To me this looks like another version of OSAS, except this version includes predestination and perseverance in good works.
No.
The doctrine of OSAS isn't the Reformed doctrine of the Saint's Perseverance. But neither are they correct who embitter souls by teaching that a salvation that is actually theirs can nonetheless be forfeited by the veto-power of the human will. The question of emphasis in giving counsel depends on the need of the person.
OSAS is a johnny-one-note doctrine that comforts the comfortable and disturbed conscience alike with a smothering salve. It usually teaches that "doubt" is the worst sin, and is the one thing that would demonstrate a lack of salvation. Thus, it offers almost nothing of genuine grace to the trembling soul; and for the casual "believer," it assists him in searing his conscience. In either case, the utmost confidence is urged in an act of the human will.
In those who believe true salvation can be lost—even in the most "monergistic" of these systems—hope is again laid in the converse act of the human will once again: the will to maintain ownership of the gift given. This could be where your questions have the most bearing.
Many people who apostatize don't seem to "throw a switch," and walk away. It happens, but seldom. Not a few others slip into sins that corrode the faith-simulacrum they have, until they choose for their sin and against their profession. The Reformed argue that the corrosive power of sin upon genuine faith cannot hollow it out,
because the source of that faith is divine, the gifts of God are without repentance, the Lord knows them that are His, no one can pluck them out of His hands, He conquers those He loves and brings them infallibly to Himself, for they are elected in love and in Christ from all eternity.
Instead of a fast-act, or a preference for some sin over knowledge of the truth, many apostates have a love that "grows cold." It does so because it lacks true Spiritual fire (Holy Spirit supplies the motive), Spiritual fuel (neglect of the Spirit-provided means of grace), and especially the Spiritual object to which that love is directed (Christ, as set forth to the eyes of the soul by Holy Spirit). Analogies to marriage abound. Why do some marriages that appear to have life—even for many years—end in divorce for which there appears no rational reason? No more love, no more will, the source of which was entirely internal.
Our major difference with, for instance, the Lutheran view is not that the responsibility for falling away doesn't lie with the individual. There's no doubt that regardless of whether one is elect or reprobate, he has the
duty to hope in Christ—
duty that does not hinge on whether his ability matches his responsibility. It is also a
duty to hope always, not just one time. The issue is: what sort of faith is it that supposedly apprehends Christ as the ultimate object of devotion, that could then turn from him or lose interest in Him? Our Reformed conviction is that the defect must be in the faith that allegedly took hold on Him. At the root it was a mixed-faith, a diluted faith, a false-faith. For there certainly was no defect in Him, or in His profession of love for the sinner.
Christ continues—as He did with Judas—to exhibit that perfect love to the lost in the gospel. He knew all the while He was on earth—better than Judas himself—that disciple was a devil, and the son of perdition. The same love that conquered the blindness of Eleven, making it possible for them to fulfill their responsibility, did not attempt and fail to master Judas. Judas' protests of commitment to Jesus did not spring from the same source as the others. And neither does any apostate have "
work of faith, labor of love, patience of hope," 1 Thessalonians 1:3. It doesn't matter what it looks like, or what temporal or spiritual good it does; it isn't genuine. It doesn't matter if we cannot tell the difference in the event. God looks on the heart, and He knows.
For OUR part, as we look not at others but at ourselves, we follow the principle of obedience to Scripture's admonitions to "work, labor, patience," to strive, to examine, to be diligent; knowing that unless we make use of our Spouse's gifts, we will lack the assurance that comes from him--and could (since the future is opaque to us) end up a castaway, as even the Apostle Paul warned himself. For is not that neglect the essence of the faithlessness that ultimately reveals the apostate? Those who are but outwardly in covenant with God, are inward adulterers all the time, even from the day of their betrothal.
It just does not do to say that Jesus prays ineffectually for those he does not save to the uttermost, Hebrews 7:25; as if His purpose in prayer was even a single degree at variance from His Father's to give saving grace.
Believers are not mere
punctiliar Christians. The Spirit waters and feeds our repentance and faith through the means of grace. These means
keep us alive in the faith and are not just a means for
starting us in the faith. God commands our ongoing attention to our faith, that we examine ourselves to make sure our faith is real. God also provides that which He commands, ordaining the
ends as well as the
means to the ends,
even the believer's salvation. Augustine's little prayer sums it up: "
O Lord, grant what Thou dost command and command what Thou dost desire." Pelagius never grasped what Augustine meant, failing to see that no one can please God unless God helps us in some manner to meet His requirements.
As Scripture teaches, enduring to the end, holding fast to the faith, abiding in Christ and His Word are essential to one's salvation. If these do not exist a professing Christian cannot expect to be saved.
But,
and this is important, some hold that a true believer
may not persevere and can be ultimately lost. Instead I believe that the true believer
will in fact persevere. At this point, some would then ask, "Well, if the believer
will persevere then why do the Scriptures contain admonitions or conditions for salvation?" In reply I answer, as noted above, God ordains the end but also the
means to the end.
One of those means of God to His final glory is the
perseverance of the Christian in faith to the end. I understand that one way God
effects this means of perseverance in the saved is by
admonishing them of the consequences of not persevering to the end and the conditions for salvation. I take these admonishments seriously. These admonishments stir up the faithful.
An example might help explain this. Consider Paul about to be shipwrecked in Acts 27. We read that God had
assured Paul that no one would lose their life in that shipwreck. Yet, despite this clear assurance
from God, Paul
admonishes those on the ship that unless the persons trying to leave by the lifeboat remain on board, those on the ship
would not be saved. Note here that the Apostle was
assured of their salvation, he knew the
means of their salvation, and his warning produced the
desired result. Such is the purpose of the "warning" verses, not that one's re-birth can be lost, but that one is stirred up and perseveres.
Speaking under the inspiration of the Spirit, Peter tells us that those who are "
elect according to the foreknowledge of God" and "
begotten again unto a lively hope" are "
kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." (1 Peter 1:2-5).
Indeed, God's almighty power
preserves the true believer, who will be stirred up in their walk of faith (sanctification) from many of the "warning" verses in Scripture, so that he or she receives that final and complete salvation that will be revealed at the eschaton. It can be no other way, for
the work of salvation is God's work and
God's work does not fail.
I realize this is very different from Rome's position, which blurs the single forensic act of justification with ongoing sanctification all confused with "progressive justification", resulting in what some refer to as a
sacramental treadmill, as illustrated
here.
AMR
