Chapter 2
OSAS Definitions and Origin
If you have ever discussed the doctrine of eternal security with its proponents, you have probably noticed there are some people who try to make a distinction between it and the perseverance of the saints and some who don’t. The ones who do make such a distinction are sometimes repulsed that anyone would dare try to equate eternal security to the Calvinistic doctrine of the perseverance of the saints:
The Calvinist doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, therefore, is not to be confused with the modern doctrine of “eternal security.” Proponents of this doctrine, which they often capsulize in the cliche “once saved, always saved,” assert that a decision for Christ fixes our eternal destiny no matter what may be our subsequent conduct. In this sense, then, eternal security teaches an unhistorical salvation: our eternal status is unaffected by historical events, having been fixed by our decision for Christ. The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, in contrast, is a statement about history: True conversion will be demonstrated through subsequent events.[1]
Conversely, others reject the perseverance of the saints in favor of eternal security:
The Bible teaches, and I believe in, the eternal security of the born-again believer. The man who has trusted Jesus Christ has everlasting life and will never perish. But the eternal security of the believer does not depend upon his perseverance. I do not know a single Bible verse that says anything about the saints’ perservering [sic], but there are several Bible verses that mention the fact that the saints have been preserved. Perseverance is one thing. Preservation is another. No. The saints do not persevere; they are preserved. . .
So I disagree with all five points of Calvinism as John Calvin taught it.[2]
The fifth and last (thank God) point of the Calvinistic system is the Perseverance of the Saints. This last point is often mistaken for the doctrine of eternal security or “once saved, always saved.” But such is not the case, for the two have no connection whatsoever. . .
As the other “points,” the Perseverance of the Saints is sometimes called by other names to add to the confusing Calvinistic labyrinth of TULIP terminology. Some prefer “final perseverance,” hinting at the underlying meaning of the fifth point. Others recommend the “perseverance of God” since “the perseverance of the saints depends on the perseverance of God.” The majority, however, are united on one thing: it is not the same as eternal security. Not only do some Calvinists take offence at the term, but it is even admitted that “it should be obvious that the Calvinist doctrine of the perseverance of the saints is not one and the same thing with ‘once saved, always saved.’” Howbeit, some Calvinists who recognize the Arminian implications of the term perseverance do change it to the scriptural preservation, yet their descriptions of its operation are the same as their fellows. This brings us to the discriminating point between such diametrically opposed systems as the Perseverance of the Saints and eternal security (italics his).[3]
Same Doctrine, Different Names
Yet there are still other advocates who readily admit eternal security, the perseverance of the saints and “once saved, always saved” are one and the same in essence. Reformed teacher Steve Brown holds to this view:
The doctrine is called by Baptists, eternal security or once saved always saved. Those of us who are Reformed call it the perseverance of the saints. But we mean the same thing. And the doctrine states that once you’re saved, you’re always saved, that God holds you, that you will persevere to the end.[4]
Many others have said similar things:
Charles Ryrie:
. . . . eternal security, preservation, and perseverance in reality all teach the same bottom line conclusion (namely, that the true believer will not lose his salvation).[5]
David J. Engelsma:
The doctrine of the perseverance of saints, or “eternal security,” as some call it, follows from the truth of irresistible grace.[6]
Publishers of Pink’s book:
The book has been titled Eternal Security because today that is the name given to the doctrine dealt with in this book. But historically the doctrine was called Perseverance of the Saints, and Pink himself preferred that title. But whether it is called Eternal Security or Perseverance of the Saints, it is the same doctrine that has been held down through the years (italics theirs).[7]
Harold Camping:
Can one lose one’s salvation? . . . Let us see if we can discover the Biblical teaching concerning the subject of eternal security, which is sometimes called the perseverance of the saints.[8]
W. Boyd Hunt:
. . . perseverance is used not in this ordinary sense but in a technical sense, for the Calvinistic doctrine that God preserves to final salvation each of the elect whom He calls and regenerates. Popularly expressed, this is the doctrine of “once saved—always saved.”[9]
Arthur C. Custance:
Perseverance of the Saints denotes what today is commonly referred to as the eternal security of the believer. A more suitable expression might be the “Preservation of the Saints” since this is more precisely what is involved. The security of the believer is bound in with the sovereignty of God, the unchangeableness of his purpose, and the constancy of his good pleasure. It is the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ and not the faithfulness of the believer that guarantees this security.
