Historical Background
The Western church received from Augustine the gift of perseverance as God's unmerited preservation of the elect, while holding that some who share the church's life fall away. The Council of Trent anathematized the claim that a justified person cannot lose grace. Dort confessed that God preserves true believers certainly, yet through watchfulness, prayer, and the warnings themselves. The Remonstrants and Wesley taught that true believers may fall away finally; Wesley's 'Serious Thoughts upon the Perseverance of the Saints' (1751) is the classic statement. Catholic practice guards assurance as hope rather than certainty of one's own final state, while Reformed and Lutheran teaching ground assurance in the promise, differently weighted.
Scripture References
- John 10:27-29
- Romans 8:28-39
- Philippians 1:6
- Hebrews 6:4-6
- Hebrews 10:26-31
The Questions
- Do the warning passages address true believers, false professors, or believers whom the warnings themselves preserve? Work on this question in the Workshop
- Is assurance of the essence of faith, or a fruit that may be absent? Work on this question in the Workshop
- Can a person know he is elect, and by what evidence? Work on this question in the Workshop
- What role do the means of grace play in God's preserving: instruments he requires, or occasions he blesses? Work on this question in the Workshop
The Positions on This Subject
Classical Calvinism
Those whom God has effectually called and regenerated can neither totally nor finally fall away, because God preserves them, ordinarily through the very warnings and means of grace scripture sets before them.
Classical Arminianism
It remains possible for a true believer to fall away finally and perish, so the warnings of scripture address real believers and perseverance is conditioned on continuing faith.
Lutheran
True faith can be lost: those who fall into mortal sin and unbelief lose the Holy Spirit and justification, and may be restored only by repentance and the gospel anew.
Catholic
Final perseverance is a great gift of God that cannot be merited, and the justified can lose grace through mortal sin; the believer's hope is therefore firm in God and watchful over self.
Eastern Orthodox
Salvation is past, present, and future: begun in baptism, worked out in the ascetic and sacramental life of the church, and completed in the resurrection; final perseverance is hoped for in humility, not presumed.
Baptist and Evangelical
All true believers endure to the end: those whom God has accepted in Christ can never fall from the state of grace, a perseverance often stated as the eternal security of the believer.
Wesleyan-Arminian
A true believer may fall from grace and perish: scripture's warnings are real, the justified have lost faith and love in fact, and perseverance is the believer's continued abiding in Christ, not an unconditional decree.
Anabaptist
Those who fall into sin are disciplined and may be excluded from the fellowship, the ban being medicinal: its end is the sinner's restoration, and the door of repentance stands open.
Charismatic and Pentecostal
The believer's standing is kept by abiding in Christ in the Spirit's power; the tradition's mainstream warns that willful, continued sin forfeits grace, and urges watchfulness unto the end.
Objections
Eternal security detached from perseverance in holiness is objected to as licensing sin, an objection pressed against some popular teaching rather than against Dort or Westminster, which bind preservation to the means. The possibility of final apostasy is objected to on John 10:27-29 and Romans 8: if God loses those the Son keeps, the promise fails. Catholic reserve about assurance is objected to as leaving consciences in fear; Reformed assurance is objected to as presumption when claimed by the fruitless.
Sources
Primary: Augustine of Hippo, On the Gift of Perseverance (428-429); Canons of Dort, Fifth Head of Doctrine (1619); John Wesley, Serious Thoughts upon the Perseverance of the Saints (1751).
Secondary: Thomas R. Schreiner and Ardel B. Caneday, The Race Set Before Us: A Biblical Theology of Perseverance and Assurance (IVP Academic, 2001); Judith M. Gundry Volf, Paul and Perseverance: Staying In and Falling Away (Westminster John Knox, 1990).