Spiritual Formation

Reading time: 5 minutes

God will not save everyone, but that doesn’t mean you need to be insecure about your salvation, if you are a born-again believer. Place your full trust in God’s power to save you and you will enter into God’s rest.

The Bible does not teach universal salvation – that everyone will be saved. So then, what does 1 Timothy 2:4 mean? “God … wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4 NIV). Doesn’t this verse teach that God wants to save all people, and if He wants it then it will happen? Here are some possible meanings of “wants” and “all people”:

• A: “Wants” is a general statement of compassion, different from “wills”. “Wants” says more about the nature of God than it does about what will happen. What God wants may or may not happen. What God wills, will happen; it cannot be stopped or thwarted.
• B: “Wants” is the same as “wills.” What God wants will happen.
• C: “All people” means “all kinds of people”, not every single person that has ever existed.
• D: “All people” means literally every single person that has ever existed.

Given these two possible interpretations for the two phrases, we can consider four (2×2) overall meanings:

1. Universal Salvation: God wills (B) that every single person (D) that has ever existed will be saved.
2. Universal Inclusion: God wills (B) that all kinds of people (C) will be saved.
3. God Frustrated: God wants (A) every single person (D) to be saved (but it won’t happen).
4. God Satisfied: God wants (A) all kinds of people (C) to be saved (and it will likely happen – there is no reason to say it won’t happen because the statement is reasonable – it is essentially the same meaning as #2 Universal Inclusion).

God does not save everyone, but He will not let everyone perish. God wants all kinds of people to be saved, but He does not intend everyone to be saved.

God Saves All Kinds of People

The overall point of 1 Timothy 2 is focused on believers avoiding discrimination as in James 2:1-7. God wants His people to not favor one kind of people over another, but realize that the Gospel is not exclusive to one race, income level, or sex.

The context of 1 Timothy 2:4 speaks of various kinds of people:

• Kings and those in authority contrasted with regular, everyday people
• Gentiles contrasted with Jews

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—  for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time. And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles.

1 Timothy 2:1-4 NIV

The point is that the Gospel is for all kinds of people. It is not only for Jews. It is not only for the poor. It is not only for men. The Gospel levels the playing field. No one should judge whether a person is fit for salvation by their outward appearance (James 2:1-7).

How Do We Know that God Doesn’t Save Everyone?

The reason we know that everyone won’t be saved is the power to save is fully with God and not in the least with man. God chooses who will be saved (John 6:44), who will repent (2 Timothy 2:25–26), who is appointed for salvation (Acts 13:48). John Piper links this 2 Timothy passage with the 1 Timothy passage by the phrase “knowledge of the truth”, counting it as evidence that God must grant repentance before a person is saved.

Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

2 Timothy 2:25-26 NIV

God must grant repentance to people. God is the gatekeeper, deciding who will come into His kingdom (John 10:3-16). God will eventually sort everyone by their relationship to Him. He knows His sheep and He will move them to eternal life; He also knows the goats and He will move them to depart to eternal punishment (Matthew 25:31-46).

We know that at least one person (such as Abraham, Moses, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John) will be in heaven. We also know that at least one person (such as Judas) will not be in heaven. The only way to guarantee this is if the power of choice is in God’s hands, not in man’s. Otherwise, Jesus’s sacrifice would have failed to save even one person.

We don’t know who God wants to save. So, we preach the Gospel to everyone, indiscriminately. The power of the Gospel and the Spirit working is what saves a person.

How is this relevant to a person’s mental health? We know that because God chooses to draw His people to Him and because He will never abandon His people, that truly saved people are secure in their salvation. God is responsible for authoring and perfecting their faith (Hebrews 12:2). Stand on the truth of the Gospel to dispel all anxiety. Rest in God.

This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:

In repentance and rest is your salvation,
    in quietness and trust is your strength…

Isaiah 30:15 NIV

Learn more about being secure in God’s love.
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Reading time: 4 minutes

Salvation happens in the heart. The spiritual heart (not the physical one) is the key to understanding salvation. Circumcision, similar to baptism, is a picture of what happens to a saved person.

