The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. –Romans 8:16 (KJV)
Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. –Matthew 8:26 (KJV)
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. –1 Corinthians 2:14 (KJV)
A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. –James 1:8 (KJV)
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. –Hebrews 11:1 (KJV)
It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. –Acts 2:17 (KJV)
The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. –Revelation 21:8 (KJV)
[Faith] is the power to see into the world of spirits, into things invisible and eternal. –John Wesley
The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. –Titus 2:11-12 (KJV)
Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who have sex with men, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. –1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (NIV)
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their LOSS they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. –Hebrews 6:4-6 (NIV)
If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. –Hebrews 10:26-31 (NIV)
HOLDING ON to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme. –1 Timothy 1:19-20 (NIV)
Only let not Christ be forsaken, so that THE LOSS OF SALVATION and of an eternal home would be feared. –St. Cyprian
—
I’m pretty sure that these Wesleyan-holiness books have indexes of “once saved, always saved” / easy-believism proof texts; and then they attempt to refute them from an Arminian perspective. I would also recommend consulting John Wesley’s Notes Upon the New Testament and the Adam Clarke Commentary.
Robert Shank, Life in the Son. Bethany House Publishers, 1989. 380 pages.
Dan Corner, The Believer’s Conditional Security. Evangelical Outreach, 2000. 801 pages.
—. The Myth of Eternal Security. Evangelical Outreach, 2005. 230 pages.
—. The Gospel According to Charles Stanley. Evangelical Outreach, 1995. 42 pages.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. –Romans 1:26-27 (NIV)
Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with mennor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. –1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (NIV)
—
Jones and Yarhouse, Homosexuality (InterVarsity Press, 2000), pp. 129-133.
A man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. –Romans 3:28 (KJV)
THE HYPOCRITE’S HOPE SHALL PERISH: whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider’s web. –Job 8:13-14 (KJV)
FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD! –James 2:20 (KJV)
What shall we say then? SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN, THAT GRACE MAY ABOUND?GOD FORBID! How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? –Romans 6:1-2 (KJV)
Holiness, without which NO MAN SHALL SEE THE LORD. –Hebrews 12:14 (KJV)
The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things SHALL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD. –Galatians 5:19-21 (KJV)
—
Steven J. Land, Passover, Pentecost, and Parousia, pp. xi-xii.
Thomas C. Oden, John Wesley’s Teachings, vol. 2, pp. 90-91.
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. –Hebrews 6:4-6
If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. –Hebrews 10:26-31
There are strong grounds to hope that the truly regenerate will persevere unto the end, and be saved, through the power of divine grace which is pledged for their support;127 but their future obedience and final salvation are neither determined nor certain, since through infirmity and manifold temptations they are in danger of falling;128 and they ought, therefore, to watch and pray lest they make shipwreck of their faith and be lost. —Free Will Baptist Treatise, ch. 13
127 Romans 8:38, 39: 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. 1 Cor. 10:13: God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 2 Cor. 12:9: My grace is sufficient for thee. Job 17:9; Matt. 16:18; John 10:27, 28; Phil. 1:6.
128 2 Chronicles 15:2: The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him…but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you. 2 Pet 1:10: Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. Ezek. 33:18: When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby. John 15:6; 1 Cor. 10:12; Heb. 6:4-6; 12:15; 1 Chron. 28:9; Rev. 2:4; Tim. 1:19; 2 Pet. 2:20, 21; 1 Cor. 9:27; Matt. 24:13; Acts 1:25; Rev. 22:19.
IRENAEUS (d. 202)
“Those who do not obey Him, but being disinherited by Him, have ceased to be His sons.” [Against Heresies 4.41.3]
“We should fear ourselves, least perchance after [we have come to] the knowledge of Christ, if we do things displeasing to God, we obtain no further forgiveness of sins, but are shut out from His Kingdom. And for that reason, Paul said, ‘For if [God] spared not the natural branches, [take heed] lest He also not spare you’” (Romans 11:21). [Against Heresies 4.27.2]
“It is not to those who are on the outside that he said these things, but to us – LEST WE SHOULD BE CAST FORTH FROM THE KINGDOM OF GOD, by doing any such thing.” [Against Heresies 4.27.4]
“Knowing that WHAT PRESERVES HIS LIFE, NAMELY, OBEDIENCE TO GOD, is good, he may diligently keep it with all earnestness.” [Against Heresies 4.39.1]
CYPRIAN (d. 258)
“Only let not Christ be forsaken, so that THE LOSS OF SALVATION and of an eternal home would be feared.” [On the Lapsed, Treatise 3, Ch. 10]
“Faith itself and the saving birth do not make alive by merely being received. Rather, they must be preserved…The Lord taught this in His instruction when He said…‘Sin no more, lest a worst thing come upon you’ (John 5:14)…SOLOMON, SAUL, and many others were able to keep the grace given to them so long as they walked in the Lord’s ways. However, when the discipline of the Lord was forsaken by them, grace also forsook them.” [Epistle 6.2]
“Whoever that confessor is, he is not greater, better, or dearer to God than SOLOMON. Solomon retained the grace that he had received from the Lord, as long as he walked inGod’s ways. However, AFTER HE FORSOOK THE LORD’S WAY, HE ALSO LOST THE LORD’S GRACE. For that reason it is written, ‘Hold fast that which you have, lest another take your crown’ (Revelation 3:11)…‘He that endures to the end, the same shall be saved’ (Matthew 10:22).” [Treatise 1.20-21]
“Even a baptized person LOSES THE GRACE that he has attained, unless he remains innocent.” [Treatise 12.3.27]
—
Four Views on Eternal Security by J. Matthew Pinson. My point of view is represented as the Reformed Arminian (Free Will Baptist) and Wesleyan Arminian (conservative evangelical United Methodist) views.
