Do You Hate Evil?

All those who profess Christ as their Lord and Savior should hate evil. How many don't? Could this be the reason so many professing Christians, those who proclaim they are truly born again, do not meet the test of 1 John 2:6, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” (NKJV)?

I think the answer to the question is frightening. Someone who says he or she abides in Christ and does not hate evil is not a Christian. And, the first thing, the VERY first thing many immediately jump to is that I am “expecting sinless perfection.”

Let me go on record: I am not talking about sinless perfection. First of all, that false doctrine is not biblical, and secondly, the sinless perfection accusation seems to always be the last ditch effort of someone unable to handle the argument. In fact, when Jesus taught His disciples to pray, he told them to pray to the Father: “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:14 NKJV). Christ and evil do not mix, do not go hand in hand, and those who do not reject evil as a way of life are not Christians!

If you are truly regenerated, born again, by the Spirit of God then the inclination or bent of your life should be one that hates evil. That is how Christ walked. He hated evil. He died to conquer evil. What's your excuse?

Think of what evil did to you when you were born into this world. You were not only born with an evil, sinful nature but you were also conceived in sin (Psalms 51:5). Your innate evil nature made you unable to hear, understand, or respond to the claims of Jesus Christ revealed in the Gospel (Romans 3:10-18; Ephesians 2:1-10; Romans 8:7; Colossians 1:21; James 1:14, 15; Matthew 15:19).

"But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14)

Note the phrase: “...nor can he know them...” the man born into evil has not even the ability, to exercise himself Godward. This is what evil has done to the human race.

So evil were we, in fact, that in order for God to get through to us with His Gospel, the Son of God had to become the God-Man, die on a cross for sin, resurrect, and ascend to His royal place at the right hand of the Throne of God (Ephesians 1:19-22). Then, while we were yet dead in our sins and could not—unable to know the things of God (1 Corinthians 2:14), God had to draw us to the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (John 6:44). We could not come otherwise. Then God had to, while we were still dead and unable to come to Christ, make us alive in Christ, saving us by His Grace:

“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),” (Ephesians 2:1-5)

Tell me, is this not reason enough to hate evil?

I haven't been in a Christian Bookstore in years. It isn't that I don't like them or that I made a decision to avoid them. It's that I live in another country and there are few “Christian Bookstores” and those that exist can be hard to find. I can recall, however, when frequenting Christian Bookstore in America that there always seemed to me to be a ton of books devoted to “Victory,” “How to be Victorious in the Christian Life,” or “We are More than Conquerors.” These types of books lined the shelves.

I have to admit I never purchased any of these books but was always curious to note how many variations there were of the general theme of how to overcome the circumstances of life that seem to come in the form of trials and tribulations in the Christian's walk with God. Whether these books were correct in their doctrine and consequent advise I do not know, but I have been thinking lately of what the Bible teaches with regard to this issue. And, after all, it is the Bible we want to consult as the final authority for faith in practice.

First of all, the Bible does indeed say that in the midst of circumstances we are “more than conquerors through Christ.”

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? According as it is written, For thy sake we are put to death all the day long; we have been reckoned as sheep for slaughter. But in all these things we more than conquer through him that has loved us." (Romans 8:35-37; Darby)

The Apostle Paul, who penned these words, spoke under the most incredibly and dramatic circumstances in bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to his countrymen and Gentiles. And yet, he was, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, convinced to say that in the horror that he had to suffer for the cause of Christ, he “more than conquered through Christ who loved him.” Another version puts it like this: “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (Romans 8:37; NJKV)

Now, dear Reader, your circumstances in life may not even come close to rivaling those of the Apostle. You may be in the battle of trying to trust God in situations of your own making with the fault lying squarely on your shoulders for the mess you find yourself in. I cannot count the times where this has been true in my life. The trials and tribulations (or even temptations) were of my own doing and in what a mess I found myself involved. What is one to do?

No matter the circumstances, God's Word is true. We can be more than conquerors through Christ who loves us. No matter the degree of the severity of the trial, let me make some suggestions.

Number One: Examine yourself. Take whatever time you need to be alone and pray. Ask God to open your understanding to what actually is happening to you. Ask God to show you how, if at all, you have sinned in this trial and then confess your sin to God (1 John 1:9).

Number Two: Continue to read in 1 John, specifically 1 John chapters 2-3, paying close attention to 1 John 2: 3-11. Examine your part in your trials or tribulations to see, as says ch.2: 6, whether you have been abiding in Christ and walking as Christ walked when He was on this earth. Confess any sin after this self-examination.

Number Three: Give thanks for the situation in which you find yourself. Some who claim to be true believers will look at you like you have a hole in your head when you ask them if they have given thanks for the cancer diagnosis just given to them or to a family member. But, this is what God says to do in 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “In everything give thanks for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.”

Number Four: Granted, there are trials and tribulations that God will in His Sovereign Grace allow or direct to happen in your life where it is absolutely due to no fault of your own. I know this from personal experience. I suffer from a syndrome that afflicts me with a number of maladies that pretty much torture me night and day. The medicines work, sometimes, to alleviate the pain but God has seen fit not to heal me from this incurable disease.

Then there are trials and tribulations that are indeed due to our own disobedience to the commands of God. A cheating spouse destroys not only his or her mate but also the children, relatives, friends, and the cheater; someone who is dishonest in filing tax returns does untold damage to conscience and reputation; someone who drives drunk and wipes out an entire family does seemingly irreparable harm to scores. Is a Christian to give thanks for these tribulations? Yes. In fact, glory in them.

"And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." (Romans 5:3-5; KJV)

Number Five: What about trials and tribulations that are the result of yielding to sin that we know is wrong? First of all, how do we as believers know the difference between right and wrong? Through His Word, God tells us and He does so plainly. What God says in His Word to seek, we seek. What God tells us to avoid, we avoid. Not to do so essentially demonstrates the truth I cited about in 1 John:

"But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked" (1 John 2:5-6; NKJV)

If you are not keeping His Word so that what can be said that characterizes you is that you are walking as Jesus Christ walked, then it is time for some deep soul searching questions: “Are you even truly saved, born again?”

If you find you are really in the faith, then how about beginning to do what is so obvious: AVOID THE TEMPTATION TO WHICH YOU HAVE BEEN YIELDING AND WHICH HAS CAUSED SORE TRIALS AND TEMPTATIONS?

How about walking in the way of obedience, rather than disobedience, to God's Word. This of course implies you having to get to know what that Bible that is sitting on your shelf collecting dust actually says. Do not give the Devil the chance or opportunity to tempt you. Are you praying to be spared the temptation? Are you asking God to “lead you not into temptation but to deliver you from the Evil One (Satan)? Did you know this exactly what the Lord Jesus told His disciples as the very thing to have victory over the temptations to which we so often yield causing so much heartache (those pesky trials and tribulations) in our lives?

"Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak." (Mark 14:38;)

Our Lord and Savior, Who by the way was tempted in all things as we yet without sin (see Hebrews 4:15), exhorted His disciples to do this very thing lest they fall into (yield) the temptations: “Watch and pray!” These were His very words to His disciples, Christ's doctrine, for avoiding and yielding to the temptations that, if yielded to, bring on all manner of trials and tribulations.