Now these Five Points form an organic unity, a single body of truth. They are based on two presuppositions which Scripture abundantly supports. The first presupposition is the complete impotence of man, and the second is the absolute sovereignty of the grace of God. Everything else follows (italics his).[10]
Walter A. Elwell:
Perseverance. . . the verb is frequent, being translated “continued steadfastly,” “devoted,” “constant,” and the idea of persistence, keeping on, patient endurance occurs very often. . . .
Upon such assurances could be based not only encouragement but a doctrine of eternal security of every believer—“once a Christian, always a Christian.”[11]
This is the perspective from which this book is written, that is, the doctrine of eternal security, the perseverance of the saints or Once Saved Always Saved all mean the same thing. Reduced to their simplest form these teachings all say the same, that is, once a person has been saved, he will always remain saved. Hereafter the abbreviation OSAS will refer to this teaching.
Various Descriptions And Definitions Of OSAS
Descriptions of terms are very important. Below are various definitions of this doctrine from different sources.
Charles Stanley:
Eternal security is that work of God, in which he guarantees that the gift of salvation once received is possessed forever and cannot be lost.[12]
Charles C. Ryrie:
Eternal security. The work of God which guarantees that the gift of God (salvation), once received, is possessed forever and cannot be lost (italics his).[13]
R. T. Kendall:
Whoever once truly believes that Jesus was raised from the dead, and confesses that Jesus is Lord, will go to heaven when he dies. “Once saved, always saved” means that such a person cannot lose his salvation. It follows, then, that he will go to heaven when he dies. It is an absolute enforcible [sic] promise. We are not saying once saved, always obedient. We are not saying once saved, always perfect. We are not saying once saved, always godly. It is once saved, always saved (italics his).[14]
Vic Lockman:
Those truly repenting of their sins & trusting in Christ’s atoning death will be kept in the faith by the power of God.
It is as if they have boarded a non-stop train bound for heaven. This faith train may pass through dark and perilous places, but it will never discharge a person with a reservation short of his glorious destination![15]
H. A. Ironside:
When we speak of the eternal security of the believer, what do we mean? We mean that once a poor sinner has been regenerated by the Word and the Spirit of God, once he has received a new life and a new nature and has been made partaker of the divine nature, once he has been justified from every charge before the throne of God, it is absolutely impossible that that man should ever again be a lost soul.[16]
David N. Steele and Curtis C. Thomas:
The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints does not maintain that all who profess the Christian faith are certain of heaven. It is saints —those who are set apart by the Spirit—who persevere to the end. It is believers—those who are given true, living faith in Christ—who are secure and safe in Him. Many who profess to believe fall away, but they do not fall from grace for they were never in grace. True believers do fall into temptations, and they do commit grievous sins, but these sins do not cause them to lose their salvation or separate them from Christ (italics his).[17]
James Montgomery Boice:
. . . persevering grace. It means that God will persevere with those whom he has called to faith in Christ so that none will be lost and that, because he perseveres with them, they also will persevere, resisting and overcoming the world, the flesh, and the devil, and thus being ready for Jesus when he comes for them (italics his).[18]
June Hunt:
What exactly is eternal security? It’s the doctrine that authentic Christians permanently possess everlasting life based solely on the gift of salvation given by God. . . . Now understand that eternal security is certainly a teaching. It’s a major doctrine of the church which teaches that Christians permanently possess everlasting life based solely on the gift of salvation given by God.[19]
Adrian Rogers:
We’re talking about a person who has received Christ into his heart by faith, who has become a partaker of the divine nature, who has been twice born, who has received the new birth. This person can never, ever, ever again be a lost soul.[20]
John MacArthur:
The point is not that God guarantees security to everyone who will say he accepts Christ, but rather that those whose faith is genuine will prove their salvation is secure by persevering to the end in the way of righteousness (italics his).[21]
Robert Thieme, Jr.:
Standing in grace has to do with eternal security. Eternal security, then, is the unbreakable relationship with the integrity of God. Neither God nor man nor angel can destroy the relationship which begins at salvation. There is no sin we can commit. There is no activity on our part that can neutralize it or destroy it. It is something we have permanently and perfectly both now and forever.[22]
A. A. Hodge:
What is the Scriptural doctrine as to the perseverance of the saints? “They whom God hath accepted in his beloved, effectively called and sanctified by his Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace; but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved.”—“Con. Faith,” Chap. xvii.; “L. Cat.,” Question 79 (italics his).[23]
Two Positions Within OSAS
From all these definitions, one should have a clear understanding of what OSAS teaching is. Before we move on to the origin of OSAS, another vital point needs to be made. There are two positions within OSAS theology.
