Making Your Calling and Election Sure

Let us stop for a moment to consider this word, "calling." To what does Peter refer when he speaks about our calling? The apostle Paul has referred to our calling in the epistle to the Romans. Our calling is the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing us to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. The apostle Paul wrote, "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. ³⁰Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified." (Ro 8:29-30 KJV). So we have five great acts of God: foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification. Calling then is the work of the Holy Spirit and is always efficacious when it is written about in the epistles. That is, it is always a calling to which its recipients respond. Calling is the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing us to faith in the Lord Jesus and to justification of life.

There are two types of callings found in the Bible. There is the general calling of the preaching of the gospel to the whole of the world. Then there is the special calling by which the Holy Spirit speaks to the hearts of the elect. Here in 2 Peter 1:10, this is of course is a reference to the special calling. Make your calling and election sure. Peter talks about calling first and election second and I will address this in a moment, but let us look first at the word election.

Election is a word that causes such a great deal of controversy. I don't know why. It is one of the greatest doctrines in the Bible and has been a great deal of comfort to me all through my Christian experience. I never have thought that anyone ought to be angry over the doctrine of election. Surprisingly, there are people who get very incensed over the doctrine of election.

I was so pleased about two weeks ago when I got a letter from a businessman which was eleven pages long. He was apparently a very wealthy businessman who was president of a large corporation. He was interested in the Five Points of Calvinism. He had heard on tape a message or two that I had given on efficacious grace. He was so thrilled over it that he wrote me these eleven pages and asked me to criticize his doctrine. He was rejoicing in the doctrine of election, having become a real student of the Bible. He had only been converted a few years ago, but is evidently a man of some age. Why people don't love the doctrine of election, I simply don't know. John Calvin wrote, "They who shut the gates that no one may dare seek a taste of this doctrine, wrong men no less than God." So I would not want to wrong you, by not saying something about the doctrine of election. I want you to enjoy it. It is one of the great truths of the Word of God. It is the fountain from which all of our blessings come. They all go back to that choice that God made in the councils of eternity. So why should we not love the doctrine of election? I believe all the true saints, when this doctrine is presented as it is in the Word of God, do in fact love it.

Unfortunately, election is often presented in such a way that it is no wonder that people do not like it. I traveled home after the message Sunday morning at about 1:20 PM. I got in my car just outside the church building, turned on my radio and listened to a program that came on in which the teacher spoke on election. He referred to election, but his doctrine of election was disturbing. He said, "Election is very simple. In election, God is voting for you, and the Devil is voting against you. And which ever way you vote - that's the election." That is what the man said. Now it is no wonder that a person doesn't get any joy out of that particular doctrine of election because if you know anything about the nature of Man, you know that we will never vote the right way. That is not the doctrine of election. What this man was teaching comes straight out of the mouth of Pelagius (who was a heretic during the time of Augustine). Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who have that idea of election. They think of it just as Pelagian as that, i.e., that the source of our salvation rests with Man rather than with God. That is horrible doctrine. That is strongly anti-biblical doctrine. If you have some ideas like the kind that this man put forth, they do not come from God, I assure you.

Election is election to the church of the first born who will be in heaven. Incidentally, if you think that I am stretching this a little bit by telling you that you should rejoice in the doctrine of election, then I refer you to someone who told me to rejoice in election. I will just read his comments:

²⁰Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. (The words of Jesus, Lk 10:20 KJV)

Who said this? The Lord Jesus said this, and He told them to rejoice because their names are written in heaven. Hallelujah! I am rejoicing because my name is written in heaven. Election is a tremendous doctrine. Our text in 2 Peter says, "make your calling and election sure." After all that I have said, it seems that we are stooping to a very human plane. After stressing that election comes from God, and then to read in this text, "make your calling and election sure," it demands some explanation.

