Born Again, Again
In a small metropolitan church, a soft-spoken young woman sits before a group of six boys. It’s Sunday morning in this Sunday school class of 2nd grade boys. At the head of one of those industrial foldout tables, she asks, “If you were to die on your way home today with unconfessed sin in your heart would you go to heaven?” One of the boys quickly replies with a hearty “No!” “Well,” says the young teacher, “we must immediately confess our sins to the Lord so that we don’t die and go to hell for unconfessed sin.”
This dear lady, who happened to be my Sunday school teacher, was sincerely exhorting us boys to holy living and frequent repentance. Yet she was sincerely mistaken in affirming a misguided understanding of repentance, faith, and salvation. By implication, she was teaching these boys that every sin results in the loss of one’s salvation. This misguided view of salvation also affirms that one is saved again each time he or she repents. Put another way, it teaches that each occasion of repentance and faith is an experience of being born again, again. In an attempt to teach apostasy, she was actually teaching a misguided doctrine: repeated regeneration.
In this article, I will provide a brief historical and biblical affirmation of apostasy. However, I will predominantly focus on the implications of this important doctrine for practical theology and local church practice.
An Introductory Biblical and Historical Affirmation of Apostasy
Historically, Arminians have affirmed the possibility of apostasy [1]. By this it is traditionally meant that one can finally reject Christ through unbelief in the very same way that he was saved by grace through faith. In this vein Arminius writes:
[God] embraces no one in Christ, unless he is in Christ. But no one is in Christ, except by faith in Christ, which is the necessary means of our union with Christ. If any one falls from faith, he falls from that union, and consequently, from the favor of God which he previously embraced in Christ [2].
Robert Picirilli further explains, “All this means, simply, from the Arminian perspective, that one’s possession of salvation is, at any time, conditioned on faith” [3]. This represents a logical case based upon biblical data affirming free choice. The case for apostasy is not merely logical, but thoroughly biblical.
The doctrine of apostasy is especially evident in passages such as Hebrews 6:4-6, Hebrews 10:26-29, and 2 Peter 2:20-21. Classical Arminians believe that these passages contain legitimate warnings about potential apostasy by genuine believers, and not hypothetical scenarios given to ensure the perseverance of the elect. Consider the designations given to those who have fallen away in Hebrews 6:4-6: “those who have once been enlightened,” “who have tasted the heavenly gift,” “have shared in the Holy Spirit,” and “have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come.” Picirilli convincingly comments on this language: “There is absolutely no doubt those lives refer to genuine Christian experience. If you wanted a better way to describe conversion, you could not find it” [4]. Nearly all Arminians are in agreement that these passages detail the apostasy of individuals who were formerly saved through faith yet departed in unbelief.
Having considered our brief affirmation of apostasy, what dangers potentially result from our teaching it in the local church?
Cautions About Teaching Apostasy in the Local Church
Apostasy is an important biblical doctrine that needs to be taught in the local church. However, Forlines cautions, “[We] should do so with compassion and caution. We should not choose to speak on it to draw a bigger crowd” [5]. What does this look like, practically?
(a) Overemphasizing the Prevalence of Apostasy
While Arminians do affirm the possibility of committing apostasy, it would not be consistent with the biblical data to act as if apostasy were an everyday thing. It would be a mistake to cry “Apostasy!” each time an individual stops attending church or rejects the faith that they seemed to have once received. When we overemphasize this doctrine, we run the risk of going beyond encouraging watchfulness to stirring up unnecessary fear among faithful believers.
Furthermore, while we are not in agreement with modified Calvinists (who are otherwise Arminian yet affirm eternal security), we should not be in opposition to the possibility that some who depart from the flock were never truly converted. Therefore, we wholeheartedly affirm the possibility of apostasy, while also recognizing the significant problem of false conversion in the local church.
Overemphasizing the doctrine of apostasy may lead to our second point of caution—de-emphasizing the believer’s security.
(b) De-emphasizing the Believer’s Security in Christ
In an attempt to be zealous Arminians, refute Calvinists, or emphasize free choice we mustn’t feel the need to denigrate the believer’s security. Classical Arminians do not affirm eternal security, but they do affirm the believer’s robust security in Christ. We are able to strike the perfect balance between Scripture’s legitimate warnings about apostasy and its strong emphasis on the believer’s security. Forlines explains this well, “First, we are distinguished from those who admit no possibility of losing salvation in that we admit the possibility; second, we are distinguished from those who stand in great fear of falling in that we hold to strong grounds for assurance” [6].
This sense of security allows the believer to have joy in Christ as the one who both saves and keeps. If the believer makes shipwreck of his faith, it is his own doing. If he remains in Christ, it is because of Christ’s keeping power through the work of the Holy Spirit. “This view, as we have given it,” writes Forlines, “gives a person all the assurance he needs to have joy. It does not keep him in constant fear of falling; yet, at the same time, he is aware of the fact that it is possible to fall. It also keeps salvation on a faith basis instead of mixing it with works” [7].
