Category: Issues

various issues within fundamentalism specifically or evangelicalism as a whole

Interpreting Augustine: Was He "Reformed"?

~ fundyreformed ~ 8 Comments

augustine_wikipic.jpgA recent post of mine on Augustine spawned a debate concerning Augustine’s views on predestination. Someone asked if I knew what Augustine really believed on grace and free will. He had read a former Reformed Protestant turned Catholic who claimed Augustine actually taught what Catholics affirm. Of course, Calvin and Luther must have been mistaken in their reading of Augustine, then.

I was hesitant to discuss the matter since radical claims made by a single author are often just speculation. Yet my blogging friend John Chitty opened up the standard Catholic encyclopedia and was surprised at what he found. He posted a quote which he says claims Augustine affirmed prescience, that God foresaw all possibilities and elected in such a way as to conform to one set of possibilities which He wanted and simultaneously did not interfere with man’s free will.

I told John I didn’t think that quote exactly asserts that Augustine held to prescience. Upon reading more closely from that Catholic encyclopedia, it is apparent the quote is the Encyclopedia’s not Augustine’s. And they are arguing for a specific interpretation of Augustine. Still though, how could they claim Augustine on this view, if he was so surely Reformed as Protestants would claim?

The Dilemma

I rummaged through several online articles looking for some light on this question. In the introduction to The Cambridge Companion to Augustine (only the intro is available online) I found the following assessment which speaks to our problem.

The next chapter, my “Augustine on free will,” is concerned with Augustine’s struggle to understand the nature of the freedom to be found in the will. There is widespread controversy over this part of Augustine’s thought, so much so that it is sometimes hard to believe the participants in the controversy can be reading the same texts of Augustine’s. I argue that part of the problem stems from the fact that contemporary theories about free will have formed the lenses through which scholars have read Augustine’s texts, and that these theories are inadequate to capture his position…. (emphasis added)

Part of the confusion stems from the fact that Augustine was often writing in response to heresies. His statements on free will directed against the Manichees will look different than those directed against Pelagius. Yet each is a response and so is not his full orbed view, necessarily.

“Extreme” on Predestination

So this explains that we are right to be puzzling over this, but it doesn’t help solve our dilemma. However, it is fairly mainstream to understand Augustine as being extreme in his views on predestination. Consider the following.

Even those who most usually agree with his theological standpoint will hardly deny that, while he did much in these writings to vindicate divine truth and to expound the true relations of the divine and human, he also, here as elsewhere, was hurried into extreme expressions as to the absoluteness of divine grace and the extent of human corruption. — 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

Though revering Augustine, many theologians have refused to accept his more extreme statements on grace. — Columbia Encyclopedia

While Augustine’s massive influence on Christian thought has mainly been for the good, his teaching on Predestination has been rightly criticized. Although he has always been regarded as the Doctor of Grace, he developed an obsessive concern with the massa peccati and the massa damnata which led to a Predestinarian pessimism which consigned unbaptized infants and others to eternal perdition. — The Dictionary of Saints (as seen at Answers.com)

While Augustine argued for predestination, he seems not to have held to a rigid double predestination view that John Calvin had. He does speak of the non-elect as “predestined to punishment”, yet this is viewed passively [see the section on double predestination here]. The Philosophy Dictionary (as seen at Answers.com) claims Augustine held to “the predestination of the elect” yet “It was left to Calvinism to add the predestination of the damned”.

Augustine’s Unique Approach

In his excellent article (replete with quotes) “Augustine’s Framing of the Predestination Debate”, Greg Johnson points out that Augustine approached the question of predestination differently than most Reformed people do today.