Physical Circumcision and Baptism do not Save a Person

The spiritual heart is invisible, internal to a person, and therefore only accessible by God. During physical circumcision, physical flesh is removed from the body. During Old Testament times, God used this sign to mark His people. Circumcision was simply a way to differentiate God’s people from other nations (though this does not mean that circumcision saves a person).

There are two Israels. There is the physical nation, which is God’s people of the Old Testament. And there is the spiritual nation, which is the true believers in Christ. Circumcision was a sign of faith, given to the physical nation, chosen by God over all other nations. Likewise, baptism is a sign of faith, given to the spiritual nation, those chosen by God out of all people.

Both circumcision and baptism take place after people become true believers. Their purpose is to publicly identify with Christ, not to save a person from sin. They are a sign of what has happened; they offer no value toward saving a person. They are a physical (external) sign of a spiritual (internal) reality.

Abraham was circumcised after his faith. Non-believing infants were circumcised and non-believers today can be baptized, but there is no reason to do this. NT believers are baptized only after the testimony of their faith. This is why Paul can argue that circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing (Galatians 5:6).

For you are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the ceremony of circumcision. No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.

Romans 2:28-29 NLT

Circumcision of the Heart Permanently Identifies a Person With Christ

To become a believer, Christ must perform a spiritual circumcision on the heart. He must cut away the sinful nature, causing the spiritual heart to come to life. Once done, the person’s union with Christ is complete and irreversible.

For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.

For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

Collosians 2:9-14 NLT

Just like it is impossible for a man to become uncircumcised, it is impossible for a true believer in Christ, who has been spiritually circumcised in the heart, to return to spiritual death. The Christian who has been circumcised has had his physical nature cut away. It cannot be “glued back on.” The person who has become alive in Christ is fully identified with Christ. Just as Christ lives forever, so will the person whose record of charges has been crucified.

God resurrects His people to spiritual life. He will never then kill them, returning them to spiritual death. The Christian is a new creation in the sense that his heart is spiritually different than the non-believer’s. If you are saved, recognize your circumcised heart and rejoice in what God has done for you. God’s saving is a profound alteration that brings a person to such fullness of life that it can never die.

For further reading:
https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/circumcision-heart
https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/how-do-circumcision-and-baptism-correspond
https://christianconcepts.com/guard-your-heart-or-you-will-become-lost
Image created by Matt Pavlik using Photoshop AI

Reading time: 10 minutes

The scriptures abound with warnings about the necessity of enduring to the end. Some say that if there is no possibility of apostasy, what is the purpose of all of these warnings? But these warnings support God’s people, encouraging them to not doubt the security of their faith.

God Uses His People To Accomplish His Plans

God’s goal is the certain salvation of all His people (those who belong to Him). But many circumstances come together to bring about that end; for instance:

• the death of Christ
• the operation of the Spirit and application of the atonement
• the various gifts in the church (1 Corinthians 12:8, Ephesians 4:11-13)

The spiritual gifts and offices are filled and exercised in the church. The gospel is to be preached in the whole world; God’s people are to be encouraged with promises; the riches and beauties of Heaven portrayed; the sufferings of Christ remembered. God employs these means to stimulate the saints to fulfill His will.

We Christians do our part while acknowledging that God is the supreme power that makes it work.

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

1 Corinthians 3:6-7 ESV

All this sowing, planting, and watering is simply God’s method of accomplishing His plans. There is no evidence that He will fail in any way because He uses His people. Furthermore, we don’t know everything that God knows. So we must continue to do good in as many ways as possible because we don’t know which efforts God will bless more than others.

 In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

Ecclesiastes 11:6 ESV

Encourage Secure Christians With Warnings

Warnings are encouraging because they differentiate between those who have fake faith and those who have genuine faith.

It is right to present to the believer the awful doom of the wicked; that he may see the fearful consequences of sin; that he may fear God, and also see from what he has been taken and saved; that he may love God. Neither is it inconsistent with truth to encourage saints with such passages as:

• But the one who endures to the end will be saved (Matthew 24:13 ESV).
•  Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death (John 8:51 ESV).
• If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned (John 15:6 ESV).

