PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS

 

PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS

For anyone holding to the doctrine of unconditional election that is based on the belief that we were saved before the foundation of the world, while those who are condemned have no hope, because they were predestined to everlasting punishment, there is no need for perseverance. This idea of perseverance is an oxymoron; that is, it is contradictory because there is nothing to persevere for—if true—eternal life has already been granted. What is there for those who have already been predestined as members of the elect to attain? There is nothing to seek or pursue or attain to, if they already have eternal life; for if the doctrine of unconditional election is not a false teaching—which it is—they have been saved by grace alone.

One can only think that the reason that this doctrine could have been dreamed up is to make it look like people are actually saved, and because of this, they have a purpose in doing some good works. Many atheists point out that they are better than most Christians because they are more noble in intent when it comes to doing good works. Similarly, many claiming to be Christians who are members of the Reformed movement have a good works agenda.

In a study of educated people and their religious propensities, research within the United States has revealed, somewhat surprisingly for secularists, that educated people are more religious than thought.[1] What is noticeable is they are attracted to denominations that espouse the Calvinist view or congregations that are more inclined towards TULIP. Not all denominations insist that congregations adhere to teachings other than what are known as the essentials.

The most essential teaching is Jesus Christ is the preexistent Son of God, through Whom all things came into existence. In human form, Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, and having not sinned, was crucified on the Cross of Calvary, only to rise from the dead three days later, victorious over sin and death. Since the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit has been bestowed upon all who believe so they becomd members of the Body of Christ, who will be received in glory by the resurrection of the just at the Second Advent, when Lord Jesus Christ returns to rule the Earth.

Anybody can give lip service to the above teaching and be declared a believer. Many congregations exist as part of a denomination or movement that acknowledge the above essential teaching, but then teach other ideas that are not truly biblical, because they are propositional assumptions that are purported to be true, as is the case with the TULIP doctrines.

The idea of unconditional election appeals to people whose only interest in attending church is for any reason other than genuinely seeking God.  To quote the report from the research into educated people and their religious propensities:

“It all falls down to what you consider to be religious,” said Schwadel, an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “If it’s simply attending religious services, then no. Highly educated people are not less religious; in fact, they’re more religious.”[2]

In another article discussing why intelligent people are less likely to be religious, the author concludes that social environment is the major reason for not attending church. While secular thinking academics interpret the drift of the more educated away from attending church as people seeing reason, this is because of their own presuppositions. Meanwhile, one researcher, looking for other reasons than personal rejection of religion, has observed a correlation with peer group influence. The view is expressed that intelligent people reject religion because they are influenced by their social environments to consider it to be wrong.[3]—So much for the so-called critical thinking that the intelligentsia are supposed to possess.

What appears to be overlooked is when one does not think for oneself and is influenced by others; this demonstrates a lack of intelligence. We are encouraged to reason with God (Isaiah 1:18) but this is overlooked by people who are indoctrinated by the education system and mistake intelligence for the regurgitation of ideas. Those who think that there has to be a Creator, but are influenced by secular environments to be socially aware of their status as professionals, are less likely to be found in a Pentecostal congregation. Therefore rather than seek God, being part of a denomination that holds to a philosophy consisting of supposed theological propositional truths, rather than atheistic reasons for existence, has appeal—especially the idea of being saved by grace. Hence, many of the participants, who sit in on religious services, are comfortable with the TULIP worldview. This is because perseverance is not really about struggling to be anointed or appointed by Jesus Christ to become a fruit-bearer for the Kingdom of God. Perseverance from a Calvinist perspective is about infallible grace, eternal security, the impossibility of losing salvation (for once we are saved we are always saved), and demonstrating to the those who do not belong to the club how much superior they are as people.

Those who adhere to this belief, believe that they possess the guarantee of their inheritance because they have been sprinkled with water, or baptized, or take communion or have become a church member. They believe that believing that God recognizes them simply because they are listed as church members—no one can cause them to lose their eternal security and have their name removed from the Book of Life. Even though this implies that, regardless of what people do, they cannot lose their salvation, they will be told they must be faithful to the end; this is because church attendance is important. Hypocrisy, of course, abounds even more—and this sounds very much like Judaism at the time of Jesus.

