Advocates of the doctrine of perseverance teach that believers must persevere to the end in holiness of character, love for God and the brethren, and belief in the doctrines of Scripture to prove they were saved. Perseverance is the “P” in the TULIP acronym for five-point Calvinism:
Total depravity
Unconditional election
Limited atonement
Irresistible Grace (or efficacious grace) in contrast to prevenient grace in Arminianism
Perseverance of the saints (not preservation)
On the other hand, proponents of the doctrine of preservation teach that God keeps the believer saved even if he does not persevere to the end of his Christian life in holiness, love, and truth. Not enduring to the end is not normal for believers but there are examples in Scripture of believers who walked not with God at the end of their lives in holiness, love, and truth. Both views believe in eternal security for believers. That is not the issue.
I was in the camp of perseverance for years. I attended Reformed Theological Seminary for the D.Min. degree. All of my professors were Presbyterian and Reformed in their theology. After restudying 1 John I was persuaded that preservation is the biblical doctrine. Only after much study did come to this position.
Neither of these views believes that Christians can lose their salvation. The doctrine of perseverance is the teaching that if a professing believer doesn’t endure to the end, then that professor was never a true believer in the first place. Those who teach preservation would say, that it is very possible for deceived unsaved religious people not to endure, but it is also possible that true believers, in some rare cases, not to persevere to the end.
Charles Ryrie addresses this issue: “To be sure, believers sin and are warned against false profession and Christian immaturity, but God never takes back the gift of his salvation once it is received. Believers will not always persevere in godliness …. Lot did not (2 Pet. 2:7). At the Judgment Seat of Christ here will be some whose works will be burned and who will be saved through fire (1 Cor. 3:15)” (Charles Ryrie, Basic Theology, 384).
Thomas Constable commenting in Netbible.org on 1 John 2:23, 24 presents the doctrine of preservation: “John warned his readers [who were believers] of the danger of apostasy, namely, forsaking truth to embrace error.”
Stephen Smalley also taught the doctrine of preservation in interpreting 1 John 2:24: “John’s warning against sin, and the failure to maintain orthodox faith (2:24; 2 John 8-9), shows that while he expected his readers to walk in the light as sons of God (1:7; vv 8-9), he did not ignore the possibility that some believing but heretically inclined members of his community might become apostate” (Smalley, Stephen S. 1, 2, 3 John. Word Biblical Commentary series. Waco: Word Books, 1984, 299).
John MacArthur strongly disagrees: “No one who professes to believe the gospel but then permanently abandons the faith possesses eternal faith … only those who remain faithful to the Lord and His Word, and give evidence of the fruits of righteousness by the indwelling power and presence of the Spirit are truly saved” (The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, 1-3 John, 112).
John Murray also expresses the reformed doctrine of perseverance clearly: “The crucial test of true faith is endurance to the end, abiding in Christ, continuance in his Word … the believer cannot abandon himself to sin; he cannot come under the dominion of sin, he cannot be guilty of certain kinds of unfaithfulness: (Redemption-Accomplished and Applied, p. 152).
Lordship Salvation front-loads the gospel with works of submission
Most teachers of perseverance advocate also Lordship Salvation. Joseph Dillow, however, describes Lordship Salvation as front-loading the gospel with works of submission.
For example, John MacArthur writes “Those who teach that obedience and submission are extraneous to saving faith are forced to make a firm but unbiblical distinction between salvation and discipleship … Are we to believe that when Jesus told the multitudes to deny themselves (Luke 14:26), to take up a cross (v. 27), and to forsake all and follow Him (v. 33), His words had no meaning whatsoever for the unsaved people in the crowd?” (The Gospel According to Jesus, page 30).
The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints backloads the gospel with perseverance or works
Joseph Dillow next describes the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints as backloading the gospel with perseverance or works. Dillow quotes several reformed writers who backload the gospel with persevering works: “Arthur Pink has maintained that God requires that true Christians must “‘Keep themselves’ or risk eternal damnation.” John Owen wrote, “Yet our own diligent endeavor is such an indispensable means for that end, as that without it, it will not be brought about … unless we use our diligent endeavors, we cannot be saved” (Joseph Dillow, The Reign of the Servant King, 12).