These warnings point out the awful end of a hypocrite, and always keeping it indelibly stamped upon their minds that it is by faithfulness that they are to have the continued evidence of their acceptance with God; that by diligence alone they shall make their calling and election sure to themselves, and have the testimony that they are secure in the covenant of grace. Even so, God is the one who works in us, enabling us to endure.

Also, teach them that faith without works is dead; that real and saving faith is as surely known by good works as a tree is known by its fruit; remind them of how many have made a fair start, to all appearance, and finally staggered and fell from their profession, and now seem to be more deeply involved in sin than ever.

Paul exhorted Timothy to “War a good warfare; holding faith and a good conscience, which some having put away, concerning faith have made shipwreck, of whom is Hymenseus and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.” He also tells the Corinthians to deliver such to Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Paul does not here intimate that these were eternally lost. Yet, like poor Job, they are delivered into the hands of Satan, that they may be chastised and sorely rebuked, till they “learn not to blaspheme.”

What Christian has not had some experience in the chastenings of the Lord? If any be without chastisement they are bastards and not sons. When you neglect duty, yield to the vanities of time, and are engrossed in worldly things, you find yourself cold, barren, and unfruitful (but not beyond God’s reach, and not without salvation if God is working in you through His Holy Spirit).

In Hebrews 10, after the apostle has shown that once cleansed from sin we shall be clean eternally and that we are forever perfected by the one offering, he goes on to exhort believers:

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Hebrews 10:23-25 ESV

Why all this exhortation if there is no danger of apostasy? First, notice that all the enduring and positive focus is valid because “He who promised is faithful.” When we focus on God’s faithfulness, we no longer need doubt or fear. Second, the enjoyment of the presence and approval of the Spirit are worth ten thousand times the pains and labor it requires to maintain them. Third, the chastisements of God for our disobedience are terrible to a Christian. When He hides His face and leaves us in midnight darkness, we might pitifully cry, “Why art thou cast down, oh, my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me?”

Reader, have you not been thus cast down, grieved, and conscious-stricken, for some sin you have committed? God tries us in the fire as gold, so that the dross and tin are taken away. God does not intend to destroy His children; instead, He aims to irradicate sin, pride, envy, revenge, and malice; all these enemies to God’s purpose must be destroyed. Therefore, the sore chastisements of God are for our good, and as fire purifies the gold and takes away the dross, so these chastisements shall purge His people from their sins. God brings us through trials to purge away the evil, to abate the flesh, and above all else, to save the person.

Paul suffered greatly as a servant of God. Listen to his letter to the Corinthians:

Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

2 Corinthians 11:23-27 ESV

Heaven is a rich reward, to be sure, but the road to it is a thorny one.

But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

Hebrews 10:32-34 ESV

Pauls speaks of the enlightened one knowing they have a better inheritance that remains (does not perish, is eternal). How could they know this, and believe in apostasy? He concludes with:

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

Hebrews 10:39 ESV

Here, after all his exhortation and warning, he tells them that we are of them that believe until the saving of the soul.

The best ground upon which to plant an exhortation is that of encouragement. Washington encouraged his men by telling them God would certainly give their arms victory in the end; that this great country of ours was destined to be a free one; that the oppression of England would be overturned.

Yet, he exhorted his men by telling them of the sad state our country would be in if we were defeated. He pointed them to their children and children’s children, and in this way he led them over many hard marches; sometimes barefooted, hungry, half-clad and half-armed; with an enemy twice as numerous, well armed and equipped; often his men stained the earth with the blood from their bare, lacerated feet. They bore all this and endured to the end. Why? Because their souls were in a blaze with the doctrine of predestination. It was this that emboldened them in every battlefield.

So we see that certainty of victory is the greatest stimulus that can be given. They believed that God had predestined this country to be free. When David went to meet Goliath, he preached the doctrine of predestination as he went, and yet he did not become lazy but was full of energy. Make a man feel sure that God will give him success, and it will make him strong.

The fact that the bible abounds with warnings and exhortations is no evidence that apostasy is possible. If a parent warns his children every morning and evening of some danger, describes it to them, takes them where they can see it, shows it to them, and is so watchful over them that he never sleeps nor slumbers, builds a wall of salvation around them, never leaves nor forsakes them, dwells in the midst of them, and makes them as secure as himself, would you go off and tell that this man’s children would be very likely to be killed? Certainly not.

