In response to a Facebook question:
Salvation can't be lost because:
i) It's not a matter of chance who will or won't be saved. The Father made that decision (election). Salvation is too important to be left to chance.
ii) The Son atoned for the sins of those on whose behalf he died. The Son didn't die for them in vain. He went on a mission to save them. He didn't come up short. He got exactly what he died for. He got exactly what he went for (John 17).
iii) The Spirit renews and preserves the saints.
iv) The Father, Son, and Spirit complete the work they began. They don't leave the job half-finished.
v) Put another way, sinners were lost before they were saved. So they can't be lost again. What's the point of saving the lost if they end up right where they began? If it comes full circle, why not leave them where God found them?
I'm a Calvinist. But 2 Peter 2:20-22 seems to say that a Christian can lose their salvation.
ReplyDeleteThis is from Tom Schreiner's commentary on 2 Peter. It's just the conclusion, but he makes an exegetical case leading up to this conclusion.
DeleteI think it is a mistake to conclude that genuine believers can apostatize. The God who calls believers will see to it that they will reach their destination, participation in the divine nature (see the comment on 2 Pet 1:3). Furthermore, we saw in 1 Pet 1:5, from the same author (see the commentary there), that God guards believers so that they will certainly, not probably, obtain eschatological salvation. Peter did not contradict himself, teaching in one place that believers can fall away and in another that they cannot. Some might try to explain the tension by saying that Peter was not actually saying that these people were headed for eternal destruction, and he spoke only of the loss of rewards. This view flies in the face of the entire argument in chap. 2, and really the whole letter. We have seen in many individual verses that eschatological judgment is promised to those who fall away. For example, three times in 2:1–3 Peter used the word "destruction” (apleia), a term that regularly denotes eschatological condemnation in the New Testament. The judgment of the flood and Sodom and Gomorrah are types of eternal judgment, not merely the loss of rewards, while Noah and Lot are a type of those who were preserved under adversity (2:5–9). The term "perish” in 2:12 also signifies the last judgment and eschatological corruption. In the same way the errorists are compared to Balaam, who wandered from the truth, a man who did not merely lose rewards but faced eternal judgment (2:15–16). Finally, it does not make much sense to say the last state is worse than the first (2:20) and it is better not to have known God's righteous way if the people described will ultimately be saved. If they will experience salvation, then the last stage is better than the first since previously they were bound for hell, and now they are destined for heaven. Furthermore, it is better to know the righteous way if one will experience eschatological life, even though one will lose one's rewards. These strong statements signify that Peter did not merely criticize the loss of rewards. Heaven and hell are at stake in this instance.
The best solution is to say that the language used in 2 Peter is phenomenological. In other words, Peter used the language of "Christians” to describe those who fell away because they gave every appearance of being Christians. They confessed Christ as Lord and Savior, were baptized, and joined the church. But the false teachers and some of those they seduced, though still present physically in the church, were no longer considered to be genuine believers by Peter. Nonetheless, he used "Christian" language to describe them, precisely because of their participation in the church, because they gave some evidence initially of genuine faith. Those who had apostatized revealed that they were never truly part of the people of God, for remaining true to the faith is one sign that one truly belongs to God. The words of 1 John apply well to what has happened in 2 Peter: "They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us” (1 John 2:19). Peter pointed in the same direction in the illustration of the dog and pig. In the final analysis, those who fell away never really changed their nature. They remained dogs and pigs inside. They may have washed up on the outside and appeared to be different, but fundamentally they were dogs and pigs. In other words, they were always unclean; they only seemed to have changed. Perseverance, therefore, is the test of authenticity. Scholars will continue to disagree on whether believers can apostatize, but it is hoped that all will agree that believers must persevere to the end to be saved. In this respect there is a remarkable agreement between Arminians and Calvinists.
DeleteI have a detailed discussion of that passage in my MAR thesis on pp44-47:
Deletehttps://calvindude.org/ebooks/stevehays/Apostasy-and-Perseverance.pdf
Thanks Hawk and Steve.
ReplyDelete