Systematic Theology -- Salvation

Perseverance

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Lesson: Government

Genre: Speech

Track: 16

Dictation Name: 16 Perseverance

Year: 1970’s

We have dealt with preservation. Now, we go to a related subject, perseverance. There is a very real difference between the two doctrines, and perseverance, in particular, was one of the basis emphasis of the Reformation. One of the things that marked the late medieval believer was a marked insecurity. He had no assurance of salvation. Thus, when the reformers began with the doctrine of justification by faith through the work of Jesus Christ, justification through God’s sovereign grace, in Christ, they followed through to emphasize that, because salvation is God’s work, it cannot be undone. Thus, a popular phrase which summarizes this aspect of the doctrine of salvation is, “Once saved always saved.” A little later, I’m going to deal with that phrase. In some respects, it’s a very good one, but in some respects it is a rather dangerous statement.

Now, the doctrine of perseverance is very closely related to the doctrine of the church. When we find that any group or any age denies the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, what follows is that they must then and do have a strong and powerful doctrine of the church. For assurance then, man, instead of relying on God’s grace, relies on the church, on the means of grace, on the sacraments. One way or another, he relies on the church. Man has to have some doctrine of security. He will get it from an institution if he does not get it from the Lord. Today, we have churches offering security, and even more, we have civil government, social security. Now, that’s the doctrine of assurance.

The Reformation churches began with this doctrine. Now, the heirs of the Reformation, churches like the Lutheran, the Presbyterian, the Reformed, and so on have only a very formal adherence to this doctrine. They’ve abandoned it. Because they’ve abandoned scripture, they’ve abandoned God’s grace unto salvation. Instead, they stress the institution of the church, the authority of the elders, of the pastors, of the consistory, or whatever the case may be. At this point, Milton was very right when, back in the 17th century, he saw this kind of thing developing and said, “New presbyter is but old priest writ large.” Now, we cannot have a return to the biblical doctrine of the church without a revival of the doctrine of perseverance.

In security, in faith, calls for a demand for security from something in this world, from our experience, from fellow believers, the church, the state, social security, something in this world. Man must have an assurance, and when he does not get it from Jesus Christ, he’s going to get it from this world.

Paul says in Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Now, there you have the doctrine of perseverance. When the Lord begins a work in us, he never stops. He continues it until the day of his coming when he perfects it. Our salvation, because it’s not our work, but the Lord’s work, has a security. We persevere, not because we persevere, but because Christ is working in us. Those who are truly saves may fall into sin, they may stray for a time, but they will endure, and they will stand until the day of his coming.

Now, I said earlier the phrase, “Once saved always saved” is not the wisest. In one sense, it’s an accurate summary, and yet it has a mis-emphasis. It is good because it calls attention to our eternal security in Jesus Christ. It does justice in the sovereign nature of grace, but it places the emphasis on our condition rather than our calling, and this is the weakness of that phrase. Instead of saying, “Once saved always saved,” what we should say instead, “Once called always called.” God called Adam to serve him in the Garden of Eden, and Adam fell. Now, in Jesus Christ, the Second Adam, we have another call. Because this call comes through the new man, Jesus Christ, the last Adam and the true Adam, and it is his work in us, not the work of the first Adam or our work, it is Christ’s work in us. When he calls us, his calling stands.

Thus, the emphasis in the doctrine of perseverance has to be on our calling. We have been called to exercise dominion and to subdue the earth, to serve the Lord wherever we are, to be godly men in our work, godly husbands, godly wives, godly parents, godly churchmen. Our perseverance is in those things. It is in action. It is a dynamic thing and not a static. Too often people who say, “Once saved always saved” feel that, “Well, I can sit back,” and that’s what it is. I know one Reformed group that denies there is any growth in sanctification after the day of your salvation. You’re saved and that’s it. Just wherever you are when you’re saved, that’s where you are until you die. They rule out growth, and that is alien to the doctrine of perseverance. Once called, always called.