The first position, hereafter referred to as the extreme position, is embraced by teachers such as Charles Stanley and Charles Ryrie. Their position declares that after a moment of saving faith such a person might even become an unbeliever, but will still remain saved.
The other position, hereafter referred to as the moderate position, is disseminated by John MacArthur and others who especially subscribe to the Westminster Confession. The moderate position of OSAS states that a true, saving faith will last forever. In other words, a true believer cannot become an unbeliever. The moderate position also tends to deny the concept of carnal Christians which is embraced by the extreme position of OSAS. More differences on these two positions will unfold in the chapters to come.
The Origin Of OSAS
OSAS can easily be traced back to John Calvin (1509-1564) from the Synod of Dort under the description of the perseverance of the saints. But did you know that it, and other points of Calvinism, can be traced more than one thousand years earlier to Augustine of Hippo (354-430)?
This was the theme about which Augustine structured his thinking during the last half of his writing ministry. As he put it: “Whatsoever persons are through the riches of divine grace exempted from the original sentence of condemnation are undoubtedly brought to hear the Gospel, and when hearing they are caused to believe it, and are made likewise to endure to the end in the faith which works by love, and should they at any time go astray, they are recovered and set right again.” Here are Election and eternal security.[24]
As a consequence Augustine wrote two treatises: the first was entitled On the Predestination of the Saints, and the second On the Gift of Perseverance. In the first, Augustine reaffirmed that Predestination is in no way based upon foreseen merit in the elect. All a man’s strivings in his own strength to achieve holiness of life apart from the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit are in vain, and Augustine explained why this is so. In the second treatise Augustine showed that the Perseverance of the Saints, by which he meant (in modern terminology) the eternal security of the believer, is not dependent upon the good works of the individual believer which would result from his conversion, but entirely upon the constancy and unchangeableness of God’s elective choice (italics his).[25]
Since Augustine this doctrine [the perseverance of the saints] has served as a theological framework within which theologians have wrestled with the question of whether and how one remains in salvation. Augustine introduced the idea of a donum perseverantiae: as a divine gift the perseverance of the saints in grace was certain. Calvin later championed the doctrine by affirming the perseverance of believers through the power and faithfulness of God. The Reformed confessions, in particular, the Canons of Dort, emphatically espoused the perseverance of the saints by denying that they could totally or finally fall away (italics his).[26]
Augustine’s specific teachings on perseverance, in part, are as follows:
We are speaking of that perseverance by which one perseveres to the end. If this is given, one does persevere to the end; and if one does not persevere to the end, it was not given . . . Since no one has perseverance to the end unless he does in fact persevere to the end, many may have it, and none can lose it. It is not to be feared that when a man has persevered to the end some evil will may arise in him so that he does not persevere to the end. This gift of God, therefore, can be obtained by supplication; but when it has been given, it cannot be lost by contumacy (ellipsis his).[27]
See now how foreign to the truth it is to deny that perseverance to the end of this life is a gift of God, since He Himself puts an end to this life when He wills, and if He puts an end to it before an impending fall, He makes a man persevere to the end. But more marvelous and more evident to the faithful is the largesse of God’s goodness, in His giving this grace even to infants in whom there is, at that age, no obedience to which it might be given.[28]
According to church history, then, the teaching of OSAS and basic Calvinism began with Aurelius Augustine of the fifth century!
For example, the basic doctrines of the Calvinistic position had been vigorously defended by Augustine against Pelagius during the fifth century.[29]
How then did John Calvin differ from Augustine in his influence on OSAS?
