How can it be true both that the elect will certainly be glorified and that the elect may not be glorified? Both cannot be true, yet Piper affirms both within a few sentences. He contradicts himself.

Moreover, logic dictates that if people are saved solely by God’s unconditional election and irresistible grace, there is no sound reason for Scripture to warn anyone to persevere in faith. Those who are genuinely saved will persevere and cannot do otherwise. They need no encouragement, because their salvation has been guaranteed since the foundation of the world.

Likewise, those who are false believers have no reason to be encouraged, because their faith is not genuine. It is certain they will not persevere, for their damnation has been guaranteed since the foundation of the world. To encourage such a person is merely to prolong the deception until he discovers the inevitable: he has been predestined to damnation, and there is no reason for him to attempt to persevere in a faith that is bogus.

That is why it is virtually impossible for a consistent Calvinist to possess any real assurance of his salvation until his final breath. He must always live with the fear that his faith may prove to be bogus if he fails to persevere until death.

Again, if unconditional election is true, conditional glorification cannot be true. If conditional glorification is true (which it is), unconditional election cannot be true. Yet Piper repeatedly maintains that both are true. For example, he writes:

We do not breathe easy after a person has prayed to receive Christ, as though we can be assured from our perspective that they are now beyond the reach of the evil one. There is a fight of faith to be fought. We must endure to the end in faith if we are to be saved (p. 23, para. 4).

Here Piper says that a person who has prayed to receive Christ is not “beyond the reach of the evil one.” But if that person was predestined to be damned, he was never truly saved, and his prayer was ineffectual; he never escaped Satan’s clutches. If, on the other hand, the person was predestined to be saved, then there is no possibility of his forfeiting salvation. And if he, being elect, is not beyond the reach of the evil one (as Piper claims), then Satan is more powerful than God—an outcome that voids God’s sovereignty, something no consistent Calvinist should allow.

A few paragraphs later, Piper reverses his position again:

God’s elect cannot be lost. This is why we believe in eternal security—namely, the eternal security of the elect. The implication is that God will so work that those whom he has chosen for eternal salvation will be enabled by him to persevere in faith to the end… (p. 24, para. 7).

But if this is true, why does Scripture contain so many warnings to believers against falling away from the faith—warnings that Piper himself lists (for example, Mark 13:13; 1 Corinthians 15:1–2; Colossians 1:21–23; 2 Timothy 2:11–12; Revelation 2:7, 10–11, 17, 25–26; 3:5, 11–12, 21)? If true believers cannot fall away, why would Jesus and Paul warn them about something that cannot possibly happen?

The truth is that Scripture repeatedly warns believers against falling away because it is possible for genuine believers to fall away. For the same reason, Scripture repeatedly admonishes believers to continue in the faith. All such passages stand in direct contradiction to the Calvinistic doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints.

Piper then quotes Jesus’ words in John 10:26–30 to prove that the elect cannot be lost. This passage is a favorite of nearly everyone who believes in unconditional eternal security, whether Calvinist or not:

But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.

This passage, of course, is not the only relevant text in Scripture. It highlights the faithfulness of Christ, yet it also identifies the characteristics of those to whom Christ is faithful: Jesus’ sheep hear His voice and follow Him. These are the ones who shall never perish or be snatched from His hand. This fits perfectly with the testimony of the rest of Scripture. As long as we continue in faith—evidenced by our following Jesus—we need not fear that we will perish or be snatched from our Father’s hand. If we stop following Jesus, we are no longer His sheep.

This Scripture, like so many others, teaches a conditional eternal security: we must continue to follow Jesus in order to be finally saved. Yet Piper uses it to support an unconditional eternal security, which stands in direct contradiction to his own affirmation of conditional glorification (itself a form of conditional eternal security). In short, Piper affirms both unconditional eternal security (based on unconditional election) and conditional eternal security (based on conditional glorification). He is a very inconsistent Calvinist.

In the same chapter, Piper reverses his position yet again. Writing about believers who fall away, he says:

The fact that such a thing is possible [believers falling away] is precisely why the ministry of the Word in every local church must contain many admonitions to the church members to persevere in faith and not be entangled in those things which could possibly strangle them and result in their condemnation (p. 25, para. 3, emphasis added).

I could not agree more with that statement. But Piper again contradicts himself. After telling us that it is impossible for the elect to be lost, he now insists that we must admonish church members to persevere in faith lest they be condemned.

Do these church members possess genuine faith? If so, then they are among the elect, and it is impossible for them to be ultimately condemned (according to Piper and all other Calvinists). They need no admonishing.

Or is their faith bogus? If so, then they are not currently saved and need no admonishing to continue in a faith that is not genuine. They need to be saved—but according to Calvinism, they will be saved only if they have been unconditionally elected. And if they are not among the elect, then it is impossible for them not to be condemned.

In summary, the Calvinistic doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints is, for the Calvinist, an absolutely necessary doctrine, even though it is unbiblical. If God bestows His irresistible grace upon totally depraved people whom He has unconditionally elected, then it must of necessity be impossible for any of those people to forfeit the salvation God gave them against their totally depraved wills. They are robots from start to finish. It can be no other way within Calvin’s system of theology.

If, however, people possess wills free enough to repent and believe under God’s prevenient grace, and if God has chosen from the foundation of the world to give eternal life to all who will believe, then it stands to reason that regenerate people may fall away from faith by the exercise of their free wills—just as the New Testament repeatedly teaches.

Because conditional glorification is true, unconditional election cannot be true. If there is an election (and there is), it must be conditional. Thus the Calvinistic doctrine of Unconditional Election falls together with the Calvinistic doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints.