Charles Grandison Finney on Perseverance & eternal security
No — the genuinely saved will certainly persevere
It is intended, that all who are at any time true saints of God, are preserved by His grace and Spirit through faith, in the sense that subsequently to regeneration, obedience is their rule, and disobedience only the exception; and that being thus kept, they will certainly be saved with an everlasting salvation.
THE POSITION
True saints will certainly be saved. They are kept by grace and the Spirit through faith, so that after regeneration obedience is their rule and disobedience the exception. The certainty is not a necessity: "It must be naturally possible for all moral agents to sin at any time," and their salvation is certain only in the way any future free act is certain. He also rejects "perpetual justification, upon condition of one act of faith." Five lectures of the Systematic Theology are headed Perseverance of Saints; the first two were read.
26 But because you are not My sheep, you refuse to believe. 27 My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.
18 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Law student turned revivalist of the Second Great Awakening, licensed and ordained by a Presbyterian presbytery in 1824, later professor of theology and president at Oberlin College. His Lectures on Revivals of Religion argued that a revival is the right use of means and not a miracle. His Systematic Theology built a doctrine of salvation on moral government and on the sinner's natural ability, and denied original sin as a sinful nature, imputed righteousness, and that the atonement paid what sinners owed. This entry rests on that Systematic Theology (1878 edition), the Revival Lectures, one chapter of the Memoirs, three Oberlin Evangelist pieces and one letter.
Cite this page
"Charles Grandison Finney on Perseverance & eternal security", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/finney/perseverance (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/finney/perseverance).