By Calvinism, TULIP

READING TIME: 2-4 MINUTES

Oct 1, 2019

David, what do Calvinists believe about “Perseverance of the Saints”?

Laurence Vance provides an excellent answer to this question.

It’s vital to stress that God’s preserving in salvation is not the same thing as outwardly persevering in the faith. In defining perseverance, Calvinists emphasize continuance in believing and living in holiness to the end of one’s life much like an Arminian and Roman Catholic would do.

This leads to Calvinists stressing five conclusions:

  • Saints will persevere in the faith (Grover E. Gunn, Gise Van Baren, Edwin Palmer, & Keith Mathison).
  • If the saints will persevere in the faith, then only those who persevere in the faith are true Christians (John Murray, Steven Houck, Curtis Pugh, & Milburn Cockrell).
  • If only those who persevere in the faith are true Christians, then those who do not persevere in the faith are lost, no matter what they once professed (John Calvin, John MacArthur, Milburn Cockrell, & Arthur Pink).
  • Since it is obvious that all Christians do not persevere in the faith, the solution to this is that real Christians will return to the faith before their demise (Loraine Boettner, Talbot, and Crampton, R. C. Sproul, & Steven Houck).
  • Since some Christians never return to the faith, the solution to this is that such was never saved in the first place (R. C. Sproul, David N. Steele and Curtis C. Thomas, Grover E. Gunn, & John M. Otis).

So, according to Calvinists themselves:

  • The saints will persevere in the faith.
  • Only those who persevere in the faith are true Christians.
  • Those who do not persevere in the faith are lost.
  • Real Christians will return to the faith before their demise.
  • Those who do not return to the faith were never saved in the first place.

To stress one more time what I have written in previous posts, I believe the focus should not be on a believer’s perseverance, endurance, and performance. The proper focus should be on Christ’s ability to keep His promise to preserve His saints. It takes God at His Word and rests upon His sure promises. I believe that sanctification is certainly desired, but not necessarily guaranteed or automatic. No passages in the New Testament, when accurately interpreted, teach that perseverance is guaranteed, inevitable, or automatic.

This comment by my good friend Dr./Pastor Tom Stegall (Duluth Bible Church) is appropriate to mention in closing

“While it is true, as we will see, that God alone in His grace does the actual work of sanctification, the believer is still responsible to appropriate the grace of God by a walk of faith for God’s sanctifying work to be fulfilled. But if practical sanctification were truly guaranteed by God for every elect believer, as Calvinism claims, then why is the believer commanded to cooperate with God in the process of sanctification by exercising his volition in response to God’s will?

Later on, Tom writes, “While holiness and good works do not inevitably accompany justification, they must manifest themselves in the life of one who is practically sanctified as the byproduct of a genuine walk of faith . . . good works do not inevitably accompany justification before God whereas they do accompany sanctification. If good works inevitably accompany sanctification and sanctification is made a requirement to be truly justified, then good works have snuck in the back door as a requirement for salvation.”

Sources Used

Stegall, Thomas L. Must Faith Endure for Salvation to Be Sure?: A Biblical Study of the Perseverance versus Preservation of the Saints. Grace Gospel Press, chapter 8.

Vance, Laurence M. The Other Side of Calvinism. Pensacola, FL: Vance Publications, 1999, 556-561.

Eternal SecurityPerseverance