"For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted." (Hebrews 2:18)

Whether your trial and tribulation is the result of Providence or because you yielded to sin, we as Christians have got to be ready “in season or out” for the eventuality of temptations and trials. It is going to happen. And, Christ’s advice, His very words, is to “watch and pray, lest you fall into temptation.”

Always be on the watch because the Devil himself is for those from whom he can rob God of the glory He so richly and rightly deserves.

Angry Elders

"An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered..." (See context: Titus 1:6-9; Emphasis mine)

“Not quick-tempered.” The word used in the Greek text to convey this idea of “quick temper” is “orgilon.” It means wrath. I think the idea in the Titus text regarding the qualifications of an elder is that an elder is not to be given to exploding often in angry displays of really bad, wrathful behavior. The reasons are obvious. How can an elder manage or rule over the church of God if he cannot rule over his own temper? (See 1 Timothy 3: 5)

The Old Testament book of Proverbs speaks to this very issue.

"A quick-tempered man acts foolishly, And a man of wicked intentions is hated."(Proverbs 14:17 NKJV)

A man of quick temper behaves not only foolishly but the conjunction used here, and, in the verse connects a quick-tempered man with a man of wicked intentions.

"He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, But he who is impulsive exalts folly." (Proverbs 14:29 NKJV)

This verse tells us that someone who is quick-tempered lacks great understanding and that he is impulsive and thus exalts folly.

But, most importantly, the Bible tells us in the Wisdom Book of Proverbs that we are not to even associate with a quick-tempered man:

"Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared." (Proverbs 22:24 - 25 NIV)

An elder in a church who is quick-tempered is NOT qualified to be an elder. In fact, when there are more than two three witnesses (See Matthew 18:16; Deuteronomy 19:15) to this sinful behavior the fact can be confirmed that this is a problem from which the quick-tempered man must repent or step down, or be removed, as an elder.

We are commanded in Scripture not to make friends with or to even associate with such a one making it impossible to submit to the Biblical teaching and or discipline of such an elder.

***

Why We Must Be Tested: God's Sufficient Grace

Let's face it: The trials and tribulations of life that God sovereignly brings into our lives (those which He has ordained before the foundation of the world) are not fun. In fact, they are not pleasant, meaningful, exciting, and, in our carnal minds, we wonder just what is going on and if God has deserted us. The trials and tribulation are so severe sometimes that we find ourselves crying out in despair, unable to eat or drink, and are often so incapacitated by them that we are unable to respond to our families and friends. (See the Old Testament book, Job)

And yet, it is about the trials and tribulations of life that God in His inerrant Word commands us to count or regard as joy when we encounter what can seem to us overwhelming trials of life.

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” (James 1:2-3; NKJV)

Faith never grows so well as when we are under various trials and tribulations. This is a biblical fact and no matter how much we kick and scream against the goads, it is true whether we like it or not. It is the storms of life when the winds are blowing at tornado speeds and wreaking destruction, when the floodwaters rise up to our necks, when faith is the most disciplined and enlightened.

It is often because of the degree of our arrogance that the degree of our tribulation is the greatest. Think about it: The Bible tells us we are but “earthen vessels” all frail, delicate, breakable and yet upon whose sufficiency do we depend to get through life? Our own. Why then do we moan and cry out so when our own sufficiency fails us and we are in trouble as the result? Do we not make it worse when we try to claw our way out of tribulation rather than “count it joy” and depend upon that “treasure” we have in our “earthen vessels” to sustain us?

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” (2 Corinthians 4:7-10; NKJV)

[May I humbly suggest that the “this treasure” in the above text is the “Grace of God” via the ministry of the Holy Spirit.]

We never regard ourselves so weak, much less as earthen vessels, until we find ourselves in circumstances that knock the wind from our self-sufficient sails. What do earthen vessels do? What can they do but sit around until someone comes along and plants a pretty flower in them or knocks them off the shelf. It is when the earthen vessel hits bottom that the realization of just how weak and fragile it is becomes apparent. It cracks up and breaks.

Don't you see that getting knocked off the shelf is exactly why God not only gives us trials but also often does so in such degree so that we can see just how weak and frail we really are apart from His enabling Grace? We never would confess our sinful self-dependence and reliance apart from being rendered weak from the tribulations that God sends us. We never would know how weak we are apart from the trials and tribulations of life. And it is exactly in the position of weakness where God wants His children because that is when we learn to depend on the power and strength of the Grace of God in the middle of trouble. That's why and how we can “count it all joy when you encounter various trials...”

“And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10; NKJV)

Incorruptible Seed

It continues to amaze and sadden me just how many so-called professing believers I run into or hear of who base their salvation in Jesus the Christ upon what is often expressed as, “Oh, I made a decision for Christ when I was young.” Yet, the vast majority of these with whom I am personally acquainted and who tell me this are caught up in besetting sins and are living like the devil himself. I am talking rampant sexual immorality or they are chronic liars and see nothing wrong with doing one or both of these sins while professing Christ as Lord and Savior.

Christ, in other words, has had NO impact upon their personal morality or ethics and their behavior betrays their profession of faith. Why is this so? Why is it that so many think that just because they prayed a prayer, raised a hand, walked an aisle, or signed a card in an evangelistic presentation that they are saved? That sounds good, right? What's wrong, if anything, with a scenario like that?

I can sum up the answer to those questions in one sentence:

“God has done all He can for you, now it is your turn.”

I have heard hundreds of variation of this; two are:

“God has done His part, now you must do your part.” … “Belief now is what God requires of you and that's all He expects as your part in this.”

And the list can go on and on.

A false, watered down, weak and emaciated gospel is presented in almost every professing evangelical church around the world. An appeal is made to man as if he or she had the ability to make a righteous decision to come to Christ. The results of this message are the shipwrecked lives so dominant in evangelical churches today.

Besides having no real sense of the crushing weight of their sin in their “decision for Christ,” no conviction, there is no understanding of the high calling of the believer in Christ. There is no sense of the New Creature that has been planted into the souls of True believers.

Listen to this:

“Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” ” (1 Peter 1:13-16)

This is what a valid profession of faith should look like: 1) Resting your hope fully upon the unmerited favor of God; 2) Resting as obedient children; 3) Not walking as we did when we were non-Christians in our former lusts; 4) Walking as holy New Creations because He who called us is Holy. Do not miss this last point: “...be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

The idea here is that if in all your conduct you are not walking as “holy New Creations” in Christ, then you cannot profess to be a Christian. (Gal. 2:20; 2 Cor. 5:17).

It would do the true believer good to keep his or her focus on the high calling of our new natures (New Creations) in Christ. We would fall less and grow more if we devoted our daily devotions less to physical needs and more to our spiritual ones. Take unto one's heart, thinking long and hard, that to be Regenerated, to be born again, is to have a new birth of an incorruptible, not corruptible, seed.

“having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,” (1 Peter 1:23)

Do you see this? Someone born again, has had a spiritual re-birth, is of an incorruptible seed. If he or she lives as though he or she is of a corruptible seed, then a profession of faith in Jesus Christ cannot be made because He is that incorruptible seed.

We have to understand this calling if we are to be Christians and live like we are Christians. We cannot deny in word, thought, or deed that we are of (born again) an incorruptible seed and then not live as though we are. This we must keep in the forefront of our hearts if we are really born again.