Scripture does not front-load the gospel with works nor backload the gospel with works. There is only one means of salvation and that one means is “by grace through faith not of works” (Ephesians 2:8. 9).
What is the origin of the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints?
Joseph Dillow writes that John Calvin answered by criticizing Roman Catholics who claimed that faith alone salvation produced moral laxity:
Calvin went beyond the Scripture and taught that the gospel will necessarily and inevitably guarantee a life of holiness. The subtle change in the gospel was readily accepted by the Reformers because it completely negated the Catholic attack. When a person who claimed to be a Christian and yet was living a carnal life was set up by the Catholics as an example of the product of Reformation theology, the Reformers could now simply say he was not a Christian at all (Joseph Dillow, The Reign of the Servant King, 9).
When a person who claimed to be a Christian and yet was living a carnal life was set up by the Catholics as an example of the product of Reformation theology, the Reformers could now simply say he was not a Christian at all. If he was, he would not live like that.
The interpretation of 1 and 2 John in reference to perseverance
Reformed theologians use First John to teach the Perseverance of the Saints. The Reformed theologians say 1 John 5:13 is the theme verse of the book, which says John wrote 1st John to give tests for assurance of salvation.
If a believer passes these tests he has salvation and therefore can have assurance. The three tests are 1) Love for the brethren, 2) Obedience to God’s commands, and 3) Belief in the doctrines of Scripture. A person who is saved will persevere in love to the end of his life as well as in obedience to the Word of God and belief in the doctrines of Scripture. If he doesn’t persevere to the end of his life with these virtues then he was not really saved. His profession of salvation was false according to the doctrine of perseverance.
There are Christians in Scripture who did not persevere to the end
Paul warned the Corinthians that there will be believers at the Judgment Seat who will be empty-handed with no rewards (1 Cor 3:12—15). These believers did not persevere in obedience to God’s Word.
In the church at Corinth, believers died prematurely because of their abuse of the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:30). They did not persevere in holiness or obedience to God’s Word.
What about Lot who according to 2 Peter 2:7-8 was righteous? The last part of Lot’s life was that of getting drunk and committing incest with his daughters in Genesis 19:33-38. Lot did not persevere to the end in holiness.
John in 1 John 5:16 writes about the sin unto death that a “brother” can commit: “If any man sees his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death.” The believer who commits the “sin unto death” does not persevere unto the end.
How would a teacher of perseverance interpret 1 John 5:16?
In reference to the sin unto death, John R. W. Stott writes, “A further question is whether the sin that leads to death can be committed by those who are truly God’s children… A number of scholars have tried to show that this could not have been John’s meaning. Thus it has been argued that the people in question had merely masqueraded as believers but had never at any point truly believed in Jesus. Consequently, the sin that leads to death is to be understood as a sin of unbelievers which believers cannot in principle commit (The Epistles of John. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries series. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1964, 186-191).
Howard I. Marshall disagrees, “However, this point must remain doubtful. The fact that John needed to warn his readers against the possibility of sinning and failing to continue in the truth and in the doctrine of Christ (2:24; 2 Jn. 7-11) suggests that he did not altogether exclude the possibility that a person might fall away from his faith into apostasy [cf. Heb. 6:4-6; 10:26-31]. Nevertheless, it was his clear expectation that his readers would continue in their faith without falling away from it” (The Epistles of John. New International Commentary on the New Testament series. Reprint ed. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1984, 249-250).
Advocates of the perseverance of the saints say 1 John 5:13 is the theme of 1 John which gives tests for assurance of salvation. They say when John wrote “These things have I written” he is referring to all evidence of salvation for assurance that John presents in the entire epistles that believers must possess to the end. However, John uses “these things have I written unto you” three times in his Epistles.
