“Calvinists, who deny that salvation can ever be lost,
reason on the subject in a marvellous way. They tell us, that no virgin’s lamp
can go out; no promising harvest be choked with thorns; no branch in Christ can
ever be cut off from unfruitfulness; no pardon can ever be forfeited, and no
name blotted out of God’s book! They insist that no salt can ever lose its
savour; nobody can ever “receive the grace of God in vain”; “bury his talents”;
“neglect such great salvation”; trifle away “a day of grace”; “look back” after
putting his hand to the gospel plough. Nobody can “grieve the Spirit” till He is
“quenched,” and strives no more, nor “deny the Lord that bought them”; nor
“bring upon themselves swift destruction.” Nobody, or body of believers, can
ever get so lukewarm that Jesus will spew them out of His mouth.
“They use reams of paper to argue that if one ever got lost
he was never found. John 17:12; that if one falls, he never stood. Rom.
11:16-22 and Heb. 6:4-6; if one was ever “cast forth,” he was never in, and “if
one ever withered,” he was never green. John 15:1-6; and that “if any man draws
back,” it proves that he never had anything to draw back from. Heb. 10:38,39;
that if one ever “falls away into spiritual darkness,” he was never
enlightened. Heb. 6:4-6; that if you “again get entangled in the pollutions of
the world,” it shows that you never escaped. 2 Pet 2:20; that if you “put
salvation away” you never had it to put away, and if you make shipwreck of
faith, there was no ship of faith there!! In short they say: If you get it, you
can’t lose it; and if you lose it you never had it. May God save us from
accepting a doctrine that must be defended by such fallacious reasoning!”
( John Wesley, in A. M. Hills, Fundamental Christian
Theology: A Systematic Theology (1931), Vol. II, pp.280?-281; cited in Daniel
D. Corner, The Believer’s Conditional Security: Eternal Security Refuted (3rd
ed., 2000), pp.673-674.)
