That which keeps the believer in the grace of God includes the intercession of Christ and the believer drawing near to God through the one Mediator, Christ Jesus. So, although believers could fall away apart from the means of divine intercession, believers won’t fall away due to God’s gracious decree that secures the conditional-means of perseverance. 

Like a robust Christian worldview, a Reformed system of doctrine should be consistent, coherent and explanatory. What this means is: (a) the components of a sound theology may have mystery but not contradiction; (b) although theological constituent parts should be assessed discretely, they must be evaluated in light of the whole so that each ingredient does not undermine other elements of the one system they comprise; (c) such a unit of theology should provide a grid through which other texts of Scripture can be interpreted, reconciled, and practically applied. If there is paradox, it is in this. The Scriptures, from which our theology is derived, are to be interpreted through a theology we derive from the very same. That is to say, we inch our way to a reliable theological system while applying it as we go, even as we refine and improve upon it. Lastly, the Reformed tradition has uniquely produced reliable interpretative grids in her confessions and catechisms, if not also in the Systematic Theologies that complement them. In God’s kind providence, we needn’t re-invent the wheel!

A robust theology will include an ecclesiology and a soteriology (and much more). Whereas a Reformed doctrine of the church includes a visible-invisible distinction, a Reformed doctrine of salvation affirms a doctrine of perseverance of the saints. Muddled thinking about the former will result in grave misunderstanding of the latter. Apropos, Federal Vision (FV) theology typifies such confusion and equivocation with its lack of (a) covenant consistency, (b) intra-doctrinal coherence and (c) useful elucidation. Yet sadly, when it comes to theological antidotes to FV, the cures can be less than satisfying.

Because FV has been thoroughly debunked by the church (see PCA report), my interests lie elsewhere. Yet in order to grasp the inadequate responses to FV with respect to how warning passages comport with (even complement) the Reformed doctrine of perseverance, it would be helpful to grasp that the authors of Scripture were constrained to treat those within the visible church as if they were all united to Christ, (while appreciating some do not share in the salvific benefits of the Savior). Accordingly, the hermeneutical principle being advocated is the letters are principally intended for believers because they are written to believers. This common sense view avoids exegetical gymnastics by allowing the letters to be directed to their stated audience called: saints, beloved, chosen, predestined, household of God, etc.

Things begin to fall into place once we recognize that the letters are written to those in the church who are actually in Christ, and that false professions within the church’s pale cannot change that overarching principle. Given the reality of false professions in the church, the message to the saints was not diluted. It is crucial to grasp from the outset that the authors of Scripture were not responsible to accommodate unregenerate hypocrites in the church according to their unbelief but instead the authors treated them according to their ecclesiastical standing in the visible assembly. In other words, any member of the visible church is to be treated according to his or her baptism (then, when of age, profession), and not according to the indiscernible state of their soul. If unbelievers choose to deceive themselves and others about their Christianity, that’s on them. It cannot change Scripture’s intended target audience!

Mr. Postman, look and see…if there’s a letter in your bag for me:

The visible church is where the body of true believers assemble. Consequently, believers share the same physical mailing address as unbelievers in the church. Yet if Scripture’s principal audience are believers for whom Christ died, then from a Reformed perspective all members of the visible church cannot but be outwardly regarded as irreversibly redeemed and heaven-bound. This approach alleviates private judgments while making the indicatives and promises of Scripture acutely relevant to true believers. However, when apostasy occurs, the Scriptures do not teach that salvation is lost, or that the promise of salvation has somehow failed. Instead, when apostasy occurs another apostolic teaching takes precedence. When apostasy occurs, existential union with Christ is not severed but rather, latent unbelief finally comes to light.

The theological paradigm of treating all members within the church as irrevocably heaven-bound is readily established not only by the labels for church members such as “chosen” and “predestined” but, also, by the apostolic message of the surety of perseverance. The expressed confidence of the certainty of perseverance is to be communicated to all the church’s members without distinction, even upon the heels of the most severe warning passages in Scripture.

The “beloved” whom the author was persuaded would not “shrink back” and be “destroyed” are none other than the “holy brothers” who were said elsewhere to have shared in the “heavenly calling”.

In other words, the author of Hebrews addressed all struggling members as true believers (as opposed to potential unbelievers). We can be assured of this because the warnings of apostasy are accompanied with an expressed confidence of perseverance. But again, if and when apostasy was consummated, those deemed faithless would have been identified and declared according to what had always been the case, that they were never truly of us. (1 John 2:19) As we might expect, Scripture covers all the bases! Just because there are hypocrites in the church does not mean the apostolate would have shirked its responsibilities by diluting the message intended to warn true believers to make their calling and election sure. (2 Peter 1:10) Additionally, on the surety of God’s word we can know that although only true believers will overcome without fail, the promise of pardon and perseverance is to be outwardly extended and ministerially confirmed to all who are numbered in the church.

Why unbelievers are not in view:

In apostasy, at least one of two things occur. One either (a) overtly denies or will not affirm saving doctrine or else (b) the church member’s manner of life openly manifests the unbelieving heart that was once imperceptible. In contradistinction to apostasy, persevering faith entails staying the existing course and not turning back.

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