Perseverance: Objections Part 5

Here is another passage that on the face of it may seem to contradict the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints as I have laid it out.  

b. 1 Timothy 4:1

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons... 

Here Paul says that "some will depart [go away] from the faith."  Again we see departing, going away, falling away.  What is it they are falling away from?  It is "the faith."  There is a subjective sense of the word faith (ex. I have faith in Jesus).  But there is also an objective sense to the word faith (ex. the faith [the set of objective truths about Jesus and salvation]). 

As is common in the Pastoral Epistles (1 & 2 Timothy, Titus), "the faith" is used here in the objective sense.  It is referring to the set of objective truths on which Christianity is based.  This fits the context (see 3:15 where he speaks of the church as the buttress of "the truth."). 

So, Paul is not saying a person can lose his or her faith.  "What Paul is saying here is that in later times many will fall away from a profession of the Christian religion.  Such a defection would not imply that these defectors had true faith to begin with" (Hoekema, 249).  As we have seen before, it merely shows they were not truly with us (1 John 2:19).