We are called to an inescapable calling, the calling of covenant man. Our salvation restores us to that calling through Jesus Christ and gives us a security therein. Isaiah speaks of that security very often. For example, in these two verses: “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” Isaiah 43:2. Again, in Isaiah 54:17, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.”

Now Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:58, speaks of God’s work in us always bearing fruit. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” In other words, when we serve God, we know that it is going to accomplish his purpose. Paul says in Romans 8:28, “For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose,” because it’s his doing, not ours, and therefore, he makes even our mistakes work together for good.

I’ve told this story before to some of you, but I’ll repeat it again because this is always been a favorite verse of mine, Romans 8:28, and I never fully appreciated its meaning, how God makes all things work together for good, until a good many years ago. A couple who is not in the church, not members, they once in awhile came, came to me about a problem in their family. It was the worst disaster in my entire ministry. Every bit of advice I gave them which I thought was sound advice blew up in their faces and mine. It got to be painful to see them. They’d come back to me very faithfully and I’d give them some advice, and it would blow up again. I wished they would go away, I was so embarrassed, because it was painful. My batting average was zero, and it led to their conversion, and they joined the church and they became faithful tithing members. I couldn’t get over it.

Now, very obviously, I had nothing to do with that. It was the Lord’s doing, and you see, this is the marvel of it all, when we move in terms of the Lord, in terms of his calling. We know there is more involved in everything we do than ourselves, so we often very seriously err, but he makes it work together for good, because he is {?}, and so it is that Paul is so very right in Romans 8:28, that he makes all things work together for good, and in Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” And also in 1 Corinthians 15:58, when Paul says, you know that “your labor is not in vain in the Lord,” you know, because you have the assurance of God’s word that he is going to make it work together for good. God so declares it again and again in scripture. Very beautifully in Isaiah 55:11, “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” God, being infallible and omnipotent, his purpose never fails. His word always prospers. If we deny this doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, we then make salvation depend on man’s will rather than the grace of God.

Now, those who hold to this kind of insecurity rather than perseverance, are going really back of the Reformation, and they take usually one of two courses open to them. First, they become churchmen. They rely on the church, as I said earlier; the means of grace, the sacraments, the authority of the elders, the word of the pastor. The church replaces the word of God, so that when justification and perseverance are neglected, the church becomes powerful. It replaces them to give assurance, and we see this very widely.

Lately, in the papers, we’ve had accounts of some churches, here and abroad which have set aside the word of God. They have set aside the deity of our Lord. They have set aside the miracles. They have set aside the law of God, but they are railroading people out who refuse to submit to the ordination of women, who refuse to submit to an easy view, and a tolerance of homosexuals, and much, much more. What’s happened? The authority of the word of God has been replaced by the authority of the church. You can differ with what God says, but you dare not differ with what the church says. Now, there has to be a certain word. There has to be a security. If you don’t get it from God and his word, and in his salvation, you’re going to get it from man or the church, or the state.

Then second, many who deny this doctrine put their trust in experience. They have a continual hunger for an experience to give them assurance. Some years ago, I was chairman of a ministerial association when they had a citywide revival meeting with a revivalist who is better now forgotten, and they packed the civil auditorium night after night, but it was interesting to see that virtually all of those who came forward were drifters. They went from church to church wherever there was a series of special meetings, because they wanted experience. The same people would go to every retreat, for experience. There was no real growth in their lives. We ran a test. We called on a number of these people. They didn’t want any growth. They just wanted to go where they could have an experience. As long as they felt pepped up by special meetings, they were happy, because they were seeking from meetings, what God in his word should have given them, but the man who knows he is indeed called of God has an eternal security in Jesus Christ. He is then released from that futile quest for assurance from himself, and from other men, and from churches, and from leaders. He knows he is the Lord’s, so he doesn’t run around continually, trying to have a human experience or a human authority take the place of God’s word, and the knowledge in his heart that he is the Lord’s, and what God has begun, he will perform until the day of Jesus Christ.

