Sermon for October 30th, 2022

Romans 8:31-39

31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? 33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Doctrine of Perseverance of the Saints

A new captain became the leader of a company of soldiers. As he went around learning everything about his new post, he observed two soldiers guarding an empty bench. Now, the military is a place where symbolism is important and traditions of the past are honored, so the captain asked his sergeants about the bench. They told him they didn't quite know what it meant, but the previous commander had ordered that this bench should always remain guarded. So the captain called the previous commander, now a major, and asked him about the bench. The major remembered the bench, and had always suspected that some important meeting must have taken place there, but in any case, HIS previous commander had ordered that it always be guarded, so he made sure those orders were followed. Still curious, the captain called the previous-previous commander (now a Lt. Colonel), who told him he thought it might have been donated in memory of an important military or political leader, but that HIS previous commander had ordered that the bench always be guarded, so he never really questioned the order. Unsatisfied by this response, the captain went through the same song and dance a couple more times before finally getting to an old, retired four star general, who affirmed that he was, in fact, the one who originally gave the order. The captain proudly told the general that his order had been handed down through several changes of leadership, and is still honored right to this very day. There was silence on the other end of the line for a few seconds, while the captain eagerly anticipated the answer to his mystery. And then finally, the bewildered old general said... "Is the paint STILL wet??"

Today, for us, is a day of honoring 500+ year-old traditions; a day of remembering our heritage, the birth of the Protestant Reformation and the Presbyterian Church. But unlike the story I just told, our faith ancestors in the 16th century actually wanted us to routinely call our traditions into question, to measure them against scripture and reason, and at the very least to understand them in the context of the time and place from whence they came.

This approach is embedded in the Scots Confession of Faith, which says, "We do not think that any policy of order of ceremonies can be appointed for all ages, times, and places; for as ceremonies which men have devised are but temporal, so they may, and ought to be, changed, when they foster superstition rather than edify the Kirk.

They also summarized this concept with a Latin motto: Ecclesia reformata semper reformanda secundum verbum dei. It means "The church--reformed and always being reformed according to the Word of God."

For the past several weeks, this is the approach I've taken to the five core doctrines of the Calvinism, known by the acronym TULIP. We've looked at each doctrine in its classical sense, its original meaning, but I've also tried to present these doctrines through a fresh lens--that of evolutionary biology--or what you might call a 21st century update. The scriptural truths behind the doctrines remain the same, but the images and metaphors we use to understand them will necessarily change as our understanding of God and the natural world around us grows and changes, too.

Today we're going to talk about the last doctrine in TULIP--the Perseverance of the Saints. But first, a little refresher course on the others:

T is for the Doctrine of Total Depravity. In classic Calvinism, this is the idea that we have all sinned, and everyone falls short of the glory of God. We are so broken, that we are completely unable to save ourselves through any words, deeds, or even beliefs. We're like the four-foot tall kid trying to slam dunk the basketball on a regulation court. It's just not going to happen without divine (or at least outside) assistance.

U is the Doctrine of Unconditional Election. In classic Calvinism, this is the idea that for those whom God has chosen (or "elected") to save, God's choice is unconditional. No strings attached, no action required (or even possible). It's not because we were good boys and girls (we are not). It's not because we said the sinner's prayer or somehow "decided" to follow Jesus. In fact, God chose whom to save long before any of us were born, even before the universe was brought into being. We don't know who he chose, how many he chose, or why he chose them. We just know that it had nothing to do with them; his choice was unconditional.

L is for the Doctrine of Limited Atonement. In classic Calvinism, it's the idea that while God loves everyone, and Jesus died for everyone, that love and that sacrifice is somehow limited, not in its power or scope, but in its effectiveness: It only "works" or "atones" for those whom God has already unconditionally elected.

I is for the Doctrine of Irresistible Grace. In classic Calvinism, it's the idea that if you are among God's chosen, God's elect--you will eventually be drawn or attracted to God's grace, and you will be unable to resist. Contrary to popular belief, Calvin did actually believe in "free will." He just believed that in a contest of wills between you and God...God's always going to win, and his will prevails over yours.