For some modern Augustinians, the doctrine of election is an outgrowth of theology proper, a necessary corollary to the sovereignty of God. The emphasis with this approach falls on an eternal decree from all eternity determining two vehicles through which God’s glory should be displayed, the elect and the reprobate, the fall being decreed as a means toward this end. Thus the question is framed in light of eternity. For others, the question is framed in light of God’s providential outworking in history, God working all things together for the good of His elect, so as to provide the instrumentality necessary to induce faith. Here the question is framed in light of divine providence. But Augustine takes neither of these approaches. The question of predestination is not primarily one of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Rather, Augustine frames the question of predestination in light of the believers experience of grace in light of man’s fall. When Augustine considers the effects of Adam’s sin upon his posterity, the Christian’s experience of grace becomes the integrating point for Augustine’s doctrine of election. Within Augustine’s affectional theology, predestination explains the believer’s change in affections, the grace to love God being given to one and not to another.

This I’m sure makes it more difficult to understand Augustine’s true position, since he is looking at the problem differently than most moderns.

Free Will yet Fettered Affections

Another hindrance to interpreting Augustine is his distinction between free will and liberty. R.C. Sproul expounds on this point in his helpful book Willing to Believe: The Controversy over Free Will.

At times Augustine seems to deny all freedom to the will of fallen man. In The Enchiridion, for example, he writes: “…when man by his own free-will sinned, then sin being victorious over him, the freedom of his will was lost.”

How can we square this statement with Augustine’s insistence elsewhere that man always has freedom of the will? Some critics of Augustine think that anyone who attempts to resolve this difficulty is on a fool’s errand. They assert that Augustine simply hardened his position in his later years in light of the Pelagian crisis and contradicted his earlier teaching.

To square the problem let us look at two matters. The first is Augustine’s crucial distinction between free will (liberum arbitrium) and liberty (libertas)…. When he speaks of free will, he means the ability to choose without external constraining.

The sinner sins because he chooses to sin, not because he is forced to sin…. He is in bondage to his own sinful influences. To escape this bondage the sinner must be liberated by the grace of God. For Augustine the sinner is both free and in bondage at the same time, but not in the same sense. He is free to act according to his own desires, but his desires are only evil…. This corruption greatly affects the will, but it does not destroy it as a faculty of choosing. (Willing to Believe, pg. 68)

The Triumph of Grace

With man’s will thus enslaved to his desires, God must triumph through grace. God gives the new desires which free man’s will to trust and believe Christ. Greg Johnson provides a helpful quote by Augustine on this point.

We, however, on our side affirm that the human will is so divinely aided in the pursuit of righteousness, that (in addition to man’s being created with a free will, and in addition to the teaching by which he is instructed how he ought to live) he receives the Holy Ghost, by whom there is formed in his mind a delight in, and a love of, that supreme and unchangeable good which is God.

R.C. Sproul adds this quote which should put the question of whether Augustine is “Reformed” in his beliefs, to rest.

When, therefore, He predestinated us, He foreknew His own work by which He makes us holy and immaculate. He, therefore, worketh the beginning of our belief who worketh all things; because faith itself does not precede that calling…. For He chose us, not because we believed, but that we might believe…. Neither are we called because we believed, but that we may believe; and by that calling which is without repentance it is effected and carried through that we should believe. (Augustine, On the Predestination of the Saints, translated by R.E. Wallis, 1:810-11; quoted in Willing to Believe, pg. 66)

In conclusion, let me stress this is not the definitive answer regarding Augustine. I don’t profess that all of his views are correct on this issue. He may well have held to some form of prescience as he sought to explain and harmonize his views on free will and predestination. Yet he was clearly “Reformed” in his predestination views. I should stress that I do strongly object to many of Augustine’s other positions (for more on that see my previous article). But I am thankful for his influential teaching on predestination. Calvin and Luther would likely say the same.

picture above is Botticelli’s depiction of Augustine from Wikipedia

Legacy of Sovereign Joy, cont.

~ Bob Hayton ~ 11 Comments

This is the second part of a review of John Piper’s The Legacy of Sovereign Joy: God’s Triumphant Grace in the Lives of Augustine, Luther, and Calvin. Piper’s book is less a detailed biography and more a pastoral treatment of the lives of great saints. Augustine, Luther and Calvin—great men indeed in the history of the Church—yet each is human, and Piper shows us how they ticked, and why their lives shined for Christ.