As a result, he is then released for godly action. He can serve the Lord, in his home, in his work, in his church, wherever he is. He’s not spending all his time trying to find assurance. He is the Lord’s servant. Once called, always called, and he manifests his calling. In Jesus Christ, we have been called to an eternal calling, so that we are told that even in the new creation, in Revelation we are told, his servants shall serve him, but then there shall be no more curse. So we serve him in the fullness of freedom and joy.

Thus, we are called into an eternal calling, into power and dominion in and under Christ our King. We may be slaughtered like sheep as Paul states, in that calling, but then Paul goes on to say in the verses immediately following, in Romans 8:37-39, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Nothing can separate us, because there is nothing more powerful than the Lord who saves us. No force in this world can undo what Christ has done. As a fine Christian, Thomas Washborn{?} of several hundred years ago said, speaking to himself and to all who were distressed and troubled by fears and doubts, he called attention to our Lord’s crucifixion, his atonement, and said, “He that so much did do for you will do yet more and care for you,” and so it is. God has already done the great work. The rest is easy, and no one can undo what he has begun in us.

Are there any questions now? Yes?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] What’s that?

[Audience] I seal this.

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Audience] Could you {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes, the word “to seal” is an old fashioned word, and we have a newer word, which is “to brand.” In other words, what the Lord is saying there in Revelation and elsewhere, when we are told that we are the sealed of God, and that he has sealed us. He’s put his mark upon us. We are also told we have a new name. Well, that’s the mark of ownership. So that the Lord says, “They’re mine. I gave my life for them. I put my brand upon them, so all you rustlers, stay away! Or you deal with me.” So, to be sealed means to be set apart by God as his property. So, we must look upon ourselves as God’s property. This is why Paul says you are not your own. You’ve been bought with a price. So, we cannot treat ourselves as something that is our own business. We are the Lord’s business at all times because we are sealed, and in a seal, in that sense, is permanent. Yes?

[Audience] Another point is, it seems to me that another very warped or perverted view of perseverance that is here too by many people today is explained by one so-called theologian who said that even if a person becomes an atheist after he is saved, he’s still saved, and that might explain that he was Arminian.

[Rushdoony] I know who you are referring to, and I think that the lordship of Christ deals of that very powerfully. What such people say, and I know who the reference is to, is that when I say I am a Christian, God is bound. In other words, I tie God permanently, this is what this man, who is in Houston, believes. If I say “Yes, Lord, I accept you as my lord and savior,” I can go out, and he says, “I can commit adultery. I can become an atheist. I can do everything, but I’m saved. Once saved, always saved. God’s hands are tied. Mine are not.” Well, that’s blasphemy. It says man is sovereign, and he can tie God’s hands permanently. No. It’s not my calling, God and saying, “Okay, Lord. I’ve accepted you and you’re tied for life,” which is what he does. That’s what this man in Houston teaches. Rather, it’s not because I say, “Well, I’ve accepted you, Lord. Now you’re bound to keep me forever.” No, it’s when God calls us. That endures, not my profession, but God’s calling. Yes?

[Audience] Question on the cardinality {?}

[Rushdoony] 1 Corinthians 3. Yes, now, the doctrine of the carnal Christian, I believe, is a very much abused one, because it actually asserts, in many cases, that it’s possible to be ungodly and yet, still a Christian, and this particular man, in Houston, does affirm that you can be totally reprobate in your behavior and still be saved, but the doctrine of the carnal Christian supposes that a Christian can be anything other than a redeemed man who has a new nature and therefore, is faithful to it. When we are born again in Jesus Christ, we grow. We grow, just as a child grows. If there is no growth, there is no salvation. Now Paul, when he uses the word “carnal” here, has a totally different meaning than modern people have given to it. He says, “I cannot speak unto you as spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ,” you see. That’s the key. He’s not saying that they are showing a reprobate nature, but like a baby, they’re not capable of anything yet. They haven’t learned, they haven’t grown. So he says, “I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal.” You’re like babies, in other words.