In some quarters it is becoming popular to assert that the true Christian faith resolves itself into the system of thinking which has come to be known—rightly or wrongly—as Calvinism. We are told that what we believe—if we believe as we should—is to be identified with teaching developed first by Saint Augustine and then more fully systemized by John Calvin.[30]
As to the doctrines of the fall, of total depravity, the slavery of the human will, the sovereignty of saving grace, the bishop of Hippo and the pastor of Geneva are essentially agreed; the former [Augustine] has the merit of priority and originality; the latter [Calvin] is clearer, stronger, more logical and rigorous, and far superior as an exegete.[31]
Church history declares Augustine was the originator and developer of OSAS and other related Calvinistic teachings, such as election, upon which it rests. John Calvin logically systemized Augustine’s theology.
Aurelius Augustine Of Hippo (354-430)
Since election and OSAS can be traced back to Augustine of Hippo, “the Doctor of Grace,”[32] one should naturally wonder who was he and what else did he teach. Was he sound in his understanding of Scripture or was he in extreme doctrinal error? We especially need to know what he taught about salvation. Let’s examine this and thereby we will be able to gauge his spiritual understanding. Before we examine this, here is some personal information about him.
Augustine was born in 354 in Numidia. In 371, at 17 years of age, he went to Carthage to pursue more advanced rhetorical studies. In 372 he had a son named Adeodatus born of a concubine. In 374 he joined the Manichean sect but abandoned it in 383. He obtained a position as teacher of rhetoric in Milan in 383 and was much impressed by the preaching of Ambrose. In the autumn of 386 he retired to prepare himself for baptism, which he received in April of 387.[33]
For nearly three years Augustine lived a monastic life at Tagaste. It was during this time that Adeodatus died. In 391 Augustine was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Valerius of Hippo. Shortly before his death in 395, Valerius, along with Megalius of Calama and Primas of Numidia, consecrated Augustine co-bishop of Hippo, to which see Augustine succeeded in full in that same year. If I do not err this is the first record of what might be termed a co-adjutor bishop with right of succession.[34]
Augustine’s Teachings And Practices
Most people might be surprised to learn that Augustine did more than develop the basic teachings of Calvinism. As a Catholic, he was also very influential in his own religion:
Augustine, who himself belonged nine years to the Manichaean sect, and was wonderfully converted by the grace of God to the Catholic church, without the slightest pressure from without. . .[35]
But in his discussion of how man is saved, Augustine so emphasized the church as a visible institution with the true creed, sacraments, and ministry that the Roman church considers him the father of Roman ecclesiasticism.[36]
No other father could have acted more beneficently on the Catholicism of the middle age. . .[37]
As administrator, preacher, controversialist, correspondent, and writer, Augustine worked to defend and spread the Catholic religion.[38]
Augustine was decidedly catholic in the doctrine of the church and of baptism, and in the cardinal points of the Latin orthodoxy.[39]
To know the aforementioned facts about Augustine will help us to better understand his specific teachings.
Augustine Taught only Catholics will Inherit Eternal Life
Sara said: “Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of a bondwoman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” And the Church says: “Cast out heresies and their children; for heretics shall not be heirs with Catholics.” But why shall they not be heirs? Are they not born of Abraham’s seed? And have they not the Church’s Baptism? They do have Baptism; and it would make the seed of Abraham an heir, if pride did not exclude them from inheritance. By the same word, by the same Sacrament you were born, but you will not come to the same inheritance of eternal life, unless you return to the Catholic Church.[40]
Augustine Persecuted Heretics
Augustine’s aforementioned view led to his persecution of heretics:
After the proscription of the Donatists by law in 412, Augustine added to his arguments justifying persecution the statement that coercion in this world would save the heretics from eternal punishment in the next.
