The Five Points of Calvinism

By Aaron J. Larson

Total Depravity
Unconditional Election
Limited Atonement
Irresistible Grace
Perseverance of the Saints

The following is my essay on TULIP: The Five Points of Calvinism.  I have quoted a great deal from Mr. Spencer's book TULIP: The Five Points of Calvinism in the Light of Scripture. His writings are in quotes. 

Total Depravity:

I admit that when I first read about Total Depravity I thought 'No way!'. I did random acts of kindness before I was a Christian. I don't believe I was completely depraved as a human being. I didn't commit any terrible crimes, I paid my taxes, I loved people, and helped people when they needed help. How could I be totally depraved if I did these things? Besides this, if I was totally depraved, how was I able to choose Christ? Where does free will fit into this first point?

Mr. Spencer says, "Total Depravity means that unregenerate man is hopelessly immeshed in sin, bound by Satan with the cords of spiritual death, and wholly disinterested in the things of the Creator. When the time comes that those bonds are broken, and death replaced by eternal life, it is the work of God who, alone, gives the faith which desires and does those things pleasing to Him. This is why Paul tells the Elect,

"It is God who works in you both to will and do of His good pleasure" (Phil 2:13)

This makes sense to me because even if I did things which may have been 'good' they weren't for the pleasure or glory of God. Before I was a Christian, I did not have the Holy Spirit and Christ was not in me. I had not been reconciled to the Lord yet therefore anything I did was not for His Glory. Basically, I was bound to sin and to Satan.

"Total Depravity agrees with Holy Scripture. Man cannot see or know the things which related to the kingdom of God, without being regenerated first by the Holy Spirit. A dead spirit perceives only the things of man and Satan. Hence the words of our Lord to Nicodemus:

"Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3)

I like this scripture as well:

"The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to Him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14).

How can one be able to discern the Truth without God? How can I truly do righteous things without being in Christ? The answer is that it would be impossible. Without Christ, I am depraved in my sin nature. I basically walked with Satan before coming to Christ.

"Ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience....fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath" (Eph. 2:2-3)

As a man without the Holy Spirit, I am incapable of truly doing good in the eyes of the Lord. This makes sense to me now because I remember being only oriented to myself or peers or to man in general. Since I was not with Christ, my thoughts, reasoning, etc. were of man and not God. Basically, anything I did was for the glory of myself or Satan.

"The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9)

"There is none righteous, no not one! There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God" (Rom. 3:10-11).

Mr. Spencer says, "Man is totally depraved in the sense that everything about his nature is in rebellion against God. Man is loyal to the god of darkness and loves darkness rather than The Light. His will is, therefore, not at all "free". It is bound by the flesh to the Prince of darkness grim. Total Depravity means that man, of his own "free will", will never make a decision for Christ. Even our blessed Lord bluntly says:

"Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life" (John 5:40).

Mr. Spencer continues..."Man is not saved by some mythical act of his own free will. He is saved by the grace ("unmerited favor") of God who first gives him life and then instills faith in his heart as a free gift. Paul Continues:

"For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the Gift of God. It is not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9)

Basically, we only hear the voice of Satan unless God gives us ears to hear and eyes to see.

"Why do ye not understand My speech? Even because ye cannot hear My Word! Ye are of your father the devil" (John 8:43-44)

Since we are a slave to sin and to Satan, we do not really have the free will to choose Christ. God gives us the eyes and ears to see and hear Him. There's nothing that we can do.


Unconditional Election:

To get us going, I'm going to start off by quoting from Mr. Spencer.

"As we think of this point we will remember that the Arminian view is that foreknowledge is based upon the positive act of man's will as the condition or cause that moved God to elect him to salvation. All of the great confessions, in agreement with the Protestant Reformers, declare that election is "unconditional". In other words, the foreknowledge of God is based upon His decree, plan, or purpose which expressed His will, and not upon some foreseen act of positive volition on the part of man."

Paul states:

"We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose, for whom He foreknew, He also did predestinate...." (Rom. 8:28-29)

Paul continues:

"For the children being not yet born, neither having done either good or evil, that the purpose of God might stand according to election, not of works, but of Him that calleth...it is written, 'Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated'" (Rom. 9:11)

I think these verses speak to the fact that man can do nothing to merit salvation (Total Depravity) and that God Himself, chooses, according to His purpose, who is "elected".

