In medicine, some viruses have a sure and certain sequence of symptoms. If the full range of the symptoms are nevermanifest, it can be definitively determined that the patient was "never actuallyinfected" by the suspect virus. In Lordship and Perseverance theology, grace is redefined as an ethereal substancethat God "infuses" into a lost sinner, and that will then irresistibly effect certain changes in the sinner's life, including empowering the lost sinner: 1) to hate his sins, 2)  to turn from his sins, and 3) to persevere in faith and good works.  If a lost sinner eventually returns to his sinful ways, he is judged as having never really been saved.  Thus, salvation is by grace but still requires works!!  This redefining of theword "grace," along with the linking of the "lordship" and "perseverance" doctrines, is a Roman Catholic invention set forth in Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica, Part I of the Second part, Questions 109-114; Treatise on Grace. This heresy now flourishes in Protestant Theology.

Note:  Although the philosophical implications of quantum mechanics are deeply troubling, they cannot be dismissed simply because they are repugnant to intuitive thought.  The "dead cat in a box" principle is how quantum computers work!  There may be millions of different answers to an encryption algorithm.  It would take the average computer a thousand years to try every combination.  But a quantum computer holds all millions of answers in a state of suspended animation, much like Irwin Schrodinger's imaginary cat, and selects the right answer according to the quantum input, as if it had chosen that answer all along.  In another quantum phenomenon, Liquid helium flows up the side of a flask to flow down the other side of the flask and off of the table, is if it "knew" it would eventually flow down hill.  There are dozens of different experiments in which quantum phenomena can be observed, adn no educated person can look at quantum phenomena without being deeply troubled.  Neils Bohr, the "father of quantum mechanics" rightly said, "If someone is not deeply troubled by the quantum theory, they have not understood it."

Although profound mysteries may exist at the size of electrons, or at energy levels so low that helium liquifies, they do not occur at the level on which we live.  More importantly, they do not occur at the level of our eternal salvation.  God does not hold our eternal destiny in a state of suspended animation until the hour of our death, and then pretend that our faith precedes our works, but that our works somehow determine whether or not we were "ever really saved."

To borrow a phrase from Niels Bohr, "If someone is not deeply troubled by the Reformed doctrine of Perseverance, they have not understood it."