For years I thought that Calvinists believed in eternal security and Arminians did not. I thought that the doctrine of eternal security was the heart of Calvinism. As a result, after graduating from seminary I called myself a Calvinist even though I did not believe in Calvinism’s other points.
I came to see, however, that most Calvinists do not actually believe in eternal security. Most Calvinists believe what Arminians believe: If you fail to persevere in faith and good works, you will be eternally condemned.
Of course, Calvinists say they believe in the Preservation of the Saints, which is wrongly thought to be a synonym for eternal security. However, for Calvinists, only some believers will be preserved by God. Those are the believers who persevere.
Are you scratching your head? If so, you haven’t yet grasped the P in TULIP. It stands for both the Preservation of the Saints and the Perseverance of the Saints. But they say you can’t have one without the other. If you fail to persevere, you will not be preserved.
In their book The Five Points of Calvinism, Second Edition, Steele, Thomas, and Quinn write,
One could almost speak of the six points of Calvinism, the fifth point being the preservation of the saints and the sixth point being the perseverance of the saints. The Bible repeatedly emphasizes both sides of this wonderful doctrine (pp. 148-49, italics theirs).
They add, “We have a responsibility to persevere in the faith to the end (striving after holiness), and if we do not hold out, we have no basis for assurance that God is preserving us.” They then favorably quote A. N. Martin who says, “The only proof I have that he preserves me is that by his grace, I am enabled to persevere” (p. 149).
If only those who persevere are eternally secure, is it really eternal security? Wouldn’t it be eternal insecurity until we die? If our only proof that we are eternally secure is that we have persevered to the end, then we would have to live in doubt until the very end of our lives.
Most Calvinists say that there are two types of believers—true professors and false professors. Both are convinced of the same set of doctrines. What sets the true professor apart is not what he believes, but his perseverance in both faith and good works.
According to Calvinism, a person can have temporary faith and temporary good works. The temporary faith and good works can last for years or even decades. Ultimately, most Calvinists, like most Arminians, go to their deathbeds wondering where they will spend eternity.
In my book Is Calvinism Biblical? (ICB), I cite two texts that disprove the Calvinist understanding of the Preservation of the Saints: Luke 8:12-13 and John 4:13-15.
Luke 8:12-13. In the Parable of the Four Soils, the first soil represents people who hear the word; however, Satan snatches it away, “lest they should believe and be saved” (v 12). Satan believes that when a person believes in Christ, he is saved forever. The devil believes in “once saved, always saved.”
Verse 13 speaks of people who “believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.” Remember what v 12 said of those represented by stony soil: “lest they should believe and be saved” (lest indicating that they didn’t believe and were therefore not saved). The people of v 13 are saved. The fact that they later fall away cannot undo their salvation. It is important to note that the word believe does not occur in vv 14 or 15 concerning the third and fourth soils. It is understood that each soil is better than the previous one and that those represented by the third and fourth soils both believe and persevere.
Luke 8:12 proves that even those who fall away remain eternally secure.
John 4:13-15. The Lord Jesus offered the woman at a well something that He called living water. It was better than the water she was drawing from Jacob’s well. That water required continuous drawing and drinking for ongoing quenching of one’s thirst. But one drink of the living water Jesus promised, and one would never thirst again. It would spring up into everlasting life (v 14).
The woman understood that one drink of the living water would result in permanent thirst quenching. But she was thinking in terms of physical water and physical thirst. That is why she said, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw” (John 4:15). In John 6:35, the Lord reiterated that drinking the living water refers to believing in Him and that the result is being eternally secure: “He who believes in Me shall never thirst.” In Greek, the words never thirst actually mean never thirst! You don’t have to know Greek to believe in eternal security.
Beware of the Calvinist understanding of the Preservation of the Saints. It is not an antinomy as Steele, Thomas, and Quinn suggest (p. 149). They say that preservation for those who persevere is “an antinomy (two teachings which appear contradictory to the human mind, but which in God’s mind are not in tension)” (p. 149). No. These two teachings are contradictory. One is either eternally secure apart from perseverance, or one is not yet eternally secure. Eternal security is not conditioned upon perseverance in faith and good works. If it is conditioned upon our perseverance, then it is not yet secure, and it is not by faith alone, apart from works.
Keep grace in focus and you’ll know that you are eternally secure whether you persevere or not.