“No salvation outside the church,” a doctrine preached by Augustine in 418 in his sermon addressed to the people of the church of Caesarea (chap. 6), implied a right to convert forcibly or otherwise the church’s opponents. The precedents established in the Donatist controversy by Augustine passed into the armory of the catholic church through the Middle Ages and into Reformation times. The Albigensian crusades of 1212 and 1226-1244 witnessed terrible massacres in centers such as Béziers and Carcassonne where the heresy flourished. In 1244 the defenders of the last Abigensian [sic] stronghold, Mont Ségur, were burned alive by their victorious enemies. [See Cathari.] More than a century and a half later, in 1415, the same punishment was inflicted on Jan Hus at Prague.[41]
As a Catholic theologian of the fifth century, we should not be too surprised by Augustine’s other views either:
Baptismal Regeneration
. . . he does not shrink from consigning unbaptized children to damnation itself, though he softens to the utmost this frightful dogma, and reduces the damnation to the minimum of punishment or the privation of blessedness.[42]
St. Augustin [sic] expressly assigns all unbaptized children dying in infancy to eternal damnation. . . .[43]
Augustine said that infants are “regenerated by baptism apart from their faith.”[44]
Baptism, Penance and the Table of the Lord
We are cleansed only once by Baptism; by prayer we are cleansed daily. But do not commit those sins on account of which you would have to be separated from the Body of Christ; perish the thought! For those whom you see doing penance have committed crimes, either adultery or some other enormities: that is why they are doing penance. If their sins were light, daily prayer would suffice to blot them out. In the Church, therefore, there are three ways in which sins are forgiven: in Baptism, in prayer, and in the greater humility of penance; yet, God does not forgive sins except to the baptized.[45]
It is an excellent thing that the Punic Christians call Baptism itself nothing else but salvation, and the Sacrament of Christ’s Body nothing else but life. Whence does this derive, except from an ancient and, as I suppose, apostolic tradition, by which the Churches of Christ hold inherently that without Baptism and participation at the table of the Lord it is impossible for any man to attain either to the kingdom of God or to salvation and life eternal? This is the witness of Scripture too.[46]
Penance and Reconciliation
. . . . that if a man, accusing his wife of adultery, kills her, this sin, since it is finished and does not perdure in him, if it is committed by a catechumen, is absolved in Baptism; and, if it is done by one who is baptized, it is healed by Penance and reconciliation. Are we supposed to declare, then, that adultery, committed without doubt if another wife is taken while the adulterous spouse still lives, is not adultery?[47]
Mary, a Perpetual Virgin
Heretics called Antidicomarites are those who contradict the perpetual virginity of Mary, and affirm that after Christ was born she was joined as one with her husband.[48]
Please note: according to Augustine’s description of a heretic from the above, multiple millions of Christians in our day would have been considered the same by him! Since he persecuted heretics partly because of a false interpretation of Lk. 14:23,[49] the same Christians in our day would have been persecuted by him, if they lived then under his influence. Dear reader, if you are a real Christian, this would have also included you!
Mary was Sinless
Augustine believed that the mother of the sinless Christ had never committed actual sin.[50]
Purgatory
We read in the books of the Maccabees that sacrifice was offered for the dead. But even if it were found nowhere in the Old Testament writings, the authority of the universal Church which is clear on this point is of no small weight, where in the prayers of the priest poured forth to the Lord God at His altar the commendation of the dead has its place.[51]
The man who has cultivated that remote land and who has gotten his bread by his very great labor is able to suffer this labor to the end of this life. After this life, however, it is not necessary that he suffer. But the man who perhaps has not cultivated the land and has allowed it to be overrun with brambles has in this life the curse of his land on all his works, and after this life he will have either purgatorial fire or eternal punishment.[52]
Though she had never read a line of St. Augustine, and probably never heard even his name, yet out of the unquenchable yearning of her heart and the ineradicable instincts of her human nature, she knew his teaching, that “there are some who have departed this life, not so bad as to be deemed unworthy of mercy, nor so good as to be entitled to immediate happiness.”[53]
One of the most touching incidents which have come down to us from the writings of the Fathers upon this subject is from the pen of St. Augustine, who lived in the beginning of the fifth century. This scholarly bishop relates that when his mother was dying, she made this last request of him: “Lay this body anywhere; let not the care of it in any way disturb you. This only I request of you, that you would remember me at the altar of the Lord, wherever you be.”