We have to “carry ourselves,” in our conduct, as someone from a high and regal calling, heavenly speaking. In the world, we must, we have no other choice, to live as someone who is not “of the world.” As believers, we must live as though, and we are, of another world—heaven. As those distinguished by and in Sovereign Grace, we must—no alternative—live as holy princes and princesses of the King of kings and Lord of lords.

“It would be well if, in the spirit of humility, we recognized the true dignity of our regenerated nature, and lived up to it … Let the dignity of your nature, and the brightness of your prospects, O believer in Christ, constrain you to cleave unto holiness, and to avoid the very appearance of evil. ” (C.H. Spurgeon)

The Abomination Of It All

I've taken a small rest from writing about the doctrinal error known as Easy-Believism. I have several blogs on this subject and hope my readers will check this blog's archive and read what I've been writing. What has sparked my interest to take this theme up again was an event to which my wife was a witness in an evangelistic opportunity with a very young woman last night.

She sat with a distressed 21-year-old woman who has been living with a man three years older than she is. He is a police officer. They have a small child together. They've never married. Now this man has thrown her out and the woman has recently learned he has had another woman all this time that is now pregnant. The young lady is understandably devastated and in shock.

My wife began talking to this woman about her relationship with God. In the course of the conversation, my wife learned that this woman regards herself as a Christian. When my wife asked her how she knew she was a Christian, a believer in Christ as her Lord and Savior, the woman replied that since she made a decision years ago for Christ in this protestant church, she was a Christian.

Do not miss what is being sadly said in this woman's response to my wife's question: the basis upon which this woman believed herself to be a Christian, a believer in Christ as her Lord and Savior, was on a decision for Christ years prior to her deciding to live and fornicate with a man to whom she was not married.

My question is just where was the Lord of her life when she decided to have sex with a man to whom she was not married?

Further investigation by my wife revealed that this woman used to belong to a church in which Easy-Believism is taught. She apparently and obviously never heard from the pulpit of this church that one cannot claim to be a Christian, a follower of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and then live one’s life as though He does not exist. She had never heard from the teaching elders of this church that to be brought to faith in Jesus Christ is the result of God the Father giving them, the fallen human, to Christ.

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:44)

No one apparently told her the Biblical fact that if she was indeed a true believer then it is not because she decided for Christ. It was not that she made her mind up about anything regarding salvation. It was not that she, as an act of her will, decided to accept the facts surrounding the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, who is the Christ. Besides, it isn't facts to whom the Father draws anyone. It is to a Person: Jesus the Christ. And, unless that human be drawn by the Father to the Son, that human can in no way come to Christ in and of his or her self. It is, as a matter of Biblical fact, impossible (Ephesians 2:1-10).

This, my dear friend, is a perfect example of the faulty and abominable doctrine that is being preached in the vast majority of Evangelical churches today. They are teaching that God has done His part and now you must do your part in making a decision, as an act of your will, for Christ lest you burn in eternal Hellfire.

So, what exactly is this Decisionalism or Easy-Believism salvation? And why does it produce such flimsy and false professions of faith in which these so-called believers can go about their lives after their decision and live like everyone else in the world?

“The term “easy-believism” is a usually derogatory label, used to characterize the faulty understanding of the nature of saving faith adhered to by much of contemporary Evangelicalism, most notably (and extremely) by such Dispensational authors as Charles Ryrie and Zane Hodges. The term was popularized in an ongoing debate between Hodges, to whose theology the label “easy-believism” was affixed, and John MacArthur, to whom the term “lordship salvation” came to be applied.” ⁱ

This doctrinal error or heresy teaches that all one needs to do to come to faith in Christ, or to come to a saving faith, is the acquiescence to some facts about the Gospel followed by an appeal to Christ for salvation. It is not required, so say the advocates of this soteriology,ⁱⁱ that someone submit, in any sense of the word, to Christ's rule or Kingship over his or her life. Amazingly, some of the advocates of this very dangerous error actually teach that someone can even be unwilling to obey the commands of Christ after making this appeal for salvation and still be considered a Christian.

I cannot begin to fathom the exegetical reasoning behind this theological position.

In recent months, I have been personally involved in the moral crisis of families in my own church in which this easy-believism doctrine is taught: “God has done His part and now it is up to you to do your part.” This semi-pelagianism, and that is exactly what this abomination is, shows its practical result in the morality, or lack thereof, in the lives of those who believe this lie. They think that because they made a decision for Christ, as an act of their fallen and totally depraved human wills, that they are now, “Once Saved Always Saved,” and it does not matter how they then live their lives. Obedience to the commands of God never entered or enters the salvation equation and the outcome of this theology is painfully and tragically all too apparent.

"Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked." (1 John 2: 3-6)

Do not miss the point of this text: The proof of one's claim to know Christ in a salvificⁱⁱⁱ sense is: “If we keep His commandments.” If you say that you “know Him” and do not keep His commandments (to keep the commandments is another way of saying to obey the commandments), then you are a liar and the truth is not in you! If you say you are in Christ then you have “to walk as Christ walked.”

If you claim to be a believer in Christ as your Lord and Savior then you MUST be living as though He is indeed your Lord and that will be evident by you keeping His commandments. If your heart and life are not inclined to keeping His commandments, then stop professing falsely that you are a Christian. It is just as simple as that. Read First John for confirmation of what I have just said.

This is serious and it is dangerous. The vast majority of professing Evangelical churches all over the world are teaching that you can decide yourself into the Kingdom God by a mere exercise of your sinfully fallen and depraved human will without any change whatsoever in your life.

God's answer in His Word (1 John) to that proposition is that it is a lie!

ihttp://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/qna/easybelieve.html

iiSoteriology is the doctrine of salvation

iiiSalvific sense = salvationally or in a salvation sense

Easy-Believism: Who Gets The Glory?

In thinking more about Decisionalism or Easy-Believism salvation, the plague that has infected Evangelicalism, I began to wonder just who do these proponents of this error think they are glorifying in teaching that “God has done His part, now it is up to you to do your part?”

With the Bible being crystal clear that salvation is “not of yourself lest any man boast,” just how do they explain this? Are these Easy-Believism advocates saying that when you get down to brass tacks, it is man's fallen volition, a will that is dead and enslaved to sin, that is the final determiner in bridging the gulf that separates God and man?

I would suggest that this is straight from the fallen will of man. It is a direct response from man's hideous total depravity to say, much less think, that man has some island or spark of righteousness left in him that enables him to respond favorably to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is an attempt to glorify himself. It is taking away from God the glory when He acts to save His people or His elect.

In discussions with Easy-Believism proponents, I have actually been told that the reason someone is saved while his neighbor is not is that the saved one made the right decision. If that is so, then is it not of works that a professing believer comes to faith and trust in Christ? Is it not then the result of a good work that the professing Christian is saved? To believe unto salvation certainly is not a non-work or a bad work, is it? Therefore, in the minds of those who believe this error, that which makes the difference between them and their lost neighbor is that they make the good and right decision whereas their lost and hell-bound neighbor did not.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."(Ephesians 2:8,9)

I can't begin to count how many people have told me they are “born-again Christians” and yet they are very publicly ensconced in lives that would, in some cases, make the Devil cringe. A young man who is on his second or third sexual lover told me he is a born-again Christian. His mother told me the same thing about herself, that she is “born again,” and she lies every time she opens her mouth, pirates satellite signals for free, and makes sexual advances toward men other than her husband. A woman in our church is 44 or 45 years old and tells everyone she is 27. She makes no connection between her profession of the Gospel and telling the truth.

