Here’s the No. 1 fallacy on eternal security

[Michie]

I’ve written in CP before that I believe once a Christian is saved through the sacrifice of Christ, they cannot lose their salvation. This doctrine is most often called the perseverance (sometimes labeled “preservation”) of the saints.

On this topic, the Westminster Confession of Faith says: “They whom God hath accepted in His beloved Son effectually called and sanctified by His Spirit can neither totally nor finally fall away from a state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be eternally saved.”

There are plenty who disagree with this.

For example, the Catholic Church at the Council of Trent declared: “If anyone says that a man once justified cannot lose grace and therefore that he who falls and sins never was truly justified, let him be accursed.” And at the 1610 Conference of the Remonstrants (what Arminians called themselves then) said, “Persons truly regenerate, by neglecting grace and grieving the Holy Spirit with sin, fall away totally, and at length finally, from grace into eternal reprobation.”

While I think those who believe this, including the ones who laid the foundation of the you-can-lose-your-salvation position, have good intentions and are primarily trying to guard against the issue of “cheap grace,” it overlooks the fact that the Christian faith is built on the pattern of the unconditional Abrahamic covenant outlined in Genesis 12:1–3. Abraham was called, blessed, and then exhibited faith just as we do today.

Continued below.

Here’s the No. 1 fallacy on eternal security

All our sins past and future evaporated at the cross and can t be resurrected against us ever, and thus we re forever protected from them

www.christianpost.com

 

[fhansen]

I’ve written in CP before that I believe once a Christian is saved through the sacrifice of Christ, they cannot lose their salvation. This doctrine is most often called the perseverance (sometimes labeled “preservation”) of the saints.

On this topic, the Westminster Confession of Faith says: “They whom God hath accepted in His beloved Son effectually called and sanctified by His Spirit can neither totally nor finally fall away from a state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be eternally saved.”

There are plenty who disagree with this.

For example, the Catholic Church at the Council of Trent declared: “If anyone says that a man once justified cannot lose grace and therefore that he who falls and sins never was truly justified, let him be accursed.” And at the 1610 Conference of the Remonstrants (what Arminians called themselves then) said, “Persons truly regenerate, by neglecting grace and grieving the Holy Spirit with sin, fall away totally, and at length finally, from grace into eternal reprobation.”

While I think those who believe this, including the ones who laid the foundation of the you-can-lose-your-salvation position, have good intentions and are primarily trying to guard against the issue of “cheap grace,” it overlooks the fact that the Christian faith is built on the pattern of the unconditional Abrahamic covenant outlined in Genesis 12:1–3. Abraham was called, blessed, and then exhibited faith just as we do today.

Continued below.

Here’s the No. 1 fallacy on eternal security

All our sins past and future evaporated at the cross and can t be resurrected against us ever, and thus we re forever protected from them

www.christianpost.com

I doubt you’ll find in any of the early church teachings: ECFs (with the possible exception of Origen), EO, Catholic, etc anything like the doctrine of perseverance of the saints. It’s quite novel all in all. The early churches understood that man’s will, his cooperation, continues to play its role throughout one’s life in God’s work of salvation.

 

[RandyPNW]

I’ve written in CP before that I believe once a Christian is saved through the sacrifice of Christ, they cannot lose their salvation. This doctrine is most often called the perseverance (sometimes labeled “preservation”) of the saints.

On this topic, the Westminster Confession of Faith says: “They whom God hath accepted in His beloved Son effectually called and sanctified by His Spirit can neither totally nor finally fall away from a state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be eternally saved.”

There are plenty who disagree with this.

For example, the Catholic Church at the Council of Trent declared: “If anyone says that a man once justified cannot lose grace and therefore that he who falls and sins never was truly justified, let him be accursed.” And at the 1610 Conference of the Remonstrants (what Arminians called themselves then) said, “Persons truly regenerate, by neglecting grace and grieving the Holy Spirit with sin, fall away totally, and at length finally, from grace into eternal reprobation.”

While I think those who believe this, including the ones who laid the foundation of the you-can-lose-your-salvation position, have good intentions and are primarily trying to guard against the issue of “cheap grace,” it overlooks the fact that the Christian faith is built on the pattern of the unconditional Abrahamic covenant outlined in Genesis 12:1–3. Abraham was called, blessed, and then exhibited faith just as we do today.

Continued below.

Here’s the No. 1 fallacy on eternal security

All our sins past and future evaporated at the cross and can t be resurrected against us ever, and thus we re forever protected from them

www.christianpost.com

It is a mystery, how God has called X number of Elect, while allowing mankind to produce children not of His original calling. But I've seen it.

I've been able to recognize His Elect, as well as recognize those who are not His Elect. It is truly a tragedy to see those who have equal access to God, and who even sometimes draw upon the Spirit of God, to know that their heart isn't pure before God.

Only those who from the heart commit in love to Christ as their Lord will be saved for all time. Those who commit to an "experience" but who do not wholly put their trust in Christ will not be saved. In fact, Christ "never knew them," because they did not enter into intimate connection with Christ in the inner recesses of their being.

Christ knows who are his. That being said, even the Elect of God can fall far from Christ due to the oppressions and disappointments of this life. They are all recoverable because Christ sees their hearts and the things they have stumbled over.

I will go even farther and say that not all have been reached with the loving Gospel of Christ. They will not be damned for what they don't know, or for the misconceptions they were raised with. They too can become the Elect of God by Christ's predetermination to make them so by his own will and word. My view only....

 

[Clare73]

I doubt you’ll find in any of the early church teachings: ECFs (with the possible exception of Origen), EO, Catholic, etc anything like the doctrine of perseverance of the saints. It’s quite novel all in all. The early churches understood that man’s will, his cooperation, continues to play its role throughout one’s life in God’s work of salvation.

See Jn 5:24, 10:22-30, Ro 8:28-29, Eph 1:13-14, Php 1:6, Heb 12:2, 7:25.