Understanding the Doctrine of The "Perseverance of the Saints"
The mistake that many people think of Calvinistic theology teaches works salvation. Perseverance of the saints can be a misleading term if not understood. Pastor Paul David Washer said, "Those whom God has accepted in the Beloved and sanctified by His Spirit will never totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere to the end; and though they may fall through neglect and temptation into sin, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, bring reproach on the Church and temporal judgments on themselves, yet they shall be renewed again unto repentance and be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." As a Calvinistic or a Reformed Theology Baptist, I certainly uphold to the Perseverance of the Saints which many great Calvinistic Baptists like Charles H. Spurgeon and John Gill upheld.
I remembered how I used to think Pastor Washer used to teach works salvation yet the more I listen to him, the more I realize he is emphasizing on true and false conversion. What he was emphasizing is something like, "If you are saved, you can't lose but but your life has to show it. Your lifestyle will show whether you are truly saved or not. Many people claim to have been saved but they were never saved to begin with." I would also want to admit some Independent Baptists have dismissed Charles H. Spurgeon the great English preacher of his time as someone who was adding works to salvation. But what Paul Washer said about the perseverance of the saints is that if you have eternal security then your life is going to show it!
Another text I have read was called "Eternal Security" by Arthur Pink which I had borrowed. Some people have accused Arthur Pink of teaching works salvation because he stressed that the saved can no longer live the way they want. However, because you are saved, there ought to be a change in your lifestyle. Nobody is saved then they just sin all they want without remorse. The classic "Eternal Security" had drawn in a lot of distinctions between true converts and false converts. It also showed by Antinomians who claim to be Christians cannot be considered to be Christians. Later on, I proceeded to listen to Pastor Ray Comfort's "Hell's Best Kept Secret" and "True and False Conversion" which showed the differences between true converts and false converts.
True faith in Christ begets good works, not the other way around
Persevering for Jesus Christ is a good work. Now good works are not the root of salvation but the fruit. People often quote Ephesians 2:8-9 but forget to quote verse 10 and some people misuse verse 10 to justify a salvation that is by faith plus works. It means this... salvation was never by works lest any man should boast. However, when a person gets saved, he or she is saved unto good works which God had ordained him or her to do. In short, salvation results to a changed life. Titus 2:11-14 teaches that the grace of God makes a Christian to reject ungodliness and be zealous unto good works. God's grace is not a license to sin but rather, a defeater of sin in the life of the believer in Christ.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 shows what life was before and after conversion. The question was simple as to say, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God?" Romans 3:10-10 addresses the sad fact that none is righteous and therefore, none by their own standards cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. That is, there is nothing else but doom in Hell for the unrighteous. yet verse 11 shows that happens after salvation, "And such were some of you..." which referred to the reality that after salvation happens sanctification. God sanctifies all that He saves. He does not just save them, He sanctifies them.
Hebrews 11 writes the hallmark of faith to which how by faith, great works were done. How did Abel offer a better sacrifice than Cain? How did Noah build the Ark which saved his family? How did Abraham dare to do what was absurd in man's sight? How did Abraham love God more than his own son of promise? How did Moses choose to suffer affliction than the pleasures of sin for a season? How did Rahab become a believer from an idolatrous prostitute? Why did people choose to die rather than accept deliverance for their faith in Christ? The answer to all of these is faith. All these faith did not remain static but it became dynamic.
Hebrews 12:5-7 teaches that God chastises those who are His making it very impossible for the Christian to live like the rest of the world. When God saves a person, He sanctifies a person. Hebrews 12:14 warns about holiness, for without holiness no man can see the LORD. While holiness is not a prerequisite for salvation, it is a result of salvation and to be holy means to be set apart. Be ye holy for I am holy is God's command. Holiness is commanded and to have God's holiness means to be dedicated or consecrated unto God. Christians are consecrated unto God to which is their fruit and trademark that by chastising, God is making the Christian holier each day. Only those that continue to live a holy life (although this does not teach sinless perfection, Christians will still stumble) or a life that is consecrated unto God is a mark of true conversion. They may fall but God chastises them setting them apart from the world and unto Him.
James 2 is also a commentary of faith and it does not contradict what Paul wrote about salvation not being by works. While people claim that James teaches that salvation is by faith and by works, the truth is pretty contrary. James did not teach works salvation. Instead he challenged the silly notion of a faith that produces no works is not faith at all. A dead faith produces no works, a living faith produces works. When he said show me your faith without works and he will show his faith by his works, he was stressing the necessity of good works as the fruit of salvation. If he did teach works salvation, he would not mention verses 10-11 and 23. Although salvation is by faith and not by works, yet good works is the result of salvation. A salvation that does not result to good works is not salvation at all.
Christ's sheep obey because they are saved, not to be saved
John 8:47 warns that whoever hears the Word of God is of God and that those who do not hear God's Word are not of God. Obedience indeed is the very fruit of salvation. A Christian may get disobedient for awhile but God always chastises the sinful believer one way or another to call his or her attention (Hebrews 12:5-6). Hebrews 5:9 says that Jesus became the Author of Salvation for those who obey Him. While a life of obedience is not the root, but is certainly the fruit of salvation.