In the first place, this is no question that this is something that we are to do. In the Greek text, the expression in the tenth verse, "give diligence to make…" That verb in Greek is in what we call the middle voice. It can be translated most accurately as, "give diligence to make for/by yourselves…" So the stress rests upon what we do. Make for yourselves your calling and election sure. How can we possibly make our calling and election sure?

Did you notice the order of the words in verse 1:10? He did not write, "make your election and calling sure," rather "your calling and election sure." Now calling occurs in time. Election occurs in eternity past. So you can see here at the beginning, that there is a kind of order that suggests that what we are dealing with here is the human side of election (God's choosing). The way we experience or come to the knowledge of election is by coming first of all to the knowledge of our calling. In other words, we come to know that we are elect after we come to know that we have been saved. We do not know that we are elect before we know that we are saved. We come to know our election after we come to know our salvation. That is the Christian experience. We come to know that we are saved, then we come to know from the Scripture that we have been elected in eternity past. Not the time of our election, but our knowledge of it follows our knowledge of our salvation.

This is a substantial clue. You can see then that Peter is not talking about this from the divine perspective, rather he writes from the human standpoint. He is concerned about how the person comes to the knowledge of his or her election. To make my divinely decreed election certain for myself is simply a matter of assurance. How do I make my calling or election sure? I do this through the demonstration in my life of the products of salvation. That is what Peter goes on to say. "Make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble" (2 Pe 1:10).

One of the evidences that we are truly elect of God is the product of our life. That is what Peter is speaking about when he tells us to make our calling and election sure. He is simply telling us to give all diligence to make sure that the virtues about which he had just previously mentioned issue from our lives. When these virtues issue from our lives as a result of our salvation then it is through this that we have assurance in our calling and election. The apostle John says the same thing except with a slightly different emphasis when he writes, "¹⁴We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren…." (1 Jn 3:14 KJV) Or as James says similarly, "Faith without works is dead." (James 2:20) Or when Paul writes, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: ⁹Not of works, lest any man should boast. ¹⁰For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Eph 2:8-10 KJV)

So when we make our calling and election sure it means nothing more than that there should be a demonstration in our lives of the product of divine grace. It is through the product of divine grace that we recognize the reality of the source, i.e., our election and our calling. This is a very needed and necessary thing. In fact, the one who does not have any evidence in his Christian life has no reason to think that he does really belong to God. Let me read you something from Benjamin Breckenridge Warfield, who says:

Accordingly, Peter exhorts us to make our calling and election sure, precisely by diligence of good works. He doesn't mean that by good works we may secure from God a decree of election on our behalf. He means that by expanding the germ of spiritual life which we have received from God into full efflorescence (full flowering), by working out our salvation. Of course, not without Christ but in Christ we can make ourselves sure that we have really received the election to which we make claim. The salvation of God being a salvation and sanctification of the spirit ought, when worked out, to manifest itself in such forms as faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly love and love. By working out the salvation which we have received into such a symphony of good works, we make sure that it is the very salvation to which God has chosen His people. Good works become thus, the mark and test of election. And when taken in the comprehensive sense in which Peter is here thinking of them, they are the only marks and tests of election. We can never know that we are elected of God to eternal life except by manifesting in our lives the fruits of election: faith and virtue, knowledge and temperance, patience and godliness, love of the brethren and that essential love that does not put limits to its object. He that gives diligence to cultivating such things in his life will not stumble in the way, for it is with such things in their hands that men enter into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is idle to seek assurance of election outside of holiness of life.

Now there is one correction I would like to make to this, one slight correction. It is possible for a person who has believed in the Lord Jesus - for that settles the question of salvation and is evidence for election, for only the elect believe - and for us to see no evidence in the life. We must never forget this. We must not, as a matter of fact, look around and test the fruit in the lives of others. God has not called us to check the fruitfulness of other trees planted by the Lord. However, in the final analysis the man who has truly believed must manifest in his life, whether it is seen by us or not, evidence of the reality of the decision that has brought life.