When John writes in 5:13 “these things have I written unto” he is not referring to the entire epistle but to the immediate context in 5:9-12 which says our assurance is based on God’s promise of salvation to those who have believed in Jesus for eternal life.
He does the same in 2:26 where he refers to “these things” as what he has written in 2:18-15 concerning false teachers that believers should avoid.
He does the same thing in 2:1 when he also wrote “these things write I unto you” where he refers to what he has written in 1:5-10 concerning sin in the life of a believer not assurance of salvation.
We know we have eternal life in 5:13 because of God’s promises in 5:9-12. We cannot base our assurance on spiritual fruit, love for the brethren, because we don’t always produce this spiritual fruit.
We, Christians, don’t always love as John acknowledges in 2:9. Sometimes a believer can “hate his brother.” When a professing Christian hates another Chrisitan does that mean he is not saved? No! It means he is out of fellowship with God who is light. To walk in darkness is to walk in sin and not fellowship, as John explained 1:5-7. Walking in the light is evidence of fellowship, not salvation.
In 3:11-18, John warns if we hate our brother we are out of fellowship with God who is love.
John says, “we know that we have passed from death into life because we love the brethren” (3:14). What does “know” mean? To know God is to know Him intimately as Paul wrote in Philippians 3:10: “That I may know him…”
The actual theme verses for 1 John are found at the beginning of the book in 1:3, 4. The theme of 1 John is not assurance of salvation but fellowship with God.
The tests in 1st John are tests of fellowship. If a believer loves God and his brother he is in fellowship with God. If he stops loving doesn’t mean he loses his salvation or is not saved, it means he loses his fellowship.
Those who teach perseverance of the saints say the Christian experience is the basis of our assurance. We are saved if we love, if we obey, and if we believe. The problem is we believers do not always love God and His children, we don’t always obey God’s Word, and we don’t always believe.
Look at John’s warning in 2 John 7-11.
The context is false teachers in verse 7. Right after this warning about false teachers, he commands believers “Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.” Notice John says it is possible for a believer to listen to and respond to false teachers and to lose their rewards, not their salvation. Jesus gave a similar warning in Mark 13:22-23 to his disciples. John in 2 John 8 used the same verb βλέπω translated as “take heed.” Jesus in Mark 13:23 also used βλέπω “watch” regarding false teachers. In both cases, believers are warned not to be influenced by false teachers because the possibility is real.
Then in verse 9, John continues warning believers about false teaching: “Whosoever transgresses and abides not in the doctrine of Christ has not God.” This believer who is no longer abiding by the doctrine of Christ does not have God’s blessing of fellowship in his life.
Thomas Constable wrote in his comments on 2 John 9: “John warned his readers of the danger of apostasy, namely, forsaking truth to embrace error” (cf. 1 John 2:23-24). For example, some genuine Christians have denied Christ, to avoid martyrdom, (Thomas Constable).
What about professing believers who no longer live for God?
In the context of this subject, the question is usually raised “What about a friend of mine who made a profession of faith when he was a teenager and lived fervently for God for several years but now no longer believes the truth? Does the doctrine of preservation mean my friend will be kept saved by God even though he did not persevere?
God’s Word teaches that when we trust Christ “we are a new creation, old things are passed away, behold, all things become new.” Most likely this friend was never saved or God would have dealt with him like the believers at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 11. The writer of Hebrews 12:6 warned:
My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
Bart Ehrman made a profession of faith as a teen but eventually became an atheist who now tries to persuade his listeners that God doesn’t exist and that His Word is untrue. In my opinion, Ehrman is not an example of a believer who did not endure to the end with belief in the doctrines of Scripture. There is no evidence of chastening. Ehrman has made a false profession and now he is manifesting he was never made “a new creation.”
We who teach the doctrine of preservation do not teach cheap grace, easy believism, or antinomianism. There can be severe consequences to not fellowshipping with Christ as just noted. We are Biblists who believe sinners are saved by grace through faith and not by work at the beginning nor the end of salvation.