John 10 talks about one's walk with Christ. Matthew 25:31-46 shows the separation of the sheep and the goats. The goats are stubborn and have no listening ear compared to the sheep of Christ. The goat represents the degenerate person. The sheep represents the saved person. Though a sheep may fall astray but Christ the Shepherd picks them up back, disciplines them and they rejoin the flock. The whole distinction can be read in John 10.
The sheep of Christ have a listening ear. They hear the stranger, they do not follow but they follow the voice of Christ. John 10:25-26 reaffirms the difference between the sheep and the goat. The sheep of Christ believe in Christ and that those who believe not are not part of the sheep of Christ. Instead, we hear that the sheep hear the voice of Jesus, he knows them and they follow me. Again, while obedience is not the prerequisite of salvation, it is a result of salvation. They are in the hand of the Father, they do not perish and the result of being in the hand of Christ is that, obedience out of a grateful heart happens.
Looking at the characteristics of the sheep, the command was to go against wolves (unsaved) behaving like sheep (the saved) but not the sheep who are behaving like wolves. If one is truly saved, the lifestyle shows difference. No Christian can give continuously in rebellion against God because of a changed nature. Such a person once was a goat but instead, he or she became a sheep by the grace of God. When God saves someone, such a person may stumble but he or she also obeys. To produce more obedience, God prunes the believer to bear more fruit.
True Christians cannot depart from the faith but shall certainly persevere to the very end
Can a true believer depart from the faith? While a younger Christian can think they can, it's because they have not fully studied the Bible. Salvation depends on trusting on Christ's finished work it results to a changed life. However is it possible to renounce one's salvation and be damned? It's time to look at the answer of the Scriptures.
Matthew 24:13 is often misused and abused by the Arminian crowd to justify their heresy. However enduring to the end is the fruit of salvation, not the root. Apart from true salvation, there is also the true sanctification. What did Jesus mean by to whoever endures to the end shall be saved? It must be taken into the very context of Scriptures. Enduring to the end is certainly the real mark of salvation. If any man claims to be saved but later falls away, that person was not saved to start with.
Philippians 1:6-7 says that what what God has begun, He is sure to finish it. That is when God begins a good work, He does not abandon it. If a Christian sins, God will chastise that believer causing him or her to return back on track. While Christians can sin horribly like David did but they cannot remain perpetually in a state of carnality. Christians can fall into carnality but not for an indefinite period of time. When God has begun a good work, He is sure to finish it. God is faithful to make sure that His plan for the Christian life is done. For example, when a Christian chooses martyrdom than renunciation of faith, that was God's work being completed in the life of the believer.
Judas Iscariot's case is one of the most taken out of context incidents in the Scripture. In John 17:12, Jesus said that none of the disciples are lost except Judas Iscariot the son of perdition. Judas Iscariot's actions showed he was not saved. He was a liar and a thief by profession, he only sought for his own personal profit. He was the treasurer who kept the money for himself. He would later hand Christ over to the Pharisees, a much bigger act of betrayal than Peter lying he wasn't a Christian. In Judas' own actions, he showed he was not a believer. No true Christian would ever barter Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. After he realized he had betrayed an innocent man, his suicide only affirmed that he was not a believer at all.
I was thinking when John wrote 1 John, he must have had Judas Iscariot in mind when he wrote 1 John 2:19 which showed that those who were not truly saved were different from those who were truly saved. Many people can profess to be a Christian like Judas, they may even preach the Gospel correctly but they do not believe it. Some people today profess to be saved but instead, return back to the world instead of continued fellowship as evidence of salvation. What is even wrong is when a church refuses to distinguish the backslider from the apostate. The backslider is a believer who has fallen down and is in need of God's grace to be restored. Meanwhile the apostate may appear to be a Christian at first but such a person will leave the flock eventually proving he or she is not saved to start with.
It was just like how some Protestants and even some Baptsits today have become Roman Catholics because they were merely church attendants, not true Christians. You can be a Baptist but not be a Baptist Christian and you can be a Protestant but but a Protestant Christian. Becoming a Baptist or a Protestant is for a one who is already saved, not in order to be saved. I could remember how some woman who used to be a Protestant later converted to Catholicism because of her husband proving she wasn't saved to start with. Meanwhile another woman a Baptist Christian was married to a Roman Catholic ended up bringing her husband to Christ. The contrast between the two had shown who was truly saved and who was not saved to start with.
Many pastors today even show they are not men of God when they end up mingling with the cults. Some popular modern preachers may preach the basics of the Gospel but are openly Jesuit coadjutors and Papal bootlickers who openly kiss the ring of the Pope of Rome. Some of them preach the Gospel then say that Roman Catholics and born again Christians are part of the Body of Christ. Some may even try to call other cults claiming to be Christian as fellow brethren even if the heresies are contradictory to the Bible. When they departed from the faith, they showed they were not really of the faith or they would have stayed instead of departing from the flock.
Understanding why does God allow persecution to His very own followers even to the point of death? Persecution strengthens faith, removes sinful lifestyles, gets one back on track and assures the person that he or she has been truly saved. At the same time, persecution will also weed out the true believers from the false believers. Persecution has been what God has used one way or another in order to make a distinction between the holy and the unholy, the just and the unjust or in short the truly saved from those who are just pretending to be saved. In fact, such events have revealed also that true Christians will persevere for Christ while the fake Christians will just soond epart.