Some have argued that Arminianism offers little assurance that one will finally be saved due to the notion, which many Arminians hold, that a believer can lose his or her salvation. What may astound you…
Once saved always saved
Some Further Reflections on the Nature of the Sealing of the Holy Spirit in Eph. 1:13 and 4:30
The quoted material below comes from my post, Perseverance of the Saints Part 12: Examining Passages Commonly Appealed to by the Advocates of Unconditional Eternal Security. The sections in between these quotes are further reflections…
Friday Files: Marshall “The Problem of Apostasy in New Testament Theology”
I. Howard Marshall’s article “The Problem of Apostasy in New Testament Theology” was part of a symposium in honor of Dale Moody and serves as an epilogue to Marshall’s book Kept by the Power of…
Friday Files: Kennard – Petrine Redemption: Its Meaning and Extent
Douglas Kennard’s article Petrine Redemption: Its Meaning and Extent gives an overview of Peter’s concept of redemption and then dives into 2 Peter 2:1’s statement ‘denying the Lord that bought them’. For Peter, Christ’s death…
Ben Witherington – Hebrews 6
On Wed, February 13, 2008, Dr. Ben Witherington posted “Christian Apostasy and Hebrews 6” on his blog. It is an excerpt from a book he would later publish entitled The Indelible Image. Witherington is Professor…
Messianic Jew David Stern and the Security of the Believer
Article compiled by Steve Witzki. Below is the intro, click on the PDF link for the complete article. “David Stern is a Messianic Jew who believes that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah. He has written…
Friday Files: Davis – The Perseverance of the Saints: A History of the Doctrine
John Davis’ article “The Perseverance of the Saints: A History of the Doctrine” outlines the thought around perseverance and assurance through certain key theologians and churches through the history of the Christianity. Davis starts with…
Scholarly Resources Added – Steve Witzki
We have added several new scholarly resources on the topics of faith and perseverance. These have been written and / or compiled by Arminian Steve Witzki. Be sure to check them out! Arminianism–The Conditional Preservation…
Arminian Responses to Key Scriptures Used to Support Perseverance of the Saints
Arminian Responses to Key Scriptures Used to Support Perseverance of the Saints – click on PDF: Arminian Responses to Passages for Perseverance of the Saints (compiled by Steve Witzki)
Saving Faith (Act of a Moment or Attitude of a Life)
Saving Faith (Act of a Moment or Attitude of a Life) – click on PDF
John Jefferson Davis, “The Perseverance of the Saints: A History of the Doctrine”
[Please note that that author is a Calvinist theologian, but this is a historical review of the doctrine that does not involve the author in arguing for his view. The web version of this article…
Brennon Hartshorn, “Eternal Security and the Bible”
Can you lose your faith in Christ? No, not if by lose you literally mean lose. We cannot simply forget our faith. We also cannot have our faith stolen from us by any outside force…
J.C. Thibodaux, “The Calvinist Mitigation of the Divine Warnings Given to the Saints”
Central to the debate over inevitable perseverance are the the numerous warnings in scripture cautioning the saints against falling away. A prominent explanation offered as to why the scriptures would say such things, if falling away is not truly possible for a believer, is that God uses such warnings as a means to spur Christians on to perseverance. Despite these efforts, the scriptural warnings addressed to genuine believers, some of which pronounce eternal destruction for violating certain commandments of God, constitute an airtight argument against the Calvinist teaching of inevitable perseverance of the saints, in that teaching that what the scriptures warn against could not truly occur strips the divine warnings of all relevance, making them of no effect.
Robert Shank on Calvinist Pastors and the Warning Passages of Scripture
In 1960 Robert Shank published a book called Life in the Son. This book was written to refute the teaching of eternal security. At the time of it’s publication Robert Shank was a Southern Baptist minister. The book caused no little stir among the Southern Baptists and it led to the author eventually leaving the Southern Baptist denomination and joining the Churches of Christ. In this book Shank writes about the way Calvinist Pastors preach and teach the warning passages in Scripture. Though a bit polemical, I found it expresses well the way Arminians view the Calvinist understanding of the warning passages. Following the quote by Shank I will give an example of what he’s talking about from popular Calvinist Pastor John Piper. Shank writes,
“Completely absurd is the assumption that men are to be sincerely persuaded that apostasy is impossible and, at the same time, sincerely alarmed by the warnings…
Albert Nash, Perseverance and Apostasy: Being an Argument in Proof of the Arminian Doctrine on that Subject (1871)
Please click on the link to view Perseverance and Apostasy by Albert Nash.
Friday Files: McKnight on the Hebrew Warning Passages
Scot McKnight’s article “The warning passages of Hebrews: A formal analysis and Theological Conclusions” reviews the warnings of apostasy in Hebrews 2:1-4, 3:7-4:13, 5:11-6:12, 10:19-39 and 12:1-29. McKnight identifies four alternative interpretations of the warning…
I John 5:12-13; A Devotional
The one who has the Son has life; the one who does not have the Son of God has no life. These things I have written to you so that you will know that you…
The Biblical Doctrines of Grace (Part Two)
For the Calvinist, the “doctrines of grace” is a synonym for TULIP theology. So, do the Biblical Doctrines of Grace of Arminianism also follow a system, such as TULIP? Arminianism proper has not historically employed an acronym as the one used for nearly four centuries by Calvinists.
Let it be stated, however, that if it had not been for the followers of Arminius (the Remonstrants) presenting their five arguments to the state to be approved as orthodox consent, then the TULIP would have never been constructed. And the original order of the Remonstrants was Conditional Election (to those in Christ), Unlimited Atonement, Total Depravity, Resistible Grace, and Conditional Perseverance.
If the Calvinists had strictly followed the Arminian system, it would have spelled ULTIP, which is a bad acronym, considering Ultip is not a word. Worse off, the Arminian acronym would have been CUTRC. The best sense which we could make out of that construct is TRUCC, also not a word.
Eternal Security and Exegetical Overview of Hebrews
An Attempt to Move the Issue from Prooftexting to Texts which Sustain the Argument Introduction to the Theological Debate For 500 years, much of evangelical Christianity has been split on the issue of whether a…
Never Really Saved to Begin With?
This post attempts to put the Calvinistic “never really saved to begin with” view of apostasy to the test when reading select passages relevant to the topic of apostasy. The results speak for themselves.
“I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. [proving that he was never in Christ to begin with, making it impossible to ‘remain’ in Him or be ‘cut off’ from Him] Jn. 15:3-6