Mr. Spencer says, "The scriptures stress that God does not elect persons to be saved because of some goodness or greatness foreseen in them. On the contrary, He delights in using the weak, base, and useless in a way that guarantees that He alone will gain the glory!"

Paul states "See your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath Chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise! God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nothing things which are: that no flesh should glory in His Presence." (1 Cor. 1:26-29).

  
Paul continues:

"God hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began...." (1 Tim. 1:9).

I think these verses speak very strongly the message that we can't do anything (works) or exercise some type of positive volition towards God to be "chosen" for election. Look what Jesus said here:

"Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you"

Regarding what Jesus stated above, it looks like Jesus "chose us" before the foundation of our world even occurred! Look at what Paul says below:

Paul says, "According as He hath chosen us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world" (Eph. 1:4)

Mr. Spencer says, "Only those whom the Father saw fit to choose of His free will, apart from any condition on their part, are given faith to believe unto salvation."

Note what Luke said in Acts:

"And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the Word of the Lord; and as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed!" (Acts 13:48)

Jesus insists that Life and Faith are the work of God, not the work of man. He says:

"...The Son giveth life to whom He will" and "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom God hath sent" (John 6:29; 5:21).

When Jesus had finished His great discourse upon the fact that He is the "Bread come down from heaven", he said:

"Therefore said I unto you that no man can come to me unless it were given unto Him of My Father. From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked nor more with Him" (John 6:65-66)

About this verse, Mr. Spencer says this: "Why? Because the Son of God insisted that election is based upon the will of God and not the will of man! He deprived them of their ego-inflating notion that some condition of good existed in them that brought about their election."

Again, I think it's pretty clear that man is truly depraved and a child of wrath. Because of this, we can not of our own free will choose Christ. God has already elected us for salvation even before the foundation of the world. Election is based upon the purpose of God in conjunction with His plan. There are no amount of "works" which we could do to become elected therefore election is unconditional.

Limited Atonement:

I admit that the point of Limited Atonement is one of the more difficult points of TULIP to understand. It's probably one of the more controversial ones as well amongst many Christians. This point is still hard for me to grasp although I understand it more than I have in the past. I do think it works nicely with all the other points of TULIP. Let's start off with two pieces of scripture cited below:

"Behold! The world is gone after Him!" (John 12:19)

and

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16)

The question needs to be asked what is meant by the term 'world'. Let's look at what Mr. Spencer says:

"Much of what we think about the atoning death of Christ will be tempered by what we understand the simple word "world" to mean. In the Gospel of John this word has special significance in that it may have any one of seven different meanings: (1) the classical sense, i.e. the orderly universe, (2) the earth itself, (3) the human inhabitants of earth, by metonymy, (4) mankind under the Creator's judgment, alienated from His Life, in the ethical sense, (5) the public who were about Christ, Jews in particular, (6) the kingdom of evil forces, angelic as well as human, as related to the earth, and (7) men out of every tribe and nation, but not all tribes and nations as a whole."

So, which one is it? I think all Christians can agree that not all people were following Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry. The Speakers (Pharisees) refused to do so. It's also obvious that the whole world was not following Jesus Christ at that point in time. On that note, it seems to me that "the world" was referring to those persons who were actually following Jesus Christ (Jew and Gentile alike).

"The Calvinist logically assumes the definition of world to be "men out of every tribe and nation, but not all tribes and nations as a whole."

The above quote goes hand and hand with Unconditional Election. I think scripture teaches that election is based on God's purpose as I outlined in my post on Unconditional Election and that there is nothing that we (humans) can do to merit salvation. Humans are totally depraved which shows the point of Total Depravity.

Mr. Spencer says, "You see, if you believe that the Bible teaches that God is sovereign, His plan immutable, and His election unconditional, you must conclude that the atonement is limited to those whom He freely willed to make the objects of grace. (Actually "grace" means "unmerited favor". It is an act which is wholly undeserved, so that the term, by its very nature of definition, denies conditional election.) "

I think this brings up an interesting point. If you can believe that you do not merit salvation by any "works" at all and that it is God who saves you by means of grace, how could election ever be conditional? It is not. Election is definitely unconditional. If election is therefore unconditional and there are no amount of works we can do to merit God's grace of salvation, how can we assume that everyone (the whole world) will receive atonement?

Let's look at what Mr. Spencer says about the Arminian view:

"The Arminian must at least agree that although the blood of Christ is sufficient in value (since it is the "blood of God"), and His death is of infinite worth in the eyes of God, it is efficient or effectual only so far as the elect are concerned (whether the view be conditional or unconditional election). Actually the Arminian view of universal atonement is not tenable. His only out is to say that the will of God is foiled by man, because Christ supposedly died for all men whom God wanted to save, but could not. This, of course, would mean that God is not omnipotent, and that Christ gained only a small victory at the cross, since more men have died in unbelief than have gone to glory through faith in the Savior's finished work at Calvary.

Many Christians believe (I did once as well) that God wants all to be saved which is actually a way of saying you believe in "universal atonement". If "universal atonement" is true, than what does that say about God since more have died as a non-believer than a believer? I think Mr. Spencer brought up a serious point to consider in this. It really does cheapen the victory of Jesus Christ on the cross. It also suggests that God is not omnipotent which He clearly is by evidence of many scriptures throughout the Bible.

Let's look at some scripture which I used to wonder about.

"The Lord is....not willing that any should perish!" (II Peter 3:9).

Here's what Mr. Spencer has to say about the above verse:

"True, but let's be fair with the basic rules of English grammar and interpretation. Begin by answering the question, "To whom is his second epistle, in which this statement is found, addressed?" Hear the apostle's own answer:

"Simon Peter....to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ" (II Peter 1:1).

"He is writing to Believers, to the elect, to those whose faith rests upon the righteousness of God, and not on some condition of righteousness in and of themselves! Next, ask the question, "What is the context of the passage in which the verse in question is found?" The answer is;

"Where is the promise of His coming?" (II Peter 3:4).

Peter's answer:

"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us..." (II Peter 3:9)

Mr. Spencer continues... "Pause a moment and give a fair answer to the question, 'To whom is Peter addressing himself when he uses the personal pronoun "us"?' Does he mean everyone, elect and lost alike, or is he writing

"to them that have obtained like precious faith with us (II Peter 1:1)

as he says in the salutation of this epistle? The obvious answer is that Peter is speaking of Believers only when he says "us".

Let's look at what Paul says here:

"For (God) hath made (Christ) to be sin for us..." (II Cor. 5:21)

and here:

"God commendeth His love towards us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!" (Rom. 5:8).

And here:

"If God be for us, who can be against us? He who spared not His Son, but delivered Him up for all of us, how shall He not freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" (Rom. 8:31-33).

It seems to me that if you take the scripture in context the only conclusion is that Peter as well as Paul is speaking to the elect and not to the world as a whole. Look what Paul says here:

"Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it [the church]" (Eph. 5:25).

Here's another quote by Mr. Spencer:

"The "all" for whom the Savior died are the elect whom the Father chose to give Him as a Bride "holy and without blemish". He did not elect us because we were holy and blameless! Paul says that God

"hath chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him; in love having predestinated us...." (Eph. 1:4)

Not chosen "because", but chosen "in order that" we might be holy and without blemish before God. We were predestinated "in love" because at no point in Scripture is the term "loved by God" applied to any persons other than the saints! It is never applied to the world at large, where the reprobate would be included. On the latter the "wrath of God" abides, while on the former "there is no condemnation". Only the Elect are the specific objects of the love of God."

Look at what Jesus says here:

"I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine" (John 10:14).

Now look at this:

"I lay down My life for the sheep" (John 10:15).

I think it would be illogical to assume Jesus was referring to the whole world in John 10:14 when He says "I know My sheep". We already know that not all of the world was following Jesus Christ in His earthly ministry. There were many people during His earthly ministry which Jesus did not know because the Father did not know them. In other words, there were many people (even more now) who will never know God. Only the Elect know God and only the Elect were saved by Jesus "laying His life down for His sheep (Elect)". 

Irresistible Grace:

In my opinion, Irresistible Grace explains how it is God who pulls us to Christ and not ourselves. You should be able to see by now how all the points of TULIP really work together. Calvinism says were are totally depraved as human beings. We are "children of wrath" which means our unregenerate souls are dead and are attracted to the father of lies who is Satan. There is nothing we can do (works) on our own which would allow us to commune with God and have everlasting life. It is only through the will of God that we are elected. We realize our election by being given the gift of faith by God. Without the direct intervention of God, we would remain forever attracted to Satan. How can we choose salvation when we are irresistibly attracted to the god of the dead (Satan)? Irresistible Grace, as with most of TULIP boils down to a free will argument so let's take a look at that.

Mr. Spencer says, "The fourth point of Calvinism counters the fourth point of Arminianism with "Irresistible Grace" versus "Obstructable Grace". The Calvinist insists that salvation is based on the free will of God, and since God is omnipotent, His grace cannot be resisted. The Arminian replies that salvation is based upon the free will of man, who is capable of rejecting the sovereign will of God (even when wooed by the Holy Spirit)."

Do we as Christians really believe we have the power to resist the sovereign will of God? How about Satan? If any of you are willing to believe that Total Depravity has some merit and yet believe in man's free will, how did you overcome the irresistible attraction to Satan as an unregenerate human being?

I think that's an interesting question, don't all of you? I think back on the time when I was a non-believer and remember how I felt and what I thought about. I really was totally depraved. How was I able to get salvation in that state? Did I just wake up one day and choose salvation of my own free will or did God have a hand in it?

Mr. Spencer continues..."Perhaps we should best begin by defining the Greek word charis which is consistently translated "grace" in the New Testament. The basic meaning of the word is "unmerited favor". Grace is something that God does for man, which man does not merit-which he does not deserve by any stretch of the imagination. If man deserves what he gets from God, he has earned it. Works earn rewards, but he who has no works to condition God's favor must cry out for grace. This is the basis for Paul's contention that

"to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt! But to him who worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the un-godly, his faith is imputed for righteousness" (Rom. 4:4-5)

"Since faith is the "gift of God", and is "not of works", it is an act of grace (of "unmerited favor") on the part of God. If the work of faith is man's work then God is indebted to him. However, if faith is God's work and God's gift to man, then man possesses absolutely no condition in himself that merits salvation as a reward."

"(God) hath saved us...not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began" (II Tim. 1:9).

Let's all think about that. If grace is un-merited and I am a child of wrath, how can I choose anything but the opposite of God which is the death that Satan offers? Personally, I think it's impossible. It's really God's free will we are talking about here and not our own. It is God who chooses to bring us to His Son and not us. He does this by breathing into us the gift of faith. The cool thing is that scripture states God had this planned from the beginning!

I hear a lot of people dismiss Calvinism because of people like Judas. In other words, Open Theists and Arminians say Calvinists believe in a God who is capable of evil. Let's take a look at what Mr. Spencer says.

"Irresistible Grace does not mean that God does violence to man's spirit by forcing him to do something he does not want to do. (He did not force Judas to do what he did. Judas acted freely, according to the good pleasure of Satan his master, by doing what his dead human spirit, his sin-corrupted soul, dictated he should do. That is precisely why Christ, knowing whom He had chosen to be with Him day after day during his three and on-half years of public ministry, chose Judas.) Judas, without coercion, fulfilled the will of God."

God did not "quicken" Judas' spirit with the gift of faith. He allowed Judas to continue to serve Satan in his totally depraved state to bring about His devine purpose!

Getting back to Christ's Irresistible Grace, we find the salvation of Christ truly irresistible once God "quickens" or makes alive all whom he chose in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. This irresistible grace occurs once we are instilled with the gift of faith. It is God, of His own free will, who gives life to whom he chooses.

