Regarding my last posting

I wish to make a correction and apology regarding my last posting.  I mistook the name of a website, marchtozion.org, for being just that, and not a church in Alabama.  As a result, its articles of faith were not combined into one from Flint River church’s earlier stated position, and so did not itself ‘change’ its article of faith.

I have written a fair amount on this blog and have never intentionally misrepresented anyone.  We are all human, and sometimes make mistakes.  Though doctrinal differences will remain, I hope it can at least be agreed upon that it was simply that, an honest mistake.

However, for the sake of the truth I stand by my claim that perseverance is an acceptable…yeah, preferable term depicting the security of the saints.  It serves as a safeguard against antinomianism and easy-believism.  The inclusion of conversion in the old articles of faith proves that the original position was that all the elect would come to believe in Jesus Christ, and that it was not an optional supplement to regeneration accomplished by the free-will of men supposedly already born-again.

Regarding perseverance, there are certain key passages in the Bible which demonstrate that the security of the elect involves their responsibility in which the subjective side of salvation is coupled together with the objective, two things divorced by the conditional time salvation framework.  One can do all the redefining of words and reinterpreting of scriptures that he wants.  The insurmountable fact is that many of them establish that eternal salvation/damnation are under consideration.

“And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me” (Jer. 32:40)

“For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again” (Prov. 24:16).

“And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;” (Col. 1:20-23)

“But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matt. 24:13).

“But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end” (Heb. 3:6)

"But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul" (Heb. 10:39).

“Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:5)

"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:" (Heb. 12:14)

The general abandonment of the word perseverance today is the inevitable consequence of the conditional time salvation heresy:

“The new birth is something that happens in the life of a child of God, and he is forever changed. If any man be in Christ, he is what? A new creature. Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. A big difference happens with the new birth.

The doctrine of perseverance gets redefined (with conditional time salvation - KF). In fact, many Primitive Baptist churches today are eliminating the word perseverance from their articles of faith. It blows my mind; it just absolutely blows my mind. 

Now the word perseverance means that a person will persevere; he will hang in there, in a state of grace until death. He will continue, at least to some degree, in the way of righteousness; that if he sins, he repents. The just man falls down seven times, and rises again. Prov. 24:16.

That’s the doctrine of perseverance. Many of our churches today have eliminated the word perseverance. A pastor recently was visiting someone who was all upset about this. They said it should be preservation, not perseverance, which is true too. Preservation is...let me put it this way. Yesterday I held Casey's hand. It was the sweetest thing. She went to sleep in church. It's all right when you're four years old, not 40. She went to sleep in church at four years old with her hand in mine. You know how we held hands? Like Hannah and I hold hands; that is, her fingers were woven into mine.

Now, her hand was tiny in mine. I don't have a real, real big hand, but it was gargantuan beside of hers. Perseverance is having my little teeny, tiny, infinitesimally small hand in God’s hand. That's perseverance. Preservation is God's great, big, massive hand that holds up universes, holding mine. Both are right! Both are true! Both are taught in the Bible. It's blowing my mind that people want to eliminate half of the picture or part of that picture.” (Elder Thomas Mann - Rethinking My Position on Conditional Time Salvation)

Pertinent Articles:

Early Associations Bear Witness

Preservation & Perseverance I

Articles of Faith Departure

Hardshells & Perseverance I

Good Views on Perseverance

Bad Views On Perseverance