PERSEVERANCE AND GLORIFICATION: COMPLETION OF SALVATION, PART 1.

According to Millard J. Erickson “the completion of salvation is found in the two doctrines of perseverance and glorification. Perseverance means that God will enable the believer to remain in the faith through the remainder of his/her life. It also means that the believer needs to demonstrate salvation through becoming more like Christ. Glorification will be accomplished in the life to come, when we will become all that God intends us to be.”1 I feel that salvation is dependent upon faith; I began by believing like the Arminian’s point of view of conditional perseverance but as I saw more Scripture that can lean to Calvinism or Arminianism, I have come to the conclusion that a sincere believer who has had a real ‘new-birth’ will ‘once saved will always be saved ’. Only a person who has never had a sincere conversion and regeneration, and says that he has, will lose out! On the view of glorification , I agree with Erickson’s view.

The reader of this blog can see the turn of my heart as I progress along in this writing. According to online source2, Calvin’s idea is that once a person is saved, they are always saved. That because God has elected them and they had no choice in the matter, no one has any choice in the matter of becoming ‘unsaved’. Those that hold to this view say that believers are sealed with the Holy Spirit upon salvation and that nothing can separate them from the love of God. I myself, in my initial walk with the Lord, used to hold to this view, that ‘once saved always saved’. This helped me not give up on my relationship with the Lord at times when fears came that I had backslidden! But as I studied the Word more in depth, the following Scripture became clear to me: “ Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2: 12-13). So here it appears that God’s will is that we always keep on in His kingdom but since He has given a person a free-will it appears that it is their choice to remain in His kingdom . That they still have the choice to opt out of it when they do not fear and tremble at the ways of God, always trying to yield to His will, especially when they know what His will is!

Arminian’s point of view is conditional perseverance which believes that salvation is dependent upon faith. If a person stops believing in Jesus to take away their sins, they are no longer saved. Those that believe in this point of view say that ongoing belief is required in the Bible. That even in John 3: 16 it says ‘anyone who believes’ not that believed at one time, but is in the act of believing. Those who believe in ‘once saved always saved’ will say that a person would not stop believing in Jesus once they are saved!

I agree that it is very hard to become ‘unsaved’ once you believe in Jesus but the Scriptures seem to point to that. As an example, I have some friends, who were strong believers, serving in matters of the Church. The husband, all of a sudden, opted out of this way of life, and now is like a madman in the streets. This is the most blatant personal example that I have seen, of a Christian choosing ‘away from God’. But I believe that this could be similar in nature to Nebuchadnezzar who spent seven years as a madman; and I believe my friend’s husband could have been in a state of confusion, even though he had been warned by Christian leadership of where he was choosing evil; he has only been on the streets for four years , so will see if he makes a turnaround to God’s ways again! Of course, I have to admit that the few times I have seen him on the streets, he is always talking about Jesus!

NOTES

1Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology,(Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006),996.
2Mike Stine, “Arminianism vs. Calvinism” http://www.spreadinglight.com/theology/armvscal.html (February 10, 2011), 2.