The Perseverance of the Saints

What is the doctrine of "perseverance of the saints"? Is salvation eternal? Can Christians fall away? Will true believers persevere in both faith and works? This article by Ted Clore from Light after Darkness sheds some Bible light on the matter:

I would like to explain the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, if you don’t mind, by a contrasting of ideas.

First consider Arminian paradigm which states:

1) A person must persevere in the faith.

2) A believer can lose their faith.

3) Those dying without Christ are condemned.

And contrast that to the Antinomian paradigm which states:

1) True believers can lose their faith.

2) If a believer looses their faith they remain saved.

3) If a person is saved they are always saved.

And then consider the Reformed doctrine of perseverance.

1) A person must persevere in the faith to be saved.

2) Salvation is a gift of God, and the believer perseveres.

3) Those dying without faith are condemned.

4) Those who fall away from the faith never had eternal life.

5) God preserves believers and they will be saved.

So the three main paradigms are:

1) A believer that loses their faith is condemned,

2) A believer that loses their faith is saved,

3) A true believer doesn’t lose their faith, and those that appear to didn’t have it in the first place.

Here are the main scriptures for the three views:

Believers must persevere to the end. This supports the Arminian and Reformed doctrine that a person that is saved must persevere to the end. These scriptures are believed in both paradigms.

You must persevere to the end:

1) Colossians 1:21-23 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in [your] mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
:22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
:23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and [be] not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, [and] which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

2) 1 John 1:5-10; 3:3-6 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

3:3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
3:5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.
3:6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.

3) Hebrews 10:26-31 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
10:27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
10:28 He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
10:29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
10:30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance [belongeth] unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
10:31 [It is] a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

4) Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

A believer that looses his faith will persevere, this supports both the Antinomian and the Reformed belief. These scriptures are believed in both paradigms.

You will persevere to the end:

1) John 6:38-40 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
6:39 And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
6:40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

2) John 10:28-29 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any [man] pluck them out of my hand.
10:29 My Father, which gave [them] me, is greater than all; and no [man] is able to pluck [them] out of my Father's hand.

3) Romans 8:28-39 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose.
8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
8:30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God [be] for us, who [can be] against us?
8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
8:33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? [It is] God that justifieth.
8:34 Who [is] he that condemneth? [It is] Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? [shall] tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
8:36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

4) Philippians 1:4-6 Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,
1:5 For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now;
1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform [it] until the day of Jesus Christ:

5) Philippians 2:12-13 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of [his] good pleasure.

6) 1 John 2:19 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.

To consider the Reformed doctrine of perseverance one must accept both sets of scripture. The first set cannot refute the second (Arminian paradigm) and the second cannot refute the first (Antinomian paradigm), but both sets of scripture must be accepted as the Biblical doctrine and taken as a whole teaching (Reformed paradigm).

So here is the doctrine in a nutshell. The Reformed paradigm is true because all scriptural teaching is true and accepted within the paradigm. Faith is a commanded response to all people, it is a gift of God and given to the elect. Faith is not an action of a “freewill”, if it was then it could be lost, as the Arminian paradigm teaches. But faith is a fruit that believer bears as he is in union with the Spirit of God, Gal 5:22. Since this faith cannot be lost the true elect will persevere.

Can professing Christian fall away? Yes and they do, these people will be condemned.

Can the elect of God fall away? No, for they are born of the Spirit and given eternal life and bear the fruit of the Spirit.

So we can say, that both of the above propositions are true. And the Biblical view understands that they are both in fact the teaching of scripture. God causes those of the faith to persevere, He preserves them by the Eternal Spirit, and they bear the fruit of God. Those professing Christians who leave the faith, are not truly believers, and those that remain faithful are believers. Notice the qualifications in both 1 John 2:19 and Hebrews 10:39.