Now then, Peter says in verse 1:11, "For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." (2 Pe 1:8-11 KJV) Those who do these things shall not fall. That is, they will not lose fellowship, but shall have an abundant entrance into the Messianic Kingdom of the Lord Jesus. What great words to excite a weary pilgrim!

I do not want in any way to suggest, that these words that I have conveyed to you would create any doubt about your election. If you have truly believed in the Lord Jesus, that is the proof that you are elect, that you have been called. But we cannot ultimately have any real assurance if this does not manifest itself in a transformed life. Both of these emphases are in the Word of God, and we must not forget them. This then has to do with assurance.

There is no contradiction between the election of God and our making it sure. One is the Godward side, the other is the manward side. There is a contradiction between mere intellectual appreciation and no moral application of the truth. The cure is if you do these things. There may be some of you who cannot make your calling and election sure. You have not been called; and not having been called, you have no assurance. You cannot make your calling and election sure until you have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Your responsibility is to come. In receiving the Lord Jesus, who died for sinners; in that act of faith produced by God the Spirit, is the consummation of your calling and the evidence of your election. Then our Lord's word for you is, "Rejoice! Rejoice!"

Calvinism goes into a realm of human philosophy. It is NOT a Bible doctrine, but a system of human philosophy appealing somewhat to the proud mind. Consider first that what we are discussing is called "Calvinism." "It was Calvin who wrought out this system of theological thought with such logical clearness and emphasis that it has ever since borne his name".

How strange that, after 1,400 years of Christianity, practically no one had understood the Bible to teach Calvin's doctrine of predestination until he formed the philosophy! What a strangely hidden doctrine, that New Testament Christians could go for nearly for 1400 years until the days of the reformers, when Calvin developed the doctrine fully.

It is obvious that great groups of Christians have always found salvation by grace in the Bible. The Bible is very clear on that. It is also clear on every other great doctrine. ~ BigMack

Whatever. Calvinism managed to get its name from John Calvin, but Calvinism is the doctrine of the Bible; it is the doctrine of Peter; it is the doctrine of Paul; it is the doctrine of John; it is the doctrine of Jesus. Here is a small list of Calvinistic teaching from historical Biblical Predestinarians:

Learn: before we believed in God, the habitation of our heart was corrupt
[Barnabas, the associate of Paul in A.D. 70]

They that are carnal cannot do the things that are spiritual...Nor can unbeliever do the things of belief.
[The celebrated Chruch Father Ignatius in A.D. 110]

Mankind by Adam fell under death, and the deception of the serpent; we are born sinners...No good thing dwells in us...For neither by nature, nor by human understanding is it possible for men to acquire the knowledge of things so great and so divine, but by the energy of the Divine Spirit...Of ourselves it is impossible to enter the kingdom of God...He has convicted us of the impossibility of our nature to obtain life...Free-will has destroyed us; we who were free are become slaves and for our sin are sold...Being pressed down by our sins, we cannot move upward toward God; we are like birds who have wings, but are unable to fly.
[Justin Martyr in A.D. 150]

The soul cannot rise of fly, nor be lifted up above the things that are on high, without special grace.
[Clement of Alexandrea in A.D. 190]

The liberty of our will in choosing things that are good is destroyed.
[Eusebius (an orthodox church historian) in A.D. 330]

If, therefore, they are servants of sin (2 Cor. 3:17), why do they boast of free will?...O, man! Learn from the precept what you ought to do; learn from correction, that it is your own fault you have not the power...Let human effort, which perished by Adam, here be silent, and let the grace of God reign by Jesus Christ...What God promises, we ourselves do not through free will of human nature, but He Himself does by grace within us...Men labor to find in our own will something that is our own, and not God's; how they can find it, I know not.
[St. Augustine A.D. 370]

