Hello, everyone! It’s been a
little while since I’ve filled up this space. I hope you all are staying safe
and enjoying a slower time during this COVID-19 pandemic. I’m grateful that I’ve
been able to enjoy significant quality time with those around me, including a
scenic hike to Machine Falls in Tullahoma, TN. Here in Tennessee, the
restrictions are beginning to ease up quite a bit. I ate in a restaurant for
the first time in months last Friday! I’d never been so glad to see Mexican
food.
If
you know me, you know I love to discuss and debate theology. One of the
questions I am asked time and time again is in regard to the eternal security
of the believer. More simply put, once a
Christian is “saved”, can they ever become “unsaved”? Said another way, once a
Christian places faith in Christ, do they have assurance that they will
persevere to Salvation? It’s a question that has splintered Protestantism
almost from the beginning and is a doctrine worthy of intense study.
The
doctrine of the eternal security of the believer gained popularity in Calvin’s
Geneva and through other like-minded reformers of the 16th century.
The doctrine, however, took a dramatic turn within the American context during
the period of revival that is known as the Great Awakening. So, what changed you ask?
The
biggest difference between the confessionally Reformed thought strain and the
Great Awakening thinking prevalent in modern Evangelicalism today is on whom
the focus of assurance lies. For Calvin and those in his vein, the focus of
assurance is external, or God-focused. That is, God brings His people to final
perseverance through the ordinary means of Grace – Word and Sacrament.
The
purpose of this post is not to examine the doctrine of double predestination,
most often associated with Calvin today. However, to properly discuss how the
modern Evangelical version of the assurance of Salvation came about, we must
articulate at a basic level what the double predestination entails. At its most
basic, un-nuanced level, double predestination asserts that God predetermined
before the beginning of time who would be saved and who would be damned to Hell
based on nothing but His own desires. The doctrine essentially denies that man
has any semblance of free will. Those considered the “elect” are predestined
for Heaven, while the “reprobate” are destined for damnation regardless of anything
they do. Again, I’m not discussing my opinion on this doctrine here (Although,
I’d be happy to have this conversation with any one of you one-on-one!).
As
the notion of the eternal security of the “elect” spread from continental
Europe to the British Isles and eventually America, Christians began to try to
determine if they were among the “elect” who would be destined for Heaven. Unfortunately, instead of resting on God’s
means of Grace in the Word and Sacraments, believers began to look inward for
signs of election. Revivalist preachers
in the Great Awakening such as John Wesley and George Whitefield began to
emphasize instances of personal conversion as evidence that a believer was a “true”
believer and would have eternal life. Other preachers used verses such as
Matthew 7:17 to indicate that a believer could know if they were saved or not
based upon the fruit their life yielded. Matthew 7:17 reads as follows: “Likewise,
every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.”
Eventually, this line of thinking led to the development of things like the “Sinner’s
Prayer” and the “Romans Road”, through which one was thought to have invited
Christ into the very depths of their heart. Subsequently, salvation was secured
for that believer at the time the prayer was prayed.
Dramatic
conversion experiences and producing good fruit are good things, right? So,
what is flawed with this line of thinking?
Conversion
experiences are undeniably wonderful and are to be cherished and celebrated. I
cherish my own conversion story and love to recount it any chance I get (Let me
tell you about it sometime!). I love to hear the conversion stories of others
in which they speak of the faithfulness of God in their lives. In fact, I’d love to hear more conversion
stories than I’m hearing right now. I want to hear stories about how the love
of God has opened eyes and changed lives forever. Nonetheless, as Christians,
we shouldn’t look to our conversion experience as assurance of our eternal
salvation. Doing so opens the door ever so slightly for Satan to create doubt
in our minds. More than likely, there will come a time in all of our lives in
which we struggle and invariably start to question if our own conversion was legitimate.
Was it all just an act? Was it sincere? Did God accept my conversion? This crevice
of an opening is all Satan needs in order to wage spiritual warfare against us.
Similarly,
producing good fruit is very important – the Scripture I referenced above
commands it, in fact. However, the fruit produced must be an outworking of the
Grace which God has so lovingly bestowed upon us. Fruit production should never
be used as one criterion in a formula to determine if one is “saved” or not. Doing so opens the door for a de facto works-based
salvation – the very doctrine the Reformers fought so hard to dispense with. It also creates internal strife and hand
wringing. For the fruit checkers, no matter how much good fruit is produced, they
can never know if it is enough in the eyes of God. Scripture doesn’t give us a
threshold for good works to be performed. Is 1 good work a day enough? 5? 10? 20?
(spoiler alert – no amount good works is ever enough to earn the salvific Grace
of God!) You get the point – using the production of good fruit to prove one is
saved only leads to frustration and more uncertainty. Leave the fruit checking
to the farmers, this is a battle that can never be won.
Fortunately
for us as Christians, this frustration is unnecessary and can be easily
avoided. All that we need to do is to look outward to God for signs of His
promises rather than looking inward to evaluate ourselves based upon our own
merits. In His Holy Word and the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper,
God has given us real, objective means of Grace to seal us in His promises.
None of these three things require an ounce of subjective guesswork on our
part. When we read the Scriptures, get
Baptized, or partake of His body and precious blood, we have objective evidence
that we are abiding in Him. Next time you feel yourself struggling with your
faith, look away from yourself and towards the promises of God sealed to us in
the ordinary means of Grace.
In Christ,
Kendal May
