Sealed By The Spirit / Eternal Security

Bad theology / questions

Did John Calvin base his doctrine of perseverance of the saints on a misinterpretation of Saint Augustine’s “Treatise on the Gift of Perseverance” written in 429 AD?

Augustine was the first to explicitly teach the doctrine of perseverance of the saints, though his understanding was not entirely consistent. He believed that while the elect could not ultimately be lost, it was possible for some with true faith to potentially fall from grace and face eternal damnation.[1][2]

In his treatise, Augustine argued that perseverance is a gift from God, not based on individual merits. He acknowledged the mysterious nature of why some are given the grace to persevere while others are not, asserting that those who persevere are predestined.[3]

The doctrine was later renewed by the Reformers and is held by Calvinistic churches as a logical consequence of the doctrine of election.[2] Calvin himself believed perseverance was exclusively God’s work, critiquing the idea that grace is distributed based on human merit or that grace merely co-works with human effort.[4]

Importantly, the doctrine is not simply “once saved, always saved,” but emphasizes that a person is saved through perseverance. God saves those who continue in faith, though not by their own works.[4]

While the excerpts do not directly address whether Calvin misinterpreted Augustine, they suggest a nuanced theological development of the doctrine rather than a straightforward misinterpretation.

[1] L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co., 1938), 545. [2] Samuel Macauley Jackson, ed., in The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (New York; London: Funk & Wagnalls, 1908–1914), 8:470. [3] Augustine of Hippo, “A Treatise on the Gift of Perseverance,” in Saint Augustin: Anti-Pelagian Writings, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. Robert Ernest Wallis, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1887), 5:525. [4] Jay E. Adams, “Chapter 15: A Certain Inheritance,” in John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology, ed. Burk Parsons (Lake Mary, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2008), 187–188.

What did Augustine mean that he believed God’s elect would certainly persevere to the end, but he denied that a person could KNOW they were in the elect?

Augustine recognized a profound epistemological problem: believers who are living faithfully and receiving the sacraments appear to be elect, yet some will ultimately fall away from the faith. Those who fail to persevere cannot have been among God’s elect, even though during their faithful period they were indistinguishable from the truly elect. Only God, who foreknows the end from the beginning, can discern who will actually persevere; human observers cannot.[1]

This creates the tension you’ve identified. Augustine taught that those genuinely predestined will either never lose their faith or, if it temporarily fails, will have it restored before death, receiving perseverance to the end. By contrast, those destined not to persevere may live piously for a season, but their faith will ultimately fail, and they will not be among the elect when their life concludes.[1]

The practical implication is striking: Augustine asks rhetorically, “who can deny that they are elect, since they believe and are baptized, and live according to God?”[1] The answer, from his perspective, is that we cannot know with certainty during someone’s lifetime. We remain in ignorance about whether God’s purposes will lead to amendment or greater condemnation.[2]

Augustine’s position thus avoids both fatalism and false assurance. God’s election is certain and unconditional—the elect will persevere. Yet this certainty exists entirely within God’s omniscience, not within human perception. A believer might have genuine faith and live righteously, but without access to God’s foreknowledge, cannot claim absolute assurance of election. This epistemic humility distinguishes Augustine’s doctrine from later Reformed formulations that granted believers greater confidence in their election.

The search was constrained to results authored by Augustine. Would you like me to search your entire library instead?

[1] Augustine of Hippo, “A Treatise on Rebuke and Grace,” in Saint Augustin: Anti-Pelagian Writings, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. Robert Ernest Wallis, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1887), 5:477–478. [2] Benjamin B. Warfield, “Introductory Essay on Augustin and the Pelagian Controversy,” in Saint Augustin: Anti-Pelagian Writings, ed. Philip Schaff, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1887), 5:lxi.

Augustine’s position creates a genuine paradox that persists throughout his writings. Those who fall away from faith—even if baptized and regenerated—reveal they were never truly among the elect, yet we cannot know with certainty during this life who belongs to the elect.[1] This epistemic gap is not accidental but fundamental to his theology.

