V. PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS
A. Arminian Position: All who believe and are truly saved can lose their salvation.Sinners can lose their salvation by failing to keep up their faith, by falling into a state of serious sin, etc.
B. Antinomian Position: (Also known as "Easy Believism") All who make a profession of faith are eternally secure, whether or not they keep up their faith.
C. Reformed Doctrines of Grace, sometimes called Five Solos or TULIP Position: All who are chosen by God, redeemed by Christ, and regenerated by the Holy Spirit are eternally saved. They are kept in Faith by the Power of Almighty God and therefore continue to persevere in faith.
D. Scriptural Support for the Reformed or Biblical or Calvinist or Mine Position:
1.The person who truly believes in Jesus Christ HAS new Life that is ETERNAL.
Jn.3:16 - God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Jn.3:36 - "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
Jn.5:24 - Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
Jn.6:47 - Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.
Jn.6:51 - "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."
Jn.11.25 - said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.
1Jn.5:13 - These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
1Peter.1:23 - having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,
2. All those who come to genuine saving faith in Christ are kept secure in him for eternity by the Power of God.
John.6:35 -40 And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.36 "But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.38 "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.39 "This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.40 "And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."
Jn.10:27 -30 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.28 "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.29 "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.30 "I and My Father are one."
Jn.17:11 - "Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.12 "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
Jn.17:15 - I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.
Rom.8:29 - For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Rom.8:35 -39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?36 As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1Cor.1:8 - who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Eph.1:5 - having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
Eph.1:13 - In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
Eph.4:30 - And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Phil.1:6 - being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
1Peter.1:3 -Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
3. True believers WILL persevere to the end in faith and obedience by the Power of the Holy Spirit.
Jn.14:21 -"He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."
Jn.15:1 -11 I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.3 "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.7 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.8 "By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.9 "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.10 "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.11 "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
Eph.2:10 -For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
1Peter.5:10 -But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.
2Peter.1:10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;
Phil.2:12 - Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
Phil.3:12 -Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.15 Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.
1Jn.3:9 - Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.
1Jn.5:18 -We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.
Heb.5:11of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
1 Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,2 of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.3 And this we will do if God permits.4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit,5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.7 For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God;8 but if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.
9 But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner.10 For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end,12 that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
1Jn.2:19They 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 they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.
1Jn.2:25 And this is the promise that He has promised us: eternal life.
