MUST FAITH ENDURE FOR SALVATION TO BE SURE? (Pt. 6)

by Tom Stegall

 

If you have placed your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as your only hope of eternal salvation, must you also persevere in that faith in order to make it to heaven?  Many, if not most, within Christendom today would answer that question with a resounding "Yes!"  Though many will acknowledge the biblical truth that salvation is simply conditioned upon faith in Christ, salvation for them really isn't quite so simple, since such "faith" has many qualifications placed upon it which eventually turn it into a “work.”  It is not enough to believe in Christ at a point in time and be born again forever; we're also told we must persevere in faith if we wish to enter heaven.  It is not enough to have simple trust in Christ alone for salvation; we're also told we must have a certain "kind" of faith — a faith which is fruitful and which yields a life of practical holiness.

 

These unscriptural notions have historically been fostered through two major systems of theology in evangelical Protestantism, namely Arminianism and Calvinism.  Arminianism teaches that if your faith doesn't continue, neither does your salvation.  The loss of faith means the loss of salvation.  Consequently, Arminians reject the biblical doctrine of eternal security.

 

Conversely, Calvinism teaches that a failure to continue in the faith doesn't mean a person has lost his salvation, it simply means he never had genuine faith and salvation in the first place.  Calvinism erroneously teaches that faith itself is the gift of God given at salvation, and therefore, it cannot fail to endure since all God's gifts are perfect. Contemporary Reformed apologist, Keith Mathison,  argues, "True living faith is a gift from God that begins at a person's new birth and never ends…At some stages in the Christian's life, faith may be very weak, but if it is true faith it will never die.  The true believer must and will, by the grace of God, persevere until the end."[1] 

 

According to the Calvinist doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, the true believer will never completely nor finally stop believing in Christ. Anthony Hoekema, the late professor of Systematic Theology at Calvin Theological Seminary, explains this aspect of Calvinist teaching, "What the doctrine of the perseverance of true believers does mean is this: those who have true faith can lose that faith neither totally nor finally.  The real question at issue, therefore, is this:  Can a person who has true faith ever lose that faith?  To this question the person of Reformed persuasion says:  No.  It should immediately be added, however, that the Calvinist gives this answer not on the basis of the superior spiritual strength of the believer, but on the ground of God's faithfulness to his promise.  The Calvinist believes that God will never permit those to whom he has given true faith to fall away from that faith."[2] 

So we see that the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints teaches that genuine faith may falter and wane at certain points in a Christian's life, but at no point will it cease to exist.  It will certainly continue intact to the very end of one's life.  It is for this reason that the Calvinist doctrine has traditionally emphasized the aspect of the perseverance of the saints, rather than the preservation or security of the saints.

 

Though it is common for some Christians to use the phrases "eternal security" and "perseverance of the saints" interchangeably, a discerning believer will recognize that they are not synonymous and will avoid using them in this manner.  As was previously addressed in this series,[3] the Bible teaches that if you are a child of God you are eternally secure because of the perseverance of the Savior, not because of your perseverance as a saint. 

 

Even Calvinist theologians recognize that there is technically a distinction between the doctrine of eternal security and the perseverance of the saints.  For example, Keith Mathison is critical of the doctrine of eternal security held by many dispensationalists when he writes, "According to the dispensational doctrine of eternal security, once a person ‘believes,’ nothing he does — even persistent unconfessed sin — can affect his eternal salvation.  This, however, differs from the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.  The Reformed doctrine of perseverance says that all who were chosen, redeemed, and regenerated by God are eternally saved and are kept in faith by the power of God.  They must and will, therefore, persevere in holiness to the end."[4] 

Popular author and ardent Calvinist, John Piper, also notes this distinction, "It follows from what was just said that the people of God WILL persevere to the end and not be lost.  The foreknown are predestined, the predestined are called, the called are justified, and the justified are glorified.  To belong to this people is to be eternally secure.  But we mean more than this by the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.  We mean that the saints will and must persevere in the obedience which comes from faith.  Election is unconditional, but glorification is not.  There are many warnings in Scripture that those who do not hold fast to Christ can be lost in the end."[5] 

 

O dear child of God, as one who has been eternally saved and constituted a saint solely by God’s grace, can you see that this is clearly not synonymous with the biblical truth of eternal security?  Our eternal security is based only upon the unmerited grace of God which comes to unworthy sinners who place their trust in the only One who was ever truly obedient — the Lord Jesus Christ.  Our salvation is based solely upon the obedience of Jesus Christ, not our obedience, as Romans 5:19 declares, "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous."  The Lord Jesus Christ was perfectly obedient, even unto death — a propitious, all-sufficient death on Calvary's cross for disobedient and undeserving sinners such as us.  

