Baptists have resounded this refrain for many years. The answers to two questions help explain this belief: When I become a Christian, how do I have the assurance that I will always be a Christian; and what is the way of life that demonstrates I am a Christian?
Perseverance of the saints speaks to a continuing faith throughout the Christian life. How then can someone know that he or she is and will remain a Christian? First, there is the promise of God. Or its second century if you count Anabaptists such as Mennonites as baptists and forerunners of Baptists which I do.
Clearly, unequivocally, 17 th century Baptists believed in the incapacitation of the will due to sin and the necessity of special supernatural grace for the first movement of the will toward God. The consistent, constant testimony of Scripture is that human beings do not seek after the true God: Psalm 14 and Romans 3 are stand out passages to this effect.
It also attributes an autonomy to the human being that elevates the person too high in relation to God. It also reduces the gift nature of salvation and opens the possibility that salvation can be at least partially earned or merited.
Only the doctrine of prevenient grace matches what Scripture says about the human condition and about salvation and protects the gospel from humanistic dilution.
An Orthodox Creed. Thomas Helwys congregation's Declaration of Faith. A copy is available at the Society of Evangelical Arminians' website, including an introduction containing the following excerpt from The Life and Writings of Thomas Helwys :. The confession contains twenty-seven articles. The only original copy known to exist is in the York Minister Library. Article 4 states bold mine :. That notwithstanding this, men are by nature the Children of wrath, Ephesians born in iniquity and in sin conceived.
This becomes his eternal destiny. The act of placing the material sign of a reward at the feet of the One who sits on the throne Rev. But the believer will not then have completed his destiny to glorify God. This will continue throughout eternity. Inasmuch as reward is associated with brightness and shining in many passages of Scripture Dan.
The greater the reward, the greater the bestowed capacity to bring glory to God. Thus in the exercise of the reward of the believer, it will be Christ and not the believer that is glorified by the reward. How we respond to our present circumstances will determine the extent to which we are able to radiate the brightness of Christ.
For the worshipers, once purged, would have had no more consciousness of sins. Gospel In the first eighteen verses of this chapter, the writer compares the gospel and its benefits enjoyed by believers today to benefits enjoyed by Old Testament believers. Note the following facts:. The annual sacrifice also reminded the worshiper that last year a sacrifice had to be made Heb. By His once-for-all offering Christ has reached the goal that the year-by-year sacrifices could not reach cf.
However, these demands are not threats to terrify us, but rather they describe things God has made available to enable us to live for Him. God has made prayer available to us. Law Law is recognized by the demands and threats that terrify. These demands and threats are not directed to the believer but to those Jews on the fringe who have rejected the gospel and now wish to return to Judaism.
Note the distinction between those who believe to the saving of the soul and those who draw back to perdition. From this passage we can see how to distinguish statements of law from principles of grace because, while both make demands, the one terrifies while the other encourages.
Using this framework of law, gospel, and grace will enable you to correctly interpret and understand Scripture passages. After discussing how Law, Gospel, and Grace are viewed in Roman Catholic and Reformed theology, Myron Houghton uses an exposition of Romans to distinguish key theological concepts from a dispensational and Baptist viewpoint. Distinguishing Law, Gospel, and Grace.
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