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One on One with Dr. Ken Gardoski
How would you explain eternal security?
Eternal security means that a genuine believer’s salvation is eternally secure. God will keep the believer safely saved; He will not allow the believer to fall so far away that he loses his salvation. Another name for eternal security is divine preservation, since God faithfully and powerfully preserves genuine believers in their salvation.
Why is the doctrine of eternal security important?
It has theological importance within the doctrine of salvation—in particular, it relates to the interaction between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility vis-à-vis Christ’s atoning sacrifice for our sins. The doctrine also has practical significance, as the believer’s understanding of the security of salvation may influence his or her everyday life. If salvation is not secure, the believer may experience undue anxiety about his or her life or insecurity and doubts with relation to God. It is important to notice that some of the key passages on eternal security come in contexts that describe the difficult trials we face in this life (e.g. Romans 8; 1 Peter 1). When life is hard, God wants us to take heart: He will guide us safely home (see 2 Timothy 4:18)!
What do opponents of eternal security hold to?
Those who oppose eternal security believe that Scripture teaches conditional security. A genuine conversion experience is not sufficient to guarantee the ultimate salvation of the believer. This position rests upon a certain understanding of human freedom: true freedom means I can always choose otherwise. Thus, the believer must keep believing and persevere in his or her faith in order to ultimately be saved. Consequently, with this view, the genuine believer can fail to persevere by choice, lose his or her faith, and suffer eternal damnation as the result.
How would you defend the doctrine of eternal security?
One way is to take a theological approach—for example, organizing concepts and passages related to eternal security around the person and work of each member of the Trinity. Another way is to marshal passages which seem most clearly to teach the doctrine. For example, John 10:27–30 tells us that Jesus knows His sheep, gives them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Romans 8:28–30 teaches that in eternity past God set a process in motion that will carry the elect safely from justification all the way to glory. Ephesians 1:13–14 declares that God seals believers with the Holy Spirit, who acts as God’s pledge of our final redemption. 1 Peter 1:5 asserts that believers are kept safe for salvation by the power of God. 1 John 3:9 reveals that because believers are born of God, and God’s seed abides in them, they cannot sin so as to fall utterly away and lose their salvation.
What are some resources, both for and against, you would recommend to someone interested in this topic?
A good starting place is Four Views on Eternal Security, edited by J. Matthew Pinson. On the opposing side, two well-known studies are Kept by the Power of God by I. Howard Marshall and Life in the Son by Robert Shank. On the side for eternal security, some good treatments are Salvation Is Forever by Robert Gromacki, Eternal Security by Arthur W. Pink, and Eternal Security: Can You Be Sure? by Charles Stanley. A more scholarly treatment of just the Pauline literature is Paul and Perseverance: Staying in and Falling Away by Judith M. Gundry Volf.
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Kenneth M. Gardoski (Ph.D.) is an Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at BBS. He served as a missionary educator in Warsaw, Poland, for 10 years and has taught Bible and theology courses and seminars in Belarus, Latvia, Poland, and Russia.