The memory of that request drew from her son this fervent prayer: “I, therefore, O God of my heart, do now beseech Thee for the sins of my mother. Hear me through the medicine of the wounds that hung upon the wood. . . . May she, then, be in peace with her husband. . . . And inspire, my Lord . . . thy servants, my brethren, whom with voice and heart and pen I serve, that as many as shall read these words may remember at Thy altar, Monica, Thy servant. . .” In this incident there is reflected the universal custom of the early Church of praying for the dead as well as her belief in a state called purgatory.[54]
The Millennium
. . . many Christians do not agree with Augustine’s equation of the Millennium with the present period of the church.[55]
Purgatory, Sacraments and the Millennium
In spite of these abiding values, Augustine brought some errors into the stream of Christian thought. He helped to develop the doctrine of purgatory with all its attendant evils. He so emphasized the value of the two sacraments that the doctrine of baptismal regeneration and sacramental grace were logical outcomes of his views. His interpretation of the Millennium as the era between the Incarnation and Second Advent of Christ in which the church would conquer the world led to the Roman emphasis on the Church of Rome as the universal church destined to bring all within its fold and to the idea of postmillennialism.[56]
Augustine’s other Catholic Teachings
Augustine taught the eleven books of the Apocrypha are part of the canon.[57] Besides that, he also called the saints our intercessors[58] and promoted the worship of Mary. Regarding the latter, we read:
He was the first to give a clear and fixed definition of the sacrament, as a visible sign of invisible grace, resting on divine appointment; but he knows nothing of the number seven; this was a much later enactment. In the doctrine of baptism he is entirely Catholic, though in logical contradiction with his dogma of predestination; but in the doctrine of the holy communion he stands, like his predecessors, Tertullian and Cyprian, nearer to the Calvinistic theory of a spiritual presence and fruition of Christ’s body and blood. He also contributed to promote, at least in his later writings, the Catholic faith of miracles, and the worship of Mary; though he exempts the Virgin only from actual sin, not from original, and, with all his reverence for her, never calls her mother of God.[59]
Of all of his doctrinal errors, Aurelius Augustine was most importantly wrong about the foremost doctrine in all of Scripture—how to be saved. Therefore, since Augustine’s salvation plan is no real plan of salvation at all, both it and Augustine himself would thereby be condemned under Gal. 1:8,9, by Paul:
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! (NIV)
The implication of this Scripture is that Calvin got the foundation of his teachings from an unsaved man who was therefore darkened in his spiritual understanding (Eph. 4:18)! Augustine, then, was spiritually incapable of correctly understanding Scripture. This is the only conclusion to which we can come when we realize that the Bible is spiritually understood (Psa. 119:99,100; Mt. 13:10-15; 11:25; Jn. 8:43; 1 Cor. 2:14).
From all of this, it should be apparent how we must evaluate the following descriptions of him:
. . . one of the most enlightened witnesses of the truth . . . .[60]
. . . St. Augustine, the worthy successor of Paul. . .[61]
Between Paul and Luther the church had no one of greater moral and spiritual stature than Augustine.[62]
One must also wonder how his writings could be so exalted by the Reformers:
The Reformers put his writings second only to the Bible and the scholastic realists followed him in many of their ideas.[63]
In fact, John Calvin called Augustine:
. . . the best and most faithful witness of all antiquity.[64]
Augustine’s Religious Influence
Regarding Augustine’s Catholic teachings in general, we read:
Sir Robert Anderson, in THE BIBLE OR THE CHURCH, declares that nearly all the errors prevalent in Romanism can be traced back to Augustine. He says, “The Roman Church was molded by Augustine into the form it has ever since maintained. Of all the errors that later centuries developed in her teaching there is scarcely one that cannot be found in embryo in his writings” (capital emphasis his).[65]
Imagine, the real originator and developer of Calvinism was also the person who molded the Roman Catholic church! Nearly all the errors prevalent in Romanism can be traced back to Augustine.
Primarily because of John Calvin, Augustine’s religious influence was not limited to Romanism:
Not only can nearly all the errors of Romanism be traced to Augustine, but Protestantism as well, for the Reformation, as Warfield declared, “was just the ultimate triumph of Augustine’s doctrine of grace over Augustine’s doctrine of the Church.” The Reformed take his errors on election and the Roman Catholics his other heresies, although the Reformers had some of his Roman errors as well.[66]
John Calvin Systemized Catholic Augustine’s Teachings
Calvin was the systematizer of Reformation doctrine. His best known and most representative work is the Institutes of the Christian Religion. In this work and elsewhere, he refers to Augustine as “the holy father.”[67]
The person John Calvin calls “the holy father” and quotes “far more frequently than all the Greek and Latin fathers combined”[68] taught a plan of salvation that made regeneration dependent upon water baptism. That same person also taught Purgatory, promoted Mary worship and said only Catholics will inherit eternal life.