God Almighty takes better care of His children than any earthly parent can of his. Nothing makes God so desirable as the thought that it is a treasure that cannot be burned or stolen; moth or rust cannot corrupt it. Though our earthly goods may be stolen, or the reverses of providence may leave us penniless — we may suffer and die with hunger — God provides us an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that cannot fade; reserved in Heaven, where no evil influence can come, and kept there for us, and we are kept by the power of God. Oh, glorious thought!

God keeps his children; they are not left to themselves, but he keeps them unto salvation, and keeps them ever ready to be revealed in the last day. Look up to the starry sky, and tell her host if you can; cast your eye over the earth, and think of the hand that made it, with its fullness, and then say, He keeps me; poor, sinful, unworthy me, and keeps me as the apple of His eye. If it is said He keeps you through faith, no difference; it is the power of God, no difference how exerted, and the power of God is all we want — it is all we need to keep us.

This is post 25, the final one in a series; you can read the previous post. This post started as the public domain works of J. H. Oliphant. While sections are the same in many ways, I modernized the language and added my thoughts to provide greater clarity for my readers.
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Reading time: 15 minutes

Salvation is by faith alone both before and after God causes a person to become born again. There is nothing within a person that God counts as righteousness before being saved. After a person is saved, there is only the work of Jesus Christ that keeps the person saved.

J.H. Oliphant, in Chapter 16 of his book, shows that although Methodists, as a people, do teach the possibility of apostasy, their published confession of faith denies the doctrine of apostasy. He contrasts Articles 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12 of their formal theology with their everyday practical theology.

Article 7 – Original Sin

Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk), but it is the corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that continually.

Article 7

Look closely at these words. “His very nature is involved in sin, and because of the corruption of his nature, he is inclined to sin continually. Here is total depravity, undeniably. He is not partially inclined to sin, but he is continually so; no intermission. As the water is continually rushing down the channel of the Ohio, so his nature is unceasingly rushing him headlong in sin, and if left to himself he is certain of destruction. Outside influence must interpose; grace must arrest him; unconditional election by grace only will reach his case.

Article 8 – Totally Depraved

The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and works, to faith, and calling upon God; wherefore we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will.

Article 8

Who ever heard the utter helplessness of man more fully set forth than it is here? “Cannot turn and prepare himself by his own strength and good works?” If he cannot turn himself, and he is ever turned, what will turn him? Is it true that God must turn him, and yet cannot keep him turned? How does this article say he is turned? “The grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will.” Then he cannot have a good will only as grace gives it to him.

For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

Phillipians 2:13 NLT

But Article 8 not only tells us that God must work in the sinner a good will, but “work with him when he has that good will.” How can one fall from grace when God works in him a good will, and works with him while he has that good will?

Surely, if he ever should lose that good will, it would be while God was working with him. Paul was persuaded that where God had begun a good work he would perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. This was Paul’s opinion — reader, is it yours?

No one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me makes them want to come. But if they do come, I will raise them to life on the last day.

John 6:44 CEV

Therefore, man cannot have this will, unless it is produced in him of God. He never will be inclined to God; never truly repent of sin; never love God, nor his cause; never hate sin and long for holiness, unless God Almighty works in him the will. I ask in all candor, how can someone lose his salvation if God works in him while he has the will? If the working of God gave the will, cannot the working of God keep the will? If I take the city, can I not keep it? Can the man become worse than he was before he received the will? God gave him the will without any merit or good works, and now will God forsake, desert, and leave him because he still sees no merit in him? This article, fairly examined, proclaims the biblical, Calvinistic theology.

Article 9 – By Faith Alone

We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore, that we are justified by faith, only, is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort.

Article 9

This article cannot harmonize with conditional salvation, or apostasy either. It says we are counted righteous, “only for the merit of our Lord Jesus Christ.” If this is the only ground of justification, where is the room for conditions of losing salvation? This article sets forth the only hope of poor sinners — the righteousness of Jesus. It points every sin-ruined, sin-condemned sinner to Jesus and tells him that though sin has ruined him, and all his works are evil, and though there is not one good trait in or about him, yet there is hope for him.

