Here’s the No. 1 fallacy on eternal security

I’ve written in CP before that I believe once a Christian is saved through the sacrifice of Christ, they cannot lose their salvation. This doctrine is most often called the perseverance (sometimes labeled “preservation”) of the saints.

On this topic, the Westminster Confession of Faith says: “They whom God hath accepted in His beloved Son effectually called and sanctified by His Spirit can neither totally nor finally fall away from a state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be eternally saved.”

There are plenty who disagree with this.

For example, the Catholic Church at the Council of Trent declared: “If anyone says that a man once justified cannot lose grace and therefore that he who falls and sins never was truly justified, let him be accursed.” And at the 1610 Conference of the Remonstrants (what Arminians called themselves then) said, “Persons truly regenerate, by neglecting grace and grieving the Holy Spirit with sin, fall away totally, and at length finally, from grace into eternal reprobation.”

While I think those who believe this, including the ones who laid the foundation of the you-can-lose-your-salvation position, have good intentions and are primarily trying to guard against the issue of “cheap grace,” it overlooks the fact that the Christian faith is built on the pattern of the unconditional Abrahamic covenant outlined in Genesis 12:1–3. Abraham was called, blessed, and then exhibited faith just as we do today.

This is why Jesus was able to say: “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:39–40), and Paul wrote, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil.1:6) along with “He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will” (Eph. 1:5).

Although these and other sections of Scripture underscore the protection of a believer’s salvation, I’ve noticed something common in statements made by too many pastors and theologians who believe in eternal security. When pressed on the hypothetical scenario of a confessing Christian who is engaged in sinful activities, they begin to chip away and slowly take back the idea of a saint’s preservation by saying “no true Christian would .”

In doing this, they commit a logical error termed the “no true Scotsman” fallacy, where the defense of a position is reinterpreted to exclude counterexamples. Rather than admitting error or providing evidence to disprove the counterexample, the original claim is changed by using a non-substantive modifier such as “true” or “real.”

If the claim is made that “Scotsmen don’t put sugar on their porridge,” but “Angus MacGregor, who is Scottish, puts sugar on his porridge,” then “Angus MacGregor is not a true Scotsman.”   

When they introduce the “no true Scotsman” fallacy into their theology, eternal security teachers are taking back with the left hand what the right hand has given and causing their hearers to feel anything but secure in their salvation, as the list of “no real Christian” sins seems to have no end and is very subjective.

The problem is, though, Scripture does point to the existence of true and false believers. So, that being the case, the question arises as to how that distinction can be made without committing the “no true Scotsman” fallacy.

Why Christians are preserved in the faith

A key doctrine spelling out the reason Christians are safe in their faith and in right standing with God is justification, a term not heard much these days from the pulpit. In short, justification is a legal term and one-and-done act of God by which we who are unrighteous in ourselves are nevertheless declared righteous before Him while still in our sinning state.

It’s justification that saves us from the “no true Scotsman” scenario of certain sins damning us. Our salvation doesn’t break because real Scotsmen don’t put sugar on their porridge. Rather, the Bible spells out (e.g., Romans 7) that a believing Christian very well may sometimes put sugar on their cornflakes even though it’s not in keeping with God’s perfect standard for cereal.

No less a person than the Scottish reformer John Knox (Ha, get it? I’m choosing a Scotsman for my example) confessed how real the constant struggle with sin is, writing: “I know how hard the battle is betwixt the spirit and the flesh, under the heavy cross of affliction, where no worldly defense, but present death does appear. I know the grudging and murmuring complaints of the flesh; I know the anger, wrath, and indignation which it conceives against God.”

Thankfully, for us, God “saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:5–7).

All our sins (past and future) evaporated at the cross and can’t be resurrected against us ever. And thus, we’re forever protected from them, with God’s “golden chain of salvation” for us staying intact: “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified” (Rom. 8:29–30).

OK, all well and good, but what about the concept of a false faith that we read about in Scripture (e.g., Matt. 7:21-23)? Is the distinction a list of “no real Christian” sins or something else?

Dr. Michael Reeves, president and professor of theology at Union School of Theology in the United Kingdom, addressed this subject during his “Assurance of Salvation” discussion at Ligonier’s I Will Build My Church conference this year. Reeves mentioned two important attributes that characterize a false faith.

First, there is a reliance on self vs. Christ. When pressed on why they should spend eternity with God, possessors of a fake faith will fall back to works, being a “good” person, even if the confess a belief in Jesus and it’s under the banner of Christ: “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?”

Second, Reeves said that such self-reliance almost always leads to a casting aside of any actual repentance from habitual sins and a full abandonment of the Christian faith in the way that John describes: “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:19).

The key distinction is that such faith desertion isn’t a matter of a list of “no true Scotsman” sins, but rather a full rejection of the Gospel’s core teaching of “having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1) and a life devoid of any change or, as Jonathan Edwards termed it, “holy affections”.

So, that being the case, our focus on the preservation of the saints and saving faith determination should constantly be centered on the foundational Gospel concepts of desired repentance, justification, faith, and grace, rather than building a list of acts that “no true Christian” would ever commit.