This leads us into our final caution about teaching apostasy in the local church—repeated regeneration.
(c) Teaching Misguided Doctrine
Occasionally, non-Classical Arminians have been guilty of teaching various forms of repeated regeneration. My 2nd grade Sunday school teacher unknowingly taught this errant view on a somewhat regular basis. Some teach this extreme form of insecurity in order to encourage personal holiness, but most Arminians teach repeated regeneration because of their misunderstanding of salvation by grace through faith.
Scripture clearly teaches that sinners are saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8-9). And if we are saved by grace through faith, then we are kept by grace through faith. This is by no means a denial of the clear biblical teaching that faith produces good works. It is, however, a denial that any individual sin immediately results in forfeiting one’s salvation.
We are saved only through union with Christ. We only enter into union with Christ through faith. We may only finally fall away by no longer being in union with Christ. And the only way to break our union with Christ is to depart in unbelief. Therefore, individual sins may culminate in unbelief and an inability to repent, but no single sin breaks the believer’s union with Christ the Righteous. Picirilli insightfully notes, “It is extremely important to express our view in such a way that faith, and not works, is the sole condition of salvation. We must not establish salvation by grace through faith with the right hand and take it away with the left” [8].
However, if we sever this union after being truly converted, there is no hope that we can or will return to a saving union with Christ through repentance (Heb. 6:6). “The point at issue is not the question as to who might be able to restore the lapsed,” writes I. H. Marshall, “but the fact that the lapsed cannot be restored. This is important because the passage gives us no right to assert that there may be special intervention of God to restore those whom men cannot restore” [9]. According to Scripture, the one who truly apostatizes is utterly without hope. He cannot be born again, again.
Conclusion
Arminians need not be driven from the biblical teaching of apostasy. But when teaching this delicate doctrine, we must be cautious not to distort it into errant teaching or to destroy the assurance of faithful believers. While apostasy is an actual possibility, it is not likely commonplace. And though one maintains the possibility of departing from the faith in unbelief, let him be assured that he who remains in Christ is firmly secure. May the possibility of apostasy be a warning to us all, but may Christ’s satisfactory atonement be our supreme joy.
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[1] While it is true that Arminius never openly affirmed the actuality of apostasy, many Arminians understand this to be the trajectory of his teachings. If he had lived long enough to write a systematic theology, it seems likely that he would have affirmed this biblical doctrine.
[2] James Arminius, The Writings of James Arminius, trans. James Nichols and W. R. Bagnall (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1977), III: 498.
[3] Robert E. Picirilli, Grace, Faith, Free Will, (Nashville, Randall House Publications, 2002), 203.
[4] Robert E. Picirilli, Perseverance [a booklet] (Nashville: Randall House Publications, 1973), 20.
[5] F. Leroy Forlines, The Quest for Truth, (Nashville: Randall House Publications), 285.
[6] Leroy Forlines, The Doctrine of Perseverance (Ayden, NC: Free Will Baptist Press, 1959), 3.
[7] Ibid., 27.
[8] Picirilli, Grace, Faith, Free Will, 204.
[9] I. Howard Marshall, Kept by the Power of God: A Study of Perseverance and Falling Away (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1969), 142.
December 10, 2012
FANTASTIC ARTICLE!
December 10, 2012
Thank you for reading, Jim!
December 10, 2012
I very much enjoyed this article. I know many Christians who seem to think that any single given sin is going to “unsave” them. That logic has always been troubling to me. God bless!
December 10, 2012
Ryan,
I’m glad the article was helpful. You’re right, though. The notion of losing your salvation like you might lose your wallet is a dangerous one. Thanks for reading!
December 10, 2012
Excellent, succinct and practical presentation of Classical Arminianism’s position on apostasy and its implications for the local church. Would be a helpful read for a lot of Sunday School teachers AND pastors.
December 11, 2012
Jeff,
Thanks for commenting. A proper understanding of the Christian’s union with Christ goes a long way when teaching this doctrine. As Arminians, we need to spend more time contemplating the implications of union with Christ.
We’d be glad for you to spread the word about this article or any other article you think might be helpful.
December 11, 2012
There are definitely a lot of people who need to read this. Like you, I was taught some of the same stuff growing up. Thank God it’s not true because we are all far from perfect!
December 11, 2012
Derek,
Thanks for stopping by. We have to assume that most people who teach apostasy in this way have good intentions. However, it is really dangerous to portray salvation as something that you can just lose because of a single sin. We continually strive for personal holiness, but we know that it is Christ’s righteousness that is imputed to us through faith and our union with him that secures our salvation. Praise God for that!
Thanks again for stopping by.