Perseverance of the Saints

I want to thank everyone for their participation and good posts over the past couple of months. I believe we’ve achieved an edifying level of dialogue that has both encouraged and challenged the reader. Of course, I can only speak for myself, but that is how I feel after participating in this exercise. The last post in this series on Extreme Calvinism covers the P in TULIP which stands for Perseverance of the Saints. I suppose this one letter unites the many different versions of Calvinists and even encompasses many non-Calvinists under the umbrella of eternal security or as many say, once saved, always saved.

Personally, I believe the Bible boldly proclaims that once a person is truly born again, they are then sealed with the Holy Spirit and nothing can snatch them out of God’s hand. In other words, there is no sin you can commit that can separate you from God after you are saved. We all continue to sin, but the key is the saved person now has the Holy Spirit living in them and as a result of this relationship with God, they will experience the convicting power of God’s Spirit leading them to repent and confess their sins when they take place. Sometimes we stew in our anger, lust, fleshly desires, pride, evil attitudes, etc., but at the end of the day, figuratively speaking, we Christians know that we have sinned against God and our fellow man. We also know we must repent of these sins and yield ourselves to God so that we can have our fellowship restored with Him through prayer, His word and fellowship with other believers. The Christian life encompasses obedience to God and the more obedient we become, the more He will reward as good and faithful servants. Our obedience should never be to obtain eternal rewards, but rather to obey Him in faith and to grow and mature in Christ while He molds and shapes us into the sons and daughters He desires us to become.

As stated earlier, the final letter in the acrostic TULIP stands for Perseverance of the Saints. Basically, this means all of those who are regenerated will persevere to the end. In other words, they will all make it to heaven. All Calvinists believe that all the elect will persevere in their faith and be saved. In other words, all the regenerated are elect, and all the elect will be in heaven.

According to Geisler in his book Chosen But Free, there is not always a discernible difference between extreme and moderate Calvinists on this point. However, at least some extreme Calvinists seem to imply that none of the elect will die in sin, while the moderate Calvinist holds that no elect person will be lost, even if he dies in sin. Also of note, extreme Calvinists believe that all elect persons will be faithful to the end. Whereas moderate Calvinists hold that even if some true believers are not faithful until death, nonetheless, God will still be faithful to them (2 Timothy 2:13).
There are many wonderful verses in the Bible that affirm the doctrine of eternal security. A few, but not all include:

John 5:24
John 6:39-40
John 10:27-28
John 17:12
Hebrews 10:14
Romans 8:29-30
Romans 8:37-39
Romans 11:29
Ephesians 1:13-14
Philippians 1:6

and there are many others...

I believe this is a clear teaching from Scripture and agree with the doctrine of eternal security. Certainly God does the work and sees that work to completion, and we have nothing to boast of in that. God simply calls us to be obedient to His word and to walk in His Spirit for as He says, without faith it is impossible to please Him. He promises to never forsake us or leave us and there is nothing that can separate us from His love once we repent and believe the gospel and are born again!

In Him,

Eye