Each of these men had flaws. We looked briefly at Augustine’s in part 1, and we cannot escape Luther’s. But God’s grace met these flawed men in such a way as to transform the world through them. With God still moving today, we can look to the lives of these men and find hope that God may stoop to use us, frail and human though we be.

Luther

Luther was a passionate and very emotional man. He lived in a harsh world, and was hounded on all sides as he helped lead one of the world’s true and great reformations. Perhaps this explains Luther’s harsh tongue. At times crude and almost vulgar, Luther knew how to use his tongue, and how to put his words down on paper. Piper does not try to explain away Luther’s tendency to be mean with his opponents, and he rightly calls “Luther’s sometimes malicious anti-Semitism” as “an inexcusable contradiction of the Gospel he preached” (Legacy, pg. 31).

Yet for all of Luther’s faults, he singlehandedly gave us the Reformation. And central to the Reformation stands the authority of the Bible, unfettered by church tradition. Luther in many ways recovered the true Scripture, which had been lost and obscured through Roman tradition and general neglect.

Luther prized Scripture since “the Holy Spirit himself and God…is the Author of this book” (quoted in Legacy, pg.78). He further said, “The Word of God is the greatest, most necessary, and most important thing in Christendom” (quoted in Legacy, pg. 79). The following comments on Psalm 119 show why Luther felt this way:

In this psalm David always says that he will speak, think, talk, hear, read, day and night and constantly—but about nothing else than God’s Word and Commandments. For God wants to give you His Spirit only through the external Word. (quoted in Legacy, pg. 78)

Piper draws from Luther’s emphasis on the Word, as well as his example of rigorous study of the Word, and encourages pastors to be students of Scripture:

The Word of God that saves and sanctifies, from generation to generation, is preserved in a book. And therefore at the heart of every pastor’s work is bookwork. Call it reading, meditation, reflection, cogitation, study, exegesis, or whatever you will—a large and central part of our work is to wrestle God’s meaning from a book, and then to proclaim it in the power of the Holy Spirit. (Piper in Legacy, pg. 79).

As one who preached often 2 or more times a day, Luther has much to say to today’s pastor. And Piper distills six primary lessons for the Pastor and his study from Luther’s life.

  1. Luther came to elevate the biblical text itself far above the teachings of commentators or church fathers.
  2. This radical focus on the text of Scripture itself with secondary literature in secondary place leads Luther to an intense and serious grappling with the very words of Paul and the other biblical writers.
  3. The power and preciousness of what Luther saw when he “beat importunately” upon Paul’s language convinced him forever that reading Greek and Hebrew was one of the greatest privileges and responsibilities of the Reformation preacher.
  4. Luther employed extraordinary diligence in spite of tremendous obstacles.
  5. For Luther, trials make a theologian. Temptation and affliction are the hermeneutical touchstones.
  6. Key to Luther are prayer and reverent dependence on the all-sufficiency of God. And here the theology and methodology of Luther become almost identical.

This last point is key. For all the emphasis on mental rigors and study, Luther remains like Augustine, dependent on a Sovereign God. Christian, faithful pastors study hard, but are often on their knees. I close with a final quote from Luther, let it encourage all of us to use this study method more often.

You should completely despair of your own sense and reason, for by these you will not attain the goal…. Rather kneel down in your private little room and with sincere humility and earnestness pray God, through His dear Son, graciously to grant you His Holy Spirit to enlighten and guide you and give you understanding. (quoted in Legacy, pg. 108)

This book is available for purchase at the following sites: Amazon.com or direct from Crossway.