A man without the Spirit of God does not do evil against his will, under pressure, as though he were taken by the scruff of the neck and dragged into it; no, he does it spontaneously and voluntarily...On the other hand, when God works isn us, the will is changed under the sweet influence of the Spirit of God...With regard to God and in all that bears on salvation or damnation, man has not 'free-will,' but is a captive, prisoner and bondslave...
[Marin Luther in A.D. 1530]

Let us therefore approach Him in holiness of soul, lifting up pure and undefiled hands unto Him, with love towards our gentle and compassionate Father because He made us an elect protion of Himself...Seeing then that we are the special elect portion of a holy God, let us do all things that pertain unto holiness...There was given a declaration of blessedness upon them that have been elected by God through Jesus Christ our Lord...Jesus Christ is the hope of the elect...
[Clement of Rome A.D. 69 (Clement who was referenced in Phil. 4:3)]

Creator, gaurd intact unto the end the number that hath been numbered of Thine elect throughout the whole world, through Your beloved Son Jesus Christ...For You chose the Lord Jesus Christ, and You chose us through Him for a peculiar people.
[Prayer of Clement of Rome]

God, out of all nations, took your nation to Himself, a nation unprofitable, disobedient, and unfaithful; thereby pointing toward those that are chosen out of every nation to obey His will, by Christ, whom also He calls jacob, and names Israel
[Clement of Rome to Trypho the Jew]

To the predestined ones before all ages, that is before the world begand, united and elect in a true passion, by the eternal will of the Father...
[Salutation of Ignatious in a letter to the Ephesians (the same local church to whom Paul sent his inspired epistle) A.D. 110]

It behooveth us to be very scrupulous and to assign to God the power over all things...The multitued marveled that there should be so great a difference between the unbelievers and the elect...The Lord maketh election from His own servants....Glory be unto God for the salvation of His holy elect.
[Letter from the church of Smyrna (Rev 1:11; 2:8) circulated to the other churches reminding them of their commitment to the gospel. A.D. 157]

In all these discourses I have brought all my proofs out of your own holy and prophetic writings, hoping that some of you may be found of the elect number which through the grace that comes from the Lord of Sabaoth, is left or reserved [set apart] for everlasting salvation.
[Justin Martyr to Trypho the Jew (2nd Century)]

Whatsoever we [pagans] ascribe to fate, so you to God; and so men desire your sect not of their own free will, but as elect of God; wherefore you suppose an unjust judge, who punishes in men lot or fortune, and not on the basis of their will.
[Coecilius (a heathan) in a charge on the teaching of election to Octavius (a Christian). One would expect a heathan to misunderstand the church's teachings of election (1 Cor 1,2). (unfortunately there is no record of Octavius' reply)]

God hath completed the number which He before determined with Himself, all those who are written, or ordained unto eternal life...Being predestinded indeed according to the love of the Father that we would belong to Him forever.
[Iranaeus, the desciple of the martyr Polycarp who was a disciple of the apostle John (A.D. 198)]

Through faith the elect of God are saved. The generation of those who seek God is the elect nation, not the place but the congreagation of the elect, which I call the Chruch...If every person had known the truth, they would all have leaped into the way, and there would have been no election...You are those who are chosen from among men and as those who are predestined from among men, and in His own time called, faithful, and elect, those who before the foundation of the world are known intimately by God unto faith; that is, are appointed by Him to faith, grow beyond babyhood.
[Clement of Alexandria in A.D. 190]

We are elected to hope, committed by God unto faith, appointed to salvation.
[Barnabus in A.D. 70]

This is therefore the predestination whic we faithfully and humbly preach.
[Cyprian in A.D. 250]

In predestination the Church of God has always existed.
[Ambrose of Milan in A.D. 380]

Here cetainly, there is no place for the vain argument of those who defend the foreknowledge of God against the grace of God, and accordingly maintain that we were elected before the foundation of the world because God foreknew that we would be good, not that He Himself would make us good. This is not the language of Him who said, 'You did not choose Me, bu I chose you' (John 15:16)
[St. Augustine in A.D. 380]

