Particular, Definite, or Limited?

In the theological acrostic, TULIP, the “L” seems to give a lot of people the most trouble. What this acrostic stand for is, Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, and the Perseverance of the saints. Tulip is a simple way of recalling what is known as “The Doctrines of Grace.” And, it is this, a “Limited” atonement, which gives many fits. The word, “limited” is an unfortunate choice of words. But then how would one spell the word, “TULIP” if the “L” was eliminated and something else used instead?

What the “L” in this acrostic was originally meant to convey was a Particular Redemption or Atonement. Another way of putting it is a Definite Redemption or Atonement.

To avoid boring you with theological jargon, let me cut to the chase: Does the Bible teach that Christ in His death died for the sins of all people without exception or did the atonement Christ made on the cross, with His substitutionary death, die for those whom God the Father elected from before the foundations of the world (Ephesians 1: 3-13)?

In other words, did Christ's substitutionary death effect a potential atonement or did it effect a definite, particular, or limited atonement?

Those who reject a definite or particular atonement are in essence saying that what Christ purchased with His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension is an eternal potentiality. Christ indeed endured the cross but rather than purchasing with his shed blood an atonement for God's elect, He rather made an atonement deposit in God's bank of salvation waiting for clients to come along and decide to go in and make a withdrawal of eternal life. This makes man in his absolute depraved nature the deciding factor in salvation when the Bible is all too clear that to have atonement for your sin, it is “not of yourself” but totally and absolutely of God (See Ephesians 2:1-10).

I mean really, think about, if salvation according to Ephesians chapter 2 is true in its assertion that salvation is by unmerited favor and not “of ourselves”, it is the “gift of God and not of works lest anyone boasts,” then how can the Atonement be a potential atonement just waiting for some depraved sinner to come along and make a withdrawal of eternal life?

To throw you another curve ball, let me ask this: What is atonement and when exactly were our sins atoned for?

Atonement is “the reconciliation of alien parties the restoration of a broken relationship (J.I. Packer).”

When Jehovah brought the Jews out of their Egyptian captivity, He set up a way in which to atone for their sins through animal sacrifice. Some say this was at the core of their relationship with God. They made an atonement for their souls through the shedding of blood of animals (Lev. 17:11). These sacrifices were, however, a “type” of what was to come.

“Typology is a special kind of symbolism. (A symbol is something which represents something else.) We can define a type as a “prophetic symbol” because all types are representations of something yet future. More specifically, a type in scripture is a person or thing in the Old Testament which foreshadows a person or thing in the New Testament. For example, the flood of Noah’s day (Genesis 6-7) is used as a type of baptism in 1 Peter 3:20-21. The word for type that Peter uses is figure.” (http://www.gotquestions.org/typology-Biblical.html).

The sacrifices in the Old Testament pointed forward to something permanent and more worthwhile, to something that was to come. But, note this: sins were atoned for when the sacrifice was made or offered. Of course, the blood of animals could not atone for sins in any permanent sense. It was the blood of Him who would fulfill the type, The Messiah, who would once for all blot out sin (see Hebrews 10).

Let me repeat from the above paragraph: “Sins were atoned for when the sacrifice was made or offered.”

Christ did not make a potential atonement for someone who would decide negatively or positively towards the Gospel message in the future. Redemption was not waiting for the decision of man whether to take advantage of the bank account of eternal life to make a withdrawal or pass it by. The Atonement was made two thousand years ago for those whom God chose before the foundation of the world.

“...just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will...” (Ephesians 1: 4,5)

Christ, our Great and Eternal High Priest, atoned for our sins when He offered Himself on the cross more than two thousand years ago. Just as in the case of the typological Old Testament sacrifices, atonement was made when the sacrifice was offered or made, so was Christ's atonement for His people made when He offered Himself as The Sacrifice for sin two thousand years ago.

It was not a potential redemption but a definite and particular one.

If you are a believer today, it was not you in your corrupted, depraved nature that chose yourself unto salvation. It was God who chose you before the foundation of the world, in eternity past, that in due time you would, by His grace, be made alive together with Christ being saved by His Grace (Ephesians 2:1-10).

“Those whom God hath predestinated unto life, he is pleased in his appointed, and accepted time, effectually to call, by his Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God; taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them a heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and by his almighty power determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ; yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by his grace. (Romans 8:30; Romans 11:7; Ephesians 1:10, 11; 2 Thessalonians 2:13, 14; Ephesians 2:1-6; Acts 26:18; