The Bible teaches that every regenerate believer in Jesus Christ will persevere to the end and be saved on the final day (John 6:35-45; Rom 8:28-32). However, many who profess faith in Christ leave their profession of faith and fall away from the visible church. John teaches that such people leave because they were never true Christians to begin with (1 John 2:19; 3:6-8; 5:18).
Baptismal regeneration was the predominant view in the early church. If baptismal regeneration is true, then the perseverance of the saints is not true since there are many people who have been baptized who later fall away. But if the perseverance of the saints is true, then baptismal regeneration is not true since it is not baptism that brings about regeneration but the hearing of the gospel message to which the elect respond in faith and repentance (1 Pet 1:23-25).
Many of the church fathers were faithful exegetes of Scripture and could not help but see the saint’s perseverance in Scripture, even if they were inconsistent in affirming it:
“But we shall be innocent of this sin, and, instant in prayer and supplication, shall desire that the Creator of all preserve unbroken the computed number of His elect in the whole world through His beloved Son Jesus Christ, through whom He called us from darkness to light, from ignorance to knowledge of the glory of His name” (1 Clement 59:2).
“Flee, therefore, those evil offshoots of Satan, which produce deathbearing fruit, whereof if any one tastes, he instantly dies. For these men are not the planting of the Father. For if they were, they would appear as branches of the cross, and their fruit would be incorruptible. By it He calls you through His passion, as being His members. The head, therefore, cannot be born by itself, without its members; God, who is the Savior Himself, having promised their union” (Ignatius to the Trallians 11:1-2).
“No man truly making a profession of faith sinneth; nor does he that possesses love hate any one. The tree is made manifest by its fruit; so those that profess themselves to be Christians shall be recognized by their conduct. For there is not now a demand for mere profession, but that a man be found continuing in the power of faith to the end” (Ignatius to the Ephesians 14:2).
“So the proconsul said: ‘I have wild beasts; I will throw you to them, unless you change your mind.’ But he said: ‘Call for them! For the repentance from better to worse is a change impossible for us; but it is a noble thing to change from that which is evil to righteousness'” (Martyrdom of Polycarp 11:1; Michael Holmes’ translation).
“This he said at the suggestion and urgent persuasion of the Jews, who also watched us, as we sought to take him out of the fire, being ignorant of this, that it is neither possible for us ever to forsake Christ, who suffered for the salvation of such as shall be saved throughout the whole world (the blameless one for sinners), nor to worship any other” (Martyrdom of Polycarp 17:2).
“Those who denied that they were or had been Christians, when they invoked the gods in words dictated by me, offered prayer with incense and wine to your image, which I had ordered to be brought for this purpose together with statues of the gods, and also cursed Christ – none of which those who are really Christians can, it is said, be forced to do” (Letter from Pliny to Emperor Trajan, Letters 10.96-97).
“‘They went out from us; but they were not of us’— neither the apostate angels, nor men falling away; — ‘but that they may be manifested that they are not of us.’ With sufficient clearness he distinguishes the class of the elect and that of the lost, and that which remaining in faith ‘has an unction from the Holy One,’ which comes through faith” (Clement of Alexandria, Fragments on the First Epistle of John, on 1 John 2:19).
“For to the Son of God alone was it reserved to persevere to the last without sin. But what if a bishop, if a deacon, if a widow, if a virgin, if a doctor, if even a martyr, have fallen from the rule (of faith), will heresies on that account appear to possess the truth? Do we prove the faith by the persons, or the persons by the faith? No one is wise, no one is faithful, no one excels in dignity, but the Christian; and no one is a Christian but he who perseveres even to the end. . . . It is a comparatively small thing, that certain men, like Phygellus, and Hermogenes, and Philetus, and Hymenaeus, deserted His apostle: the betrayer of Christ was himself one of the apostles. We are surprised at seeing His churches forsaken by some men, although the things which we suffer after the example of Christ Himself, show us to be Christians. ‘They went out from us,’ says (St. John,) ‘but they were not of us. If they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us'” (Tertullian, The Prescription Against Heretics, Chapter 3).
“Let none think that the good can depart from the Church. The wind does not carry away the wheat, nor does the hurricane uproot the tree that is based on a solid root. The light straws are tossed about by the tempest, the feeble trees are overthrown by the onset of the whirlwind. The Apostle John execrates and severely assails these, when he says, ‘They went forth from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, surely they would have continued with us’” (Cyprian, On the Unity of the Church, Chapter 9).
“Speaking one for all, and answering with the voice of the Church, says, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life; and we believe, and are sure that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God:’ signifying, doubtless, and showing that those who departed from Christ perished by their own fault, yet that the Church which believes on Christ, and holds that which it has once learned, never departs from Him at all, and that those are the Church who remain in the house of God; but that, on the other hand, they are not the plantation planted by God the Father, whom we see not to be established with the stability of wheat, but blown about like chaff by the breath of the enemy scattering them, of whom John also in his epistle says, ‘They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, no doubt they would have continued with us’” (Cyprian, Epistle 54 to Cornelius, Section 7).
“Whence, moreover, nothing can separate the Church — that is, the people established in the Church, faithfully and firmly persevering in that which they have believed — from Christ, in such a way as to prevent their undivided love from always abiding and adhering” (Cyprian, Epistle 62 to Caecilius, Section 13).
“Those whom God foreknew would be devoted to him, them he chose to enjoy the promised rewards; that those who seem to believe and do not continue in the faith begun, may be denied to be God’s elect; for whom God hath chosen, they continue with him” (Hilary the Deacon, Commentary on Paul’s Epistles, as cited by John Gill in The Cause of God and Truth, Baker Book House, p. 311).
“Whom God foreknew to be fit for himself, these continue believers, for it cannot be otherwise, but that whom God foreknows, them he also justifies, and so hereby glorifies them, that they may be like the Son of God. As to the rest, whom God has not foreknown, he takes no care of them in this grace, because he has not foreknown them; but if they believe, or are chosen for a time, because they seem good, lest righteousness should be thought to be despised, they do not continue that they may be glorified; as Judas Iscariot, or the seventy-two, who, being chosen, afterwards were offended, and departed from the Savior” (Hilary the Deacon, Commentary on Paul’s Epistles, as cited by John Gill in The Cause of God and Truth, Baker Book House, p. 311).
“Whom God is said to call, they persevere in faith; these are they whom he has chosen in Christ before the world began, that they be unblameable before God in love” (Hilary the Deacon, Commentary on Paul’s Epistles, as cited by John Gill in The Cause of God and Truth, Baker Book House, p. 311).
“Hence God saith to Moses, if any one sins before, me, I will blot them out of my book. So that, according to the righteousness of the judge, he then seems to be blotted out, when he sins; but according to prescience, he never was in the book of life. Hence the apostle John says of such, They went out from us, but they were not of us” (Hilary the Deacon, Commentary on Paul’s Epistles, as cited by John Gill in The Cause of God and Truth, Baker Book House, p. 311-312).
“Therefore, let us not be afraid that anything can be denied us. We ought not have any distrust whatever over the continuance of God’s generosity. So long and continuous has it been, and so abundant, that God first predestined us and then called us. Those whom He called, He also justified; those whom He justified, He also glorified. Can He abandon those whom He has honored with His mighty benefits even to the point of their reward? Amid so many benefits from God, ought we to be afraid of certain plots of our accuser? But who would dare to accuse those who, as he sees, have been chosen by the judgment of God? God the Father Himself, who has bestowed His gifts – can He make them void? Can He exile from His paternal love and favor those whom He took up by way of adoption? But fear exists that the judge may be too harsh – think upon Him that you have as your judge. For the Father has given every judgment to Christ. Can Christ then condemn you, when He redeemed you from death and offered Himself on your behalf, and when He knows that your life is what was gained by His death? Will He not say, “‘What profit is there in my blood,’ if I condemn the man whom I myself have saved?” Moreover, you are thinking of Him as a judge; you are not thinking of Him as an advocate. But can He give a sentence that is very harsh when He prays continually that the grace of reconciliation with the Father be granted us?” (Ambrose, Jacob and the Happy Life 6.26, in Fathers of the Church, volume 65, Seven Exegetical Works, p. 136).
“His (the good man’s) soul does not perish for ever; neither does any one snatch it out of the hand of the Almighty, Father or Son; for the hand of God, that established the heavens does not lose whom it holds” (Ambrose, On Psalm 119, as cited by John Gill in The Cause of God and Truth, Baker Book House, p. 312).
“Perseverance is neither of man that willeth or runneth; for it is not in the power of man, but it is of God that showeth mercy, that thou canst fulfill what thou hast begun” (Ambrose, On Psalm 119, as cited by John Gill in The Cause of God and Truth, Baker Book House, p. 313).
“But the enemies of this brotherly love, whether they are openly without, or appear to be within, are false Christians, and antichrists. For when they have found an opportunity, they go out, as it is written: ‘A man wishing to separate himself from his friends, seeketh opportunities.’ But even if occasions are wanting, while they seem to be within, they are severed from that invisible bond of love. Whence St. John says, ‘They went out from us, but they were not of us; for had they been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us.’ He does not say that they ceased to be of us by going out, but that they went out because they were not of us. The Apostle Paul also speaks of certain men who had erred concerning the truth, and were overthrowing the faith of some; whose word was eating as a canker. Yet in saying that they should be avoided, he nevertheless intimates that they were all in one great house, but as vessels to dishonor” (Augustine, On Baptism, Against the Donatists, Book 3, Chapter 19, Section 26).
“Of these no one perishes, because all are elected. And they are elected because they were called according to the purpose — the purpose, however, not their own, but God’s. . . . Those, then, are elected, as has often been said, who are called according to the purpose, who also are predestinated and foreknown. If any one of these perishes, God is mistaken; but none of them perishes, because God is not mistaken. If any one of these perish, God is overcome by human sin; but none of them perishes, because God is overcome by nothing” (Augustine, Treatise on Rebuke and Grace, Chapter 14).
“For they are children of God whom as yet we have not, and God has already, of whom the Evangelist John says, ‘that Jesus should die for that nation, and not for that nation only, but that also He should gather together in one the children of God which were scattered abroad;’ and this certainly they were to become by believing, through the preaching of the gospel. And yet before this had happened they had already been enrolled as sons of God with unchangeable steadfastness in the memorial of their Father. And, again, there are some who are called by us children of God on account of grace received even in temporal things, yet are not so called by God; of whom the same John says, ‘They went out from us, but they were not of us, because if they had been of us they would, no doubt, have continued with us.’ He does not say, ‘They went out from us, but because they did not abide with us they are no longer now of us;’ but he says, ‘They went out from us, but they were not of us,’ — that is to say, even when they appeared among us, they were not of us. And as if it were said to him, Whence do you prove this? he says, ‘Because if they had been of us, they would assuredly have continued with us.’ It is the word of God’s children; John is the speaker, who was ordained to a chief place among the children of God. When, therefore, God’s children say of those who had not perseverance, ‘They went out from us, but they were not of us,’ and add, ‘Because if they had been of us, they would assuredly have continued with us,’ what else do they say than that they were not children, even when they were in the profession and name of children? Not because they simulated righteousness, but because they did not continue in it. For he does not say, ‘For if they had been of us, they would assuredly have maintained a real and not a feigned righteousness with us;’ but he says, ‘If they had been of us, they would assuredly have continued with us.’ Beyond a doubt, he wished them to continue in goodness. Therefore they were in goodness; but because they did not abide in it, — that is, they did not persevere unto the end, — he says, They were not of us, even when they were with us, — that is, they were not of the number of children, even when they were in the faith of children; because they who are truly children are foreknown and predestinated as conformed to the image of His Son, and are called according to His purpose, so as to be elected. For the son of promise does not perish but the son of perdition” (Augustine, Treatise on Rebuke and Grace, Chapter 20).
“Those, then, were of the multitude of the called, but they were not of the fewness of the elected. It is not, therefore, to His predestinated children that God has not given perseverance for they would have it if they were in that number of children; and what would they have which they had not received, according to the apostolical and true judgment? And thus such children would be given to Christ the Son just as He Himself says to the Father, ‘That all that Thou hast given me may not perish, but have eternal life.’ Those, therefore, are understood to be given to Christ who are ordained to eternal life. These are they who are predestinated and called according to the purpose, of whom not one perishes. And therefore none of them ends this life when he has changed from good to evil, because he is so ordained, and for that purpose given to Christ, that he may not perish, but may have eternal life. And again, those whom we call His enemies, or the infant children of His enemies, whomever of them He will so regenerate that they may end this life in that faith which worketh by love, are already, and before this is done, in that predestination His children, and are given to Christ His Son, that they may not perish, but have everlasting life” (Augustine, Treatise on Rebuke and Grace, Chapter 21).
“Because, therefore, they possessed not perseverance, as not being truly disciples of Christ, so they were not truly children of God even when they appeared to be so, and were so called. We, then, call men elected, and Christ’s disciples, and God’s children, because they are to be so called whom, being regenerated, we see to live piously; but they are then truly what they are called if they shall abide in that on account of which they are so called. But if they have not perseverance, — that is, if they continue not in that which they have begun to be, — they are not truly called what they are called and are not” (Augustine, Treatise on Rebuke and Grace, Chapter 22).
While Augustine believed that baptism results in the forgiveness of sins, he did not believe that baptism resulted in forgiveness if there was no change of heart in the person baptized:
“But since no one can doubt that baptism, which is the sacrament of the remission of sins, is possessed even by murderers, who are yet in darkness because the hatred of their brethren is not excluded from their hearts, therefore either no remission of sins is given to them if their baptism is accompanied by no change of heart for the better, or if the sins are remitted, they at once return on them again” (On Baptism, Against the Donatists, Book 5, Chapter 21, Section 29).
James Attebury 