Permanence of personal salvation
What the early Christians believed
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The teachings of early Christians are important to us today. From circa 30
CE (when
Jesus was executed) to 200 CE (the end of the first century CE), believers were not very
far removed from the direct teachings of Jesus and the apostles. Various Christian groups
during much of the first century had direct access to the teachings of Paul and the former
disciples in the form of his lectures and letters. By the late first century, this knowledge
had been passed on to elders (a.k.a. Church Fathers), who wrote extensively on matters of
belief. None of these elders were great theologians; none developed intricate systems of
codified Christian beliefs and practices. That was to come later in the history of the
Christian church.
The early "mainline" Christian movement unanimously believed
that a saved person could lose their salvation. (By "mainline" we refer to
Pauline Christianity which gradually evolved into the established Christian church.
Authority eventually became
concentrated in the five bishops or patriarchs located in Alexandria, Antioch,
Constantinople, Jerusalem and Rome.) Early Christians believed that continued
obedience was required of the believer in order to for them to maintain their salvation
intact. Some examples in the writings from that era are: 1
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Irenaeus (120 to 205 CE) was the overseer of the church at Lyons,
France. He believed that a person could only be saved once. If they performed some evil
deed, then God would permanently reject them. A Christian had "only one swing at
the cat." Irenaeus explained this very clearly in his book "Against
Heresies," Book 4, Chapter 27, Section 2: |
"Christ will not die again on behalf of those who now commit sin because death
shall no more have dominion over Him...we should beware, lest somehow, after [we
have attained] the knowledge of Christ, if we do things displeasing to God, we [will]
obtain no further forgiveness of sins, but rather be shut out from His kingdom."
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Tertullian (140 to 230 CE) was the elder in the church at Carthage,
North Africa. He wrote in his book "On Repentance," Chapter 6: |
"Some people act as though God were under an obligation to bestow even on the
unworthy His intended gift...For do not many afterwards fall out of grace? Is not this
gift taken away from many?"
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Cyprian (200 to 258 CE) was an overseer of the church in Carthage,
North Africa. Referring to Matthew 10:22, he wrote in his book "Unity
of the Church," Sec. 21: |
"It is written 'He who endures to the end, the same shall be saved.' So
whatever precedes the end is only a step by which we ascend to the summit of salvation. It
is not the final point wherein we have already gained the full result of the ascent."
He appears to have believed that an individual only attains salvation at the end of
their life. Everything before their death are just steps on the way towards salvation. One
might infer that a saved person could stumble in sin before they died and never attain
salvation.
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Reference used:
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D.W. Bercot, "Will the Real Heretics Please Stand Up: A New Look at Today's
Evangelical Church in the Light of Early Christianity," Scroll Publishing,
Tyler, TX, (1989), Pages 72-73.
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