 

If perseverance in the faith is truly necessary for a person to ultimately be saved from Hell, as taught by either Arminianism or Calvinism, then it is no exaggeration to say that the condition for eternal salvation becomes distorted from the simple, biblical condition of "faith" to the unbiblical condition of "faithfulness" and obedience.  Salvation is then no longer solely and purely by God's grace (Eph. 2:8-9).  Though the Scriptures plainly teach that salvation is “…NOT of works…” (Eph. 2:9), the Calvinist doctrine of perseverance teaches in actuality that salvation IS of works — of faith plus works.  This is frankly admitted by John Piper when he writes, "Nevertheless, we must also own up to the fact that our final salvation is made contingent upon the subsequent obedience which comes from faith.  The way these two truths fit together is that we are justified on the basis of our first act of faith because God sees in it (like he can see the tree in an acorn) the embryo of a life of faith.  This is why those who do not lead a life of faith with its inevitable obedience simply bear witness to the fact that their first act of faith was not genuine."[6] 

 

Piper does not represent an isolated opinion among those who hold to traditional, “orthodox” Calvinism.  The late John Gerstner is another whose Calvinist credentials could not be called into question, and he echoed the same demand for works as a requirement for salvation.  He declared, “Thus, good works may be said to be a condition for obtaining salvation in that they inevitably accompany genuine faith.  Good works, while a necessary complement of true faith, are never the meritorious grounds of justification, of acceptance before God.  From the essential truth that no sinner in himself can merit salvation, the antinomian draws the erroneous conclusion that good works need not even accompany faith in the saint.  The question is not whether good works are necessary for salvation, but in what way are they necessary.  As the inevitable outworking of saving faith, they are necessary for salvation.”[7]

 

At first, it may seem strange to hear those who claim to be championing the cause of Protestantism requiring works for salvation, and yet it should not be too surprising since the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints has always been based on a human, historical theology, not a purely biblical theology.  Therefore, we should also not be too surprised to find Calvinists in expressed agreement with Arminians as to the ultimate condition/s for eternal salvation.  For example, Calvinist Willard Aldrich freely confesses, "We join with our Arminian brethren in insisting that perseverance in the faith is necessary to salvation.  We differ in that we affirm that failure to persevere proves that one has never been saved and lost again."[8]  Similarly, the late Calvinist professor Anthony Hoekema stated his agreement with Robert Shank on the conditions for final salvation, even though Shank was a leading Arminian of the 20th century who wrote an entire book opposing the “notion” of eternal security.  Hoekema stated, "As we have noted, the Bible teaches that God does not preserve us apart from our watchfulness, prayer, and persevering faith.  The expression ‘once saved, always saved’ is therefore not an accurate way of stating the doctrine of the perseverance of true believers.  Such an expression could easily be understood to mean ‘once saved, always saved’ regardless of how we live, and such a notion is clearly contrary to Scripture.  On this point I quite agree with Robert Shank.”[9]

 

Arminianism and Calvinism really do agree on the conditions for receiving final salvation.  Both teach that you must persevere in a life of faith and practical holiness.  Though Arminians err in interpreting the Bible to teach the possible loss of salvation, they correctly interpret the Bible to teach that genuine faith may not endure.  On the other hand, though Calvinists are correct in concluding that salvation cannot be lost, they err in interpreting the Bible to teach that genuine faith in Christ will necessarily persevere to the end of one's life and will always manifest itself in practical holiness.  However, both Calvinism and Arminianism err by tying the necessity of perseverance in faith and holiness to final salvation and glorification.  Thus, both the theological systems of Calvinism and Arminianism contain a mixture of truth and error; and as so often is the case, the truth of God's Word lies between the two extremes. 