Now, a ten year old, or a twenty or a fifty year old baby is a contradiction in terms. So, to talk about somebody who’s been born again and has shown no growth as a carnal Christian is ridicules. It’s implying that you can stay a baby forever, but someone who’s been in the faith five years, and ten years, or two years, and is still acting as he did before, is not a Christian. Now, these Corinthians were newly converted. Paul had just been there. He had just left. There were problems in the church. Corinth, well, maybe you could compare it to San Francisco, only it was worse. We know from records that the city kept two thousand prostitutes for traveling salesmen who came there. It was a big manufacturing center and Corinthian goods would go all the way to China, there are evidences of that. So, they had salesmen from all over going there, and they took care of their salesmen, and morality was something that we wouldn’t recognize.

As a result, the people of Corinth came from quite a sordid background. Paul says he went there with fear and trembling. It was real cesspool. So, here he has a group of converts. He’s just left them and he gets word there’s a serious moral problem, so he tells them, “Look, you’re proud of yourselves and the way you’ve conducted yourself in this situation, as though you’re mature, spiritual Christians, but you’re yet carnal. I’m speaking to you, therefore, as carnal, even as to babes in Christ. So, this tells us exactly what he meant. So, people who use that term today don’t stick to that context.

[Audience] {?} four spiritual laws {?}

[Rushdoony] What was that?

[Audience] The four spiritual laws. Are they ever moved out again, of context. You can be spiritual and a month from now you can be carnal again {?}

[Rushdoony] No, I don’t believe that. A Christian can fall into sin. Now, John in his letter, the first letter, says, “If we say that we have not sinned,” in the last verse of the first chapter, “we make him a liar and his word is not in us,” and a little later, (I’m not using my regular Bible, so it’s hard to find things. I know it by the place on the page), he makes the statement, that the believer does not sin. 3:9, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin.” Yes, alright. Now, he goes back and forth between these two statements. What does it mean?

Well, there are two words for sin in the Greek. One is anomia, anti-law, and John goes on to say that sin is the transgression of the law. The unregenerate man is guilty always of anomia. He is anti-law. He hates God’s law. It’s his delight to sin, if he can get away with it. The only thing he’s afraid of is not getting away with it. The other word for sin is hamartia, which means missing the mark or falling short. Now, anomia, you’re going away from the law. In hamartia, you’re trying to be faithful, but you’re falling short or missing. John also says that if we abide in sin, hamartia, we are not of the Lord. So, if a man is continually committing the same sin, continually drunk, continually committing adultery, he is a liar, he is not saved, but we as Christians, are never free of hamartia. If we say we are, we’re a liar, and we make a liar out of God and his word is not in us, because he says that in this life, we are marked by hamartia. We fall short. We’re not perfect. So, we have to say that the Christian indeed can be guilty of hamartia, as long as it isn’t a repetition. There has to be progress. So, as we grow in our faithfulness, the more we see how much God’s word requires of us. Paul said he was the chief of sinners. He didn’t say, “I was,” he said, “I am the chief of sinners,” because Paul who had far outstripped us in his sanctification, the more he grew in grace, the more he stood in grace, and that in himself, there was no good thing, and so he became all the more aware of the enormity of his sin, and the greatness of God’s grace. Does this help?

[Audience] The thing about it is, {?} same situation as persons converted, born again,?} Christian will say four years, and then this cycle will intervene. He just goes away from the law.

[Rushdoony] Now, the Christian can sometimes fall in a startling way, but he will not stay in that sin. I have known people who have come to the Lord out of a very sordid background, extremely sordid. You wonder how anyone ever survived, and grew up in such a situation and in such circumstances. As a result, they were marked in their being by certain instabilities, and this would often manifest themselves in their life. Especially because they lived in a situation in a context because of their poverty and the background they came out of, which would be a horrible one, a slum area, for example. So occasionally they do slip, but they do not stay in that sin. They grow. I’ll never forget the statement by one man who fell very tragically, and he’d done it over a period of twenty years or so, about three or four times, and he made up his mind, he said, “I disgraced my Christian friends in the church so often, I’ll never go back. I won’t be an embarrassment to them again.” But he came back and he said, “I could not stay away. The Lord compelled me to return.” Well, you see, he could not abide in sin. He was the Lord’s. Any other questions? Yes?

