07-Chapter 7
CHAPTER VII - PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS The P of the TULIP stands for Perseverance Of The Saints. Perseverance of the Saints is a doctrine, which states that the saints (those whom God has saved) will remain in God’s hand until they are glorified and brought to abide with Him in Heaven. Romans 8:28-39 makes it clear that when God truly has regenerated a person, he will remain in God’s stead. The will of the saints is so inflamed by the Holy Spirit that they therefore have an ability because they have such a will; and that their having such a will proceeds from the operations of God. For if, amidst such great weakness--which still requires ’strength’ to be ’made perfect’ for the repressing of pride--they were left to their own will, so as to have ability, through the divine assistance, if they were willing, and God did not operate in them to produce that will, among so many temptations and infirmities their will would fail, and therefore they could not possibly persevere. The infirmity of the human will, then, is succored, that it may invariably and inseparably actuated by divine grace and so, notwithstanding all its weakness, may not fail.1 The work of sanctification, which God has brought about in his elect, will continue until it reaches its fulfillment in eternal life (Php 1:6). Christ assures the elect that he will not lose them and that they will be glorified at the last day (John 6:39). The Hyper-Calvinist teaches that this point of Calvinism only means that the elect are eternally saved and will never perish out of the hand of God, but the word perseverance also has other meanings.
PERSEVE’RANCE, n. [L. perseverantia. See Persevere.]
1. Persistence in any thing undertaken; continued pursuit or prosecution of any business or enterprise begun; applied alike to good or evil.
Perseverance keeps honor bright.
Patience and perseverance overcome the greatest difficulties.
2. In theology, continuance in a state of grace to a state of glory; sometimes called final perseverance.2 The word perseverance presents a problem. First of all, the Hyper-Calvinism can have no real assurance of salvation because of the serious flaws in his doctrinal beliefs. How can a man know if he is truly one of God’s elect? When asked, they may answer, “Because the Bible says that ‘whosoever shall call upon the Lord shall be saved,’ but salvation is not a simple prayer, but a heart condition. There have been multitudes that have been led through the so-called “Sinner’s Prayer” that will not darken the doors of a local Church. They have never followed the Lord in either personal testimony or baptism. In 2 Corinthians 13:5, God’s Word says to “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” For the Hyper-Calvinist to say that he is one of the elect because he prayed a prayer is not necessarily so. Certainly his name is not personally written in the Bible, so assurance becomes a problem. The stand taken by many Hyper-Calvinist to counter this problem is the use of the word perseverance. When one leaves the will of God permanently or goes into and continues in a sinful lifestyle, the answer of the Hyper-Calvinist is that he was not one of the elect. One of the verses that they use is 1 John 2:19, which says,
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
There is much of this thinking in local churches today. When a man is “running” well, he is called a brother, but when the individual gets out of the will of God, it is said that it is probably a salvation problem. This particular verse deals with apostasy, not individual sinfulness. The problem is the spirit of antichrist. To say that a lack of perseverance on the part of these individuals is a sign of their non-elect condition raises a problem. There are several biblical examples of saved people who did not persevere.
Possibly the most notable example of a child of God not persevering is found in the person of Lot. Lot chose the well-watered plains in the general vicinity of Sodom when he and Abraham went their separate ways. It was once said that Sodom was a great place to raise cattle, but not children. The Bible specifically says that he pitched his tent towards Sodom and later was found in a place of authority in the city. When the angels came, he called the sodomites his brethren and later, in a cave, got drunk and committed incest with his two daughters. But in 2 Peter 2:6-9 Lot’s salvation is undeniably cited. And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: The description of Lot’s eternal soul is plain in these verses. The Word of God declares Lot, long dead and gone, righteous. Several key words describe his spiritual condition in these verses. Lot is called “just.” The word just comes from the Greek dikaios, which means innocent, faultless, or guiltless and carries the thought of being approved or accepted by God. The word is translated as righteous 41 times, jus” 33 times, right 5 times, and meet 2 times. Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines it as:
JUST, a. [L. justus. The primary sense is probably straight or close, from the sense of setting, erecting, or extending.]
5. In a moral sense, upright; honest; having principles of rectitude; or conforming exactly to the laws, and to principles of rectitude in social conduct; equitable in the distribution of justice; as a just Judges 6:1-40In an evangelical sense, righteous; religious; influenced by a regard to the laws of God; or living in exact conformity to the divine will.3
Peter also said that Lot was a righteous man. The word righteous is the same Greek word as just, which was referred to earlier. One may ask why the Holy Ghost used the same word and, through divine preservation, had the word translated two ways. The reason is inerrance of Scripture. To be declared righteous is actually a legal term dealing with the justice of God in imputation. Lot was imputed righteous through his faith and declared righteous through the Lord Jesus Christ who kept the law in all points.
RIGHTEOUS, a. ri’chus.
1. Just; accordant to the divine law. Applied to persons, it denotes one who is holy in heart, and observant of the divine commands in practice; as a righteous man. Applied to things, it denotes consonant to the divine will or to justice; as a righteous act. It is used chiefly in theology, and applied to God, to his testimonies and to his saints. The righteous, in Scripture, denote the servants of God, the saints.