Daily Devotions with Octavius Winslow

~ Bob Hayton

Most of you have heard of Morning & Evening by Charles Spurgeon. It is a compilation of devotional readings for morning and evening reading by the prince of preachers. While Spurgeon’s readings are excellent [I recommend the revised edition edited by Alistair Begg recently published by Crossway], he wasn’t the first to come up with the idea of a book of morning and evening devotional thoughts. Octavius Winslow (1808-1878), an English Baptist pastor, likewise published Morning Thoughts and Evening Thoughts.

Winslow (read this brief biographical sketch about him) has a gift for writing powerful, and spiritually moving devotional literature. His morning and evening thoughts are as good as Spurgeon’s if not better.

Like Spurgeon’s, Winslow’s devotions are also available for free online. You can click here for a list of all his books available online, or click these links for the specific devotional: Morning Thoughts, Evening Thoughts. For a sampling of Winslow’s writing, browse through the devotional thoughts above or click here for a collection of his best quotes.

I would encourage you to take the time to read one of Winslow’s devotional thoughts each day, even as you blog and do other things on line. I am going to try to do that, to make sure I’m feeding my soul, not just my brain. You may also find this article about Winslow and his works from The Shepherd’s Scrapbook helpful.

Let me leave you with a selection from earlier this week that I thought was especially good.

SEPTEMBER 1.

“He restores my soul.” Psalm 23:3

THE first point we would look at is the love of the Lord Jesus in restoring a wandering believer. Nothing but infinite, tender, unchanging love could prompt Him to such an act. There is so much of black ingratitude, so much of deep turpitude, in the sin of a believer’s departure from the Lord, that, but for the nature of Christ’s love, there could be no possible hope of His return. Now this costly love of Christ is principally seen in His taking the first step in the restoring of the soul: the first advance is on the part of the Lord. There is no more self-recovery after, than there is before, conversion; it is entirely the Lord’s work. The same state of mind, the same principle, that led to the first step in declension from God, leads on to each successive one; until, but for restraining and restoring grace, the soul would take an everlasting farewell of God. But mark the expression of David”””He restores my soul.” Who? He of whom he speaks in the first verse as his Shepherd”””The Lord is my Shepherd.” It is the Shepherd that takes the first step in the recovery of the wandering sheep. If there is one aspect in the view of this subject more touching than another, it is this””that such should be the tender, unchanging love of Jesus towards His wandering child, He should take the first step in restoring him. Shall an offended, insulted Sovereign make the first move towards conciliating a rebellious people?””that Sovereign is Jesus: shall an outraged Father seek His wandering child, and restore him to His affections and His house?””that Father is God. Oh, what love is that which leads Jesus in search of His wandering child! love that will not let him quite depart; love that yearns after him, and seeks after him, and follows after him through all his devious way, his intricate wanderings, and far-off departures; love that no unkindness has been able to cool, no forgetfulness has been able to weaken, no distance has been able to destroy!

Not less conspicuous is the power of Jesus in the restoring of the soul. “He restores my soul,”””He, the omnipotent Shepherd. We want omnipotence to bring us back when we have wandered; nothing less can accomplish it. We want the same power that converted to re-convert; the power that created, to re-create us: this power Jesus possesses. It was essential to the full salvation of His Church that He should have it; therefore, when praying to His Father, He says, “As You have given Him power over all flesh,”””why this power?”””that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.” It was necessary that He should have power over all flesh, yes, over all the powers leagued against the Church, that He should bring to glory all that were given to Him in the covenant of grace.

Now this power is gloriously exerted in the restoring of the soul. Jesus works in the believer, in order to his recovery. He breaks down the hard heart, arrests the soul in its onward progress of departure, places upon it some powerful check, lays it low, humbles, abases it, and then draws from it the blessed acknowledgment, “Behold, I am vile; but he restores my soul.”

“Legacy of Sovereign Joy: God’s Triumphant Grace in the Lives of Augustine, Luther, and Calvin” by John Piper

~ Bob Hayton ~ 13 Comments

I recently finished John Piper’s The Legacy of Sovereign Joy: God’s Triumphant Grace in the Lives of Augustine, Luther, and Calvin.

