1:6 . . . being persuaded by this very thing, that he who
has begun a good work in you will complete it until [the] day of Christ Jesus .
. .
. . . This great verse is one of the great verses supporting
the Calvinistic doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, which doctrine
Arminians condemned as one of the five essential and essentially false
doctrines of Calvinism. But how can anyone eradicate the idea from this great
verse? Christ will complete the work he began. As Neander said, “Gottes Art ist
ja nicht, etwas halb zu thun.”
This then is the first point: The work of salvation in the
heart or soul was initiated by Christ, not by the human person. The text does
not say that because Christ began to work after the sinner had started a good
work, he, Christ, would continue his efforts too. The text says that Christ
began the good work. He also will perfect or complete it, continuing his work
throughout the now regenerated sinner’s life.
One commentator, who somewhat grudgingly admits that this is
so, hurries on to insist that nonetheless the regenerated soul, the saint, is
not passive, but himself does a lot of work, too. This sort of statement needs
to be examined for accuracy, distinctions, and exaggerations. In the first
place, as already said, the sinner does not initiate the good work. As the
Westminster Confession says, the sinner is “made willing by his grace”; and
“this effectual call is of God . . . and not from anything at all foreseen in
man, who is altogether passive therein” (X, 1 and 2). Human depravity is so all
inclusive (VI, 1-6) that „a natural man, being altogether averse from that
[spiritual] good, and dead in sin, is not able by his own strength to convert
himself or to prepare himself thereunto” (IX, 4).
But so anxious are many people to find some trace of initiative
and merit in man that after they briefly mention the work of God, they
expatiate on the work of man. In one way or another they side-step or obscure
the point. For example, Motyer says that “Paul saw in the Philippians
[ital. added] the feature of perseverance [ital. his] in that they had
prolonged their fellowship ‘from the first day until now’ (verse 5) and endurance
[ital. his] . . .” (21).
It is clearly false that Paul could see in their conduct
that they would persevere. Some apparently sincere converts did not
persevere—Demos for instance. Paul’s statement is not a deduction from
empirical observation, but a revelation from God. Eadie rightly observes, “The
apostle’s confidence . . . rested on his knowledge of God’s character and
methods of operation . . .” (12). A few lines below he rejects the perversion:
“He among you who has begun to do a good work will continue to do well until
death.” Such violent mistranslations show to what lengths some Arminians will
go.
Of course the Philippians not only believed the Gospel, they
also cooperated with Paul by overt action. It is true that after regeneration,
but only after regeneration, a saint can actively accomplish a modicum of
spiritual good. Yet even his actions, as Paul will later indicate in 2:13, are
God’s works. The perfecting process, which Christ initiated, is also controlled
throughout by God’s working in us.
It is because of this that we may know that every regenerate
person will persevere to the end. Did we in our own strength confide, our striving
would be losing.
We have been talking about the perseverance of the saints
until the day of their death. But, though it may seem strange, the verse says
more. Christ continues the good work in us until the day of his return. Now,
the Shorter Catechism says, „The souls of believers are at their death made
perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies,
being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.”
True, of course. But the present verse adds something: Christ continues the
good work in us until he returns. It seems that though we are made perfect in
holiness at our death, Christ’s blessings to us continue to multiply even in
Heaven.
Because of the pervasive Arminianism among the relatively evangelical
Christian groups in America today, a short historical note will help to show
the importance of this doctrine. During the Reformation period of the sixteenth
century the anti-Romish movement was unfortunately divided into Lutherans and
Calvinists. Had Luther’s successor been someone other than Melanchthon this
rift might have been closed. Early in the seventeenth century within the
Calvinistic movement, Arminians revolted and retreated, not all the way, but a
few steps back toward the Romish theology. In Switzerland, Holland, Great
Britain, and even in Ireland Reformed confessions were formulated. These
culminated in the Westminster Confession just before the mid-century mark. This
Confession, and its accompanying two catechisms, in agreement with the Swiss
and Belgic confessions, expressed what the English-speaking Protestants
regarded as the central doctrines of the Bible. It was to have been the
unifying position in the British Isles. But the English throne went to a secret
Catholic, then to an open Catholic, and the hopes of the English puritans and
Scottish Presbyterians were cruelly suppressed. A few lines from this last and
greatest Reformed confession are now to be quoted with several paragraphs from
the present writer’s What Do Presbyterians Believe?
The Westminster Confession, chapter XVII, says:
They whom God hath accepted . . . can neither totally nor
finally fall away from the state of grace; but shall certainly persevere
therein to the end and be eternally saved. This perseverance of the saints
depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree
of election. . . .
Here now are a few paragraphs from my previous publication.
One evening as I was conducting the mid-week prayer meeting,
an elderly, white-haired gentleman asked for one of his favorite hymns: “How
Firm a Foundation.” The hymn has six long stanzas, and as the meeting was very
informal I wondered aloud which of the six we could omit. Not the first, of
course – it speaks of the Word of God as the foundation of our faith; not the
second because we need the strength of God’s omnipotent hand; the third or
fourth? The old gentleman interrupted my wondering by insisting that this was a
good hymn and that we could sing it all. We did, and as we reached the fifth
stanza, everyone else in the room saw in it the picture of the grand old man
who had requested the hymn:
E’en down to old age all my people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love.
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in my bosom be borne.
He too sang it with vigor, and he sang the sixth stanza too:
The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose
I will not, I will not desert to his foes.
