The Warning Passages in Scripture: For Christians or Pretenders?
What are we to make of the warning passages in Scripture? Are they directed toward Christians or toward pretenders? Many Calvinists interpret the warning passages as directed toward “fence-sitters” and “pretenders”—a “get real or you’re in trouble” sort of message. And while this works in many instances, some passages are clearly directed toward authentic Christians, warning them that if they turn away they will loose their place in the kingdom of God (i.e., be sent to hell). The Arminian position is convenient at this point (i.e., that Christians can and do loose their salvation), but there’s too much Scripture against the Arminian position as a whole. So here’s how I read the warning passages…
The warning passages are directed toward true believers and are a means by which God perseveres his children. In almost all aspects of the Christian faith, God uses both supernatural means and human means to accomplish his purposes. For instance, the salvation of the elect comes about through the supernatural illumination of the Holy Spirit and the human proclamation of the gospel. Both the supernatural element and the human element are necessary for salvation to occur (see Roman 10:14-17 and 1 Corinthians 2:12-14). So it is with perseverance; God brings about perseverance in his children through the supernatural enabling of the Holy Spirit and the human proclamation of the warning passages. Just as the proclamation of the gospel is efficacious in a person’s life because of the Holy Spirit’s illumination, so too the warning passages are efficacious in a believer’s life because of the Holy Spirit’s illumination.
Thus the warning passages are directed toward Christians, not because some true Christians do fall away, but so that no true Christian will fall away. The true believer will heed the warning passages because of the Holy Spirit’s illuminating presence. It’s like a man walking down a jungle trail who comes upon a warning sign reading, “Beware of Quicksand.” The man avoids the quicksand both because he can read and because of the warning sign. He has both the ability to avoid the quick sand, and the necessary information to avoid the quicksand. In the same way, the true Christian avoids apostasy because of the Spirit’s illuminating work in his life, and because of the warning passages.
This means that apostasy, even for the true Christian, is a very real possibility. We can walk into the quick sand. Yet it is a possibility that will never come to pass, for through the Holy Spirit’s empowerment and the information given to us through the warning passages, the true Christian changes course when necessary. The sort of Calvinism that teaches a believer need not worry about apostasy is not a biblical Calvinism. That’s like saying to the man on the jungle trail, “As long as you have the ability to read, you need not worry about reading the warning signs.” This race of faith is not a game—the true believer must run it with all diligence or he will end up in hell (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). Yet the true believer can run it with sober confidence because we know that “he who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it” (Philippians 1:6). God has given us the warning passages as part of the means by which he infallibly completes his good work in the lives of all his true children.
I haven’t yet read it, but I’m pretty sure this is the basic gist of the argument made by Schriener and Caneday in The Race Set Before Us.
Categorized as: From Gerald, Theology
