Excerpt from:
Charles Finney (1835): Instruction of Young Converts — “AIM AT BEING PERFECT. It should be their constant purpose to live wholly to God…. IF THEY SHOULD SIN it would be an inconsistency…. THEY OUGHT NOT TO SIN AT ALL; they are bound to be as holy as God is. And young converts should be taught to set out in the right course OR THEY WILL NEVER BE RIGHT”
Young converts should be taught so as to understand what perseverance is. It is astonishing how people talk about perseverance. As if the doctrine of perseverance was “Once in grace, always in grace,” or, “Once converted, sure to go to heaven.” This is not the idea of perseverance.
The true idea [perseverance of the saints theory] is, that if a man is truly converted, he will continue to obey God. And as a consequence, he will surely go to heaven.
But if a person gets the idea, that because he is converted, therefore he will assuredly go to heaven, that man will almost assuredly go to hell.
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