This horrid and damnable false doctrine creates the idea in the heads of its advocates that to have forgiveness of sin they think their volition wrought for them means that there is no obligation to obey the commandments of God. This horror creates in their minds a license to sin and to sin freely.

I was listening to a YouTube video in which a famous Reformed Baptist preacher was telling the story of one of his parishioners who admitted to him in a counseling session that she was involved in a long-term sexual affair with a married man. She herself was also married. She saw nothing wrong with this. The preacher told her she would go to hell if she did not stop this. Her response was that she was heaven-bound and that God had to forgive her of this sin because of the decision she made twenty years prior. “Once saved, always saved” is what she chanted to him.

Some take 1 John 1:9 as a kind of permission to sin and get away with it. They have chronic sin practices in their lives but believe as long as they confess it they can get it forgiven and get by with it.

“In the Bible, to know someone includes close communion and love. To “know Christ” means to keep His commandments. This knowledge of Christ is called a “perfected” love of God (v.5), not because it makes us perfectly sinless, because it is irrevocably established in those who live by it. Anyone who presumes to have received forgiveness from God but spurns the gift of obedient love as unnecessary is a “liar.” Instead of receiving “Jesus Christ the righteous” as Savior, such a person manufactures a false christ , a savior who is indifferent to righteousness.”¹

Easy-Believism glorifies man's totally and absolutely depraved nature. This theological system is man-centered and makes man's fallen will the final determiner in salvation. It is not the salvation of the Bible and is, in the long run, rank and file heresy.

1  New Geneva Study Bible; NKJV; Nelson Publishing; pg. 1987; 1 John 2:1-6 footnote

Of Repentance Unto Life and Salvation - 1689 LBC - 2

This saving repentance is an evangelical grace, whereby a person, being by the Holy Spirit made sensible of the manifold evils of his sin, doth, by faith in Christ, humble himself for it with godly sorrow, detestation of it, and self-abhorrency, praying for pardon and strength of grace, with a purpose and endeavour, by supplies of the Spirit, to walk before God unto all well-pleasing in all things.
( Zechariah 12:10; Acts 11:18; Ezekiel 36:31; 2 Corinthians 7:11; Psalms 119:6; Psalms 119:128 )

  As repentance is to be continued through the whole course of our lives, upon the account of the body of death, and the motions thereof, so it is every man's duty to repent of his particular known sins particularly.
( Luke 19:8; 1 Timothy 1:13, 15 )

Such is the provision which God hath made through Christ in the covenant of grace for the preservation of believers unto salvation; that although there is no sin so small but it deserves damnation; yet there is no sin so great that it shall bring damnation on them that repent; which makes the constant preaching of repentance necessary.
( Romans 6:23; Isaiah 1:16-18 Isaiah 55:7 )

The old and hated doctrine of sin

One of the really surprising things about the
present bewilderment of humanity is that the
Christian Church now finds herself called
upon to proclaim the old and hated doctrine of
sin as a gospel of cheer and encouragement.

The final tendency of the modern philosophies,
hailed in their day as a release from the
burden of sinfulness, has been to bind man
hard and fast in the chains of an iron determinism.

The influence of heredity and environment,
of glandular makeup and the control
exercised by the unconscious, of economic necessity
and the mechanics of biological development,

 have all been invoked to assure man
that he is not responsible for his misfortune
and therefore not to be held guilty.

 Evil has been represented as something imposed on us
from without, not made by us from within.
The dreadful conclusion follows inevitably
that as he is not responsible for evil; he cannot
alter it. Even though evolution and progress
may offer some alleviation in the future there
is no hope for you and me now.

 I well remember how an aunt of mine, brought up in
an old-fashioned liberalism, protested angrily
against having continuously to call herself a
miserable sinner when reciting the Litany.

Today, if we could really be persuaded that we
are miserable sinners, that the trouble is not
outside us but inside us, and that therefore, by
the grace of God, we can do something to put
it right, we should receive that message as the
most helpful and heartening thing that can be
imagined. -- Dorthy Sayers

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Song of Solomon

My best friend, Mark, and I came to faith in Christ about a month apart during our first year of high school. We would often read the Bible together and ponder the great things found within with the desire to know deeply this God Who had saved us from our sin and delivered us from its power. We were doing quite well, actually, until we came to The Song of Solomon in the Old Testament. We slammed on the brakes and came to a screeching halt when reading that book of the Bible. We did not understand at all why it was found in the pages of Holy Scripture and were, frankly, a little embarrassed to read it. We finally decided to wait until we were about to be married to our future wives before rereading it again.

Though an understandable conclusion from two adolescent boys, we were not too far from the truth about The Song of Solomon. A "lyric" poem written by Solomon around 965 B.C., this is considered by some to be the "best" of the some 1,005 poems or songs that Solomon, son of David, wrote. It is indeed meant to be a poem, perhaps even an exposition, of the healthy relationship between a husband and wife, attesting loudly and clearly that men and women are meant to live with each other within the contract of marriage. One might even say The Song of Solomon is included in the Canon of Holy Scripture as a representation of God's plan for a godly marriage spanning the realms of spiritual, emotional, and physical love.

The literal, intended meaning of the poem or song should be understood as a representation of God's plan for a godly marriage. However, there are some "allegorical" or foreshadowing components within the song that speak to God's relationship to Israel (a Rabbinical view) and to Christ and His church. An example of this foreshadowing can be seen in Song of Solomon 2:4:

"He has taken me to the banquet hall, and his banner over me is love." (NIV)

This verse could be seen as a representation of the intimacy of the believer pursued and purchased by Christ, thrusting us into a position of magnificent spiritual intimacy by His redemptive Grace.

A representation of how God preserves us (His sheep) in Christ (security) and feeds us spiritually and provides for us physically could be seen in Song of Solomon 2:16:

"My beloved is mine, and I am his; He pastures his flock among the lilies." (NASB)

Though there are those who would dogmatically insist that the poem should only be considered in its literal and intended meaning, I would suggest there are many lessons in the book that could govern our relationship with God and how to grow that intimacy.

One: Just as we are to take all the time to get to know who our spouse is and give all the attention needed that we might grow in intimacy together, we should take all the time, constantly and thoroughly, to know God through His Word and prayer. This, too, like in a marriage, will result in a deeper and more intimate understanding of our Lord, Savior, and King.

Two: Just as in a marriage where spending uninterrupted time with one another in encouragement and praise results in a more intimate and mature relationship, spending uninterrupted time in God's Word praising Him will encourage us in our relationship to the Divine.

Three: Just as God's plan for us is to enjoy our marriage relationship in a profound and joyful sense, we, too, can enjoy our relationship with God by entering into a "child" to Father sense, i.e. Abba Father and the intimate closeness implied by that term.

Four: Just as a married couple should do "what it takes" to reaffirm their mutual devotion, so should the believer with his Lord: Through immediate confession of sin, through the immediate putting to death the deeds of the flesh regarding besetting sins, through daily uninterrupted prayer.

Five: Just as infidelity will ruin fellowship within a marriage, if not outright destroy it, so can infidelity with God wreck the believer-God relationship. This can take form in allowing things such as devotion to sports usurp the believer's devotion to God. The believer can end up trying to serve two masters in getting caught up in unbiblical and unscriptural practices such as with the New Age heresy. The Word of God teaches us we cannot serve two masters. We will love the one and hate the other.