The reason for this unknowability is stark: Believers living piously and faithfully appear to be elect, but God alone knows whether they possess the perseverance leading to blessed life or will ultimately fall away. Those destined to fail are indistinguishable from the truly elect during their period of faithful living, since only God’s foreknowledge reveals their ultimate trajectory.[2]

Augustine resolves this tension by distinguishing between human judgment and divine knowledge. We call ourselves and others elect based on observing regenerate, pious living, but we are truly what we claim only if we persevere in that conduct. So long as anyone continues living, no certain judgment can be made about their election.[3] The only sure sign of election is perseverance in the Christian life itself[4]—but this sign appears only at death, when the possibility of falling away ends.

Importantly, this uncertainty doesn’t undermine Augustine’s doctrine; it strengthens it. Those who fail to persevere belong not to God’s calling, which is always effective and without repentance on God’s part.[5] The doctrine protects God’s sovereignty while preserving human responsibility: we must call all to repentance and offer salvation universally, even though we cannot know whose faith will ultimately endure. Augustine’s framework thus maintains both divine certainty and human ignorance—the elect will certainly persevere, but we cannot know who they are until their lives end.

[1] Philip Schaff and David Schley Schaff, History of the Christian Church (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1910), 3:855–856. [2] Augustine of Hippo, “A Treatise on Rebuke and Grace,” in Saint Augustin: Anti-Pelagian Writings, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. Robert Ernest Wallis, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1887), 5:478. [3] Schaff Philip, “The Pelagian Controversy—A Historical Essay,” Bibliotheca Sacra (1848), 239. [4] William G. T. Shedd, A History of Christian Doctrine (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1999), 73–74. [5] John Calvin and Hendry H. Cole, Calvin’s Calvinism: A Treatise on the Eternal Predestination of God (London: Wertheim and Macintosh, 1856), 23.

Did Augustine state it was possible to be justified but not among the elect?

Did Augustine teach that initial justification and final perseverance of the elect by God’s free gift of ongoing grace was two different things?

Was Calvin the first to elucidate the concept of unconditional election, permanent regeneration, and certainty of final perseverance as being connected? (i.e. was Calvin the first to come up with the concept of eternal security?)

How to deal when you don’t “feel” saved. When you have been living licentiously?

Antinomianism

This is the classic theological term for the belief that, because a person is saved, God’s moral law no longer applies, so sin is treated lightly or as irrelevant.

Anti = against

Nomos = law

So an antinomian is someone who claims grace as a license to sin.

✔ Licentiousness

Living in morally unrestrained ways—often used in Scripture to describe people who treat grace as permission for sin.

✔ Cheap grace (Bonhoeffer’s phrase)

Grace without repentance, obedience, or discipleship.

✔ Moral laxity

A general looseness toward sin, though not necessarily tied to theology.

——————————————————————

The Holy Spirit in Ephesians

Two forms of the word for “Seal” in the New Testament

NOUN form.

Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament) 5382 σφραγίς

5382 σφραγίς (sphragis), ῖδος (idos), ἡ (hē): n.fem.; ≡ Str 4973; TDNT 7.939—

1. LN 6.54 signet (an object that is used with wax to seal a letter) (

Romans 4:11 “And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while still uncircumcised. This was to make him the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, so that righteousness may be credited to them also.”

Shows a proof of genuineness.

1 Corinthians 9:2 “If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you, because you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.”

Considered a “fastener”, but shows proof of genuineness. Typically this is a seal that is meant to secure some contents, to be a fastener, but essentially it is a temporary seal - one that is meant to be broken.

Revelation 5:1 “Then I saw in the right hand of the one seated on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides, sealed with seven seals.” (sealed is the verb form meaning “to seal up”)

Revelation 5:2 “I also saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?””

Revelation 5:5 “Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Look, the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered so that he is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.””

1st seal, 2nd seal, 3rd seal and so on.