John Piper’s biographies are written with a pastor’s eye and so are more than just the story of a famous individual. Rather, they focus on how the person ticked, and how they lived for Jesus. This book looks at 3 great men in the history of the Church, and even though each man had serious flaws, Piper points out the evidences of God’s grace and how these men were used so mightily for God.

I am going to spread this review over 3 posts and look briefly at the lives of each character. May God bless us as we see Him in these men. [Update: I only did 2 posts, this one on Augustine and one on Luther. One day I may finish this series…]

Augustine

Augustine is a difficult character to study because he has been so influential in both the founding of Roman Catholicism, with its undue emphasis on sacraments and the Church, and the birth of the Reformation, with its praiseworthy emphasis on the authority of Scripture and salvation by grace through faith. In the eyes of many historians Augustine is the most influential figure in all of Church History after Christ and Paul. Benjamin Warfield helps us with this comment, “The Reformation, inwardly considered, was just the ultimate triumph of Augustine’s doctrine of grace over Augustine’s doctrine of the Church.” (quoted in Legacy pg. 25)

Many conservative Christians can not get past Augustine’s contribution to Roman Catholicism and so they have no appreciation for his life. What many do not know is that Augustine has one of the greatest stories of conversion in the history of the Church.

Despite the prayers and pleadings of his mother, Augustine started out on a life of sin. He studied philosophy and indulged in the pleasures of a mistress or concubine, living with the same woman for 15 years. In time God moved him from Carthage to Milan where he was influenced by the Christ-centered preaching of Ambrose. He came to understand and even intellectually believe in Christianity but could not submit to Christ due to his sexual passions. It will be best to let Augustine tell his own story:

I flung myself down beneath a fig tree and gave way to the tears which now streamed from my eyes…. In my misery I kept crying, “How long shall I go on saying ‘tomorrow, tomorrow’? Why not now? Why not make an end of my ugly sins at this moment?”… All at once I heard the singsong voice of a child in a nearby house. Whether it was the voice of a boy or a girl I cannot say, but again and again it repeated the refrain “Take it and read, take it and read.” At this I looked up, thinking hard whether there was any kind of game in which children used to chant words like these, but I could not remember ever hearing them before. I stemmed my flood of tears and stood up, telling myself that this could only be a divine command to open my book of Scripture and read the first passage on which my eyes should fall.

So I hurried back to the place where Alypius was sitting… seized [the book of Paul’s epistles] and opened it, and in silence I read the first passage on which my eyes fell: “Not in reveling and drunkenness, not in lust and wantonness, not in quarrels and rivalries. Rather, arm yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ; spend no more thought on nature and nature’s appetites” (Romans 13:13-14). I had no wish to read more and no need to do so. For in an instant, as I came to the end of the sentence, it was as though the light of confidence flooded into my heart and all the darkness of doubt was dispelled.

[quoted Legacy pg. 53 from Augustine’s Confessions pg. 177-178 (VIII, 12)]

After this experience, Augustine’s life was transformed, he submitted to baptism and eventually became a priest and then bishop of Hippo.

What Piper focuses on in this book is how Augustine said it was the superior joys of God which drove him from the “fruitless joys” of sin. God, to Augustine, was “sweeter than all pleasure”. Piper calls this the “liberating power of holy pleasure”. And even as he describes Augustine’s stalwart defense of sovereign grace against the threat of Pelagius (who denied original sin and claimed people could be saved apart from Christ), Piper highlights Augustine’s treatment of joy.

I would very much encourage you to read this book. And follow me in purposing to pick up Augustine’s Confessions and read his story from his own lips. Augustine should challenge us to be so satisfied and thrilled with God and “the joy of the Lord”, that we forsake all other joys to know Him more fully.

Let me leave you with a quote which summarizes Augustine’s joyful, God-centered theology.