The curious thing about this poem being included in the Canon of scripture is that after more than twenty centuries, there is not agreement as to what it means. Old Testament scholar Edward Young offers eight different interpretations for the book. The main ideas offered by scholars and preachers are that the book is primarily a manual of sorts for godly marital love, and secondly, an allegory of Christ and His bride, the church. Some take it as a typological combination of the two. An Australian Free Church minister believes that a literal interpretation makes it a "display of immoral affection."

I think the lack of consensus on the book's meaning and reason for inclusion in the Canon might last until the second coming.

What To Do With The Deeds of The Flesh?

We are, as believers, mandated in Holy Writ to "put to death" the deeds of the flesh. Putting to death the deeds of the flesh is basic or foundational to the Christian's life. This is because when we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh, we are not walking in them but in the Spirit. Paul writes that we are "to walk in a manner worthy of our calling with which we have been called." (Eph. 4:1) Paul expounds this further in Col. 1: 9-10, in which he says he prays constantly for the Colossians the following:

"For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." (NASB)

Note here what Paul says: walking in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him in every respect, bearing fruit unto every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God would be the direct consequences of Paul asking God in prayer for the Saints at Colosse to being filled (controlled/empowered) with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual understanding and wisdom. All of this is directly opposite to a life in the flesh.

To walk in the Spirit is to walk in a manner worthy of our calling or in a manner worthy of the Lord. This is what we are to do; this is what it is all about. And, what prevents us from doing what we ought is the ever-warring factions within us, the flesh and the Holy Spirit within us. All our failures in our Christian life are caused by the flesh. To learn just exactly how to put to death the deeds of the flesh and walk in the Spirit, the answer to everything, Paul also wrote,

"I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." (Gal. 5:16 NKJV)

Paul's teaching in Gal. 5 shows us that a life of walking in the Spirit is the very secret or key to the Christian life. God wants us, as His children, to live a life that is controlled and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Every evil word, thought, and deed comes from our sinful flesh. In Romans 8:10, Paul tells us that we've been changed in our inner man in Christ and it is that against which our sinful flesh wars.

Sinful flesh wrecks our fellowship with God by exerting its powerful influence and causing us to fall. This influence feels insurmountable over our minds and will. It pushes, plods, yanks us senseless, and is relentless. Its strongest influence is perhaps on our emotions. The flesh sets its strongest opposition against the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5: 17). It is in this opposition where the "how to perform that which is good I find not because nothing good dwells in me that is my flesh" (Romans 7:18) is discovered. The control center that sin seeks to find within us is in our flesh. It is there it seeks to wreak its devastating power over us. To operate in the flesh, the Bible calls "quenching" the Spirit (1 Thess. 5:19) or "grieving" the Spirit (Eph. 4:30).

If putting to death the deeds of the flesh and walking in the Spirit is the answer to everything, then how is it done? What are the facts in Scripture?

Though the Bible does not teach that we become sinless when we believe in Christ for our salvation, it does teach that the moment we call upon Christ as Lord and Savior, we are born again unto a living hope. It means we are eternally kept from condemnation and guilt and freed from sin's dominion or rule. We are instantly put into a position before God (in Christ) where He does not hold to our account our sin and a position in which we are dead to sin and its dominion over us through our co-death, co-burial, co-resurrection, and co-ascension in Christ. It is from that position we are free from sin's control as a pattern of life (See Rom. 6:1-23; Col. 3:1-17).

From that position in Christ, we are to "count on" ourselves indeed dead unto sin's control and alive unto God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11). We put to death-refuse to yield to-the deeds of the flesh based on who we are in Christ-that Romans 6:11 "reckoning". If the driving desire is not in a professing believer to do that, then this gives one pause regarding one's faith.

There was a time in my Christian life where I confessed sin after sin, only to have sin re-accumulate from one confession period to another. The same sin seemed to always rear its ugly habitual head. There were patterns of sin that I never addressed and, probably as a young man and believer in Christ, didn't know how or even that I should.

It was this concept of my "position in Christ" that was presented to me in high school that ended up transforming my walk with God. I began bringing (and still bring) areas of my life, habitual ones, to God in prayer, claiming the facts of His Word regarding sin that sought to rule my flesh. I asked the Holy Spirit to work in my mind the willingness and the doing of His good pleasure of not yielding to a specific sin (any and all sin) so that I might walk in a manner worthy of my calling in a consistent and habitual way. I would claim all this according to the promise of His word found in 1 John 5:14-15:

"Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him."

Was it His will that I no longer yield to sin in any sense and especially habitually? According to the verses cited in this paper, yes. Then I had the confidence that He not only heard me in my request but I also had the confidence I had that which I had asked of Him.

Being The Friend of God

Jesus called his disciples in John 15:14-15, "my friends." He expounded what this meant in just a few short phrases: "You are my friends if you do what I command." "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you." (John 15:14 NIV)

In the Gospel of John chapters 13-15, there can be seen a development of an intimate relationship between our Lord and His disciples. In John 13, Christ refers to the disciples as "servants" while in the John 15 text he calls them something closer, "friends." (The John 13 text does not use the word "servant" but shows a servant-master reference and relationship.) In John 15, the text clears up the point: "from now on," or "henceforth," Jesus says He no longer calls them servants but, instead, friends. And how has this qualitative difference in the Lord and servants, now friends, relationship occurred? "…if you do what I command you," says Jesus in 15:14.

Abraham is used as an example of this in the Old Testament. "My friend" is used as a descriptive of God's relationship with Abraham (Isaiah 41:8: 2 Chronicles. 20:7). The reason Abraham was called "the friend of God" was the same reason for which Jesus called His disciples His friends. The disciples and Abraham obeyed the Word of the Living God. Jesus told His disciples that they were His friends if they obeyed Him; Abraham was called God's friend because he acted on faith (Heb. 11:8; Romans 4:18-21; Heb. 11:17-19). God calls those friends who act in obedience without reservation. Related passages bearing on the same idea are: 1 John 2:1-6: 1 John 5:1-3.

A thought not to be missed in the John 15:14 text is what can be discerned from the Greek text: "You are my friends if you do what I command you." The phrase, if you do, in the present active subjunctive carries the idea of "if you keep at it," "if you keep on doing the action" and not just for a moment in time or as an impulsive action (Robinson). It is obedience and a constant obeying of God's commandments over and over again. Those are the friends of God.

Also note in verse 15 of John 15: "No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you." (ESV) The phrase, I have called you friends, is a perfect active indicative phrase indicating a "permanent state of new dignity." What an amazing life-changing idea!

Self-Evaluation

I spend a great deal of time self-evaluating. This can be a good thing if done with the Bible open to the pages of Scripture and praying thoughtfully through them. It was in February 2010 that I began to sense a need in my life to begin a new re-acquaintance with God. I had fallen into a kind of habitual despairing of my physical illness-laden life. I suffer from a disease called Fibromyalgia Syndrome that afflicts me with unrelenting pain, fatigue, and sleep disturbances. I've had this illness for twenty years and had fallen into a defeatist attitude about it. The symptoms were ruling me and once I realized this had been going on for years, I sought God's wisdom and guidance.

