Perseverance

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at Millard Erickson's discussion of the concepts of perseverance and apostasy in the Calvinist and Arminian theologies. The paper compares and contrasts his presentation of their views on salvation and briefly summarizes the suggestions Erickson provides for reconciling the views. The paper concludes with a personal interpretation of their reconciliation.

From the Paper:

"The Calvinist and Arminian views on perseverance, that is, the ability of the believer in God and Jesus to retain his or her status of a Christian and one of the saved, vary widely. Perseverance is described by Erickson as the ability of the Christian to "successfully endure all the trials and temptations of this life and remain true to the Lord until death." The two groups' views depend on whether or not a person's salvation is permanent or not, which is to say whether or not a person can commit apostasy, which will be discussed below before presenting some possible solutions for reconciling these perspectives. The Calvinist viewpoint on perseverance is that once salvation is granted by God, which is foreordained and unalterable by human action, it is impossible to lose this salvation or status of being elect."

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