In the first post of this series, I mentioned the classic conundrum of Calvinism vs. Arminianism as regards whether Christians can fall from grace. It’s a long-standing argument, and both sides are quite insistent on the subject.
The Churches of Christ are staunchly Arminian, as are Methodists. We believe that Christians can fall from grace. Presbyterians are Calvinists. Baptists are some of both, but most are Calvinists when it comes to once saved, always saved — known as the “perseverance of the saints” in theological circles. (By the way, “Arminian” is named for the theologian Jacobus (or James) Arminius, not the nation of Armenia.)
Both sides have their verses. Let’s look as some of the Calvinists’ favorites —
John 6:37-40: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
John 10:28-29: “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”
Romans 8:31-39: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died–more than that, who was raised–who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The Calvinist view is thus that we cannot fall away. Most concede that some who seem to have been saved will show themselves to have never been saved, which looks a lot like falling away but isn’t.
The traditional Church of Christ view is Arminian, and is extremely so. The most conservative Church of Christ teachers hold that we fall away whenever we sin, and we’re restored when we repent, confess, and ask for forgiveness. Consider this from Phil Sanders,
That we are all imperfect, having imperfect knowledge and living imperfect lives, is not under question. What is under question is if ignorance is a license to self-made religion. Are we to assume that we can (because the water is presumably muddy) act on our own initiative? Do we really think that ignorance grants us the right to presume upon the grace of God?
The same teachers teach salvation by grace and deny that they teach a works salvation. However, when they are discussing a hot-button issue, such as instrumental music, they deny that grace is available until those sinning with the instrument actually stop their sin and so repent.
Some in the Churches of Christ, deeply offended by this teaching, leave and seek comfort in the Calvinist view of things. This is not surprising. They’ve not been taught a third option. It’s either legalism or once saved, always saved.
My own view is that there must be a Third Way. Both the Baptist and the Church of Christ verses must be true. I refuse to pick.
We Arminians point to such verses as —
(Gal 5:4) You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.
(Heb 10:26-27) If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.
(2 Pet 3:17) Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position.
(Rev 2:5) Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
Plainly, the scriptures teach that our salvation is secure. We can’t fall from a “secure position” (2 Pet 3:17 quoted above) unless we had a secure position! Thus, it’s both possible to be secure and to lose that security. How can we be secure and insecure at once?
Some Calvinists interpret these (and many similar) verses as speaking to hypothetical situations that can never really happen. I call it the “Bogeyman theory.” It’s like telling your 2-year old to stay in bed or the Bogeyman will get him! Well, there’s no Bogeyman, and doing this to your child makes you a liar. God cannot lie. Therefore, the threats are real, not invented to scare us into good behavior.
But the conservative Church of Christ position is also false — and much more dangerous. It makes nonsense of the verses promising a secure salvation —
(Heb 4:14-16) Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
(Eph 3:12) In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
Clearly, all these verses are true. None explains away the other. All teach precious truths. And I think the solution is found in the scripture, not the metaphysical musings of Reformation preachers.
In the next post, we’ll seek the answer in Hebrews and maybe a few other places.
I'd add this corollary: The truth is not somewhere in between the two sets of verses. Both sets of verses are 100% dead-on accurate. If they are difficult to reconcile, it is because we don't fully understand the infinite mind of God. Why would that surprise us?
Along with what Alan said, I think that if people consider that God is outside of time and not bound by the limitations of time that we are, then it's easier to see how to reconcile those scriptures. The action of God saving us may not be time-bound either.
My favorite text here is Ephesians 1:3-14. Hard to reject Paul's clear statements which are even stronger in the original.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5 He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight 9 he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11 In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, 12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; 14 this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.
Peace.
Just tonight I came across a passage that may explain how both may be true. It seems there is one way to lose your salvation. Unfortunately, if I understand it correctly, once you lose it, it is always lost.
Hebrews 6:4 For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come—6 and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.
My friends in the Baptist church (we were actually studying baptism when I came across this one) insist don't like the implications of this one. If I understand this verse correctly-if I once accepted Jesus as Lord but at some latter point became Atheist (or Muslim, Buddhist, etc) I can't return to Jesus. It seems harsh but He did say that the one unforgivable sin is to blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and isn't that what you do when you reject Jesus?
Tell me if you think I'm way off here.
Pamela,
You are very insightful to notice the importance of this passage. My views are bit out of the mainstream, but they are laid out in a book now available for free download here: /books-by-jay-guin/the-holy….
