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and serve exactly the same purpose. They do not prove that any of the believers exhorted will
not persevere, but only that God uses moral means for the accomplishment of moral ends.
c. Again, it is said that Scripture records several cases of actual apostasy, I Tim. 1:19,20; II Tim.
2:17,18; 4:10; II Peter 2:1,2; cf. also Heb. 6:4-6. But these instances do not prove the contention
that real believers, in possession of true saving faith, can fall from grace, unless it be shown first
that the persons indicated in these passages had true faith in Christ, and not a mere temporal
faith, which is not rooted in regeneration. The Bible teaches us that there are persons who
profess the true faith, and yet are not of the faith, Rom. 9-6; I John 2:19; Rev. 3:1. John says of
some of them, “They went out from us,” and adds by way of explanation, “but they were not of
us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us,” I John 2:19.
E. THE DENIAL OF THIS DOCTRINE MAKES SALVATION DEPENDENT ON MAN’S WILL.
The denial of the doctrine of perseverance virtually makes the salvation of man dependent on
the human will rather than on the grace of God. This consideration will, of course, have no
effect on those who share the Pelagian conception of salvation as autosoteric — and their
numbers are great — but certainly ought to cause those to pause who glory in being saved by
grace. The idea is that, after man is brought to a state of grace by the operation of the Holy
Spirit alone, or by the joint operation of the Holy Spirit and the will of man, it rests solely with
man to continue in faith or to forsake the faith, just as he sees fit. This renders the cause of man
very precarious and makes it impossible for him to attain to the blessed assurance of faith.
Consequently, it is of the utmost importance to maintain the doctrine of perseverence. In the
words of Hovey, “It may be a source of great comfort and power, — an incentive to gratitude, a
motive to self-sacrifice, and a pillar of fire in the hour of danger.”
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY:
What is the real question concerning perseverance: is it
whether the elect, or whether the regenerate persevere? Do Augustine and the Lutherans also
teach that the elect may finally be lost? How does the analogy of the natural life favor the
doctrine of perseverance? Do not such passages as Heb. 6:4-6; 10:29; II Pet. 2:1 prove the
possibility of falling away? How about John 15:1-6? Is the grace of perseverance something
innate, necessarily given with the new nature, or is it the fruit of a special, gracious, and
preserving activity of God? Does the doctrine imply that one may be living in habitual and
intentional sin, and yet be in a justified state? Does it preclude the idea of lapses into sin?
LITERATURE:
Bavinck, Geref. Dogm. IV, pp. 289-294; Vos, Geref. Dogm. IV., pp. 248-260;
Dabney, Syst. and Polem. Theol., pp. 687-698; Dick, Theology, Lect. LXXIX; Litton, Introd. to
Dogm. Theol., pp. 338-343; Finney, Syst. Theol., pp. 544-619; Hovey, Manual of Theology and