[Audience] This isn’t pertaining to the lesson, but I was asked by {?} Wagner, is there in anything in legislature, in the nature or in California, regarding putting Christmas and Easter out of the schools?

[Rushdoony] Is there anything in any state legislature with regard to Christmas and Easter, to put them out of the schools? I don’t know about the legislatures, but I do know there are court cases to bar Christmas carols from Christian schools, and anything that will point to a specifically Christian observance. Yes?

[Audience] A question I have. The reason I came in is {?} talking about schools, and you yourself traveling {?} you appear at courts as a witness. What are you, a counselor? It seems a person’s actually in the case. Could you explain {?} yourself?

[Rushdoony] Yes. The question is with regard to my role in the various trials across country. I have, in my various writings over the years, dealt with these issues. For example, in Messianic Character of American Education, with the humanism of the public schools, and the Foundations of Social Order, with the battle of the early church against the humanism of its day and how we, too, must battle, and in our monthly Chalcedon Report, I have also dealt with this battle over the years. As a result, of course, in these trials, one of the things they have to do is to establish the biblical foundations of their resistance. Why are they making a stand against the government control of the church or of the school? And in many of these cases, the men who make the stand originally don’t entirely know why they do it. It’s simply a deep-down feeling that this church, or this school belongs to the Lord, and Caesar has no right to control it. They don’t know how to formulate their position entirely. I’m called in therefore, to be an expert witness, to deal with the doctrinal foundation of the church and the Christian school and their struggle against controls. This has been my role, and this is why, in a couple of the cases where the ACLU and other agencies have tried to eliminate the Ten Commandments from schools and other public buildings, the state has called me in because they’ve come to know of my knowledge here. I never expected, for example, that North Dakota, which is not much involved in many of these things, would know of my involvement. The attorney general there immediately called upon me, and had the trial transcript from Kentucky where I had testified in January, so he was fully aware of my role.

[Audience] What is the highest court that you’ve been a witness in, may I ask?

[Rushdoony] These have all been superior courts. When it goes to a higher court, there is no testimony whatsoever. On an appeal, only the attorneys of both sides argue, and the appeal is entirely in terms of what’s in the transcript. As a result, very, very often the attorney will tell me, “I’m going to ask you a series of questions which will not register at all with the local court, but I want it in the transcript for the benefit of an appeal, so that we have something when we go to the appellate court, the state supreme court, or the U.S. supreme court. So, I go there in terms of exposition of scripture as it relates to these things.

[Audience] Have you had any {?}

[Rushdoony] No.

[Audience] Do you see that coming?

[Rushdoony] Some years ago, I had something like that come from the state office, but I don’t know. I think a more likely thing would be an attempt to move against our organization, and to penalize us by financial battles. That’s the kind of reprisal that is commonly being taken now a days.

[Audience] With the churches out here in California, {?}, 76, 70 something like that

[Rushdoony] Sixty-one churches in California, as of this year, there are many more who’ve joined the group. Bill Kellogg who is here, is active in the Napa Valley, organizing even further, so I would guess the number is well over 100 now, and maybe on its way to 200 before too long.

[Audience] Do these people all have access to you{?}

[Rushdoony] Yes. I’ve spoken to a rally of the pastors and churches involved this fall, and in contact with some of the men every week.

[Audience] I pray the {?}

[Rushdoony] Thank you, I appreciate that very much, and pray for these churches here in California. Well, our time is up. Let’s bow our heads now in prayer.

Our Lord and our God, we thank thee that thou hast saved us, set thy seal upon us, and made us thine. We thank thee that, having begun a good work in us, thou wilt continue until the day of Jesus Christ. Make us joyful, our Father, in our calling, joyful in thy word, joyful that we have been called to take part in the battle of the ages. Make us faithful, confident unto victory, and be ever zealous in thy service. In Jesus name. Amen.

End of tape