P is our final letter, which represents the Doctrine of Perseverance of the Saints. Let's define those two terms really quick. In classic Calvinism, the Saints are not people who lived extraordinary, good lives, worked miracles, and were canonized or "sainted" after death. No, in the Reformed tradition, the saints are you and me--sinners who have been saved (or sanctified) by God's grace. We're not called saints because of anything we did, but rather because of what God did for us.

Perseverance is defined in the dictionary as "persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success." Stick-to-it-iveness. Dedication. Commitment. So the Perseverance of the Saints is basically the idea that the saints (people whom God has chosen, his elect) will continue or "persevere" in their saintliness (which just means in their salvation) until the end. The other way of saying this is "once saved, always saved." You cannot lose your salvation. You can stumble, you can fall, you can take the long and winding road, but if you're among God's elect, you're going to make it in the end--he will give you whatever you need to persevere.

Of course, since God is really the one doing the work here, instead of calling this doctrine the Perseverance of the Saints, some people have called it the Preservation of the Saints. God preserves his chosen ones. The Calvinist theologian JI Packer (who died a few years ago) put it beautifully: "You are not strong enough to fall away while God is resolved to hold you."

So...When we look again at these five doctrines, with our 21st century eyes, and we look at them through the framework of Darwin's Origin of the Species, or evolutionary biology--we see a lot of similarities. John Calvin and Charles Darwin were essentially saying the same thing, but in different centuries; they were using the same concepts, but different terms, different language. They were using different images and metaphors to describe the same truth. For Darwin, the mechanism that powered it all was nature, but for Calvin it was the author of nature and all creation: God himself.

Thus, Total Depravity has an analog in self-preservation--the brutal, selfish, kill-or-be-killed instinct that we see in humans, animals, insects, and even at the cellular level. This is what Richard Dawkins called "The Selfish Gene."

And your specific combination of genes was handed down to you before you came into the world, by the process of natural selection--which is an analog to the doctrine of Unconditional Election. You did not choose your genes, you didn't earn them, you can't change them (not yet, at least) and yet the genetic composition of some organisms confers upon them (or selects them for) a natural advantage, while others are not so lucky...or so "chosen."

Those genetic advantages are not shared equally among all: at first only a limited few have them, and those individuals are more likely to survive and reproduce, while those who lack them are less likely to succeed--this is an analog to the doctrine of Limited Atonement: Not everyone gets the most effective genes.

But in time, because those with genetic advantages are more likely to reproduce themselves, the organisms with the most effective genes multiply and thrive--they go viral. This is evolution. It's always moving forward, slowly, inexorably, unstoppably, towards progress, towards a stronger, more robust, more diverse, more adaptable species. This is the analog to the doctrine of Irresistible Grace.

And then evolution comes full circle: What began with the survival of the fittest individual (or Total Depravity) slowly works its way towards the preservation of the entire species. The good of the individual (which can sometimes be bad for everyone else) eventually gives way the greater good. Once a genetic advantage has been disseminated and distributed throughout a species, it cannot be "un-conferred." Salvation (or the continuation of the species) is assured. And so the preservation of the species is the evolutionary analog to the doctrine of the Preservation of the Saints.

Charles Darwin looked around himself at the natural world, at the beauty and diversity of the Galapagos Islands. There he detected, recorded, and postulated the presence of some force, some ancient process that worked slowly but surely for the improvement of the planet.

The Reformers looked to Paul's words in today's scripture passage, where he says for God's elect, nothing--"neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

One is prose, the other is poetry. One is called Darwinism and the other is called Calvinism.

Both perspectives begin by acknowledging the harsh and difficult realities of our existence, then the ways in which we are directed and moved through this life by an unseen hand, and finally how triumph as well as tragedy, trial as well as error, success as well as failure--both are necessary to refine us and preserve us and point us forward in hope.

I hope, at the end of this series, and on this historic Reformation Sunday, that you take some time in your life to appreciate the TULIPs--Darwin's kind OR Calvin's kind--and that you take some time to appreciate our sacred traditions--the ones we cling to and cherish, the ones we challenge and re-examine, and the ones that still speak truth to our hearts across the span of ages, cultures, and creeds. Thanks be to God!