The Perseverance of the Saints

Background

The Remonstrants at Dort (1618-19) had argued that final perseverance is conditional on the believer's continued faith and obedience, with the implication that a truly regenerate believer might finally apostatise. The Synod of Dort had rejected this in its Fifth Head of Doctrine and affirmed the indefectibility of grace: those whom God effectually calls and justifies cannot totally or finally fall away. Westminster had to restate the Dort position with reference to the English situation — where Arminians in the Church of England (Hammond, Bramhall, later Jeremy Taylor) and Wesleyan Arminians a century later would press the conditional reading.

The Assembly’s handling

WCF XVII.1 affirms the indefectibility of grace in language deliberately close to Dort's: 'They, whom God hath accepted in his Beloved, effectually called and sanctified by his Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace; but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved.' XVII.2 grounds perseverance not in the believer's own free will but in the immutability of God's decree, the merit of Christ, the abiding indwelling of the Spirit, and the seed of God remaining in the believer. XVII.3 addresses the pastoral cases of believers falling into grievous sin — they may grieve the Spirit, deprive themselves of comforts, and bring temporal judgements on themselves, but the decree stands.