FALLING FROM GRACE by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 19, 1869

FALLING FROM GRACE.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

THERE are those who claim that a man once in grace, can never fall from it,—once soundly converted, he never can fall away. This doctrine is both unreasonable and unscriptural. Ezekiel most plainly teaches that the righteous man can become a wicked man, and die such. Thus he says, “But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned; in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.” Ez. xviii, 24. It would seem that language could not more plainly state the fact that the righteous man can fall from his righteousness and become wicked. Paul says, “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.” Gal. v, 5. Paul, then, believed in falling from grace. In Heb. vi, 4-6, he teaches the doctrine still more plainly, showing that they can fall away so far as never to be reclaimed again. “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” So in Rev. iii, 5, it is shown that there is danger of having our names blotted out of the book of life after they have once been written there. In verse 11, Christ says, “Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” Here the same idea is conveyed, that a man may lose the crown designed for him. A host of other scriptures might be quoted to the same effect. Indeed, the whole teaching of the Bible is in harmony with it.

But now I will give an example of a man who was once converted, had a new heart, and the Spirit of God given him, and yet fell away, apostatized, and died a wicked man, a suicide. Saul, the son of Kish, met Samuel, the prophet, to inquire of him. Samuel informed him that God had chosen him king of Israel. Samuel anointed him, as we read in 1 Sam. x, 9, 10: “And it was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart; and all those signs came to pass that day. And when they came thither to the hill, behold, a company of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them.”

Here we find that God gave Saul another heart, and there the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied. Most certainly, then, he met with a change of heart, and received the Spirit of God as a witness of his conversion. All are familiar with his history after that; how that after a short time he became exalted, self-sufficient, and very wicked, murdered the priests of God, and tried to kill David, and, finally, the last day of his life, he bore this record of himself, “God has departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams.” 1 Sam. xxviii, 15. Soon after this, Saul killed himself by his own hand. Chap. xxxi, 4. His case furnishes a remarkable instance of a man’s falling from grace. This most clearly shows that we need, even after we are converted, to watch and pray lest we be led into a snare of the devil, fall from our righteousness, lose our crown of life, and have our names blotted out of the book of life.

D. M. CANRIGHT.

Sigourney, Sept. 25.