Revelation 9:4 “They were told not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green plant, or any tree, but only those people who do not have God’s seal on their foreheads.”

VERB form. When used as a verb, sealing can indicate

security and permanency

ownership

authentication

Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament) 5381 σφραγίζω

5381 σφραγίζω (sphragizō): vb.; ≡ DBLHebr 3159; Str 4972; TDNT 7.939—

1. LN 6.55

Other uses of this word for “seal” as a VERB:

Matthew 27:66 “They went and secured the tomb by setting a seal on the stone and placing the guards.”

John 6:27 “Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.””

2 Corinthians 1:22 “He has also put his seal on us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.”

2 Corinthians 5:5 “Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.”

Ephesians 1:13 “In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed.”

Ephesians 4:30 “And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption.”

Revelation 7:3 ““Don’t harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we seal the servants of our God on their foreheads.””

Revelation 7:4 “And I heard the number of the sealed: 144,000 sealed from every tribe of the Israelites:”

Revelation 7:5 “12,000 sealed from the tribe of Judah, 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben, 12,000 from the tribe of Gad,”

Revelation 7:8 “12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun, 12,000 from the tribe of Joseph, 12,000 sealed from the tribe of Benjamin.”

Revelation 10:4 “And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders said, and do not write it down!””

Revelation 20:3 “He threw him into the abyss, closed it, and put a seal on it so that he would no longer deceive the nations until the thousand years were completed. After that, he must be released for a short time.”

Revelation 22:10 “Then he said to me, “Don’t seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, because the time is near.”

He has SEALED you. He has marked you, put His name on you.

He has ADOPTED you. Again, you’ve been given His name. You are legally in the family. You can walk away, but you will always bear the name!

Obviously in our world today, you can legally have your name changed.

When the Holy Spirit comes to live inside you, He seals you from the inside out. He becomes part of your DNA, as it were. You can change your name, and you can GRIEVE Him, but you are His. You are His.

As long as you stay away, you continue to GRIEVE the Holy Spirit.

Our daughter left us over 3 years ago now. 3 years. Let me tell you, she bears my name. She could change it legally, whether by document or marriage, but she still bears my name. It is written in her. But I can tell you, that I grieve the loss of her! I and her mother have grieved every minute of every day for over 3 years now.

To walk in the Spirit, that is the process of sanctification, but to walk in the Spirit is to take one step of repentance, and one step of faith.

Doesn’t matter what you’ve done. There is forgiveness waiting. Your relationship might look different now, but

——————————————————————————————-

Scriptures used AGAINST the doctrine of perseverance of the saints:

John 15:1–14 ““I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples. “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

Hebrews 10:36–38 “For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, the Coming One will come and not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith; and if he draws back, I have no pleasure in him.”

Colossians 1:22–23 “But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him—if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.”

Galatians 5:19–21 “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 5:21

The apostle then solemnly warned the Galatians, as he had done when he was in their midst, that those who live like this, who habitually indulge in these fleshly sins will not inherit the future kingdom of God. This does not say that a Christian loses his salvation if he lapses into a sin of the flesh, but that a person who lives continually on such a level of moral corruption gives evidence of not being a child of God.

Matthew 24:13 “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

Matthew 10:22 “You will be hated by everyone because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

Ephesians 5:3–6 “But sexual immorality and any impurity or greed should not even be heard of among you, as is proper for saints. Obscene and foolish talking or crude joking are not suitable, but rather giving thanks. For know and recognize this: Every sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, who is an idolater, does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty arguments, for God’s wrath is coming on the disobedient because of these things.”

Revelation 3:5 ““In the same way, the one who conquers will be dressed in white clothes, and I will never erase his name from the book of life but will acknowledge his name before my Father and before his angels.”

Matthew 26:28 “For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

“A covenant is a binding agreement with each party having responsibility. Jesus fulfilled His already. Each Christian’s responsibility is to continue believing - and obeying.”

JLY - Need to look at covenant - how the new covenant is one-sided because God knows we can’t keep our side (like the old covenant).