A few initial remarks on Point 5 of TULIP ( I don't know what kind of pestilent weed Arminianism can be represented by, perhaps TARES):
(a) We Sovereign Graceists (my preferred name for Calvinists) do not like the term ETERNAL SECURITY, not because it is untrue per se, but because it gives the wrong impression. It is PERSEVERANCE of the SAINTS. We must persevere, not in our own strength, or because of our own efforts, or virtue, but because God preserves us in HIS GRACE: as I have said before, God is no half-hearted Saviour. He has purposed to save His elect and He shall succeed.
(b)God preserves the SAINTS in holiness and righteousness, He does NOT preserve SINNERS in their sin. If a person lives in continuous rebellion to God, that is an evident token, that he has not been born again. ''Nevertheless, the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, the Lord knows them that are his. And LET EVERY ONE THAT NAMES THE NAME OF CHRIST DEPART FROM INIQUITY'' (2 Timothy 2 v 19). God will not allow His children to live in sin, and fall away from Him. Therefore He chastens them, sometimes very severely, to purge away their dross : ''For whom the Lord loves (not everyone, because He doesn't love everyone) He chastens, and scourges every son He receives'' (Heb 12 v 6) ''But when we are judged, we are chastened of the LORD, that we should not be condemned with the world'' (1 Cor 11 v 32) - N.B. the word 'world' cannot mean all without exception in this case, but I discuss the meaning of world in reference to Jn 3 v 16 and other passages elsewhere.
(c) The Bible clearly teaches that God's elect shall not perish, simply because they are GOD's ELECT (God's purpose is irresistible). That very famous passage in Jn 10 v 28 is my favourite text to prove this gloriously comforting doctrine: Christ, I believe can hardly make it any plainer. ''MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE AND I KNOW THEM AND THEY FOLLOW ME. AND I GIVE UNTO THEM ETERNAL LIFE (that is life that lasts for ever, not life that is lost at the first hurdle) AND THEY SHALL NEVER PERISH, NEITHER SHALL ANY MAN (or more accurately, anyone) PLUCK THEM OUT OF MY HAND'' Now, what can be said against that? Never were plainer words spoken: eternal life, never perish, no-one can pluck them out! Add the testimony of Paul: ''Being sure of this very thing: that He that has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ'' (Phil 1 v 6): NB. God performs the work. He begins it, He continues it and He finishes it, therefore it is sure to succeed. Is God not able to finish it, does He get fed up and leave it for us to do, hoping we will make a half-decent job of it? No! ''For it is God which works in you, both to WILL and to DO of His good pleasure (Phil 2 v 13). And finally the Apostle Peter has something to say (by inspiration of course!): Writing to the ''elect'' (1 Peter 1 v 2) he tells them not only that their inheritance is ''incorruptible, undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in Heaven for (them), but also that they themselves are ''kept by the power of God through faith'' (v. 4-5). Three inspired witnesses rise up in favour of the Perseverance of the saints!
(d) A false view of perseverance betrays a false view of all of salvation. If salvation is based at least partly on man's willing and doing, therefore logically the continuance thereof must also depend on man. Because I deny (with all Sovereign Graceists) the first premise, I also deny the conclusion. Salvation is of the LORD and depends completely on HIM. His righteousness, not our perseverance is what justifies us, and His grace sanctifies us. My standing before God (justification) is in Christ's unchanging righteousness. His atonement is what makes me acceptable to God, and, this is the deciding point, the death of Christ guarantees for me (and all God's elect, those sinners for whom Christ died) eternal life including all its constituent parts: that is the gift of faith, the gift of repentance, peace with God, the work of the Holy Spirit, justification, sanctification and glorification (ie. perseverance until the end). The reason why all do not partake of these blessings is because Christ did not die for them and purchase these gifts (which nobody at all deserves: salvation is by GRACE, not merit, actual or foreseen) for them. To summarise: all of salvation, from regeneration (where God sovereignly resurrects a totally depraved and dead sinner from death and breathes new life - the new birth - into him) to glorification and final glory in heaven, is based, not on the sinner's own efforts to continue in God's favour - he didn't get into God's favour by his own works and efforts, so why should his own efforts keep in that divine favour? -but solely upon the righteousness of Christ freely imputed and received by faith (which is not a work of the fallen human will, but a gift of God). Arminianism is a gospel of works which the Bible condemns.
(e) To deny Perseverance of the Saints destroys comfort and assurance. You can never know if you will 'make it' because you might backslide and end up in hell: after all there are many many souls whom (according to Arminianism) God earnestly desires to save, whom He ardently loves, for whom Christ poured out His precious blood, who end up in everlasting torments because they did not believe or because they once believed but then fell away. How do you know that you won't suffer the same fate? 'My sheep shall NEVER perish' is for me one of Christ's most precious promises. It does not give me a false sense of security or lead to easy-believism or a careless life. The love of Christ (because I know it is sure and steadfast) encourages me on to good works: not to try to curry God's favour, nor to try and stay in His favour, but simply out of love to Him who first loved me. ''Beloved, says the Apostle John, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall (not, might, perhaps, if we are good, but SHALL) be: but we know (not hope, but KNOW, are CERTAIN ) that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that has this hope (that is a sure and certain hope) in him....what??...''is careless and lives like the devil because he knows he is saved whatever he does?? NO!-...PURIFIES HIMSELF even as he is pure (1 Jn 3 v 2-3). To say 'once saved always saved no matter what one does' is to wrest the Scriptures to one's own destruction and caricature the blessed doctrine. As for those who fall away, John again has something to say: ''They went out from us, but THEY WERE NOT OF US; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us (1 Jn 2 v 19).