Because of Augustine’s teachings, some could only give a hearty “Amen” to the following statement made by an OSAS proponent who tries to distinguish between the perseverance of the saints and eternal security, the latter of which he contends for:
Augustine was wrong on baptism. He was wrong on philosophy. He was wrong on the Church. He persecuted “heretics.” He was wrong on the “sacraments” and the nature of the Lord’s Supper. He was also mistaken on the Millennium, hermeneutics, the Resurrection, eternal security, and marriage: WHY WOULD ANYONE THINK HE WOULD BE RIGHT ON ELECTION AND PREDESTINATION? (capital emphasis his).[69]
One must wonder about John Calvin’s spirituality from all of this. Certainly Calvin knew of these Catholic teachings that Augustine embraced. How then could he so highly esteem him and his writings? Could it be that Calvin shut his eyes to Augustine’s false gospel because he liked the predestination teaching to which he held? No one will ever know for sure this side of the Judgment what the specific doctrinal attraction was for Calvin. But this we do know: the originator of OSAS taught a plan of salvation that would not bring salvation at all and John Calvin systemized and made popular this man’s teachings that appealed to him!
Ponder This . . .
Cyrilla, the Arian Bishop of Carthage, was a furious persecutor and a determined enemy to those Christians who professed the faith in its purity. He persuaded the king that he could never prosper in his undertakings, or enjoy his kingdom in peace, while he suffered any of the orthodox Christians to practise their principles; and the monarch, believing the prediction, sent for several of the most eminent Christians. He at first attempted to draw them from their faith by flattery, and to bribe them by the promise of immediate worldly rewards; but they were firm and constant, declaring resolutely, “We acknowledge but one Lord and one faith; you may therefore do whatever you please with our bodies, for it is better that we should suffer a few temporary pains than to endure everlasting misery.” The king, being greatly exasperated at this remark, sent them to a dungeon, and ordered them to be put in irons. The keeper, however, suffered their friends to have access to them, by which they became daily more confirmed in their resolution of dying for the sake of their Redeemer.
The king hearing of the indulgence they received, was exceedingly angry, and ordered these Christians to be put on board a vessel filled with combustible materials, and set on fire. The names of those who suffered by this cruel expedient were Rusticus, Severus, Liberatus, Rogatus, Servus, Septimus, and Boniface.[70]
Obviously, those early Christians did not believe OSAS, for they knew it was yet possible for them to suffer everlasting misery which would be impossible otherwise.
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Notes
[1] Stanley J. Grenz, Theology for the Community of God (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), p. 593.
[2] Curtis Hutson, Why I Disagree With All Five Points of Calvinism (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1980), pp. 16, 17.
[3] Laurence M. Vance, The Other Side of Calvinism (Pensacola, FL: Vance Publications, Second Printing, 1994), pp. 325, 326.
[4] Steve Brown, Midday Connection, Moody Cassette Ministry, Eternal Security, air date: 4/28/93.
[5] Charles C. Ryrie, Basic Theology (Victor Books, Third Printing, 1987), p. 328.
[6] David J. Engelsma, A Defense of Calvinism as the Gospel (South Holland, IL: The Evangelism Committee, Protestant Reformed Church, Fifth Printing, 1993), p. 10.
[7] Arthur W. Pink, Eternal Security (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, Fourth Printing, 1996), p. 9, foreword.
[8] Harold Camping, God‛s Magnificent Salvation Plan (Oakland, CA: Family Stations, Inc., 1995), p. 65.
[9] Basic Christian Doctrines, Edited by Carl F.H. Henry (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1979), p. 234.
[10] Arthur C. Custance, The Sovereignty of Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1979), p. 84.
[11] Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Edited by Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1984), p. 844.
[12] Charles Stanley (Atlanta, GA: In Touch Ministries, 1990), Eternal Security: What Do We Have To Lose?, audiotape #6, MI090.
[13] Charles C. Ryrie, So Great Salvation (Victor Books, 1989), pp. 155, 156.
[14] R. T. Kendall, Once Saved, Always Saved (Chicago: Moody Press, 1985), p. 46.
[15] Vic Lockman, Tulip: 5 Things God Wants You To Know, tract (Ramona, CA: 1968), p. 10.
[16] H. A. Ironside, Eternal Security (Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers, Revised Edition, 1986), p. 8.
[17] David N. Steele and Curtis C. Thomas, The Five Points of Calvinism (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing Co., Reprinted 1984), p. 56.
[18] James Montgomery Boice, Amazing Grace (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1993), p. 232.