It discards all good works and bad works as a ground of salvation and lifts the eyes of every forlorn sinner to Jesus, who constitutes the whole and sole ground of hope for any or all of Adam’s race. It declares that God accounts us righteous for the merit of Christ, and I am sure that if God accounts us righteous for the merits of Christ, he will not account us unrighteous, because there is still no merit in us. He will not first clothe us in Christ’s merit, and then unclothe us; but once clothed, there is no reason why we shall ever be unclothed.

I heartily join in the thought that we “are justified by faith only” — faith in Jesus as the only sure, eternal ground of hope. We have sinned, to be sure, but he has paid all our debt. We are daily going into debt, but He is our husband, and our growing debt is constantly met by Him.

Article 10 – Works Follow Faith but Never Precede Them

Although good works, which are the fruits of faith, and follow after justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of God’s judgment; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and spring out of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree is discerned by its fruit.

Article 10

This article lays the sure foundation for the final perseverance of every Christian. According to this article, good works are not the cause of faith. They have no more to do in procuring either faith or justification than the fruit has to do in producing the tree that bears it. Neither do good works continue one in faith, any more than the fruit continues the life of the tree that bears it. How astonishing that one will profess to believe this article, and live in a church that publishes it as a part of their faith, and yet believe it is possible to lose salvation.

John Calvin never uttered a sentiment more foreign to apostasy than this article. Faith is the only root from which works grow; and works, therefore, have no more to do in procuring faith or justification, than the fruit has in producing the twig that bears it, or the sap that gives it its growth, or the root of the tree.

Who made the tree, and who alone can make trees? It was God, and He also gives us faith and justifies us for the merits of Christ alone, and not for any works or merit found in us. This is biblical truth, and true according to this article, yet it doesn’t seem to be taught in a modern Methodist church (proof forthcoming). Can a tree bear good fruit this year, and bad next? Only God can change its nature; and so with his people, all their good works have nothing to do with changing their nature. Works follow after being born again and, therefore do not, in the least measure, procure that birth.

Where is the good sense in saying that men are justified, not for any merit or works of their own, but for the sake of Christ alone, and yet advocate the doctrine of apostasy? All these articles make salvation to be as wholly of the Lord as the resurrection of the body, and our obedience as a consequence of salvation. This is sound and wholesome. It is a rock as firm as the everlasting hills on which we may put our feet with security.

Some claim that anyone who faithfully preaches against apostasy and the sentiments of these articles tends to licentiousness. The particular point here is, that if you preach to saints that they are infallibly secure, it will cause them to become careless and neglectful.

This argument is founded on simple ignorance and has been referred to in several places in the New Testament. It was to this very class of persons that Peter referred when he said:

For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.

1 Peter 2:15-16 ESV

These ignorant and foolish men are those who think it dangerous to preach the final perseverance of saints; they think that the saints must be scared into obedience. It was in reply to this very doctrine that Paul spoke, when he said, “What, then, shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace?” In another place, he answers, “How can we, that are dead to sin, live in it any longer?”

Paul here shows that the motives to obedience are from quite a different source than the fear of apostasy. “How can we, who are dead to sin, still live in sin?” If there were no hell or devil, we would still be inclined to serve God. It is from choice we serve him, and our greatest grief is that we cannot serve and love him better.

Why are genuine Christians so intent, both day and night, in serving God; why are they continually lifting His name on high? Surely they are not afraid of losing their salvation. If the advocates of the God-dishonoring doctrine have impressed it upon the minds of saints below, certainly it has never been advocated in Heaven. If you were to tell the guests of Heaven that they are secure and cannot fall, and therefore they need not concern themselves about the praise of God, they would doubtless tell you that if they had a million times the capacity to praise him, all should be employed; and the more you cry to them that they are secure, the louder would they praise him for that security.

Saints on earth should and do praise God for the immutable security He has thrown around them. Have not the saints on earth tasted Heaven’s blessing? If God has loved me and gave his Son up to death for me, and loved me and cared for me all the days of my wicked life; forgiven all my sins, and gave me a standing in Christ; adopted me into his own family, and sealed me unto the day of redemption with the Holy Spirit of promise, will all this tend to make me neglectful? No, never.