The number of people who have rejected attending church because of religious hypocrisy is high. (I was one of those people myself, but I would not judge people now, even if comments in this book are barbed and challenging, as I have since found Jesus Christ in person and He alone is the judge.) In addition, the idea that we can sin and it does not really matter is implicit in the teachings of unconditional salvation (that is, unconditional election) and forms part of this teaching of the perseverance of the saints. However, such an explicit declaration would be contrary to the gospel, so a charade is maintained and adherents are encouraged to refrain from loose living and worldliness.

For those who do take the commitment to remain faithful until the end, self-righteousness often becomes a problem as they perform their good works. Good works, and concepts that are false, lead people to being self-righteous; or, more to the point, the self-righteous are attracted to good works and propositional truths masquerading as the real deal.

Sincere people, who like to please their fellows, are always susceptible to deception. The more schooled people are in conceptualizing intellectual ideas, the easier they are to deceive when it comes to theoretical matters that sound plausible. Hence, a girl might be looking for some meaning in life and when presented with the idea of God being true rather than not true, because of environmental influences, she attends a TULIP church, which may be Baptist, but definitely Reformed, or one of the mainline protestant or evangelical churches, other than those influenced by Wesley. Instead of continuing to seek Jesus, the person is told that because she has confessed her belief in Him, she is saved (chosen before the foundation of the world, just like the Calvinist pastor advocates). From that time on, she will become encouraged to read the Bible and understand the propositional truths about God being a judge, who is angry at sin and the unrighteous, which forms part of the doctrine of total depravity. The person will also learn that she is saved by God’s grace because she is part of the elect, and as such, she was predestined to be chosen before the foundation of the world. She will be told God hates people like Esau before they are born, but not those who have responded to His irresistible grace. This person will feel so privileged to have been chosen before the foundation of the world to be part of the elect—the fact that Jesus only died for her sins is all that really matters. The doctrine of limited atonement is usually not questioned, as like the doctrine of unconditional election, this is not mentioned much from the pulpit. The wrath of God on the sinner, the irresistible grace of God and the need to persevere to the end are more likely mentioned; with total depravity and perseverance thumped the most. The person ends up believing that she is saved and it does not matter whether she tells other people, since God knows who is going to be saved, and she can continue to persevere in her Westernized, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratized (WEIRD) way.

Cognitive dissonance is often the result of the TULIP doctrines. A woman might become a member of a congregation that adheres to these teachings; only to find that she is serving an angry God; one who hates sin and expects her to do better. The result is she has high ideals, conceptually, but in practice, she is always failing. Eventually, she becomes depressed and, spends much of the rest of her life visiting the doctors for medication to help her depression. However, having been indoctrinated that God is the Creator, and strong in her views, she will defend them and proclaim that beliefs such as the Bible is the Living Word of God, and if the word “blood” were taken out of the Bible, it would lose its efficacy to bring people to the knowledge of salvation and improve their lot in life. She is told reading the Bible is essential if she is to have a relationship with God and possess the knowledge and truth about salvation. Only because she is a sinner, her thoughts and ways can never be God’s ways, all she can do is persevere in her struggle against sin, even though she has been chosen in Jesus before the foundation of the world. She believes this, because Jesus told His disciples, the Twelve, that He had chosen them and one of them was a devil (John 6:70). Subconsciously, she sometimes wonders if the Devil is herself. She is chosen, yet she sees herself unworthy of God and He does not answer her prayers.  She prays for many situations in the world, and ironically, she is encouraged to be pray for the lost; but her prayers seem in vain. Still God’s infallible grace covers her, but most of the time the struggle seems futile, for her depression reigns.

Many of the preachers in churches, majoring on the doctrines of depravity and perseverance, find there is sufficient to preach about, because the world is depraved and sin is easily spotted, but persevere the church attendee must. Every week many go to hear what they call the Word of God; a homily about the evils of the world, and the good grace of God towards each one of them, the saints. Also they are told how they are eternally secure in the arms of Jesus, chosen and precious—which is a marvelous position to be in, if true, for each person possesses the joy of salvation (cf. Ps. 51:12;John 15:11; 16:24;17:13).

There will be exhortations about how they ought to attend church regularly, perform tasks, and assume responsibilities within the congregation, if they are to honor their commitment to the word of God. Yet there is a lack of warmth among the people and there is often a sterile atmosphere within the church (although, these days, efforts to greet and meet are encouraged more often than in the past, with some congregations having the sign of the peace, where they shake hands with the person next to them). Still, people find that no matter what they do, they believe they are in a battle between striving against sin and looking good in front of other people.