Mr. Spencer says, "The Arminian, however, insists that the omnipotent God can be obstructed in His will to save all men by the puny, impotent will of any individual. In other words the Holy Spirit Himself is rendered impotent to impart life, if it is the pleasure of the sinner to reject Christ and resist the drawing of the Spirit of God. This is contrary to the words of Jesus:

"The Son giveth life to whom He will..." (John 5:21)

"Nowhere does the Bible say that a man chooses eternal life of his own will. On the contrary Scripture states that whoever the Father gives to His dear Son shall come because it is His will that they come. Hear Jesus!

All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37)

"Who is it that our Lord declares He will never "cast out"? According to His words, given in the first half of the sentence, it is those whom the Father has determined "shall come" to Him. Irresistible grace!"

Getting back to man's free will, let's take a look at the will of God and the will of Satan. Without question, God is the most powerful being in the universe. Period! He created everything including Satan. Now, how about Satan? Satan is without question the most powerful of God's creation. I think it could be found within the Bible that Satan is more powerful than any other angel; however, he does have limitations. We know this because of Job's account. That being true, Satan still has a pretty powerful will. He is strong in his attraction. Now, let's take a look at the human will. Our will is a third rate if not a fourth rate will since other angels are more powerful than us. Given this, are we so egotistical to assume we have more power than Satan and even God to resist their will? Think about this for a moment because I think this is what we are saying if we say he have the free will to choose salvation.

Mr. Spencer says, "Man is a third rate power. He is not able to resist Satan because his will is inferior to the will of the devil. Paul says that the unregenerate, who "oppose" God's servants who teach the Word,

"are taken captive by [the devil] at his will" (II Tim. 2:26)

"How can Satan ensnare the lost "at his will"? For the simple reason that man, without the Holy Spirit, is an inferior power who cannot resist the most powerful creature God ever made! This is why those who are still "dead in trespasses and sins" are governed by the Counter-Plan of the Evil One, walking

"according to the course of this world, (walking) according to the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now worketh in the sons of disobedience..." (Eph. 2:2)

"Even the Arminian (or free willer) must realize that when he claims that the grace of the God who wills that all men shall be saved can be resisted and rejected, he is stating that Jehovah is not omnipotent. He is claiming that man, a third rate power, under the control of a higher second rate power, has such fantastic "free will" that he can break the higher power of Satan to "choose" his way to heaven! Or is it that the heavenly Father is "permissive", and wills to allow the objects of His great love to go to hell if they so desire? Or is it that finite man can resist the First Rate Power of Jehovah (the Omnipotent Creator) because he, the third rate power, is greater than God? Unbelievable!"

Really, what Irresistible Grace shows is that man is irresistibly drawn to Satan and has a devil-bound will and not the free will that many people like to claim that man has.

Mr. Spencer continues..."Man needs for God to draw him irresistibly by His grace, or man will never make so much as a single step in the direction of Christ. Hence the words of our Lord:

"No man can come to Me, except the Father who hath sent Me, draw him" (John 6:44)

In conclusion, I think Irresistible Grace is absolutely true if one really approaches it logically. It's really illogical to state we have the free will to choose Christ when we are "born into sin" right from the womb. We are "children of wrath" from the get go. We give ourselves entirely too much credit to assume it is us who "chooses" Christ. How can we possibly choose Christ given our state of being? No, it is the Father who chooses to instill in us the gift of faith which leads to the grace of Christ's salvation which is truly unmerited and wholly undeserved. Praise God! Praise Jesus Christ!

Perseverance:

Since the opposite of Calvinism is really Arminianism, I thought I would start by pointing out that the Arminians had no choice but to end their Remonstrance with the conclusion that Christians can Fall from Grace. Arminians and Open Theists are totally free-will based in their theology. If they assert that one can choose salvation, then the logical conclusion becomes that one can also choose to deny salvation. I am not referring to the choice to become saved but rather to a Christian who at some time chose salvation and then later denied it.

As you can see, and whether you subscribe to it or not, this flies in the face with the theology presented in TULIP. Obviously, I find the notion that a Christian can choose to lose their salvation illogical as well as un-Biblical. I believe TULIP proves this and shows how this is one of the more glaring problems with the notion of free-will.