 

This series of articles has not sought to address the unbiblical view of Arminianism which denies the eternal security of the child of God, since that has previously been dealt with at length in this journal.[10]  This series will instead continue to address the opposite distortion to the biblical doctrine of eternal security as espoused in Calvinism.  Both Arminianism and Calvinism contain distortions of biblical truth, though Calvinism's errors are less familiar to many conservative, evangelical Christians.

 

But perhaps you're wondering at this point, why does Calvinism deny that genuine faith can ever be lost?  Is this really what the Bible teaches?  Or is Calvinism's doctrine of persevering faith simply a humanistic deduction stemming from its erroneous assumption that faith itself is the perfect, unfailing gift of God given only to those who are His unconditionally elect?  I am convinced that this Calvinist doctrine is not derived from a thorough exegesis of the Scriptural passages dealing with the subject of faith.  It is instead a rational or philosophical deduction to maintain the logical consistency of the entire man-made system of Calvinism.  The Bible is quite clear in its warnings to genuine believers that faith itself can be lost, though salvation cannot be lost.  This article will continue to examine those biblical passages which reveal that a genuine child of God may not persevere in faith and holy living.[11]

 

The Bible actually teaches that it is possible for one who has been genuinely saved to …

 

1)      …commit idolatry and apostasy. (1 Kgs. 11:1-10)

 

2)      …believe only for a while.  (Luke 8:13)

 

3)      …not continue in the Word of Christ. (Jn. 8:31)

 

4)      …not abide in Christ.  (John 15:1-8)

 

5)      …become disqualified in the race of the Christian life.  (1 Cor. 9:27)

 

6)      ...resist God's chastening & correction unto thepoint of physical death.  (1 Cor. 11:30-32)

 

7)      …stray from the faith.  (1 Timothy 1:3-7)

 

As I urged you when I went into Macedonia —remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine,  nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith.  Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.  (1 Timothy 1:3-7, NKJV)

 

Here the apostle Paul instructs Timothy as a pastor in Ephesus to command certain individuals in the Ephesian church not to teach the errors which they had apparently already come to embrace.  Paul could say that such individuals had strayed from a sincere or genuine faith and had turned away from the truth.   Here is another biblical example of individuals who had genuine faith but did not persevere in that faith.  Several things should be noted in this passage. 

 

First, the individuals who were to be commanded by Timothy to "teach no other doctrine" (Gr. heterodidaskalein, i.e. heterodoxy) in v3 were undoubtedly the same ones referred to in vv6-7, of whom it is said that they had already "turned aside" to fables regarding the Law.  In other words, Timothy was not to merely prevent people from becoming heretical; there were already Christians present who had embraced error and were therefore to be commanded by Timothy not to teach it.  The content of their false doctrine revolved around matters of the "law" (v7), specifically "fables" (Gr. muthos, i.e. myths) and "genealogies" (v4).  This legalistic, Judaistic influence was ever-present in the apostolic church, even as there is ever a tendency toward legalism today (Acts 15; 2 Cor. 11; Gal.; Phil. 3:2; Col. 2:16; 1 Th. 2:14-17; Ti. 1:9-11, 3:9-11).   This passage teaches the sobering reality that it is possible for one who is genuinely saved to embrace false doctrine, called here by Paul "fables" and "idle talk."

 

Secondly, there is no indication from the context that these people were simply "professors" who never possessed genuine faith in Christ.  If such were the case, then in addition to commanding them not to teach their heterodoxy concerning the Law, we would also expect Timothy to be commanding them to "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ" and be saved (Acts 16:31).  According to v6, it is said of these individuals that they "strayed" from the things mentioned previously in v5, including "love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith."[12]  They did not merely stray from love, but also from a good conscience and a sincere faith.  This indicates that these people initially possessed faith.  If these individuals were only professors who never truly believed in Christ, then this passage would be saying that they strayed from a faith which they never possessed in the first place, which is a logical absurdity.