Now may not we ask why God chooseth one and not another; for God hath power over all of His creatures to do as He pleaseth
[William Tyndale -16th century]

Although this matter is very hard for the "prudence of the flesh", which is made even more indignant by it and brought even to the point of blasphemy, because here it is strangled to death and reduced to absolutely nothing, man understands that salvation comes in no way from something working in himself, but only from outside himself, namely, from God, who elects. But those who have the "prudence of the Spirit" delight in this subject with ineffable pleasure.
[Martin Luther]

There are two causes which require such things to be preached. The first is the humbling of our pride and knowledge of the grace of God. The second is, the future of the Christian faith itself.
[Martin Luther]

From my childhood up, my mind had been full of objections to the doctrine of God's sovereignty, in choosing who He would to eternal life; and rejecting whom He pleased...But I have often, since that first conviction, had quite another kind of sense of God's sovereignty than I had then. I have often since had not only a conviction, but a delightful conviction. The doctrine has very often appeared exceedingly bright and sweet. Absolute sovereignty is what I love to ascribe to God...And wherever the doctrines of God's sovereignty with regard to the salvation of sinners were preached, there with it God sent revival.
[Johathan Edwards]

[Christ speaking] I see that I shall thus offer My flesh for the sins of the new people.
[Barnabas in A.D.]

He endured the suffereings for those men whose souls are purified from all iniquitey...As Jacob served Laban for the cattle that were spotted, and of various forms, so Christ served even to the cross for men of every kind, of many and various shapes, procuring them by His blood and the mystery of the cross.
[Justin Martyr in A.D. 150]

Christ suffered for the salvation of the whole world of them that are saved.
[Chruch of Smyrna in A.D. 169]

He came to save all, all, I say, who through Him are born again unto God, infants, and little ones, and children, and young men, and old men...Jesus is the Savior of them that believe; but the Lord of them that believe not. Wherefore, Christ is introduced in the gospel weary...promising to give His life a ransom in the roof of, many.
[Irenaeus in A.D. 180 on 1 Timothy 2:6]

Christ died for the salvation of His people...for the church.
[Tertullian in A.D. 200]

All the sheep which Christ hath sought up by His blood and sufferings are saved...Whosoever shall be found in the blood, and with the mark of Christ shall only escape...he redeemed the believers with the price of His own blood...Let him be afraid to die who is not reckoned to have any part in the cross and sufferings of Christ.
[Cyprian in A.D. 250]

He was to suffer and be slain for the salvation of many people...who having suffered death for us, hath made us heirs of the everlasting kingdom, having abdicated and disinherited the people of the Jews...He stretched out His hands in His passion and measured the world, that he might at that very time show that a large people, gathered out of all languages and tribes, should come under His wings, and receive the most great and sublime sign.
[Lactantius in A.D. 320]

To what "us" does refer, unless to them that believe in Him? For to them that do not believe in Him He is the author of their fire and burning. The cause of Christ's coming is the redemption of those that were to be saved by Him.
[Eusebius in A.D. 330]

The Son of God, by the pouring out of His precious blood, redeemed His set apart ones; they are delivered by the blood of Christ.
[Julius in A.D. 350]

He shall remain in the sight of God forever, having already taken all whom He hath redeemed to be kings of heaven, and co-heirs of eternity, delivering them as the kingdom of God to the Father.
[Hilarius in A.D. 363]

Before the foundation of the world, it was God's will that Chirst should suffer for our salvation.
[St. Ambrose in A.D. 380]

Much more, He will not allow him that is redeemed to be destroyed, nor will He cast away those whom He has redeemed with a great price.
[Pacianus in A.D. 380

Can He damn thee, whom He hath redeemed from death, for whom He offered Himself, whose life He knows is the reward of His own death?
[St. Ambrose in A.D. 380]