If you are a Christian it would stir you up to serve him who has done so much for you. Look over the country, and ask why our best citizens do not steal. Is it because there is a law to punish them? No. If there were no law they would not steal; and if you know of one who thinks that he would steal if there were no law, you had better not give him too good a chance, law or no law.

Likewise, if you know of one professed Christian who thinks it would be unsafe to tell him that he cannot lose his salvation because he would “tend to licentiousness,” consider whether his heart is right in the sight of God.

Parents reward their children with kind words of approval when they obey them; but when they disobey, they do not kill nor disinherit them. It is utterly unnatural to disinherit a child for any cause. So good works are pleasing to God, understanding they cannot make up for sin, nor endure the severity of God’s judgment; and he that obeys God will be rewarded even here; his cup will often run over with joy; while the disobedient one will be cast down, become barren and unfruitful, and even be delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Article 12 – Once Saved, Sin Does Not Disqualify Anyone

Not every sin willingly committed after justification is the sin against the Holy Ghost, and unpardonable. Wherefore, the grant of repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after justification. After we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin, and, by the grace of God, rise again and amend our lives. And therefore they are to be condemned who say they can no more sin as long as they live here; or deny the place of forgiveness to such as truly repent.

Article 12

This article declares that we all sin after justification, yet these sins are not unpardonable. I grant that we all sin, and therefore have reason to be a praying people as long as we live, and also need to repent daily; every Christian realizes that this is not a perfect state. It also says, that if we depart from grace and fall into sin, we may, by God’s grace, arise and amend our lives. This does not say a man can fall beyond the grace of God, but virtually denies it, for it teaches that by God’s grace, they may arise, amend their lives, etc.

A different section of the Book of Discipline (Of Sanctification?) teaches that God by His grace, gives the ability to love God, and in this, the plain teaching is that the grace of God may reinstate whoever departs from the right way. All these articles put together, crush the doctrine of apostasy, and are an eternal veto against it and salvation by works of any kind, good or bad.

Methodist Practical Faith Contradicts Their Declaration of Their Faith

As we have seen, the traditional Methodist doctrine says much to support salvation being by faith only and not by works. However, as J.H. Oliphant has uncovered, the actual beliefs of the Methodist church have drifted into nonsensical contradictions. The following is a perfect example of double-speak that attempts to count two contradictory statements as both true:

In our Wesleyan-Arminian theology, as in all mainstream Christian theology, salvation still isn’t ours to possess. It is always and only God who saves. In that sense we cannot “lose” salvation. But we can “fall away” from it. Or to use another metaphor, we can move so far from the saving streams of God’s love and power that we parch and spiritually die.

Rev. Taylor Burton-Edwards

We are born into this world spiritually dead. God saves us, making us spiritually alive in Jesus Christ. Having been made spiritually alive, there is nothing with the power to cause us to die once again.

Rev. Taylor also seems to think a significant number of protestants teach that everyone who professes to be a Christian will be saved. Calvinists do not believe that by saying “magic words” someone is saved for all eternity. The time on earth will prove whether a person is truly saved. Ultimately, God knows those who are His. But Calvinists do teach that if people are genuinely born of God, they will be preserved by God for eternity.

We’re not reducing salvation to a propositional transaction, as some forms of American Protestant proclamation have done, so that once we believe and say certain things, no matter what else happens, we “have” salvation and can never “lose” it.

Rev. Taylor Burton-Edwards

Not All Who Profess Christ Have Genuine Faith

All of this reinforces to me that there are many people out there who lack understanding of what the Bible teaches. They have given in to worldly, humanistic wisdom that denies God’s sovereignty, and places man’s so-called “free will” (man’s sovereignty) above God’s. For those who have a genuine faith in Christ, never lose heart or doubt the day of your salvation. God is mighty to save you!

This is post 24 in a series; you can read the previous post. This post started as the public domain works of J. H. Oliphant. While sections are the same in many ways, I modernized the language and added my thoughts to provide greater clarity for my readers.
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