 

Thirdly, the Greek term for "having strayed" in v6 (astochesantes) has the root meaning of "missing the mark."  It essentially means "to fail, deviate, or depart."[13]  No matter how you look at it, none of these definitions bode well for the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.  Whether one has failed, deviated from, departed from, or missed the mark of sincere faith, they haven't persevered in the faith!  One outstanding Greek scholar, Henry Alford, stated that the translation should read, "some having failed," since the idea of missing the mark by swerving or turning aside "seems hardly precise enough."[14]  In one ancient, secular use of this Greek term, a man bewails the loss of his pet fighting rooster, stating that it had "failed" him by dying in the fight.[15]  If the idea behind the Greek term "astocheo" is indeed that of "having failed," then the Calvinistic doctrine of perseverance is definitely contradicted here in 1 Timothy 1:3-7 since some had failed to persevere with regard to a sincere faith when they turned aside to fables about the Law. 

 

 

8)         …shipwreck faith.   (1 Timothy 1:18-20)

 

This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.  (1 Timothy 1:18-20, NKJV)

 

Paul exhorts Timothy here to fight the "good fight" of faith (cf. 1 Tim. 6:12).  One means of doing so is to continually hold onto faith and a good conscience, which Hymenaeus and Alexander had failed to do and the result was disastrous — their faith was ruined.  Here is another clear Scriptural example of genuine faith that did not persevere. 

 

There are several items in this passage which are not consistent with the doctrine of persevering faith.  First, the fact that Paul commands Timothy to hold onto his faith implies that Timothy's faith would not automatically persevere.[16]  Why command someone to do something that you are certain he is going to do anyway?!  In another passage, 2 Timothy 1:5, Paul declares his certainty that Timothy had genuine faith.  If the apostle Paul believed the Calvinist doctrine that genuine faith always perseveres, and he knew that Timothy had genuine faith, then it would be unnecessary to command Timothy to continually hold onto his genuine faith in 1 Timothy 1:19.

 

Secondly, this passage mentions two false teachers, Hymenaeus and Alexander.  Who were these men?   Hymenaeus is probably the same individual mentioned later in 2 Timothy 2:17-18, who taught that the resurrection was past already and thus overthrew the faith of some.   The identity of Alexander and his false doctrine is more difficult to ascertain, since several people bore the name Alexander in the New Testament (Mk. 15:21; Acts 4:6, 19:33; 2 Tim. 4:14), and yet 1 Timothy 1:20 may be the only reference to this particular individual. 

 

However, one thing is certain regarding both Hymenaeus and Alexander — their faith was definitely shipwrecked against the rocks of heresy.  The Greek term for "shipwrecked" (nauageo) in v19 essentially means "to break a ship to pieces" (from naus — "ship" and agnumi — "to break").[17]  The term itself is used only here and in 2 Corinthians 11:25 where Paul states that he had been shipwrecked three times.  One such instance of Paul being shipwrecked is described in Acts 27:1-44.  There it says Paul's ship was "broken up" (v41) so that the passengers had to swim to the shore of a nearby island on "boards" and parts of the ship (v44).  Clearly the prospect of shipwreck was the dread of every ancient mariner, since it meant the complete cessation of their ship functioning as a ship, with the likely prospect of either being marooned or dying at sea.  There is certainly a sense of complete destruction in the term "shipwreck."  Just as ships suffered shipwreck and ceased to function as ships, so the faith of Hymenaeus and Alexander ceased to function as genuine faith.  This fact cannot be reconciled with the doctrine that "…those who have true faith can lose that faith neither totally nor finally."[18]

 

Seeing this predicament, some perseverance advocates acknowledge that Hymenaeus and Alexander never lost their personal faith, but they merely shipwrecked the faith — the body of Christian doctrine which is to be believed.  One commentator explains this view when he writes, "By their teaching they were making shipwreck of the faith, that is, the body of truth which comprises the Christian faith.  Since ‘faith’ has the article (ten pistin) it is best to understand it objectively, rather than ‘their faith.’"[19]  This interpretation sees a distinction between "the faith" (i.e. Christian doctrine) and "faith" (personal belief) based upon the presence of the definite article "the" before the word "faith" in v19.  However, Greek scholars also recognize that the presence of the article "the" (Gr. ten) before "faith" (Gr. pistin) is a common Greek idiom where the article is used as a possessive pronoun, so that v19 could also be translated, "concerning their faith have suffered shipwreck."[20]  Consequently, several English translations actually read "their faith."[21]

