Salvation without transformation is damnation.®

Salvation without transformation is damnation.®

The Rev. Michael Elmore, D.Min., Ashland Theological Seminary

The Rev. Dr. Elmore is a friend of mine. He is a graduate of a two-year C.P.E. residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, IA. He has worked as a hospital and hospice chaplain and volunteered as a prison chaplain. He has been a faculty advisor in the Philippines and the continental U.S.A. He is currently a pastor in a Foursquare Gospel Church. So, what is the Foursquare Gospel Church?

He came up with the saying that is the title of this post. He does believe in once saved, always saved, with various caveats. As an Arminian, he would say that it is possible to toss away your salvation but not to lose it just because you struggle with sin. Thus, the person that no longer remembers God, nor prays to God, nor attempts to follow God would have tossed his or her salvation away. Hebrews 6:4-7 comes to his mind here. Meanwhile, the person who does attempt to stay in contact with God will not be easily tossed away; his or her sins are forgiven.

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.

Hebrews 6:4-7, NKJV

But, there are some limitations, from which comes Dr. Elmore’s saying. For those of you who are on the Calvinist side, you may find it interesting to note that John Calvin would support this saying. Calvin’s early followers came up with an acrostic to explain their beliefs concerning salvation. It is known as the TULIP acrostic.

• T – Total Depravity
• U – Unconditional Election
• L – Limited Atonement
• I – Irresistible Grace
• P – Perseverance of the Saints

It is the last point in the acrostic that is most often misinterpreted by modern neo-Calvinists and Evangelical proponents of the once saved, always saved theology. The early Calvinists were not simply saying once saved, always saved. Their belief was more complex than that. They were saying that if you were elected, your behavior over time would correspond to your status as a saved person. In other words, Calvin (and the early Calvinists) did note the many Scriptures that required appropriate behavior from the believer, whether Old or New Testament. The only way that they could square those verses with their doctrine of predestination and election was to believe that predestination was not merely forensic (that is, a heavenly declaration only) but was also an irresistible work of the Holy Spirit that would change the person into a Christian who behaved like a Christian. So believed the Puritans (a Calvinist movement) who settled in North America.

They believed that merely professing the right religion and holding to sound doctrine is not what makes a person a Christian. Rather, it is the experience of the grace of God and the manifestation of it in a godly conduct that constitutes the evidence of being a true believer.

The Reformed Churches of North America, https://frcna.org/publications/messenger/messenger-articles/item/7060-

So, if the elect will behave more and more Christ-like over time, how did the original Calvinists explain those who did not? After all, grace was irresistible; therefore, you could not lose your salvation. Their conclusion was simple. Any apparent apostasy by a person is either just that, apparent but not real, or else it was the person’s salvation that was only apparent but not real. In other words, if one did not behave like a Christian, there were two possibilities. One possibility is that it was only an apparent (or temporary) rejection of God and that the person would return to God before their end. The second possibility is that the person had never been saved. Never would they agree with the Arminian (and Orthodox) viewpoint that salvation can be thrown away.

This type of theology is a long way from modern Evangelicalism, a mishmash of Arminianism and Calvinism. In modern Evangelicalism, one has an almost unfettered free will to accept God. Then, once one accepts God, one is locked in. So, one has an Arminian beginning but a Calvinist middle part. Worse, the end result is missing. Any attempt to strongly emphasize appropriate Christian behavior as something that is expected, nay even mandatory, is denounced as legalism (with some exceptions). Thus, calls to saintliness often founder on an unfounded belief that this is legalism and a false belief that salvation is a merely heavenly declaration with few practical requirements here on Earth.

Here, as an Orthodox, I admire that modern Calvinist statement that was cited above concerning salvation. “Rather, it is the experience of the grace of God and the manifestation of it in a godly conduct that constitutes the evidence of being a true believer.” In our Liturgy, in the prayers, in the Sacraments, and in our fastings, we experience the grace of God. And as we experience God’s grace through these means and in our souls, we begin to change. We become like God. That is, we begin to behave like God. Or, as Our Lord said, “Jesus answered them, ‘Is it not written in your law, I said, “You are gods”’?”

If there is no change in our lives, then we may very well be in danger of the warnings in Hebrews 6. This is why St. Paul says that we are to examine ourselves. This is why the Church encourages us to go to Confession and to have spiritual fathers (or mothers). This is why we have seasons of prayers and fasting. We do not wish to be found wanting nor to throw away the gifts of grace given to us by Our Father in Heaven.

So remember, “salvation without transformation is damnation.” And the mark of a true believer is “the experience of the grace of God and the manifestation of it in a godly conduct.”