[19] June Hunt, You Can Have Assurance of Your Salvation, cassette tape, aired the week of 1/4/93.
[20] Adrian Rogers, How You Can Be Sure You Are Eternally Secure, audiotape RA-1728, part 1, Jn. 10:27, 8/1/93.
[21] John F. MacArthur, Jr., The Gospel According to Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1989), p. 98.
[22] R. B. Thieme, Doctrines of Eternal Security, Current Positional Truth, lesson 269-Rom. 8:1, 1977 Romans, 11/29/77.
[23] A. A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1972), p. 542.
[24] Custance, The Sovereignty of Grace, p. 25. Note: the Ante-Nicene Fathers, who lived before Augustine, rejected OSAS. See Appendix M.
[25] Ibid., pp. 36, 37.
[26] Judith M. Gundry Volf, Paul and Perseverance (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990), p. 1.
[27] W. A. Jurgens, The Faith of the Early Fathers, Vol. 3 (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1979), p. 173.
[28] Ibid., Vol. 3, p. 175.
[29] Steele and Thomas, The Five Points of Calvinism, p. 19.
[30] Samuel Fisk, Calvinistic Paths Retraced (Murfreesboro, TN: Biblical Evangelism Press, 1985), p. 95.
[31] Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. VIII (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Reprinted 1995), pp. 540, 541.
[32] The Encyclopedia Americana International Edition (Danbury, CT: Grolier Incorporated, 1996), Vol. 2, p. 687.
[33] Jurgens, The Faith of the Early Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 1.
[34] Ibid., Vol. 3, p. 1.
[35] Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. III, p. 144.
[36] Earle E. Cairns, Christianity Through The Centuries (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981), p. 149.
[37] Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. III, p. 1026.
[38] The Encyclopedia Americana International Edition, Vol. 2, p. 686.
[39] Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. III, p. 498.
[40] Jurgens, The Faith of the Early Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 25.
[41] The Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade, Editor in Chief (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1987), Vol. 11, p. 255.
[42] Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. III, p. 836.
[43] Ibid., Vol. VIII, p. 556.
[44] Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, p. 107.
[45] Jurgens, The Faith of the Early Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 35.
[46] Ibid., p. 91.
[47] Ibid., p. 133.
[48] Ibid., p. 166.
[49] Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. III, p. 144.
[50] Cairns, Christianity Through The Centuries, p. 160.
[51] Jurgens, The Faith of the Early Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 154.
[52] Ibid., p. 38.
[53] John A. O‛Brien, The Faith of Millions (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., 1974), p. 346.
[54] Ibid., p. 341.
[55] Cairns, Christianity Through The Centuries, p. 16.
[56] Ibid., p. 149.
[57] Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, p. 106.
[58] Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. III, p. 441.
[59] Ibid., pp. 1020, 1021.
[60] Ibid., p. 1022.
[61] Ibid., p. 1026.
[62] Cairns, Christianity Through The Centuries, p. 149.
[63] Elgin Moyer, Wycliffe Biographical Dictionary of the Church, revised and enlarged by Earle E. Cairns (Chicago: Moody Press, 1982), p. 22.
[64] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Reprinted 1995), translated by Henry Beveridge, 4.24.26.
[65] Fisk, Calvinistic Paths Retraced, p. 95.
[66] Vance, The Other Side of Calvinism, p. 21.
[67] C. Norman Sellers, Election and Perseverance (Ft. Lauderdale, FL: College Studies Series, 1987), p. 7. The description Jesus gave of the heavenly Father (Jn. 17:11), John Calvin uses for a man who preached another gospel!
[68] Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. VIII, p. 539.
[69] Vance, The Other Side of Calvinism, p. 25. Unfortunately, Vance‛s book has some sincere Arminians confused about what he teaches regarding the believer‛s security. His unscriptural position is as follows: Arminians are just as wrong as Calvinists (p. 331); Arminianism is not an acceptable alternative to Calvinism (p. 331); Lordship salvation is heresy (p. 338); a past moment of faith makes a person just as secure as one of the members of the Trinity (p. 325); you can deny Christ, but he won‛t deny you (p. 348); an unrepentant prostitute might be saved based on a past decision for Christ (p. 336); regeneration is an inalterable change from spiritual death (p. 346).
[70] Foxe‛s Book of Martyrs, Marie Gentert King, Editor (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Company, Seventeenth Printing, 1981), p. 37.