 

Whether the Greek phrase "ten pistin" should be understood as "the faith" or "their faith" should not ultimately matter however, because the personal "faith" of an individual who falls away from "the faith" must still be considered vain and displeasing from God's perspective (Mk. 16:14; Heb. 11:6).[22]   So the actual apostasy of Hymenaeus and Alexander cannot be denied by Calvinists who would cite a distinction between personal “faith” and “the faith.”  

 

Regarding apostasy, 1 Timothy 1:20 indicates that Hymenaeus and Alexander had been turned over “to Satan” because of their blasphemy.   In this passage, the apostle Paul exercised his authority to put them out of the fellowship of the local church and into Satan's destructive domain of the world.  This was not done for the purpose of restoring their salvation, for they never lost their regeneration or eternal salvation.  Rather the passage explicitly states that this action was taken so that they might "learn" something in their earthly lifetime — not to blaspheme.  The Greek term for "learn" (paideuo) is where we get our English word "pedagogue."  This chastening action was therefore temporal and pedagogical.  It was for the purpose of correction with a view toward the restoration of their fellowship with God and the rest of His church (cf. 1 Cor. 5:5, 11:30-32). 

 

The fact that Hymenaeus and Alexander were turned over to Satan and his realm for chastening also indicates that they had actually apostatized.  If being turned over to Satan isn't a case of apostasy, then what is?  Even though Hymenaeus and Alexander are an obvious example of genuine believers who apostatized, advocates of the Calvinist doctrine of perseverance claim that apostasy is not possible for a genuine believer.  John MacArthur explains this view when he writes, "No matter how convincing a person's testimony might seem, once he becomes apostate he has demonstrated irrefutably that he was never saved."[23]  If spiritual apostasy is not actually possible for the genuine Christian, and Hymenaeus and Alexander did apostatize, then the only apparent resolution of this passage with the Calvinist doctrine of perseverance is to conclude that these men did not have genuine faith to begin with and thus they were never saved.   

 

However, perseverance advocates will not be helped by this explanation either, since there is nothing in the context of 1 Timothy 1:18-20 to indicate that these men were never originally saved.  Two facts from the passage indicate that these men did originally have "genuine" faith and were, therefore, not mere professors.  First, the fact that these men were turned over to Satan indicates that they had originally escaped the domain of Satan in some sense, either positionally (Gal. 2:14; Eph. 2:2) or practically (Job 1:8-11; Lk. 22:31; 1 Pt. 5:8).  This cannot be said of someone who has never been saved.  The Word of God knows nothing of unregenerate people who have always been children of the devil (Jn. 8:44; 1 Jn. 5:19) being "turned over" to the devil.  That would be illogical as well as unscriptural.  Secondly, the fact that the faith of Hymenaeus and Alexander was shipwrecked indicates that it once genuinely existed.  You cannot shipwreck a ship that never even existed.  If you were to see the broken pieces of a ship upon a sea shore, you would not deny the genuineness of the ship that once existed; you would simply acknowledge that the broken ship is no longer operational as a ship.  So it is with the faith of some saints who venture to sail upon the seas of false doctrine.

 

Finally, there is no evidence that Hymenaeus and Alexander ever returned to fellowship with God or died with their "ship of faith" intact.  Though their correction and restoration may have been desired by Paul in 1 Timothy 1:20, it was by no means certain, as the Calvinist doctrine of perseverance would require for someone with genuine faith.  What God's Word does reveal is that approximately four to six years later, when Paul wrote his second epistle to Timothy, Hymenaeus had still not repented (2 Timothy 2:17-26).  There is absolutely no indication from Scripture that either Hymenaeus or Alexander ever did repent or return to “the faith.”  g

 

 

Part seven of this series will examine more N.T. passages which reveal that a genuine child of God may not necessarily persevere in faith, though God in His great grace and faithfulness always perseveres in keeping His saints eternally saved.