Now it was a bit strange that this gentleman should have
requested this hymn and should have sung it with such praise and devotion. For
he did not like Calvinism; all his life he had been an Arminian; he did not
believe in “eternal security,” as he called it; and he had been telling his
friends so for years. Even now he would have disowned the name of Calvinism.
But could it be that without realizing it he had now come to believe, and that
his earlier Arminian views had changed with the color of his hair?
If it is strange that this lovely Arminian saint could
become at least somewhat of a Calvinist without knowing it, it is far more
strange that anyone who bases his faith on the firm foundation of God’s Word
could ever be an Arminian.
The Scripture verses are too numerous to mention.
But some may be puzzled at the doctrine of perseverance and
think that it ascribes too much will power to frail humanity. Such an objection
rests on a misunderstanding. Section ii of this chapter clearly says that “this
perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the
immutability of the decree of election.” I remember a conversation with another
Arminian. He had been fulminating against the doctrine of election and I
replied that election was the basis of our assurance of salvation. The Arminian’s
contempt rose in his face as he charged me with substituting the doctrine of
election for the crucifixion of Christ. Well of course, our salvation is based
on the active and passive obedience of Christ; but our assurance requires some
reason to believe that the benefits of Christ’s work are permanently applied to
ourselves. Small comfort it is indeed if we are saved at breakfast and lost at
noon. Let us emphasize the fact: The Arminians can have no sure hope of
entering Heaven. They must always entertain the uncomfortable feeling that they
will finally be lost. Obviously no man can depend on his own power to persevere
in grace; for, first, human nature is weak, and, second, grace is not something
we can earn or keep. And if the Arminian refuses to admit that God causes his elect
to persevere, what reasonable expectation can he have of Heaven?
The Roman Catholic doctrine, to which the Arminians reverted
in the revolt against the Reformation, is expressed in the decrees of the
Council of Trent. One section reads, „If anyone maintain that a man once
justified cannot lose grace, . . . let him be accursed.”Only a massive
ignorance of the Scriptures allows for such a position.
If Philippians 1:6 is as clear as it is possible for
language to be, John 10:28-29 are still clearer. “And I give unto them eternal
life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my
hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to
pluck them out of the Father’s hand.”
How some people have squirmed to avoid these verses. Those
who insist on a free will independent of God say that although other men cannot
pluck a child of God from the Father’s hand, the man himself is free to do so.
But this verse says no man can do so: This includes the man himself. Another
act of desperation is to argue that although no man can pluck the child from
the hand of God, the devil can do so. But once more, the phrase no man in the
King James Version is in the original “no one.” So it is translated in the
American Revised Version. And in any case the verse says that Christ gives his
sheep eternal life. Would it be eternal if it ceased after five days or five
years? The verse also says that they shall never perish. How long and how sure
is never? It would seem that no one could misunderstand this language.
Then for good measure we shall add 1 Peter 1:5, which speaks
of the regenerate as those “who are kept by the power of God through faith unto
salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Why belabor the obvious? And
still the Scriptures, addressed as they are to stubborn rebels against God,
repeat the same idea time after time. Compare 2 Timothy 2:19; Jeremiah 31:3,
and 32:40; 1 John 2:19; and Isaiah 55:11.
Of course, the perseverance of the saints does not mean
sinless perfection or a life free from struggle and temptation. Eradication of
our corrupt nature is a long and difficult process and will not be completed
until we are glorified. As long as the present life continues, we may become
careless of the means of grace, our hearts may be temporarily hardened, we may
fall into grievous sins. Thus we may harm others and bring temporal punishment
upon ourselves. God does not promise to carry us to the skies on flowery beds
of ease. But praise his name, he promises to carry, drag, or push us there. So,
and only so, we arrive.
What should be particularly noted in this section is how the
doctrine of perseverance fits in with all the other doctrines. God is not
irrational or insane. What he says hangs together; it forms a logical system.
Election, total depravity, effectual calling, sovereign grace, and perseverance
are mutually consistent. God does not contradict himself. But Arminian saints
do. They may be grand old men, loved by all who know them. But not until the
message of the Bible persuades them of God’s sovereign, unchangeable love, can
they really sing,
The soul, though all Hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no, never, no never forsake.
Because of the great importance of this subject, this has
been a long exposition for a single verse. Even so, a footnote seems to be in
order. It is this: The subject has been perseverance, not assurance of
salvation. Like any other two topics in theology, they are related, and much
more closely related than some other pairs. Yet assurance and perseverance are
not the same thing. Arminians, at least
some I have met, assert assurance but deny perseverance. One [sic] one occasion
a very Arminian college invited me to give a lecture on philosophy. The lecture
stayed within the bounds of the advertised topic. But afterward the head of the
Philosophy Department took me to lunch and we talked about assurance. He
assured me that he was assured of his salvation. I am sure, he said, that if I
should die right now, I would go to Heaven. But as I tried gently to tell him,
he was not assured that if he did not die until the following week he would get
to Heaven. He might “fall from grace” in the interval.
Note that being assured of salvation does not mean that one
will be saved. Aside from Arminians there was the Catholic plumber who was sure
the Church would get him past the pearly gates. Many people are assured that
God is too good to punish anybody. Others are assured of many things that are
not so—for example, that a forked branch can point out a good place to dig a
well. Assurance may be delusional, but the perseverance of the saints is God’s
truth.
Gordon H. Clark, Philippians. (Hobbs, NM: The Trinity
Foundation, 1996), 10-7.