Mr. Spencer says, "The Calvinists taught that the saints, otherwise known as the 'elect', can never be lost since their salvation is by the will of the unchanging, omnipotent God. Since no condition in man determines his being chosen, because Scripture teaches unconditional election, it stands to reason that there is nothing he can do to get himself 'unsaved' once he has been saved by God's grace. Surely, reasons the Calvinist, if it is the Will of God that I am saved, and since He "changes not", then I begin my salvation, continue my salvation, and enter heaven a saved person because He has willed it so!"

"Of His own Will He conceived us with the Word of Truth" (James 1:18)

Paul assures believers of eternal salvation by saying this:

"Being confident of this very thing, that He who hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the Day of Jesus Christ!" (Phil. 1:6)

Mr. Spencer says, "The God who is the Author of the "good work" (which He, not man, began in His elect) will "perform it" (continuous tense, or "keep on performing" the good work in the the saint) until the "day of Jesus Christ," when we shall receive sinless, resurrection bodies! Again, that "good work" will also be His work and not ours! Hence Paul's other words to the Philippian believers:

"Our citizenship is in the heaven, from where also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our lowly body, that it may be fashioned like His glorious body according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself"
(Phil. 3:20-21).

Mr. Spencer continues, "Notice to whom the Father has given "all power" so that "He is able to subdue all things to Himself." It is our coming Savior-King! It is the glorious One of whom Scripture says:

"Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He (Christ) should give eternal Life to as many as Thou hast given Him" (John 17:2)

Mr. Spencer says, "How many? Who? The blessed Son of God also stated the plainest terms",

"This is the Will of the Father who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all whom He has given Me, but raise him up in the Last Day" (John 6:39)

Since salvation is given by the grace of God and there is nothing we can do (works) to merit it, isn't it illogical to assume we have the power or free-will to keep salvation? I think not! Look at what Jesus says here:

"I give them [His sheep] eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand!" (John 10:28)

Mr. Spencer says, "How long is the salvation which God gives His own? Will the elect sheep of the Good Shepherd ever perish? Whose word do we take? Man's or God's? Why is it that some will take unclear passages of Scripture to attempt to nullify the super clear passages? Can it be because they will not have salvation by God's sovereign grace, but will either have salvation by their own work of faith or none at all? Take the words of Peter, as he was directed and controlled by the Holy Spirit, who wrote that the Elect are destined

"to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, garrisoned in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be uncovered in the last time!" (I Peter 1:4-5)

Look at what Paul says, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day!" (II Tim. 1:12; cf. John 17:11)

Mr. Spencer continues, "Heaven is our home. The Glory of that heavenly dwelling is our inheritance because God has freely willed it so by His grace!"

"In [Christ] we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His own Will" (Eph. 1:11)

"The election have obtained it, the rest were blinded" (Rom. 11:7)

"We are bounded to give thanks for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation" (II Thess. 2:13)

"The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom..." (II Tim. 4:18)

"to them who are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called" (Jude 1)

"And the true God of peace sanctify you wholly, and your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calleth you, who also will do it" (II Thess. 5:23-24)

As blood bought Sons of the King, we persevere because He perseveres! If it is He who keeps us and preserves us, how could we possibly have the power or free-will to fall? I tell you it's ridiculous to believe otherwise! Look at what Jude says here:

"Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the Presence of His Glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God (our Savior) be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever" (Jude 24, 25)

I like how Mr. Spencer ends his teaching on Perseverance:

"Yes, the saints will "persevere" because the Savior declares that He will persevere on their behalf. He will keep them. If perseverance depended upon fickle man with his fallen sin nature, he would be hopeless. Perseverance of the saints is dependent upon irresistible grace, granted us because Christ died for us since the atonement we have by His blood was limited to the elect. That election, praise the Lord, was not based upon some condition of good foreknown to be in us since "there is none good, no not one." By the grace of God it was an unconditional election because no condition could be found! No condition could be found because man is totally depraved, i.e., totally incapable of exercising good will toward God, wholly impotent to call himself to life or to free himself from the super-human power of the god of the dead."

I hope you all can see how the notion of "free-will" really breaks down when it comes to the keeping of salvation. The notion of a true human free-will just doesn't work. Scripture proves this!