It feels kinda awkward to reply to a post that hasn't been replied to in over a year [I am new to this website], but I saw it and simply felt compelled to respond.
The first thing I feel must be discussed is a better definition of Calvinism. It's very misunderstood among Arminians [I am mostly Arminian in my theology]. Being a Calvninist is much much more than believeing "once saved, always saved" or the perseverance of the saints. There's the thought of man't total inability to come to God [aka total depravity] and that man cannot come to God unless God has chosen that one to be saved [unconditional election] there's the idea that Christ came to die for those who God chose to be saved [limited atonement] and those who have been "predestined" will come to Christ [irresistable grace]
Calvinism is a starkly different view of God than Arminianism. Those of us who were raised in Arminian denominations grew up hearing about God's love, grace, and mercy for everyone. We grew up being taught songs like "Jesus Loves Me" and "Jesus Loves the Little Children" I can assure you that children attending Calvinist churches do not hear these songs. I visited a church where they were being taught songs about total depravity and it was sickening and sad to hear these little children sing about how they are "nothing but sin."
Arminianism is very much grace, love, and mercy of God focused. Calvinism, on the other hand, focuses on the glory of God. Arminians believe that God does all He does because He loves and cares for what and who He has created. Calvinists, on the other hand, believe God does everything He does for His own glory. The Calvinists believe that God created the Heavens and the Earth to show how great He is to Himself. He sent His Son to show to HImself how great He is. He chooses to save some and chooses to consign others to Hell. Calvinists teach that God does not love everyone. "for His glory." Calvinists make God out to be a self-absorbed, self-centered, self-righteouss tyrant of a cosmic ruler.
Calvinists make God relationship with Christians out to be as that of a spiritual player pimp who shows off His prostitutes to show How great He is. He's mostly abusive and cruel to them but is occasionally does good things for them, again, to show off how great and good He is. He belittles and beats them without mercy and lets others do with them what they will [at a very hefty price, of course] to show how great and powerful he is in that no matter what, they'll never leave him. Sometimes He plays some into thinking they are his when they are not and when he is through with them he drops them flat on their face, having never been one of his.
I know that's a lot to take in, but I just felt the need to make it known that Calvinism is a whole lot more than believing "once saved, always saved." You can believe in "once saved always" and still be labeled Arminian by the Calvinists.
That being said, I do believe in eternal security I do believe in true and false conversion. There are tares among the wheat. There are those who have professed faith in Christ, been baptized who are not saved. The passages supporting this doctrine have mostly already been quoted, I'll add John 10:28-29. We are free to choose or to reject Christ, but once we become a Christian we yield our will to Christ and His will becomes more and more our will [not my Will but yours be done]. You're either saved or you're not.
Of course, I'm not saying that Christians are perfect, far from it. In my Christian walk, there is still a struggle with sin and I have messed up in some very bad ways. I'm saying that it is God who secures our salvaiton and we can't mess that up. When we are faithless, He is faithful, for He cannot deny Himself, says the Bible. In other words, God's faithfullness restores us to a right state of faithfulness when we slip into faithlessness. We are all that lost sheep Jesus spoke of in Luke 15 at many points in our lives. God began a good work in us, and He will bring it to completion. He is the author, and the finisher, of our faith.
We hear a lot of discussion in Arminian fellowships on how bad things have to get before one has become apostate. I now ask the question in a different way. I ask that question differently when it comes up because asking it will result in one of two responses, no more. For those who frequent this site, you are probably considering what I have to say, but it will infuriate the self-righteouss modern day Pharisee. The question I ask is…how good do you have to be to stay saved? Asking the question this way angers the self-righteous because they believe they save themselves and keep themselves saved through a capella worship, weekly Lord's Supper on and only on Sunday, etc. The answer is we can't be good enough. We weren't good enough to get saved, and we're not good enough to stay saved. We should be trusting in God's grace and His faitfulness and His promises to keep us secure. Put no confidence in the flesh [in yourself] trust in God who will keep you saved.
Adam,
I just received an email criticizing me for being too hard on Calvinists. I'm getting it from both sides! And there's a reason. My views are kind of in between. You might enjoy my series Searching for a Third Way, /index-under-construction/s… which is an effort to reconcile the two schools of thought.
I should add that today "Calvinism" covers a very wide range of beliefs and practices, from the extreme Calvinism of some sects to the very limited Calvinism of the Southern Baptists, even to the residual Calvinistic influences in the Churches of Christ (we are anti-TULIP but our Calvinistic roots show up in many other places).