Some critics
of Latter-day Saint soteriology argue that we are legalists due to teaching we
must purify ourselves to be saved. Jeff Lindsay does a good job at answering
this and clarifying what LDS theology teaches on this point (i.e., the concept
is "analogous to repenting from sins and allowing the cleansing blood of
Jesus Christ to make us clean"; cf. Jas 4:8; 1 Pet 1:18-22) at
Interestingly,
it is not just Latter-day Saints or “synergists” who teach this. Commenting on
the final perseverance of saints (“final salvation” or “eschatological
salvation), James P. Boyce (1827-1888), at the time, professor of Systematic Theology, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, himself
Reformed (therefore, a proponent of monergism), wrote:
This salvation is, however, secured only
through the co-operation of the believer. It is not one bestowed upon him in
his sins; but through deliverance from his sins. IT is not merely perseverance of
the believer, in faith and holiness unto the end . . .This is secured by
various means . . . Self-purification from sin is another of the means.
We find Paul urging his brethren at Rome “Neither
present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present
yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God,” Rom. 6:13. So, also, in view of their adoption by God, he exhorts
the Corinthians, “Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement o flesh and
spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God,” 2 Cor. 7:1. “They that are of
Christ,” are said to “have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts
thereof,” Gal. 5:24. The Apostle John declares that “every one that hath this
hope set on him purifieth himself, even as he (Christ) is pure,” 1 John 3:3. (James
Petigru Boyce, Abstract of Systematic
Theology [1887], 431-32)