A man’s free-will, indeed, avails for nothing except to sin, if he knows not the way of truth; and even after his duty and his proper aim shall begin to become known to him, unless he also take delight in and feel a love for it, he neither does his duty, nor sets about it, nor lives rightly. Now, in order that such a course may engage our affections, God’s “love is shed abroad in our hearts” not through the free-will which arises from ourselves, but “through the Holy Ghost, which is given to us” (Romans 5:5).

[quoted in Legacy 59-60]

See part 2 of this review.

This book is available for purchase at the following sites: Amazon.com or direct from Crossway.

Eternal Security: Perseverance or Preservation?

~ fundyreformed ~ 2 Comments

previously in this series–part 1, part 2, “The Sinner’s Prayer Problem” (part 3), part 4

This is my fifth post in a series on Man-Centered Christianity. Like post #3, this is an excersus or an aside. In the last post, I explained that the Once Saved, Always Saved (OSAS) view of eternal security has contributed to the spread of man-centered Christianity. In this post, I want to develop my view of eternal security a little further, before moving on.

There was a time when I had a list of verses in my soul-winner’s New Testament, which “proved” eternal security. Chief among them was John 10:28 (KJV) “And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”

Of course I still uphold this verse–it is quite precious. Jesus preserves His own. We are preserved, yet it is through faith (1 Pet. 1:3-5). God doesn’t preserve us apart from our faith (which is a gift from Him, actually).

The question in the title of this post is a little misleading. It isn’t perseverance or preservation. It’s both. The OSAS view majors on the one over and against the other. The Biblical position, in my view, is that God preserves us, but all true believers will persevere. And further, believers must persevere.

In discussing this, let me delve into a few passages at some length. Hopefully that will help explain this teaching, as well as validate it. (I know just how foreign this can sound to sincere, Bible-loving, yet steeped-in-tradition, people!)

1 Corinthians 9:23-10:14

I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers… all drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did…. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer…. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall…. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

If you didn’t read the above verses, please go back and read them. A clear theme should emerge. Serious sin, has eternal consequences. We know from Hebrews 3 & 4, that the people referred to as “overthrown in the wilderness”, were actually not elect, they were unsaved–full of unbelief. Paul uses their example to warn professing believers, including himself. We should all take heed lest we fall, especially if we think we stand. Notice also how specifically the OT people are said to have followed Christ, and put Christ to the test. This is not some stretch for Paul, this example fits us, who also follow Christ.

With this context, the ending verses of chapter 9 take greater focus. See how Paul is doing all things for all men, so that he “may share with them in [the gospel’s] blessings”? The blessings of the gospel are in view with the prize that we run to obtain. Again, the wreath (or crown) we are running to obtain is imperishable. The fierce concern Paul has to obtain this crown argues that it is not some optional extra, not merely “rewards”, but imperishable life–the blessing of the Gospel–itself. Notice also the word “disqualified”. Every other use of the word in the New Testament (Rom. 1:28; 2 Cor. 13:5,6,7; 2 Tim. 3:8; Tit. 1:16; & Heb. 6:8) is in the context of people apostasizing from Christianity altogether. The word was translated “reprobate” in the KJV. It carries the meaning of not passing the test. In the immediately following context, we should expect to understand that test not as one to see if we get an optional crown, but a test to see if we do not get “destroyed by the Destroyer”.

Philippians 3:7-14

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith–that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Notice the forceful and clear language here. Paul is saying he is suffering and fighting and giving everything up in order to gain Christ. This is not to gain extra rewards, or a more intimate knowledge of him. But Paul is presently counting everything as loss (notice the Greek present tense in verses 8ff., this connotes continual action) “in order to be found in him” with the righteousness that comes from God. That sounds like salvation. Notice also his words in vs. 11: he is striving if at all possible to “attain the resurrection from the dead”. Paul does not presume that because of past successes he certainly will reach the resurrection. He holds out the possiblilty that he might not make it at all. This is why he works so earnestly.