The first thing I did was begin a new study program with a Bible Institute in Australia. It is a correspondence school, of sorts, via the Internet. As I cruised through the Certificate program in Biblical Studies, I was constantly reminded that my relationship with God was not meant to be one of despair. That even in the midst of valleys, and I was in some valleys, I could be on top emotionally. Where and how the devil would hit me, and hit me hard, was in my emotional reaction to severe pain from my illness. The more and more I dwelt on the things of God, the less and less, it seemed to me, I was wallowing in the despair over my disabilities.

I believe that each time I obey God's Word to rejoice in all things, to give thanks, to count it joy, to be anxious for nothing in the specific trials and tribulations in my life, I am counted more and more in a progressive sense a "friend of God." It begins, I believe, in never leaving the Word of God. This is the medium in which the Spirit bends your will to an inclination to obey Him. When you see that it is not only possible to "put the death" the deeds of the flesh, but also that the Word reveals that God works in us both the willing and doing of His good pleasure, then you are spurred on in a kind of Spirit excitement to do just that.

Addressing Obstacles

A pattern in my life has been that when I begin to become lazy about immersing myself in the Word of God, the habitual sin of despair seems to creep back into my life in an insidious intrusion. What keeps despair at bay is a constant, daily saturation in the Scripture and a prayerful mediation on specific Bible verses and passages.

What I am prayerfully considering is returning to school via the Internet in Biblical Studies. I would like to earn a degree in Biblical Studies with an emphasis in Biblical Languages. It is not that I think this is something everyone should do, but it is something I should do. It would keep me busy for a number of years, which would keep my mind off my illness. And, it would keep me in an environment devoted to eternal things rather than earthly things. And so, what happens when the degree is finished? Hopefully, I will have earned some more developed skills in Bible Study and teaching. I would teach through the medium of writing.

The point of being God's friend is obedience; doing what He says. This is a calling I wanted to answer a long time ago.

It is never too late.

DIVORCE

You are a member of a small group/fellowship. Jim, one of your fellow members was divorced by his wife who remarried, leaving Jim to raise the five children. Five years later, she was divorced by her second husband and now wants to return to her first husband - something that Jim has prayed for all along. Quoting Deuteronomy 24:1-4, the fellowship leader advised Jim that, according to Scripture, this was not possible - with the result that now Jim is beside himself with grief and is contemplating suicide. Was the leader right or wrong? Give reasons.


When I was a college student at College of the Ozarks in Clarksville, Arkansas, I was hired as an Assistant Resident Director in the dormitory in which I lived. One of my responsibilities was to "enforce" something called "Quiet Hours." This was a rule, regulation, or law that provided a period of reasonable quiet time for study and sleep in the dorm, but was only applicable during "final's week." In American colleges, final's week was when the final exams were taken for the courses. This was a semester-by-semester deal. Therefore, the "Quiet Hours" period was a circumstantial, or situational, rule within the dorm.

During the Quiet Hours at the end of each semester, while each student labored with sweaty brows, moist palms, and dry lips over the final examinations, there could be no horsing around, rough housing, loud music, fighting, raucous card games, or anything else that would break one's concentration while trying to cram for the finals. Sleep was also to be respected. Every student was aware of the situational or circumstantial Quiet Hours and the resultant monetary fine for violating the dormitory's law.

The important thing that has to be considered as an Assistant Residential Director in enforcing this dorm law is that specific conditions had to be in place before I could enforce this dorm rule. First of all, it had to be final's week. If it was in the middle of the semester, a Friday night, the dorm was half-empty anyway, and a dorm student was having a little party with friends, then the Quiet Hours did not apply. The mid-semester dorm party could go all night, conceivably. If it was final's week, if it was past eleven in the evening and before seven in the morning (each school's dorms had different regulations), then the Quiet Hours rule or dorm law applied. The conditions had to be exact to apply the Quiet Hours' law. Mid-semester had different conditions than the end of semester.
The same is true concerning the Deuteronomy 24:1-4 text in the above-quoted scenario. Verses 1-3 give conditions for which divorce regulations apply. Verse 4 gives the law that applies in the condition of divorce. I believe the text can be understood in this way:

Divorce is not condemned. (I personally would use Matthew 5:32, 19:9; Mark 10:11-12; I Corinthians 7:10-11 in conjunction with the Deuteronomy passage in a counseling situation. However, in this Old Testament text, the condition for a divorce was as simple as the husband finding no more favor in the wife.)

A condition for remarriage, however, is applied in the event of a divorce. If a man put away his wife and she remained unmarried and then reconciliation occurs, then the two could remarry. A condition forbidding the remarriage would be if the wife had married another person, the new husband put her away or he died, and she tried to remarry her first divorced partner; then there is a problem of defilement.

The Deuteronomy text's regulation or law governing divorce targets the partner who put away his or her partner, the one who was put away remarried and later divorced, or his/her new partner died, and then the one who put the partner away wanted to remarry the former partner. In other words, if two people divorced and later reconciled, remarriage would be ok. If two people divorced, and one partner remarried and lost that new partner through death or another divorce, that one partner could not be reconciled and remarried to his or her original partner. It would be an abomination. Under the New Covenant, the conditions are even more stringent. Exact conditions had to be met before the concession of divorce would apply (see my dorm analogy above).

In the Matthew and Mark texts, Jesus tells us that the only grounds for a biblical divorce is impenitent sexual immorality. If a partner puts away his or her spouse because of unrepentant sexual immorality, he or she is free to remarry another believer - just as those believers who are put away (forsaken) by an unbelieving spouse (See I Cor. 7).
"And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery." (Matt. 19:9 ESV)

In the case in the scenario, presuming that Jim's wife put him away for something other than sexual immorality, and then married another, she committed adultery. She is an adulterer. She has, according to the Deuteronomy text, defiled herself in the second marriage, in addition to being an adulterer.

I believe Jim was told the correct advice about remarrying his original wife by the small group leader in the scenario. Though someone might argue that the Deuteronomy text might not apply since it was Jim's wife who put him away and then she remarried, while in the scenario Jim appeared not to remarry, I think in principle it does apply. She defiled herself in remarrying someone else, was divorced from the second husband, and is an adulteress.
I would advise Jim to seek help from the church elders regarding his emotional state and have someone with him at all times until he could get some control over his mental heaviness.

WHY PEOPLE FALL FOR THE CHARISMATIC HERESY…Part Two

People are drawn to the charismatic error because error is easier to believe than the truth.

I ended part one of this series with an explanation of the Biblical doctrine of holiness. The "holiness" which draws the charismatic initiate is not the holiness of the Bible. The so-called "holiness" to which the charismatic erroneously clings is an emotional high that is not Biblical and ends up being an up-and-down roller coaster, addictive emotional experience.

In the issue of sanctification that I covered at the end of part one, the error of the charismatic movement is that you need something more than just Christ's death on a Cross. You need the "power which is from on high." They call this "the baptism of the Holy Spirit." (This phrase and its accompanying idea are not found in the pages of Scripture.) And, this emotional experience comes to you over and over and over again. This is their doctrine of holiness. The draw is a hyped-up emotional experience.

The means to the Biblical doctrine is harder. It involves death on a cross.

As I said in part one, a true test of whether or not someone has sincerely come to faith and trust in Christ as Lord and Savior is whether or not he or she wants most earnestly to walk as Jesus walked. This desire to walk like Christ, in the Spirit, is not found in the seeking and eventual finding in a "second blessing" or "a second work of grace" or "in something more than Christ's death, burial, and resurrection on the cross." You want to follow Christ?

