Falling from Grace?

Perseverance of the Saints from TULIP

by Joseph Yosuk Lee

So, can you really lose your salvation? I am saddened that Five Point Arminians do not know whether or not they will make it to heaven. However, in fairness, I will present the Arminian argument by showing some of the verses in the Bible that they use to support their position. As for me, I still hold the Calvinist position that Christians cannot lose their salvation. - Joseph Y. Lee

1. "So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling" Philippians 2:12 NIV

If you read the same epistle by the same author in the same chapter, Philippians 2:13 says, "for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." If the ultimate goal for God's working in us (Christians) is His pleasure, it would seem strange that he could end this work by taking away our salvation - it is difficult to imagine God taking pleasure in this.

2. "Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either." Romans 11:20-21 NIV

Reformed Calvinist Professor Lorraine Boettner said, "In the same way a parent, in order to get the willing cooperation of a child, may tell it to stay out of the way of an approaching automobile, when all the time the parent has no intention of ever letting the child go into a position where it would be injured." Romans 11:20-21 is a warning passage, not a threatening passage. If you read Jeremiah 32:40, Psalms 34:7, Romans 14:4, and 2 Corinthians 4:8, 9, and 14, then it helps to clear up the confusion.

3. A) "but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end." Hebrew 3:6 NASB

B) "For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end." Hebrews 3:14 NASB

C) "Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God's kindness, God's kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off." Romans 11:22 NASB

Those verses in part 4 are saying, "If he stands firm to the end and perseveres in doing good work, then he will be saved and have eternal life." I hope that I am not grossing you out with my math. Here is another mathematical argument to express my Calvinist beliefs. Let "p" be "he does stand firm to the end" and let "q" be "he will be saved."

The first true-false statement is obviously true since it is the Word of God. The second statement proves the Calvinist and Five Point Arminian sides to be correct. However, the Calvinists can declare victory for the third true-false statement when the third statement does not require us to continue to believe in Jesus in order to be saved. However, the fourth statement proves that Five Point Arminians were correct. As a result, the Five Point Arminians or Calvinists could not use these verses to prove their point.

[Professor John M. Frame wrote:] Thus, standing firm is not a "requirement" in the sense that nobody will be finally saved (on the last day) unless he stands firm. Of course, that doesn't compromise grace, for it is God's grace that enables us to stand firm, that keeps us from falling. So God enables us to meet His own requirement, as He always does with His elect.

4. A) "...Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crowns of life." Revelations 2:10

B) "He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels." Revelations 3:5

Look at the (p and q) conjunction statement. Let p be "Be faithful until death" and let q be "I will give you the crowns of life." These are the following false statements: 4) p is false, q is false 3) p is false, q is true and last, 2) p is true, q is false. False statement 2) proves both sides to be correct. However, false statement 3) proves the Arminians are correct while the Calvinists declare victory for false statement 4). Once again, these verses cannot determine whether or not you can lose your salvation from these statements. In other words, we simply do not know from those verses.

5. "No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." 1 Corinthians 9:27 NIV

The Greek word for "disqualified" is "adokimos," which means "not approved." Arminians interpret the prize as heaven. The word "prize" is not mentioned in the King James Bible and New American Standard Bible. My interpretation for the prize is being content that our Jesus is using us to glorify Him. So, the prize is having this content feeling and is not equivalent to heaven. Philippians 4:11 says, "Not that I speak from want; for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am." Since Paul was the author of 1 Corinthians and Philippians, the "prize" does imply that he has learned to be content in whatever circumstances he has been in.

6. "If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us;" 2 Timothy 2:12 NIV

Endurance does not save us. Jesus alone saves us. Hebrews 12:2 says, "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." One Five Point Arminian told me that one cannot disown something that one did not originally own. If that is true and if we disown Him, then He will disown us or cut us away from God in terms of being content or losing confidence in our salvation. See Philippians 4:11, which says, "Not that I speak from want; for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am." Again, Paul is the author of 2 Timothy and Philippians. Although the word "content" is not found in 2 Timothy, it was used in 1 Timothy 6:8. Paul wrote his letters to the same person in 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy. Thus, it is implied that the act of God's disowning us is an act of discipline (Proverbs 3:12) not an act of condemnation.

7. "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace." Hebrews 6:4-6 NIV

C. I. Scofield considered this interpretation correct, that there exists a possibility that the word "if" does not exist in Greek and that it is a participle, which should be translated as "having fallen away." Also, the word "impossible" in Hebrews 6:4 to means impossible for man, but possible with God. Please read the Young Rich Man story. Dr. J. Vernon McGee does not like this interpretation.

8. "[The overseer must not be] a new convert, lest he become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil." 1 Timothy 3:6 NASB

"Neophutos" in Greek is translated as a "new convert [NASB]." According to the NASB Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible edited by Dr. Spiros Zodiates, "Neo" means "new," and "phutos" means "planted." Dr. Spiros Zodhiates said, "`Neophutos' means newly planted, newly instructed or a novice." According to J. Vernon McGee, he indirectly implied that the NASB is mistranslated and that the King James Version is more correct and that "Neophutos" should mean "a novice." In other words, you can be a novice and still can be not saved. Anyone can be a novice in terms of playing the violin, and yet he may know nothing about the violin to be a violinist.

