"This is the blasphemy for which (however I love the persons who assert it) I abhor the doctrine of predestination, a doctrine, upon the supposition of which, if one could possibly suppose it for a moment, (call it election, reprobation, or what you please, for all comes to the same thing,) one might say to our adversary, the devil, 'Thou fool, why dost thou roar about any longer? Thy lying in wait for souls is as needless and useless as our preaching. Hearest thou not, that God hath taken thy work out of thy hands; and that He doeth it much more effectually?'" - John Wesley
"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. 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." (John 15:1-6)
Wesley's comment: "If any one abide not in me - By living faith; not by Church communion only. He may thus abide in Christ, and be withered all the time, and cast into the fire at last. He is cast out - Of the vineyard, the invisible Church. Therefore he was in it once."
"Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again." (Romans 11:20-23)
Wesley's comment: "They were broken off for unbelief, and thou standest by faith - Both conditionally, not absolutely: if absolutely, there might have been room to boast. By faith - The free gift of God, which therefore ought to humble thee."
"And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight; if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister." (Colossians 1:21-23)
Wesley's comment: "If ye continue in the faith - Otherwise, ye will lose all the blessings which ye have already begun to enjoy."
"This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme." (1 Timothy 1:18-20)
Wesley's comment: "Indeed, none can make shipwreck of faith who never had it. These, therefore, were once true believers: yet they fell not only foully, but finally; for ships once wrecked cannot be afterwards saved."
"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 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." (Hebrews 6:4-6)
Wesley's comment: "And have fallen away - Here is not a supposition, but a plain relation of fact. The apostle here describes the case of those who have cast away both the power and the form of godliness; who have lost both their faith, hope, and love, Heb 6:10, &c., and that wilfully."
"But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified." (1 Corinthians 9:27)
Wesley's comment: "This single text may give us a just notion of the scriptural doctrine of election and reprobation; and clearly shows us, that particular persons are not in holy writ represented as elected absolutely and unconditionally to eternal life, or predestinated absolutely and unconditionally to eternal death; but that believers in general are elected to enjoy the Christian privileges on earth; which if they abuse, those very elect persons will become reprobate. St. Paul was certainly an elect person, if ever there was one; and yet he declares it was possible he himself might become a reprobate. Nay, he actually would have become such, if he had not thus kept his body under, even though he had been so long an elect person, a Christian, and an apostle."
"For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: 'A dog returns to his own vomit,' and, 'a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.'" (2 Peter 2:20-22)
Wesley's comment: "The dog, the sow - Such are all men in the sight of God before they receive his grace, and after they have made shipwreck of the faith."
"Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away." (Heb 2:1)
Robert Shank's comment: "In his use of the first person we [the author] includes himself as being equally subject with his readers to the peril of drifting away."
"But Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end." (Hebrews 3:6)
Robert Shank's comment: "[The author] includes his readers with himself ('we') as among those who already are Christ's 'own house' and need only to hold fast their confidence and hope firm to the end."
"Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you; unless you believed in vain." (1 Corinthians 15:1,2)
Wesley Study Bible comment: "believed in vain: It is possible to fall away."
"For this reason, when I could no longer endure it, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor might be in vain." (1 Thessalonians 3:5)
Wesley Study Bible comment: "There had been a real possibility that the Thessalonians might fall away from Christ."
I. Howard Marshall's comment: "The Christian pastor needs to have a real concern for his flock lest they should fall away from the faith, even though he also trusts firmly in the gracious power of God to keep them faithful to himself."
"If we deny Him, He also will deny us." (2 Tim 2:12)
Wesley Study Bible comment: "Believers may rest assured of their salvation if they are faithful to Christ (Matt. 10:22). But is possible to lose our salvation if we deny Him Matt. 10:33)."
"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." (1 Tim 6:10)
"But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away." (Luke 8:13)
Is it heresy to not believe in Perseverance of the Saints?
"Finally, as strongly as I believe that Scripture supports the security of the saints, I readily acknowledge that there are believers who disagree. Methodists, Lutherans, Pentecostals, and Catholics, by and large, affirm the possibly of apostasy. While I take strong exception, this is a doctrine that we may debate but over which we must never divide." (Hank Hanegraaff, Christian Research Newsletter, Vol. 9, Issue 2, p. 5)
What about assurance of salvation? (1 John 5:13)
"We speak of an assurance of our present pardon... That all Christians have an assurance of future salvation, is no Methodist doctrine; and an assurance of present pardon is so far from causing negligence, that it is of all others the strongest motive to vigorous endeavours after universal holiness." (John Wesley)
But what about the comfort that I get from the doctrine of perseverance of the saints?
The fact is that some who have professed to be Christian have fallen away. Those who hold to the doctrine of perseverance say that those people were never really Christians. How then do you know that you yourself are a real Christian and not merely a professor? "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves." (2 Corinthians 13:5) Some who have fallen away seemed to pass the test. So what test can you rely on for the assurance that you are in the faith?
"For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." (1 Timothy 2:3,4)
Wesley's comment: "For this - That we pray for all men. Do you ask, "Why are not more converted?" We do not pray enough. Is acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour - Who has actually saved us that believe, and willeth all men to be saved. It is strange that any whom he has actually saved should doubt the universality of his grace!"
"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)
Wesley's comment: "Not willing that any soul, which he hath made should perish."
"For many are called, but few are chosen." (Matthew 22:14)
God invites everyone, but choses only those who accept the terms of His invitation.
"Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs." (Jonah 2:8)
In what sense could the grace of God be theirs if they were unconditionally elected to reprobation?
"Paul replied, 'Short time or long--I pray God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.'" (Acts 26:29)
Would Paul pray a prayer against the will of God? And yet if unconditional election is true, and King Agrippa was not elect, then Paul most certainly did.
