Note, that Paul said those words at the very end of his life, as he awaited execution, after he had “finished his course”. In other places he warned against being too confident “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall”. In fact, the text where Paul says “I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith ...” really proves the OPPOSITE of eternal security. Implicit in that statement is the idea that some will not fight the fight to the end, will not finish the race, will not keep the faith till the end. But Paul, having reached the end, awaiting death, knew that he had in fact persevered. He did not do his victory dance till he reached the end of the race, unlike many eternal security folks who are doing it halfway through the first lap! No one of us is entitled in the middle of the race to apply St. Paul’s words “I have finished the course” to himself as if they proved that he himself could not possibly not falter or backslide.
Anyway, none of this has any relevance to Mother Teresa. Her “dryness” and experience of God’s absence lasted for many years, not merely intermittently. But that does NOT mean that her doubts of God’s existence lasted continuously for many years. On the contrary, if you read the article, you see that there were only one or two passages in all those those writings where she confessed experiencing a doubt of God’s existence. Those doubts were intermittent, it seems. What WAS continuous and unabating was an anguish, and feeling of spiritual dryness and God’s absence. Doubtless it was the feeling Jesus expressed in his anguished cry from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus was obviously not doubting the existence of God! He was expressing an anguish and sense of foresakenness. Mother Teresa’s “way of the cross” seems to have lasted for decades.
Really? Paul said this in a moment of dispair, when he felt all had left him. If the Roman government would have given Paul a reprieve, and he lived for another 20 years, what would Paul have said; "DRAT"?
I think Paul's attitute serves in sharp contrasted to Mother Teresa's. Should we all be able to say like Paul that we have fought the good fight instead of doubting whether God exists?