The irony of the doctrines of TULIP is those who espouse them believe in working out their own salvation. Like every false teaching, there has to be the appearance of truth, but the emphasis is always on the Scriptures that discourage true realization of each one’s personal obligation to diligently be seeking God’s rest—so we can rest from our labors, as the Creator of the Universe did from His (Hebrews 4:11).

The tragedy about these doctrines is many of those who believe in these heresies think that being totally depraved as sinners means they have to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling; only they cannot do this until their will is set free from bondage. Unfortunately, they are unable to do this because their hearts are deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9) and evil from their youth (Genesis 8:21). However, since they were chosen before the world by the unconditional election of God’s grace, and their sins have been covered by the blood of Jesus, which was predetermined to redeem the fall of Adam that God preordained (even though it was really freewill), the irresistible grace of God enables them to be born again into His Kingdom. Some believe that once born again, they can exercise their freewill to work out their own salvation, having been set free from the bondage of total depravity. But then they claim since they are sinners and cannot change their wicked ways, they have to persevere, for God is at work in them for His good pleasure. With fear and trembling, they will proclaim their belief in God, even though they know they will not change until they are resurrected from the dead.

The idea of the perseverance of the saints is a dangerous doctrine when presented within the context of the TULIP worldview, because it sets up people for failure. Instead of learning about faith—that is, how to grow in faith and have prayers answered—perseverance is about toughing it out: maybe God will answer prayers, maybe He will not, or maybe He is saying wait. (Atheist researchers using TULIP adherents and Roman Catholics enjoy pointing out how ineffective those who pray are found to be in studies designed to assess the efficacy of prayer.) Whereas those who are walking in faith, know where they stand with God and seek him out until they have the confidence that their prayers have been answered. Perseverance in obedience of faith is not the same as mere perseverance under the weight of grace without faith. True humility comes as we grow in faith, not on account of us needing more grace, because this suggests defeat and not victory. To quote the Apostle Paul:

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism to death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:1-4)

We are called to be victorious in our proclamation of emancipation; for according to the gospel of Lord Jesus Christ, the captive is set free. We are not called to lament that we are hopeless sinners undeserving of the favor of God, because our ways and thoughts are not His ways and thoughts. Without faith in Jesus, what we do is in vain. This faith only comes when we are baptized in the Holy Spirit and experience the joy of salvation, which is the guarantee of our eternal security.

This is not an intellectual concept. This is an experience of the reality of life in Christ Jesus; something which cannot be discovered if we are relying on God’s grace and not exercising faith. We are not saved by grace alone. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and not of works, least any man should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Ironically, the doctrine of “Perseverance of the Saints” produces people attempting to curry favor with God through good works, as they have not received a new heart (Ez. 18:31; 36:26; Ps. 51:10; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). They recognize that the Bible states that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 23) and are deceitful, evil creatures that have nothing but unrighteous thoughts (Gen. 6:5; Isaiah 55:10; Mk 7:21). They just do not see how they themselves can become a new creation.

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[1] People tend to become less religious as they become more educated, right? Not necessarily, according to a new study.

After analyzing data from a large national survey, University of Nebraska-Lincoln sociologist Philip Schwadel found that people actually tend to become more religious - by some definitions, at least - as they further their education.

“It all falls down to what you consider to be religious,” said Schwadel, an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “If it’s simply attending religious services, then no. Highly educated people are not less religious; in fact, they’re more religious.”

“But if it’s saying the Bible is the literal word of God and saying that only one religion is the true religion, then they are less religious,” he continued.

Schwadel used data from the highly regarded General Social Survey, a cumulative and nationally representative survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago biannually since 1972. (Study: More educated tend to be more religious, by some measures) By Jim Kavanagh, CNN http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/11/study-more-educated-tend-to-be-more-religious-by-some-measures/ —retrieved Dec. 3 2014.

[2] ibid

[3] Monge. Jordan. Why Intelligent People Are Less Likely To Be Religious. Christianity Today http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/august-web-only/brains-and-belief-arent-mutually-exclusive.html  —retrieved Dec. 3 2014