"When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it."" (Mark 8:34-35 NKJV)

The truth of what it means to walk in holiness in Christ is to take up your cross daily. It is to "put to death the deeds of the flesh." (Colossians 3: 1-11)

You "put to death the deeds of the flesh" by engaging in a vigorous "walk in the Spirit and you will not carry out the lusts of the flesh" (Galatians 5: 16-18).

Walking in the Spirit is antithetical to walking in the flesh.

One walks in the Spirit by letting the Word of Christ dwell in you.

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." (Colossians 3:16 NKJV)

Notice in Ephesians 5:18-20, the command to be filled (controlled or empowered) with the Spirit results in the same thing as "letting the word of Christ dwell in you."

"Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Ephesians 5:18-20 NIV)

The reason for this is the Colossian text tells you exactly what it means to be filled with the Spirit (or to walk in the Spirit so you don't fulfill the desires of the flesh.) Those things, which equal the same things, equal each other. To be filled with the Spirit is to let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.

To let the Word of Christ dwell in your richly is to obey what the Word tells you. For example, if the Word tells you to confess your sins (1 John 1:9), each time the Spirit convicts you of sinning and you consequently confess your sin, you have yielded to the Spirit of God using His Word to control and empower you.

To expound this further, when you feel the temptation to tell a lie, how do you know this is sin? Because the living Word, Christ, tells you so in the 9th commandment, among other verses, that to lie is sin. You cry out to God in your heart, "Establish my footsteps in thy Word and do not let any iniquity have dominion over me," (Psalms 119:133) and you yield in faith to what the Word tells you to do. Or, you cry out in desperation, "Have mercy upon me, Oh God, a sinner and take this temptation from me."

Many people are drawn to the charismatic error out of desperation.

There are those desperate for an emotional spiritual or religious experience.

There are those desperate from some sort of intense emotional problem or crisis and seek relief with a religious label on it that relief.

There are those desperate to find something "more" than what their traditional mainstream denomination has to offer.

There are those desperate to find something that meets their psychological need to walk by sight and not faith. They have to have something "concrete" in their lives.


Many people are drawn to the charismatic error out of a desire to put their personal experience above truth.

I can remember the endless talks, some lasting well into the next day, with charismatic roommates who could not get past, "But I had the experience of speaking in tongues and therefore it is true." If you try to reason with charismatics, they will insist that the basis upon which they know speaking in tongues is valid and true is because they experienced it.

They elevate human experience as on par with Biblical truth. Because they experienced it, therefore it is true and this lies at the heart of the charismatic heresy. But, the epistemology of the Bible goes from Truth to Experience. This is how God deals with us. It is Biblical Truth we believe and that results in an experience. God never moves in our life based on an experience. He does not deal with us from Experience to Truth but from Truth to Experience.

"It is not an experience, no matter how unusual or miraculous it appears, that determines whether or not a doctrine is true. There is only ONE thing which determines if something is true, and that is the Bible rightly divided!" - http://wayoflife.org/database/deludedbycharismatic.html

Someone claims to have spoken in tongues as the result of the baptism of the Holy Spirit - WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

Don't be deceived. Everything we need to live the Christian life is found in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What Christ bought for us on the Cross is complete, sufficient, and without anything lacking.

We are complete in Christ

"For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power." (Colossians 2:9-10 NKJV)

We need nothing more.

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WHY PEOPLE FALL FOR THE CHARISMATIC HERESY…Part One

I was brought to faith and trust in Christ as my Lord and Savior while in high school. Almost immediately, I was confronted with the charismatic errors when I tried getting involved in Bible Studies that I heard about from my high school peers. Curious but cautious, I asked my pastor about all this emotionally charged falderal. My inquiry to my pastor developed into a year and a half of his personally discipling me in the faith and teaching me biblical discernment or teaching me how to rightly divide the word of God (2 Timothy 2:15).

Through the first ten years of my Christian life, I encountered over and over those who claimed to be Christians and yet they were involved in the Charismatic error. I soon developed, almost out of necessity, a system of apologetics and presentation to Charismatics. And, that is what I want to present to you, the reader, in this essay.

People get involved with the charismatic error due to zeal, not according to knowledge.

Almost universally, with only a very few exceptions, charismatic initiates are told erroneously that their salvation experience must be in "two-steps." There is a "praying to receive Christ" and then a subsequent experience to seek called "the baptism of the Holy Spirit" that will always be evidenced by speaking in tongues. The teaching is that there is a second blessing. Christ blessed you with salvation, "the fire insurance from hell," then there is the "second work of grace' in which you get the power to live the Christian life and you will know that you have this blessing when you speak in tongues.

I covered this error extensively in my three-part essay in my "God Blog." Open the archive drop-down menu in this blog and look for the July 2, 9, 11 entries for the three-part series entitled, "Two-Step Plan for Salvation."

Almost without exception, charismatic theology will have a mega-faulty Soteriology doctrine. Soteriology means salvation. They hold to a doctrine of salvation that is "semi-Pelagian," amounting to what was determined by the Western Church in the Second Council of Orange in 529 to be heretical.

"Semipelagianism is a Christian theological understanding about salvation; that is, the means by which humanity and God are restored to a right relationship. Semipelagian thought stands in contrast to the earlier Pelagian teaching about salvation (in which man is seen as effecting his own salvation), which had been dismissed as heresy. Semipelagianism in its original form was developed as a compromise between Pelagianism and the teaching of Church Fathers such as Augustine of Hippo, who taught that man cannot come to God without the grace of God. In Semipelagian thought, therefore, a distinction is made between the beginning of faith and the increase of faith. Semipelagian thought teaches that the latter half - growing in faith - is the work of God, while the beginning of faith is an act of free will. It too was labeled heresy by the Western Church in the Second Council of Orange in 529. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semipelagianism"

The reason why this is important is because it is an error that makes man responsible for his salvation. In other words, the charismatic teaches that they come to faith as so: "I made a decision based on an act of my free will." This thought throws Ephesians 2:1-10 out with the trash. Salvation becomes "of yourself and a result of works."

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9 KJV, italics mine)

So, the zeal to be saved from their sins in charismatic doctrine is not according the knowledge of Scriptures. It is not Biblical salvation. The charismatic appeal to be saved, redeemed, forgiven from sin is one based on human works: free will.

"And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. ... And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. ... For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect" (Matt. 24:4, 5, 11, 24 KJV).

People are drawn to charismatic circles because they don't have to do the hard work of thinking straight about Holy Scripture.

Though I have not been in a charismatic Bible study in years (since I was a teenager), the typical approach to understanding the Word of God is a group sharing process. This is when a passage of scripture is thrown out into the group (sometimes the chosen text was suggested the week before for "study") and a kind of "round robin" occurs where everyone "shares what they feel the text is saying."

Sometimes there is a "Bible study leader" who is more a facilitator who ends up managing what some have called a "pooling of ignorance" within the group. These are not harsh words; this is an explanation of how it is. And this is an explanation of how it still is if what I read on the Internet is any indication of the truth.