"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved." (Romans 10:1)
Is Paul's desire and prayer against the will of God? And yet if unconditional election is true, then Paul's heart is against God's. Because if that doctrine is true, God has not elected all Israel to be saved.
"'Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?' says the Lord GOD, 'and not that he should turn from his ways and live?'" (Ezekiel 18:23)
Wesley's comment: "Thus ill does that election which implies reprobation agree with the Scripture account of God's justice. And does it agree any better with his truth? How will you reconcile it with those plain passages? ... O hear ye this, ye that forget God! Ye cannot charge your death upon him!"
What about Romans 9?
"It does not become poor, guilty, sinful worms, who receive whatsoever blessings they enjoy, (from the least drop of water that cools our tongue, to the immense riches of glory in eternity,) of grace, of mere favour, and not of debt, to ask of God the reasons of his conduct. It is not meet for us to call Him in question 'who giveth account to none of his ways;' to demand, 'Why didst thou make faith the condition, the only condition, of justification? Wherefore didst thou decree, He that believeth, and he only, shall be saved?' This is the very point on which St. Paul so strongly insists in the ninth chapter of this Epistle, viz., That the terms of pardon and acceptance must depend, not on us, but on him that calleth us; that there is no unrighteousness with God, in fixing his own terms, not according to ours, but his own good pleasure; who may justly say, 'I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy;' namely, on him who believeth in Jesus. 'So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,' to choose the condition on which he shall find acceptance; 'but of God that showeth mercy;' that accepteth none at all, but of his own free love, his unmerited goodness. 'Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy,' viz., on those who believe on the Son of his love; 'and whom he will,' that is, those who believe not, 'he hardeneth,' leaves at last to the hardness of their hearts." (John Wesley)
Does man then save himself?
"Before justification; in which state we may be said to be unable to do any thing acceptable to God; because then we can do nothing but come to Christ; which ought not to be considered as doing any thing, but as supplicating (or waiting) to receive a power of doing for the time to come. For the preventing grace of God, which is common to all, is sufficient to bring us to Christ, though it is not sufficient to carry us any further till we are justified." (John Wesley)
"Not one man ever has turned to God for saving grace except on the basis of the prior initiative and enabling grace of God." (Robert Shank)
If we are saved by our own faith, aren't we saved then by a work?
"But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness." (Romans 4:5)
"But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction." (2 Peter 2:1)
Wesley's comment: "The Lord that bought them - With his own blood. Yet these very men perish everlastingly. Therefore Christ bought even them that perish."
"And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world." (1 John 2:2)
Wesley's comment: "And not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world - Just as wide as sin extends, the propitiation extends also."
"For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe." (1 Timothy 4:10)
Wesley's comment: "Who is the Saviour of all men - Preserving them in this life, and willing to save them eternally. But especially - In a more eminent manner. Of them that believe - And so are saved everlastingly."
"And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?" (1 Corinthians 8:11)
Wesley's comment: "We see, Christ died even for them that perish."
"All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:6)
The all at the end of the verse is the same as the beginning. He has borne the sins of as many as have gone astray.
"You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you." (Acts 7:51)
Robert Shank's comment: "If Calvin's hypothesis of irresistible grace were true, how could this be? If they were reprobates by the eternal decree of God, in what sense could they be resisting the Holy Spirit by fulfilling their foreordained role in opposing the Gospel? Only as potential objects of election could it be possible for them to resist the Holy SPirit; and the record stands that they did indeed resist the Spirit of Grace. The doctrine of the irresistibility of grace is a theological fiction."
Robert Shank's comment:
"But while it is not within man's power to do for himself what needs to be done for his salvation, certainly the Scriptures affirm that man has within himself the faculty of choosing whether or not to allow God to do for him what desperately needs to be done, a faculty which God never ignores or violates and for which man must answer to his Creator."
Wesley's comment:
"ONE of Mr. Fletcher's Checks considers at large the Calvinistic supposition, 'that a natural man is as dead as a stone;' and shows the utter falseness and absurdity of it; seeing no man living is without some preventing grace; and every degree of grace is a degree of life. That 'by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men' (all born into the world) 'unto condemnation,' is an undoubted truth; and affects every infant, as well as every adult person. But it is equally true, that, 'by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men' (all born into the world, infant or adult) 'unto justification' Therefore no infant ever was, or ever will be, 'sent to hell for the guilt of Adam's sin;' seeing it is cancelled by the righteousness of Christ, as soon as they are sent into the world."
The Metaphysical Problem With ... Determinism
"This extreme form of determinism led some ... scholars to the logical conclusion that there is really only one agent in the universe--God. One ... theologian wrote, 'Not only can [God] do anything, He actually is the only One Who does anything. When a man writes, it is [God] who has created in his mind the will to write. [God] at the same time gives power to write, then brings about the motion of the hand and the pen and the appearance upon paper. All other things are passive, [God] alone is active.' This kind of determinism is at the heart of much of medieval thought and is one of the major reasons the church called upon the great intellect of Thomas Aquinas to respond. Indeed, his famous Summa contra Gentiles was occasioned by the need of Christian missionaries ... in Spain. History records that he stemmed the influence of this view in the form of Latin Averroism....
"There is no more vivid example of how ... determinism leads to pantheism than in the ... mystics who declared that ... monotheism is 'the annihilation of the traces of what is human, and the isolation of what is divine.' Indeed, on ... devotee asks God to 'blot out my individuality from me, so that You may be my individuality.' So, as Gramlich further notes, the ... confession of faith rises from 'no God but God' beyond 'no one acts but God, ' to 'No one has being but God.'" (Norman Geisler)
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