Eternal security is the name given to the concept proposed by Calvinism and some forms of Arminianism who believe that once you are saved you will remain in that happy condition.
The logical comparison, is that one’s salvation may not be secure, or, if you prefer eternal insecurity, resulting in spiritual and mental insecurity in the here and now, nevermind eternity. In the group in which I was brought up, we believed, once saved always saved. However even with the assurance of eternal security, there were times when I got born-again, again. How many times can you get born-again again? In my case I was very probably the most saved kid in Brisbane.
Even with eternal security in mind, I was raised, fully doubting that I had any eternal security, and consequentially, no temporal confidence, because what if I wasn’t born again to begin with.
Calvinism handles this by saying that if people’s works do not bear out their beliefs, then They Were never “the elect” to begin with. Modern Christianity has tried to escape the obvious heartlessness of Calvinism which determines, ipso facto, that if God elected a certain number of people to be saved, it must necessarily be honestly stated that he likewise chose a certain number of other people to experience eternal conscious torment.
Calvinism is based on five principles which, if treated logically, intersect and dovetail in such a way, that if you disprove one, or choose not to accept one, the other’s don’t make a whole lot of sense. Calvin himself was a front door Calvinist. He at least had the honesty to be upfront about the logical conclusions of his theology, which are, that God must inevitably have chosen those to go to hell equally as much as he chose those to go to heaven. Most modern Calvinists are backdoor Calvinists. They have neither the required courage nor the simple honesty to follow in the steps of John Calvin. Much of modern Christianity prefers to hold to some of the five principles of Calvinism, as well as some of the five principles of Arminianism, in some kind of hybridised bastard child of both theologies without the strength to pull the skin of a rice pudding. And THAT is why we have seen star power Pastor after star power Pastor in the Joel Osteen mould, turn into a mixed bag of watery stuttering soup, when faced with honest questions by seasoned TV interviewers.
A basic understanding of both theologies could be summed up this way. Calvinism proposes a God who COULD save the whole world but capriciously chooses not to. Arminianism proposes a God who wants to save the whole world, but is just too weak to. In many modern Pentecostal circles, who have traditionally tried to ride Roman style these two competing theologies, you come away with the distinct impression that God is fighting a rear guard action at all times, and can barely hold off the devil. When thought about in the cold light of day, it is like a RoadRunner cartoon, in which the devil is always outwitting God, but God just barely wins the day by the skin of his teeth. Meep Meep!
Now let’s consider Redemptionism.
As compared to both Calvinism and Arminianism, Redemptionism proposes a God who wanted to save the whole world and did.
But to understand this we must also understand the Eternal Councils of God, in which, before the foundations of the world, The Godhead proposed to create a species of other sentient beings, with which The Godhead could commune both as individuals, and as a compound component of the Godhead.
Christianity loves to say that as a believer I am in Christ and Christ is in me, but refuses to take this thought to its logical conclusion, being that inevitably, Christ and I must be one. Not that I am Christ, but we are nevertheless one as individuals thoroughly in union. Redemptionism says that when Christ died at Calvary, he died as the very last of the Adam species. In this He Was the Last Adam. When he rose again, all of humanity rose with him as a new creation, a new species.
In as much, as this is true, God and man are one. In this new creation we do not know where we stop and God starts, or where God stops and we start because we are a new species infused with each other as individuals in a union that is ONE. Many Christians thoroughly agree with this when they say … “The Holy Spirit told me…”. They would never bet their house or car that they were right; they aren’t THAT dumb; we know that what they claim that the Holy Spirit told them is often enough proven to be manifestly wrong. Remember that the Holy Spirit apparently told the Roman Catholic Church to murder those who disagreed with them, as did Protestants after them. Remember that it was apparently the Holy Spirit that convinced the largest protestant denomination in the world, the Southern Baptist Convention, to support slavery in the USA for several hundred years, and only apologize for it in 2006, 150 years after it was begun to be prosecuted.
My eternal security did not commence when I heard the good news of Redemptionism, or even when I believed this good news. My eternal security was guaranteed in the eternal councils of God. I may have only discovered it recently, and in that discovery my soul has been wonderfully saved. In fact I get saved every day as I understand the magnitude of the eternal councils of God and their far reaching effects and patient machinations.
I no longer am concerned with whether I am born-again or not, because I was born-again with the resurrection of Jesus Christ when he was born-again. I died with him, I rose with him, I live with him. I am, God in the Earth. I am not God, but I am God in the Earth, and my life is secure in and with Him. Death is but a doorway. I am not a human having a spiritual experience, I am a spirit having a human experience, and as such, I am a being from outside of this timespace continuum to which I shall return when my human tent, my body, quits. Eternal security? OH yes! Yes… YES!!!!
Hi Don,
I wish we didn’t need another ‘ism’. The others make an ‘ism’ so what do we do? We make an ‘ism’ too (redemptionism). As true as it is, it’s a manmade word. It doesn’t fly by itself. It has to be lifted up. Don’t you just love the word ‘REDEMPTION’? Now that’s God’s word! It says, “PURCHASED”, pure and simple – plain and to the point. No lifting required!
I enjoyed your writing!
I quite disagree with this.
I understand that, Israel. Of course, it would be interesting to know why you disagree with this.
If salvation is secure when Christ died in the cross, why brother Paul told a group of “Judeans” Jews that thew were unworthy of eternal Life: Acts 13:45 But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.46 Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. I think there are many questions unanswered in the scriptures.