Eternal Salvation

One of our readers recently requested that we expound our thoughts and perspectives upon the topic of eternal salvation, aka eternal security, aka once saved, always saved. This seemed to be a good and pertinant topic to me, as in my experience this issue has become more and more prevalent in the church over the last few years. Therefore I proposed to the other members of Conservative Anglicans that we each write our own essay on this topic expressing our views and ideas etc. This is going to be a large topic to cover, therefore I will be breaking my blog into sections to make it more readable.

I must begin the topic by pointing out that there are actually two different theological positions which are often addressed by the term 'eternal salvation'. It will be necessary for me to explain the two positions and the distinctions between them in order for me to give my own view.

One is the Calvinist position expressed in the 5th point of Calvinism's five points (often represented by the anagram TULIP). This fifth point is the "perseverence of the saints".

The idea of perseverence of the saints is the logical extension of the predestination theology taught in Calvinism. In this theology free will, in terms of salvation at least, does not exist. The logical foundation of calvinist thought here is an extreme form of the idea of original sin which in the five point TULIP is the T, Total Depravity. In this teaching mankind is utterly and totally depraved to the point at which it is impossible for any man to do good. Therefore it is impossible for any man to seek God, or to come to God, or to repent. In this condition of depravity it is impossible for man to choose God, thus God must choose man.

Man can only be brought out of the state of depravity by the grace of God. The next step is Unconditional Election. This means that God chooses people completely for his own reasons, (seemingly at random) and for no reason that has anything to do with the man himself. IE it is no merit or goodness on the part of any man that causes God to choose him.

This brings us to the next logical underpinning of the Calvinist doctrine of Eternal salvation "irresistable grace" the I in TULIP. The Calvinist position holds that when God does choose a man, and gives him grace, it is impossible for that man to refuse God or reject grace. Thus the grace of God is "irresistable" no man can resist it.

Eternal salvation then is the logical conclusion of the chain leading from Total depravity, through unconditional election, and irresistable grace. If man can not resist the grace of God, and the man himself played no role in his choosing, and God does not repent of his grace, nor fail in his work (which of course we know he does not from scripture) then the logical conclusion is that the saints of God can not fall from salvation. Thus the saints will catagorically persevere in faith. Anyone who "falls from faith" under this view was never really a saint to begin with but is lumped in under the scripture "if they went out from among us, they were not of us, for if they were of us, they would have remained with us".


The second view point which is sometimes referred to as "Eternal Salvation", but more often is refrenced as "once saved always saved" is not based in Calvinist theology, but is more often arminian in nature. This view point is more difficult to define because it doesn't have the systematic nature of calvinist theology.
However, in general this view point is based on one, or both, of two ideas. The first is that the love of God is so great that once a person has allowed him into their lives, there is nothing they can do which God will allow to seperate them from himself.
The second is that salvation is a matter of the spirit, and once a spirit is born again, it cannot sin. Thus anything a person does is not sin because their spirit is incapable of sinning.

Under this view point, unlike the calvinist view, if a person appears to 'backslide' they have neither lost their salvation, nor were they necessarily a false beleiver, rather they are still saved and still will be with God in eternity, though they may suffer more mischance and problems in this temporal life due to their poor choices.

This view uses verses such as

"there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus",
"For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

and so on to back up their assertion that it is essentially impossible for christians to sin, or at least, their sins no longer matter before God.

-To be Continued-