If
you are redeemed...Iftherefore ye are bought with blood, thou art not of the number of them who were bought with blood, O Manes, because thou deniest the blood...He gave His life for His own sheep.
[Epiphanius on those who rejected the gospel in A.D. 390]

Christ is sacrificed for the salvation of believers...Not allare redeemed, for not all shall be saved, but the remnant...All those who are redeemed and delivered by Thy blood return to Zion, which Thou has prepared for Thyself by Thine own blod...Christ came to redeem Zion with His blood. But lest we should think that all are Zion or every one in Zion is truly redeemed of the Lord, who are redeemed by the blood of Christ form the Chruch...He did not give His life for every man, but for many, that is, for those who would believe.
[Hieronymus in A.d. 390]

If you die in unbelief, Christ did not die for you.
[Anselm 11th Century]

Since only the elect are saved, it may be accepted that Christ did not come to save all and did not die on the cross or all.
[Remigius in A.D. 850]

Christ's blood only putteth away the sins of them that are elect...We are elect through Christ's blood...Thou are elect to everlasting by Christ's blod, whose gift and purchase is thy faith.
[William Tyndale]

For in an absolute sense, Christ did not die for everyone, because he says: "this is My blood which is poured out on you" and "for many" -He does not say: for every person -"for the forgiveness of sins." As the Apostle says, "Everything for the sake of the elect".
[Martin Luther]

Pray for them, if so be they may repent, which is very difficult; but Jesus Christ, our true life, has the power of this.
[Ignatius in A.D. 110]

Having sometime before convinced us of the impossibility of our nature to obtain life, hath now shown us the Savior who is able to save them which otherwise were impossible to be saved...Free will has detroyed us, we are sold into sin.
[Justin Martyr in A.D. 150]

God gives repentance to us, introducing us into the incorruptible temple.
[Barnabus in A.d. 70]

Not of ourselves, but of God, is the blessing of our salvation...Man, who was before led captive, is taken out of the power of the possessor, according to the mercy of God the Father, and restoring it, gives salvation to it by the Word; that is, by Christ; that man may experimentally learn that not of himself, but by the gift of God, he receives immortality.
[Irenaeus in A.d. 180]

Do you think, O men, that we could ever have been able to have understood these things in the Scriptures unless by the will of Him that wills all things, we had received grace to understand them?...But by this it is plain, that it (faith) is not given to thee by God because thou dost not ascribe it to Him alone.
[Tertullian in A.D. 200]

Whatsoever is grateful is to be ascribed not to man's power, but to God's gift. it is God's, I say, all is God's that we can do. Yea, that in nothing must we glory, since nothing is ours.
[Cyprian in A.D. 250]

You place the salvation of your souls in yourselves, and trust that you may be made gods by your inward endeavor, yet it is not in our own power to reach things above.
[Arnobius addressing the heathen in A.d. 303]

the victory lies in the will of God, not in thine own. to overcome is not in our own power.
[Lactantius in A.d. 320]

To believe is not ours, or in our power, but the Spirit's who is in us, and abides in us.
[Athanasius (who bears the name of the foundational Athanasian Creed) in A.d. 350]

To will is from God
[Gregory of Nazianzum in A.D. 370]

this is the chief righteousness of man, to reckon that whatsoever power he canhave, is not his own, but the Lord's who gives it...See how great is the help of God, and how frail the condition of man that we cannot by any means fulfill this, that we repent, unless the Lord first convert us...When He(Jesus) says, "no man can come to Me," He breaks the proud liberty of free will; for man can desire nothing, and in vain he endeavors...Where is the proud boasting of free will?...We pray in vain if it is in our own will. Why should men pray for that from the Lord which they have in the power of their own free will?
[Hieronymus in A.D. 390]

