The Bible teaches, and I
believe in, the eternal security of the born-again believer. The man
who has trusted Jesus Christ has everlasting life and will never
perish. But the eternal security of the believer does not depend on
his perseverance.
I do not know a single
Bible verse that says anything about the saints' persevering, but
there are several Bible verses that mention the fact that the saints
have been preserved. Perseverance is one thing. Preservation is
another. No. The saints do not persevere; they are preserved.
The Bible states in Jude
1. "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them
that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus
Christ..." First Thessalonians 5:23 says, "And the very God of peace
sanctify you wholly: and I pray God your whole spirit and soul, and
body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
The other morning I
opened a jar of peach preserves. I don't know how long those peaches
have been in that jar. But the jar had been sealed some time ago, and
the peaches were preserved. When I took out the preserves and ate them
with a good hot biscuit, they were as good as they were the day they
were placed in the jar.
But wait a minute! The
peaches had nothing to do with it. They were not fresh and good
because they had persevered. They were good and fresh because they had
been preserved.
The Bible makes it plain
that the believer is kept. He does not keep himself. First Peter 1:4,5
states:
"To an inheritance
incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in
heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto
salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."
The Bible says in John
10:27-29:
"My sheep hear my
voice, and I know them and they follow me: And I give unto them
eternal life: and they shall never perish, neither shall any man
pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater
than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand."
Now that doesn't sound
like perseverance of the sheep or the saints. Here the sheep are in
the Fathers hand, and they are safe-not because they persevere, but
because they are in the Fathers hand.
Charles Spurgeon once
said, "I do not believe in the perseverance of the Saviour."
To be sure, the Bible
teaches the eternal security of the believer. But the believer's
security has nothing to do with his persevering. We are secure because
we are kept by God. We are held in the Father's hand. And according to
Ephesians 4:30, we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day
of redemption.
So I disagree with all
five points of Calvinism as John Calvin taught it.
There is a belief that if
one does not teach universal salvation, he must either be a Calvinist
or an Arminian. In this book, The Reformed Doctrine of
Predestination, Dr. Loraine Boettner says on page 47,
"There are really only
three systems which claim to set forth the way of salvation through
Christ [And he names them]:
"(1) Universalism, that all will be saved. (2) Arminianism, which
holds that Christ died equally and indiscriminately for every
individual......., that saying grace is not necessarily permanent,
but that those who are loved of God, ransomed by God, and born of
the Holy Spirit may (let God wish and strive ever so much to the
contrary) throw away all and perish eternally; and (3) Calvinism."
He continues,
"Only two are held by Christians." That is Calvin's position and
Arminius' position."
Calvinists would like to
make people believe that if one does not teach universal salvation, he
must either be a Calvinist or an Arminian. And since the Arminian
position does such violence to the grace of God, many preferred to
call themselves Calvinists. But a person doesn't have to take either
position.
I am neither Arminian nor
Calvinist. I believe in salvation by grace through faith in the
finished work of Christ. I believe in the eternal security of the
believer. I believe that Jesus Christ died for all men, and I believe
what the Bible says, "That whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved."
But I disagree with all
five points of Calvinism as John Calvin taught it.
In conclusion, let me say
that Calvin and those who followed him claimed to believe and follow
the Bible. They claimed to find at least a germ of the Calvinist
doctrine in the Scriptures. But a careful student will find that again
and again they go beyond Scripture, and that Calvinism is a philosophy
developed by man and depending on fallible logic and frail, human
reasoning, with the perversion of some Scriptures, the misuse of
others, and the total ignoring of many clear Scriptures. Calvin did
teach many wonderful, true doctrines of the Scripture.
It is true that God
foreknows everything that will happen in the world. It is true that
God definitely ordained and determined some events ahead of time and
selected some individuals for His purposes. It is certain that people
are saved by grace, and are kept by the power of God. That far
Calvinists may well their doctrines by the Scriptures. But beyond
that, Calvinism goes into the realm of human philosophy.
It is not a Bible
doctrine, but a system of human philosophy, especially appealing to
the scholarly intellect, the self-sufficient and proud mind.
Brilliant, philosophical, scholarly preachers are apt to be misled on
this matter more than the humble-hearted, Bible-believing Christian.
End of Chapter Five
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