For more evidence of conditional security among the church fathers, see Thomas Oden’s The Transforming Power of Grace, ch. 8: “Election Made Sure Through Faith.” Oden was the leading conservative evangelical influence in the United Methodist Church well up until his death.
Dr. French Arrington, Christian Doctrine (Pathway Press, 1993), vol. 2, pp. 183-189. “Paul mentioned by name some who had defected and fallen from grace. Hymenaeus and Alexander were among those who made shipwreck of their faith and were delivered to Satan (1 Timothy 1:19, 20). Demas, who ‘loved this present world,’ forsook Paul and, no doubt, turned away from the faith preached by the apostle (2 Timothy 4:10)” (p. 185). This is the official systematic theology of Church of God (Cleveland, TN). Its also used by the Pentecostal Holiness Church.
—. Unconditional Eternal Security: Myth or Truth? (Pathway Press, 2005).
Several of these quotes from the church fathers can be found in David Bercot’s A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs.
Whosoever looketh on a woman to LUST after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right EYE offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into HELL. –Jesus in Matthew 5:28-29 (KJV)
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: NEITHER FORNICATORS, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, SHALL INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD. –1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (KJV)
He that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. –Exodus 21:16 (KJV)
I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. –Jesus in Matthew 5:32
If the unbeliever leaves, let it be so. The brother or the sister is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace. –Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:15
THE 1689 BAPTIST CONFESSION / WESTMINSTER CONFESSION CHS. 24-25: “OF MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE”
1. Marriage is to be between one man and one woman: neither is it lawful for any man to have more than one wife, nor for any woman to have more than one husband, at the same time (Gen. 2:24; Mal. 2:15; Matt. 19:5–6).
2. Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife, for the increase of mankind with legitimate issue, and of the church with an holy seed; and for preventing of uncleanness (Gen. 2:18; Gen. 1:28; 1 Cor. 7:2, 9).
3. It is lawful for all sorts of people to marry, who are able with judgment to give their consent; yet it is the duty of Christians to marry in the Lord; and therefore such as profess the true religion, should not marry with infidels, or idolaters; neither should such as are godly, be unequally yoked, by marrying with such as are wicked in their life, or maintain damnable heresy (Heb. 13:4; 1 Tim. 4:3; 1 Cor. 7:39; Neh. 13:25–27).
4. Marriage ought not to be within the degrees of consanguinity or affinity forbidden by the Word. Nor can such incestuous marriages ever be made lawful by any law of man or consent of parties, so as those persons may live together as man and wife (Lev. 18; Mark 6:18; 1 Cor. 5:1).
5. Adultery or fornication committed after a contract, being detected before marriage, giveth just occasion to the innocent party to dissolve that contract. In the case of adultery after marriage, it is lawful for the innocent party to sue out a divorce: and, after the divorce, to marry another, as if the offending party were dead.
6. Although the corruption of man be such as is apt to study arguments unduly to put asunder those whom God hath joined together in marriage: yet, nothing but adultery, or such willful desertion as can no way be remedied by the church, or civil magistrate, is cause sufficient of dissolving the bond of marriage: wherein, a public and orderly course of proceeding is to be observed; and the persons concerned in it not left to their own wills, and discretion, in their own case.
—
William Heth, “Remarriage for Adultery or Desertion,” Remarriage After Divorce in Today’s Church. Zondervan, 2006.
Thomas Edgar, “Divorce & Remarriage for Adultery or Desertion,” Divorce and Remarriage: Four Christian Views. IVP Academic, 1990.
And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. –Acts 4:18 (KJV)
Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. –Acts 5:29 (KJV)
—
There’s about 8 million people in the Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) churches; and about 8 million people in Church of God (Cleveland, TN). Together that’s about 16 million people who still believe like Jonathan Edwards or John Wesley. Not bad! I’d like to see some joint revival services among COG preachers and IFB preachers. Think about how many more people could be saved this way: and think of what each of these types of preachers could learn from each other if they would set aside their differences.
I don’t agree with every little view and every little thing that Sword of the Lord Publishers has ever said, but I still think that in the main, they’ve got the right idea. I probably don’t agree with their following pamphlets: Lordship Salvation (Hutson), Should a Christian Drink Wine? (Hutson), Speaking in Tongues, Tongues Confusion (Hutson), Can a Saved Person Ever Be Lost?, Negro and White, and The Eternal Security of the Born-Again Believer (Hutson). As a Pentecostal I have to maintain lordship salvation (Mark 1:15), as a charismatic I can allow for moderate wine drinking every once in awhile (1 Timothy 5:23), as a Pentecostal I tend to believe that speaking in tongues is the strongest evidence although not the only evidence of a Christian feeling the baptism in the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4-20; 10:44-46; 19:6), as a Wesleyan-holiness person I believe its possible for a Spirit-indwelt Christian to lose the Holy Spirit and faith and thus lose the state of salvation (Hebrews 6:4-6; 10:26-31), and as a child of Azusa Street I believe that blacks and whites should worship together: and that segregation is an anti-Christian idea (Acts 17:26). These would be the only differences I’d have with Sword of the Lord in terms of past and present. But I’m right there with them on practically every other fundamentalist preaching conviction.
WesleyGospel Ministries 