John Calvin’s Teachings on Eternal Security and its Implication on Contemporary Church in Nigeria

Abstract

Salvation is a Christian doctrine which finds its deepest meaning in the spiritual aspect of life. Its fulfillment is held vigorously in the death of Christ, and the highest goal of Christian commitment is to achieve salvation. In the 'Articles of faith and practice' of different churches, teachings on salvation vary in content but not in goal. This variation became unavoidable from the point of view of God's sovereignty and omnipotence. This variation was further compounded by the unanimity in the doctrines of churches that God is holy and has zero tolerance for sin. Within this context, two schools of thought emerged namely: Calvinism and Arminianism. In Calvinism, God offered irresistible grace to those whom He elected to save in the exercise of His sovereign power. While in Arminianism God's grace was the source of redemption but could be resisted by people through free choice. The doctrine of ECWA and Baptist as their articles of faith and practice confirmed Calvinism. The Calvinist argument dovetails into the acceptance of the view that God remained the author of Christian conversion (Acts 11:18). Methods used were historical, interpretative and comparative. The historical was of need because the history of the concept needed analysis and to trace it to the contemporary church experience, interpretative by way of interpreting some theological concepts that are related to the concept of eternal security and comparative method was used to compare past and recent views of scholars for balanced viewpoints.