Preservation of the Saints

[Carbon]

Strange though it may seem, there is not a single Church of Christendom outside the Reformed group that maintains the biblical doctrine of the preservation of the saints. The RCC, the Lutherans, all the various types of Arminians, and a great host of sects all agree that it is well possible for persons who have received God's saving grace in their souls to lose such saving grace and to sink down into eternal death.

Just what do we Reformed mean when we confess the preservation of the saints?

 

[makesends]

Strange though it may seem, there is not a single Church of Christendom outside the Reformed group that maintains the biblical doctrine of the preservation of the saints. The RCC, the Lutherans, all the various types of Arminians, and a great host of sects all agree that it is well possible for persons who have received God's saving grace in their souls to lose such saving grace and to sink down into eternal death.

Just what do we Reformed mean when we confess the preservation of the saints?

God will not fail to accomplish whatever he sets out to do. If he chose some to live eternally with him, they will be with him eternally, regardless of whatever means he uses to accomplish it. It is a SURE thing—not an AUTOMATIC thing as some claim we profess.

 

[makesends]

Strange though it may seem, there is not a single Church of Christendom outside the Reformed group that maintains the biblical doctrine of the preservation of the saints. The RCC, the Lutherans, all the various types of Arminians, and a great host of sects all agree that it is well possible for persons who have received God's saving grace in their souls to lose such saving grace and to sink down into eternal death.

Just what do we Reformed mean when we confess the preservation of the saints?

Conversely, there are many who disagree entirely with the notion of Limited Atonement, and don't use the terminology of TULIP for what they DO believe that TULIP does say, (such as the Perseverance of the Saints). My upbringing most definitely was not Reformed or Calvinist, but we did believe in "Once Saved Always Saved". That was always my "thorn in the flesh", because I knew beyond any doubt that I did not measure up to what a believer should be/do. I would pray over and over and over, that whether or not I had indeed been sincere in "giving my life to Christ" in the past —because, if I had been sincere, where was the evidence— I was now giving my heart up again to him.

I see I read your question wrong. Did you mean preservation, or perseverance? While the Reformed no doubt think them much the same thing in this application, they are not the same thing in other contexts.