folly of my beliefs. I pray that you, too, will see the error of your beliefs.
Arminians always belie their theology when they pray for unbelieving friends or relatives. What good does that do, if God is not truly sovreign over salvation from beginning to end?
If Jesus asked the question in John 8:7 to you, could you, in good conscience, and without condemnation from Jesus, cast the first stone?
If not, then on what basis do you claim salvation? Keeping the Law? Rituals? Circumcision? Keeping the Sabbath? Refraining from eating pork?
Or do you claim salvation at all?
Au contraire.
Explain this verse, if there is no one predestined to hell:
What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? -- Romans 9:22.
The fact is, offensive as it seems to you, the idea of someone being predestined to hell is not unjust. In fact, we all, by every right, should be hell-bound. God owes mercy to no man. He'd be just if he damned every single man, woman, and child to hell -- "All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way." (Isa. 53:6). It is an act of undescribable grace that God should save any man at all; He's well within His rights as the Sovereign Creator to choose whom He will save based solely on the pleasures of His will.
You misinterpret 2 Peter 3:9, indeed, grossly so. I shall cut-and-paste the context. Read the bold print, and see what Scripture says, not your misinterpretation:
8 ¶ But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. 9 ¶ The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
The first question you should ask is "Who is this 'any'?" Well, the patience is not directed to all men, but rather "you," that is, the "beloved." To whom was Peter writing? "To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ" (2 Pet 1:1). He wrote solely to believers (who had received their faith.)
Startling, isn't it, to actually believe that certain intelligent persons can hold to such fearsome doctrine let alone to such twisting of Scripture.
Yeah, it is startling how some ignorant some intelligent people can be. But you're on the wrong side of the issue. I know, because I could no longer honestly defend your position. There are those on FR who patiently answered my every question regarding Calvinism until I finally came to the point that I could no longer deny the truth: God is supreme in all of life. It's been a life-changing discovery.
Sure, I did. You just didnt get the chance to read it yet.
I'll warn ya: my participation on this thread will be limited; don't misinterpret my silence for evasion. I have 4 major exams between now and Tuesday. I'll read all replies, and try to answer as time permits, but this is crunch time.
Show me your own sinless perfection and I will show you a prideful sinner. Tell me now that you did not commit any sin today, or yesterday, and I will show you a liar. Tell me that you can go even one hour without missing the mark.
The standard is perfection, and if you rely upon your sinlessness to ensure your salvation then you will NEVER be saved.
I rely solely on the sinlessness and the sacrifice of Jesus. I recognize that I am a sinner. I recognize that I cannot get through the day without falling short of the glory of God.
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