Hermeneutics simply means:

"This particular form of theological hermeneutics, especially within the mainstream Protestant tradition, considers Christian Biblical hermeneutics in the tradition of explication of the text, or exegesis, to deal with various principles that can be applied to the study of Scripture. If it is axiomatic that the canon of Scripture must be an organic whole, rather than an accumulation of disparate individual texts written and edited in the course of history, then any interpretation that contradicts any other part of scripture is not considered to be sound." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_hermeneutics)

An example of how this applies in the case of the modern charismatic tongue speaking phenomenon is that the movement fails to understand I Corinthians chapters 12-14 in light of Isaiah 28:11. An elementary understanding and application of hermeneutics would show that the gift of tongues was a sign unto an unbelieving Jewish nation as a sign of judgment for their rejection of their Messiah. This would obliterate their "Two-Step Plan of Salvation" and "Baptism of the Spirit evidenced by speaking in tongues."

People are drawn to the charismatic error due a desire to be holy.

Let me make a clarification. People are drawn to the charismatic error due to a desire to be holy but not a holiness that is in accordance with knowledge, Bible Knowledge!

The state of holiness the charismatic doctrine promises is not the holiness of the Bible. The "true child of God" desires to be holy. He or she desires to live in a manner worthy of Christ, the Lord and Savior. This is, by the way, an indication of whether or not someone is truly born again. Does he or she desire to be like Christ?

The charismatic desire to be holy is almost always a desire for power. This is what the initiate is told. "Now that you are a Christian, you need power." And this "power" is to be sought and found in the "Second Work of Grace," the "baptism," evidenced by speaking in tongues.

The Biblical doctrine in holiness can be found in three tenses.

The idea behind the Biblical doctrine "to sanctify" means to be set apart unto holiness.

First Tense: For the true believer, when God brings you to faith and truth in Christ as Lord and Savior, you are positionally before God "set apart unto holiness" in and through Christ Jesus, forever (Hebrews 10:10). We are in Christ where He is, seated at the right hand of God in the heavenly places, and are "saints" and "holy" in our position in Christ from the very moment in time we first believed (Phil. 1:1 & Heb. 3:1).

Second Tense: For the true believer, when God brings you to faith and trust in Christ as Lord and Savior, conditionally or experientially you are being "sanctified," or "being set apart unto holiness" by the ministry of the Holy Spirit in your life. This is done through the medium of the Holy Scriptures.

"Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy] by the Truth; Your Word is Truth." (John 17:17 Amplified Bible)

Third Tense: Complete sanctification will occur when Christ comes in His glorious return (1 John 3:2).

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Continued in Part Two

Two-Step Plan of Salvation Part III

In parts one and two of "Two-Step Plan of Salvation," I attempted to answer the question, "what's wrong with this picture," and that picture being the idea presented to my wife and I by a friend that she got saved by "making a decision based an act of my will."

I tried making the point that this theological error, decisionism salvation, amounts to another Gospel and therefore Paul's warning in Galatians 1:8-9 applies:

"But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed." (Galatians 1:8-9 NKJV)

Salvation is not the result of an act of one's fallen will. Salvation is being regenerated, made alive, or quickened, so that, or in order, that you might "confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead." (Romans 10:9)

As I pointed out in the part one, my friend elucidated what she meant by the Gospel by adding that first she "made a decision based an act of her will," then she said that part and parcel to her salvation experience was years later being "baptized in the Spirit evidenced by praying in tongues."

First part of what's wrong with this picture is that our friend thinks she is saved on the basis on something "she has done," i.e. making a decision based on an act of her will. Second part of what's wrong with this picture is that she thinks there is a second part to salvation, a second work of grace, if you will, to be sought after her first "decision based on an act of her will." Salvation is a "Two-Step Plan" for her and for literally thousands of professing (false) believers all over the world. They are false because they teach, preach, and believe another Gospel. To correct this second part of the "Two-Step Plan of Salvation," we have to take a look at what the Bible says about the "Baptism of the Spirit."

"For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free-and have all been made to drink into [a] one Spirit." (1 Corinthians 12:12-13 NKJV)

So, we see the Bible does teach there is a baptism by (one) Spirit. But what does this mean?

"The baptism of the Holy Spirit may be defined as that work whereby the Spirit of God places the believer into union with Christ and into union with other believers in the body of Christ at the moment of salvation." (http://www.gotquestions.org/Spirit-baptism.html)

Another text with which to demonstrate this doctrine is seen in Romans 6:1-4:

"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." (NKJV)

The 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 text tells us that the Holy Spirit is the agent of baptism into one body (the body of Christ) and the Romans 6:1-4 text tells us what else is involved in this Spirit baptism.

1. We were baptized into Christ Jesus, which made us partakers of His death to sin.

2. Therefore, we are united in the likeness of his burial through this baptism into death.

3. And, in the likeness of Christ's resurrection, we are co-raised in Christ that we might walk in newness of life. (see Romans 6:5-12)

Both of these texts of Scripture show that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit accomplishes the following and no more or no less:

1. It puts us, or unites us, into the Body of Christ.

2. It unites us in the likeness of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection so that we can say:

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Galatians 2:20 NKJV)

If you want power to live the Spirit-filled life, look no further than your conversion experience and to your co-crucifixion, co-death, co-burial, and co-resurrection in Christ. Therein is the power of God unto salvation from the penalty and power of sin.

Two points obliterate this error that there is a second work of Grace one must seek after getting saved (if they are really saved at all).

1. The 1 Corinthians 12 text shows clearly that all Christians have been baptized by the Spirit into Christ. "We were all baptized," says Paul, "into Christ just as all have been given one Spirit to drink (the filling of the Spirit in Eph. 5:18)."

2. There is no text in Scripture where we are told to be baptized in, by, or with the Spirit.

"Experiencing the one Spirit baptism serves as the basis for keeping the unity of the church, as in the context of Ephesians 4:5. Being associated with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection through Spirit baptism establishes the basis for our separation from the power of indwelling sin and our walk in newness of life (Romans 6:1-10; Colossians 2:12)." (http://www.gotquestions.org/Spirit-baptism.html)

This, too, the second part of the "Two-Step Plan of Salvation" our friend shared and I mentioned in part one of this series, is another gospel. It is not the Gospel of the Bible, it is not the Gospel of Jesus, and it is not the Gospel of God. It is heretical.

To say that something more is required to experience the power of God unto salvation is not only error, it is blasphemy. To say what Christ bought for us with his death, burial and resurrection was insufficient is to deny the Doctrine of Christ (2 John 9). The redemption from the penalty of sin and the deliverance from the power of sin that we might walk in the newness of life was purchased at the Cross. At Calvary you got the whole deal.

You want to live a life that shows that you are a Christian? You want to live life walking worthy of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? You want to walk in a manner worthy of the calling in which you have been called?

Then the Apostle Paul would tell you three things:

1. In light of your co-crucifixion, your co-burial, your co-resurrection, reckon yourselves indeed dead unto sin and alive unto God in Christ Jesus.

2. And, because of the truth of point #1, or therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts.

3. You can do this because sin has no dominion over you because in Christ, you are not under law but under Grace. (Re-read Romans 6)

Beloved, don't trust anyone who presents you a decisionalism salvation. To do so would be to your peril. And, do not accept anyone who tells you what Christ purchased with his death on a Cross was not sufficient and that you need some "second blessing."

Believe the simple Gospel for redemption from the penalty of your sin and for freedom from sin's dominion and power in your life.

"And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."" (John 6:35-40 NJKV)

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