Wesley reads the vine, Hebrews, and “shipwreck of faith” as speaking of true believers. If Scripture warns the righteous that turning away means death, the warning is not a charade. Abiding is a living relation, not a stamp applied once. The Remonstrance itself was cautious: Article V left the question to further study. Later Arminians, and Wesley with them, concluded that falling is possible.
This is not a claim that God is unfaithful. It is a claim that grace remains resistible after conversion. The Spirit keeps those who continue to believe; he does not make apostasy metaphysically impossible. John 10’s “never perish” is heard as the safety of those who hear and follow, not as a guarantee irrespective of later unbelief.
Pastoral Arminian preaching uses the warnings as warnings. Comfort is serious for those who abide. Demas is a sobering name, not a proof that he was “never of us.” The fork is whether the New Testament’s severe texts describe the regenerate or only the almost-regenerate.
Dort’s Fifth Head is more careful than slogans. Left to themselves, the converted would fall. God is faithful: he confirms and preserves. With respect to us, ruin is possible; with respect to God’s counsel, promise, and call, it is not. Westminster says the same in shorter form: those accepted, called, and sanctified shall certainly persevere.
Warnings, on this reading, are one of the means of preservation. The sheep hear; they follow; they are kept. Those who go out “were not of us.” John 10 and John 6 (“I will raise him up”) are taken as Christ’s own pledge, not as a description of a class that might empty out. Temporary faith is true as experience and false as root.
Pastoral Reformed preaching can still be severe against presumption. Perseverance is of the saints, not of the careless. Assurance is looking to Christ’s hold, not to our grip. The fork is whether a person born of God can finally be unborn.
Key contrast Arminians typically teach that a truly regenerate believer may finally fall by ceasing to believe; the Reformed typically teach that those whom God has accepted and called will be preserved—warnings included as means—so that apostasy proves a faith that was not saving.