2. Just; equitable; merited.4
Possible the hardest descriptive term given to Lot was the word godly. This word is only used 4 times in Scripture: 3 times translated devout, and 1 time as godly.
GOD’LY, a. [god-like] Pious; reverencing God, and his character and laws.
1. Living in obedience to God’s commands, from a principle of love to him and reverence of his character and precepts; religious; righteous; as a godly person.
2. Pious; conformed to God’s law; as a godly life.5 The word carries the meaning of being pious or dutiful. It sounds like a classic case of not persevering to the causal reader of the Bible, In the eyes of man, Lot was none of these things, yet, in the eyes of God he was all of these thing. Hyper-Calvinism’s Perseverance Of The Saints would have a hard time with Lot.
Sampson, one of the few saints that the Lord made mention of in Hebrews 11:1-40 would have caused some problems for the Hyper-Calvinist. His life was permeated with lustful living. He moved from one worldly woman to the next with, seemingly, no remorse or fear of God. Everything that the Bible said that a Nazarite was to abstain from, Sampson violated. When he finally gave up the secret of his great strength, he was blinded and abused. Eventually he took his own life and died in shame, yet God placed his name in the “Hall of Faith.” No perseverance was found in his life yet the Lord gave to him eternal life. In the Book of Acts, there is the account of God’s people selling what they owned and sharing their resources with the rest of the saints. In Chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira covenanted together to sell what they had and yet hold back a part for themselves. Peter discerned the deception and Ananias died because he had lied to the Holy Ghost of God. Later, his wife Sapphira, came in and agreed to the lie and was likewise slain by God. They died because of their sin, therefore did not persevere. In 1 Corinthians 11:1-34, while dealing with the Lord’s Supper, the Bible said that many misused the ordinance and died for their sins. Saved people chasten unto death for willful disobedience. In chapter 3 of the same book, the Judgment Seat of Christ is dealt with. Though many of the saint’s works will be either wood, hay, or stubble, they them selves will be saved “so as by fire.” The teaching is that eternal life has nothing to do with our perseverance, but with His promises. One last saint that needs to be dealt with is Demas. Demas was a faithful servant of the Lord and a fellow helper with the apostle Paul. In 2 Timothy 4:10, Demas, having fallen in love with the things of the world, departed, and left behind those with whom he had so lovingly labored. 1 John 2:15-17 says,
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. The last verse dealing with the life of this child of God was one of shame and disgrace, and yet, had nothing to do with his eternal salvation.
There are other instances of God’s children who did not finish the race set before them. There is Scripture to say that all of these were saved, and yet, did not persevere in the faith. These individuals died in a state of sinfulness with no recorded repentance before their death. If perseverance was a requirement for eternal life, these fell short of that blessed hope. This being the case, just what exactly does our preservation depend upon. The Hyper-Calvinist would have to say that eternal life is based upon election or predestination. One would actually be secure from the foundation of the world, totally apart from belief or repentance. This doctrine teaches salvation before birth, which is fatalism.
First of all, the security of the believer is based upon his obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ. InHebrews 5:9(cf.John 3:16;John 3:36;John 4:14;John 5:24;John 6:40John 6:47;John 10:9;John 10:27-28;Romans 2:8,Romans 6:17;Romans 10:16; and other verses), Paul writes,“And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.”Ephesians 1:13says, In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise. The Bible teaches that eternal life is a direct result of believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Secondly, the security of the believer is based upon the application of the Blood of Christ. Our High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, has applied the blood to the mercy seat in Heaven. Hebrews 9:12 says, “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” As long as the eternal blood of Christ is upon the mercy seat in Heaven, the believer is secure. Then there must be the personal application of the blood of Christ to every believer. It is the blood that purchases our redemption as set forth in 1 Peter 1:18-20 :
Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.
Our obedience to and faith in Christ and the application of the blood of Christ gives the child of God assurance of eternal salvation. A vital part of the saint’s heritage is full assurance and anything that disturbs this is not of God.
Why such uncertainty among Calvinists? Why such doubts? And in what can the Calvinist find assurance? Oddly enough, certainty of salvation and confidence of one’s eternal destiny are not to be found in the fifth point of Calvinism where one would expect it-nor can it be found in the other four points. While many Calvinists would deny it, uncertainty as to one’s ultimate salvation is, in fact, built into the very fabric of their system. . . .Though Christ commanded that the gospel be preached to every person living in the entire world, the Calvinist says it is effective only for the elect. Others canimaginethey believe the gospel, but not having been sovereignly regenerated, their faith is not from God and will not save. . . . No wonder, they, that Calvinists are plagued by doubts concerning their salvation.6 The Bible believer certainly believes in preservation through his faith in the finished work of Christ, but not that the child of God must persevere. Perseverance would entail several things that are impossible to humanity. It would demand the perfection of the saint; otherwise, one would have to determine (as the Armenian) when and where he had crossed the line from salvation to damnation.
Thank God for preservation and not perseverance! 1 Peter 1:5 says, “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!