When it comes down to people in the Church understanding the debate between Arminians and Calvinists, people need to know that this debate is much more than about losing one’s salvation. In fact, to me, that is not the real issue here and has never been. Many seem to confuse Arminianism with simply those who reject eternal security, but in essence that is not the case. While it is certainly true that some Arminians (though not all) hold to the possibility of personal apostasy, the main concerns of Arminians is not the security of the believer.
I believe that Arminians need to do a better job of making our biblical case that Arminianism involves more than arguing over eternal security. I would say the majority of discussions I have had with people who hear that I am an Arminian deal with the issue of eternal security. Now I believe this is my case for a couple of reasons. First, I live in the Bible-belt among Southern Baptists. Our joke is that there are more Southern Baptists living among us than people (as SBC churches tend to inflate their numbers). The SBC holds to eternal security as a denomination and most SBC churches, pastors, and members hold to eternal security. To many in the SBC, eternal security is a key doctrine. Second, since Arminianism has historically rejected eternal security (as I have as well), then for many in the SBC, Arminianism is a questionable system of theology since it rejects eternal security. This is unfortunate since most SBC churches, pastors, and members are Arminians even if they don’t recognize this.
For many Calvinists, they understand that the issues between Arminians and Calvinists go much deeper than over eternal security (or perseverance of the saints among Reformed brethren). True Calvinists know that the issues regarding our debate range from the nature of God (Divine determinism vs. Freedom of the Will) to salvation being conditional or unconditional. The doctrines of election, predestination, grace, the preaching of the gospel, evangelism, calling, justification, sanctification, etc., all these are debated within our debate.
I hold to the possibility of apostasy of the believer. But this belief comes from several other key beliefs. For instance, I hold that salvation is conditional in that it is based on faith in the Lord Jesus (John 14:6; Romans 5:1; 6:23; 10:9-17). I believe that apart from faith in Jesus, no one can be saved (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 2:37-39; 17:30-31; Romans 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9). God has given His Son to be our Mediator (1 Timothy 2:1-6) and apart from His precious blood, there can be no forgiveness (Matthew 26:28; Hebrews 9:22; 1 Peter 1:18-25). I believe that our salvation is based on faith in Jesus and is kept by faith in Jesus (John 10:27-30; Acts 11:23; Romans 11:20-22; 1 Peter 1:5; Jude 21). We are to persevere in our faith in Jesus until the very end (Matthew 24:13; John 8:51; 1 Corinthians 15:1-3; 2 Corinthians 1:24; Hebrews 6:4-20; 10:19-39).
Therefore, since I hold that salvation is based upon the condition of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His atonement, I believe that apostasy can occur when people turn back from following Jesus and reject their faith in Jesus as our only hope for forgiveness (Hebrews 3:6-19). This apostasy manifests itself in several ways including sinning against God (1 John 2:3-6; 3:6-9) and rebellion against His commandments (John 14:15). Those who live according to the flesh will die (Romans 8:8, 12-13; Galatians 5:1-4, 16-21; 6:7-9; Philippians 2:12-15; Colossians 1:21-23). The wages of sin is death apart from faith in the finished work of Christ Jesus (Romans 6:23).
So the issues involving Arminianism go much deeper than merely rejecting eternal security. Our rejection of eternal security comes not just from a rejection of the teaching but from our rejection of the ideals behind the said doctrine. As with election, we believe that our salvation is conditional in that we must believe in Jesus to be saved and to remain saved. Our salvation is not just a gift given to us arbitrarily apart from Jesus but salvation is in Jesus (Matthew 1:21). Eternal life and eternal election come the same way in Arminianism, by continued faith in Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:10-11).
[Link to original post and comments on Roy Ingle’s website.]