Faith itself is to be attributed to God...Faith is made a gift. These men, however, attribute faith to free will, so grace is rendered to faith not as a gratuituous gift, but as a debt...They must cease from saying this.
[St. Augustine in A.D. 370]

Many have acertain imagination of faith. They think no farther than that faith is a thing which is in their power to have, as do other natural works which men do...But the right faith springeth not of man's fantasy, neither is it in any man's power to obtain it, even faith is God's gift and grace...Faith rooteth herself in the hearts of the elect.
Is it not...perverse blindness to teach how a man can do nothing of his own self, and yet presumptuously take upon them the greatest and highest work of God, even to make faith in themselves of their own power, and of their own false imagination and thoughts?
Therefore, I say, we must despair of ourselves and pray to God to give us faith.
[William Tyndale in A.D. 1520]

We become sons of God by a power divinely given us-not by any power of 'free-will' inherent in us!...What is hereby attributed to man's own decision and free-will? What indeed is left but nothing! In truth, nothing! Since the source of grace is the predestinating purpose of God, then it comes bynecessity, and not by any effort of endeavor on our part.
[Martin Luther]

It is the will of God that all whom He loves should partake of repentance, and so not perish with the unbelieving and impenitent. he has established it by His almighty will. But if any of those whom God wills should partake of the grace of repentance, should afterwards perish, where is His almighty will? And how is this matter settled and established by such a will of His?
[Clement of Rome in A.D. 69]

Such a sould (of a Christian) shall never at any time be separated from God...Faith, I say, is something divine, which cannot be pulled asunder by any other worldly friendship, nor be dissolved by present fear.
[Clement of Alexandria in A.D. 190]

God forbid that we should believe that the sould of any saint should be drawn out by the devil....For what is of God is never extinguished.
[Tertullian}

Of these believers no one perishes, because they all were elected. And they are elected because they were called according to the purpose-the purpose, however, not their own, but God's...Obedience then is God's gift...To this, indeed, we are not able to deny, that perseverence in good, progressing even to the end. is also a great gift of God.
[St. Augustine}

Christ is in thee, and thou in Him, knit together inseparably. Neither canst thou be damned, except Christ be damned with thee: neither can Christ be saved, except thou be saved with Him.
[William Tyndale}

If anyone says that the grace of God can be conferred as a result of human prayer, but that it is not grace itself which makes us pray to God, he contradicts the prophet Isaiah, or the Apostle who says the same thing, 'I was found by them that did not seek Me; I appeared openly to them that asked not after Me.' If anyone maintains that God awaits our will to be cleansed from sin, but does not confess that even our will to be cleansed comes to us through the infusion and working of the Holy Spirit, he opposeth the Holy Spirit Himself who says through Solomon, 'the will is prepared by the Lord.' If anyone says that not only the increase of faith but also its beginning and the very desire for faith, by which we believe-if anyone says that this belongs to us naturally and not by a gift of grace, that is, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit amending our will and turning it from unbelief to faith and from godlessness to godliness, it is proof that he is opposed to the teaching of the Apostles...For those who state that faith by which we believe in God is our own make all who are separated from the Church of Christ in some measure believers.
If anyone says that God has mercy upon us when, apart from His gift, we believe, will, desire, strive, labor, pray, etc., but does not confess that it is by the infusion and inspiration of the Holy Spirit within us that we even have the faith, the will, or the strength to do all these things we ought, he contradicts the Apostles...If anyone affirms that we can form any right opinion or make any right choice which relates to the salvation of eternal life, or that we can be saved, that is, assent to the preaching of the gospel through our own powers...he is led away by a heretical spirit...If anyone maintains that he comes through free will, it is proof that he has no place in the true faith.
Council of Orange (A.D. 529)

We confess a predestination of the elect to life, and a predestination of the wicked to death; that, in the election of those who are saved, the mercy of God precedes anything we do, and in the condemnation of those who will perish, evil merit precedes the righteous judgment of God.
Council of Valence (A.D. 855)

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