became the benchmark of the elect. If one was truly elect, he would persevere; if he did not persevere, he was not elect. Of course, this drove Calvin into the same kind of contradictory casuistry Augustine developed. What are we to say of those believers who have all the characteristics of genuine Christianity, but they fall away from the faith before they die? Many Evangelicals today would simply use the “professing but not possessing” retreat. They profess to be believers, but, indeed, their faith