Hebrews and the Question of Whether or a Person Can Lose Their Salvation Part III

Let me start off by quoting the last two paragraphs of my previous post on this subject:

In Revelation 3:5, we are assured that those who ''overcome'' will not be blotted out of the book of Life. The passage, in my view, implies that some will be blotted out. For many Calvinists, the blotting was for no one who was ever saved. However, is this was scripture teaches?

As we refer back to Exodus 32:33, I believe that we will see a strong argument against the Calvinist case of eternal security. First of all, the passage is speaking in the context of God's chosen people, the Israelites, not a heathen land, which is important to keep in mind. Second, many of the Hebrews in this passage have turned their worship to another god than to the true One. Third, God actually has their names blotted out for so doing, which I strongly believe implies their loss of salvation. If these people were simply non-elect and they could never have been saved, then why did God wait to blot them out once they began worshiping the golden calf? Certainly, God has the authority to do whatever He wishes, whenever He wishes, but His judgment upon the Israelites, as a result of their disobedience, I believer provides a clear case of believers who lost their salvation through apostasy. These Hebrews had not simply broken a law or loved something more than God (all of which is consequential) but publicly denounced their own faith by turning to another God-truly fulfilling the prerequisite requirements of being an official apostate.

Introduction:

Christians throughout the ages have had different positions on whether or not a Christian can lose their salvation. Arminians, Molinists, Calvinists, Thomists, and Lutherans are among the main factions within Christianity to differ on the topics of free will and predestination. A minority of Christians known as ''Reformed'' or '' Calvinists''began in the sixteenth century. This latter group was the first in church history to believe that salvation can never be lost to those that have been justified by Christ.

The study of historical theology demonstrates that Calvinism was unique in its relation to the doctrine of election compared to the movements before it. Despite teaching unconditional election, for instance, neither Augustine of Hippo nor Thomas Aquinas ever believed that salvation cannot be lost. No one in church history before John Calvin ever insisted that the elect are guaranteed perseverance. Although some Calvinists have appealed to theologians before the Reformation to prove otherwise, their attempts have often been rejected by historians and the vast majority of theologians.

So far, I have demonstrated Biblical evidence that those who worshipped the golden calf lost justification. I have also shown that Calvinists assume that predestination and justification refer to the same people, with no clear distinction between the two concepts. What I have not yet shown, however, is that believers under the New Covenant can lose their salvation. For this latter topic, I apply to the Book of Hebrews. Knowing that this would be a heavier subject than the previous ones to cover, I've delayed writing about this one for some time.

Augustine and Aquinas

If one takes the time to read Augustine's later anti-Pelagian writings, the reader will find that Augustine had a high regard for the doctrine of election. In many ways, as Pelagius enforced his view of men being without original sin, Augustine reinforced (in his rhetorical replies to the British monk) that all men are born in a state of damnation.

Augustine's views of limited atonement have been debates, but that is not the purpose of this post. If Augustine believed that Christ's death was particular for the church, this does not mean that all the elect are guaranteed to persevere. For instance, Augustine differed from many present-day Calvinists in that he believed Christ died for Judas. Furthermore, Augustine's refutations of Pelagius were never concerning the topic of whether or not a Christian can lose their salvation.

Had either Augustine or Aquinas believed that all those who are justified are predestined, they would not have believed that some can lose salvation. However, this is simply not the case. Augustine knew that some believers can lose the grace of Gode in their lives:

''If, however, being already regenerate and justified, he relapses of his own will into an evil life, assuredly he cannot say, “I have not received”, because of his own free choice to evil he has lost the grace of God, that he had received.'' Treaties on Rebuke and Grace, p.9

Augustine also believed that god illuminates everyone: ''That light, however, does not nourish the eyes of irrational birds, but the pure hearts of those men who believe in God and turn from the love of visible and temporal things to the fulfilling of His precepts. All men can do this if they will, because that light illuminates every man coming into this world.'' (Genesis Defended Against the Manicheans, AD 389)

Elsewhere, Augustine explained that not everyone who is justified is among God's predestined that will persevere until the end:

''We, then, call men elected, and Christ's disciples, and God's children, because they are to be so called whom, being regenerated, we see to live piously; but they are then truly what they are called if they shall abide in that on account of which they are so called. But if they have not perseverance,--that is, if they continue not in that which they have begun to be,--they are not truly called what they are called and are not; for they are not this in the sight of Him to whom it is known what they are going to be,--that is to say, from good men, bad men.'' ("On Rebuke and Grace" (De Correptione et Gratis), Ch 22).