9. "My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth, and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins." James 5:19-20

Some expositors believe that James 5:19-20 talks about backslided Christians, who will rededicate their lives to Jesus Christ. Apostle Paul tried to encourage other believers to keep fellow backslided Christians accountable through our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the author and perfecter of our faith. Paul is not saying that believers will save another fallen believer through accountability. Jesus alone is enough to save a backslided believer. Paul is saying that Christ can use accountability to help perfect the faith of a fallen believer. Again, this is not a "threat" passage. It is a warning passage. Arminians take the verse out of context. When Paul wrote that every believer should be like him, some people thought that Paul was a braggart. Of course, it was taken out of context. Paul is saying that every Christian should strive to be like him in the same way that he tried to be like Christ. If you read Hebrews 12:2, it tells you that our faith does not save us. It is Jesus alone who saves us! Please also read Philippians 1:6, Psalms 138:8 NKJV, and Hebrews 10:14.

"fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:2

10. "Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." Matthew 7:21

There are some people, who were not honest to others and themselves at one point. My grandfather told my dad about a church elder who died many years ago. Before the church elder died, he denied Christ at his deathbed by saying, "I don't believe in God anymore," and there were his last words. So, does this mean that we can lose our salvation? No. The dying church elder probably never believed in God in the first place. He probably wanted to be accepted in the church. Since he was not saved, he probably intentionally or unintentionally lied to himself and everyone else that he was saved.

11. "I know you well -- you are neither hot nor cold; I wish you were one or the other! But since you are merely lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth. Revelation 3:15 (Living Bible)

Most Christians do not understand this verse at all! You have to examine the culture, the context, and the people to whom the Apostle John was talking. Lukewarm water is not referring to lukewarm Christians. Lukewarm water is referring to non-Christians. Hot and cold are good. People like coffee hot and iced tea cold. When you let coffee and ice tea sit in room temperature, the coffee becomes cold and the iced tea becomes warm, and they are both bad.

12. A) "For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgement, and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?" Hebrews 10:26-29

B) "For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known it, to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them." 2 Peter 2:20-21

C) "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." John 15:5-6

John 15:5-6 may not seem obvious as to what Arminians are trying to interpret this verse, but they say that a branch cannot whither unless it was once green (in Christ). This verse seemed to imply that Christ died for all mankind or that one can lose his salvation.

There are many non-Christians, who received the knowledge of the truth, and yet they were never chosen or were not able to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Many non-Christians received the knowledge of truth by going to church, through baptism, or reading the Bible even though they were never regenerated (saved).

Please read this three times. ====>

Professor John M. Frame said that these verses in the Bible indicate that the people in question were baptized ("illumined" is commonly used in this sense in the early Christian writings) and therefore members of the Christian community. There are spiritual gifts that God gives to the visible church, which are given to all members, whether or not they are regenerated (saved). Judas preached the Gospel and worked miracles, King Saul prophesied, etc. The sacraments are given to all church members. All these blessings come by virtue of the blood of the covenant (the cup is "the blood of the new covenant.") and by the Spirit of grace. Those who are "set apart" by the word and sacraments are in an important sense "sanctified." If someone apostatizes (deserting one's faith or religion), he or she tramples the blood of the covenant underfoot and despises his sanctification. Sanctification is a process of ethical growth involving human effort, but this process is dependent on God's prior act and continuing work in believers.

13. "And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy of this book; if anyone adds to them, God shall take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book." Revelation 22:19

This is a warning passage, not a threat passage. Lorraine Boettner said, "In the same way a parent, in order to get the willing co-operation of a child, may tell it to stay out of the way of an approaching automobile, when all the time the parent has no intention of ever letting the child go into a position where it would be injured." Anyway, who has ever taken away or added any words to the book of Revelation?

14. "But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons." 1 Timothy 4:1

This verse says that Christians can backslide the same way Apostle Peter backslided when he denied Jesus Christ three times. Even though Apostle Peter fell away from the faith, he returned to the faith, having been crucified upside down for his faith in Jesus Christ. If you read Matthew 16:16, Peter spoke to Jesus and said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." After Peter acknowledged Jesus as the Christ, Christ acknowledged Peter for his faith. In other words, Peter received this faith before he denied Jesus thrice in Matthew 26:75.

15. A) "...but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." Matthew 10:22 NIV

B) "but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." Matthew 24:13 NIV

C) "to those who by PERSEVERANCE in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life." Romans 2:7 (Emphasis is mine)

D) "For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one also hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with PERSEVERANCE we wait eagerly for it." Romans 8:24-25 (Emphasis is mine)

Those verses are actually proving the Calvinist point of view. Calvinists believe that once saved means always saved, but they also believe that once saved means always perseveres at the end.

Suggested References by Joseph Yosuk Lee:

TULIP: The Five Points of Calvinism in the Light of Scripture By Duane Edward Spencer

The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible edited by Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D.

The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination by Lloyd Boettner

Redemption Accomplished and Applied by John Murray