He could have said, so I might attain extra wonderful rewards for me. But he didn’t. He is saying he is working otwards the final consummation of his salvation. And he reitirates and stresses this point. “I haven’t already obtained this”, “I’m not already perfect”, “I am pressing forth to make this my own”, “I press toward the goal of the upward call”.

1 Timothy

For a fascinating study, trace each occurrance of the word “faith” in 1 Timothy, and see what Paul’s message about faith is, in that book. Consider his primary exhortations are for Timothy to have a “sincere faith” (1:5):

This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. (1:18-19a)

But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called…. (6:11-12a)

O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,” for by professing it some have swerved from the faith. (6:20-21a)

Do OSAS people talk like Paul does in saying “take hold of eternal life”? “Fight the good fight of faith”! Some might, but most don’t. They view saving faith in the past tense. Other kinds of faith are needed for victory, and other optional Christian experiences, but the fight of faith, whereby we lay hold on eternal life, doesn’t make sense in that theology.

And if that doesn’t make sense consider how often Paul, in this one epistle, stresses that people can depart from the faith.

  • people swerve from “sincere faith” (1:5-6)
  • Hymenaeus and Alexander “made shipwreck of their faith” (1:19)
  • “in the latter times some will depart from the faith” (4:1)
  • those who don’t provide for their family have “denied the faith and [are] worse than [unbelievers]” (5:8)
  • certain widows’ passions might “draw them away from Christ” leading them to “[abandon] their former faith” (5:11-12)
  • The craving of the “love of money” leads some to “[wander] away from the faith and [pierce] themselves with many pangs” (6:10)
  • some follow after so-called knowledge and thus “[swerve] from the faith” (6:20)

Against this backdrop of teaching, Paul’s words in 2 Timothy carry new meaning:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Tim. 4:7)

1 John 2:19

This brings us to the key to this whole issue: 1 John 2:19.

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

This verse is explicitly teaching us how we are to view those who depart from the faith–those who had faith, but unlike Paul, did not keep it. Well-meaning Arminians point out the warning passages in Hebrews along with many of the passages I’ve discussed in the last couple posts, and conclude that such persons have lost their salvation. But 1 John 2:19 speaks differently.

John tells us those who leave were never truly “of us”. They weren’t genuinely saved. Paul told the Ephesian elders that from themselves, wolves would spring up (v. 29-30). It is not that lambs became wolves, but that the wolves had “crept in unnoticed” (Jude 4). Jesus told of those who had professed Christ, but of whom Jesus said he “never knew” them (Matt. 7:21-23). Jesus didn’t know them when they were saved, and then forget them. He didn’t drop them out of his hand (John 10:28). He had never known them.

Hebrews 4:9-16

To conclude, let’s look at Hebrews 4:9-16. The context is similar to 1 Cor. 10. The hard-hearted Israelites are in view, and the author of Hebrews has told us they did not enter into the promised rest, due to their unbelief. Now here is our text.

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword… Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses… Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Notice how “the same sort of disobedience” is potentially possible for us. So we need to strive to enter that rest. Yet such striving is really a resting from our works. This is all possible because of the Word–our Great High Priest. We can come for mercy and help. We have a throne of grace, to run to.

The race set before us, was already run by Jesus. We keep our eyes on him (Heb. 12:1-2). Perseverance means we need to keep going, keep trusting, keep depending on our Savior. We never give up, we don’t presume that we’ve arrived. We keep our nose in the Book. And when we are near the point of despair because of our sin, we run to throne of Grace and are reminded of our Glorious and Sympathetic Priest.

Perseverance is not some secret works-based salvation. It is allowing God to work in us that which is well pleasing in His sight (Phil. 2:12-13). May Christ be our focus and our stay. May God help us all to press on and grow to love Jesus more.

For further helpful links on this subject, I refer you to the previous post.AddThis Social Bookmark Button