''... But those who do not belong to this number of the predestinated ... [some] receive the grace of God, but they are only for a season, and do not persevere; they forsake and are forsaken. For by their free will, as they have not received the gift of perseverance, they are sent away by the righteous and hidden judgment of God (ibid, Ch. 42).''

Augustine also strongly believed that we must continue to pray that we keep perseverance. If not, he noted, we may lose it:

''There are some, morevover, who either pray not at all or pray coldly, because they know from the Lord's having said it that God knows what is necessary for us even before we ask it of Him. Must the truth of this statement be given up or is it to be supposed that it should be deleted from the gospel on account of such peoplel? On the contrary, while it is a fact that God prepares some things to be given even to those who do not pray, such as the beginning of faith, and other things not to be given except to those who pray for them, such as perseverance to the end, certainly one who thinks that he has this of himself does not pray to have it. We must beware, then, lest, while we fear that exhortation may grow cool, prayer be extinguished and presumption advanced. (ibid., 16, 39).''

To Augustine, our freedom of the will can help us persevere:

''The excuse would seem more just of those who say: "We did not receive hearing," than those who say "We did not recieve perseverance," because reply can be made: "Man, in what you heard and kept, in that much you could have persevered if you had will" (Admonition and Grace, 7, 11).''

''God, therefore, gave man a good will, because He made him in that will when He made him upright (i.e., justified or regenerated). He gave man assistance (i.e. saving grace) without which man could not continue in the will even if he would; but that he would, God left to his free choice. Man was able, therefore, to continue if he would, because the assistance was not lacking whereby he was able, and without which he would not be able, to persevere in holding to the good that he might will. But because he willed not to continue, certainly the blame is his whose merit it would have been if he had willed to continue. (ibid., 11, 32).''

Although some have attempted to explain Augustine changed his views in his later years, as someone who has read his main later works (including the Retractations), I realize that this is not case. Whiel on may argue that Augustine later taught limited atonement (again, not the subject of this post), he never taught the Calvinist's understanding of perseverance. In short, the Calvinist view was unknown to him, and to all those that had lived before him.

Aquinas was more explicit on view of mortal sin than Augustine. To him, mortal sin brings one outside of justification:

"Now it is evident that whoever neglects to have or do what he ought to have or do, commits a sin of omission. Wherefore through negligence, ignorance of what one is bound to know, is a sin; whereas it is not imputed as a sin to a man, if he fails to know what he is unable to know. Consequently ignorance of such like things is called invincible, because it cannot be overcome by study. For this reason such like ignorance, not being voluntary, since it is not in our power to be rid of it, is not a sin: wherefore it is evident that no invincible ignorance is a sin. On the other hand vincible ignorance is a sin, if it be about things one is bound to know." *2

Aquinas followed the same vein of thought as Augustine on predestination (though he did differ on a few areas). However, despite holding to unconditional election (unlike present Arminians), Aquinas never understood this to mean that God guarantees that all who have been justified will certainly persevere. He did, however, along with Augustine, believed that God guarantees an efficacious grace to help some believers persevere until the end.

Further Thoughts:

As a student of a certificate in New Testament Studies, I hope to illuminate the reader to how early Christianity understood the doctrine of Christians falling from salvation.

A popular argument among Calvinists (and an unbiblical one at that) is that somehow what they believe about God is the highest view of him. To many of them, the harsher God is, and the more people that he dams, the more glorious that He is. However, God's gloriousness is demonstrated not simply by his wrath, but by his mercy (John 3: 16-17, Romans 11:32).

Likewise, whether or not God allows someone to leave the faith, and thus, justification, has nothing to do with how great and glorious God is. Many Calvinists will portray God to be inferior if ''He can't stop people from losing their salvation,'' but downplay the fact that scripture teaches of God giving men exactly the right to do that.

Final Direction:

Since another from Liberty University has been written so well as to the argument that a Christian can lose their salvation, I end this series of posts with the reader reading it:

https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1069&context=djrc

Notes:

1*-The Extant of the Atonement by David L. Allen, p. 18.

2*-https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=4084

Further Sources:

http://itsjustdave1988.blogspot.com/2005/07/did-augustine-teach-eternal-security.html

https://apologeticessay.wordpress.com/2018/02/13/did-st-augustine-teach-eternal-security-of-salvation-or-once-saved-always-saved/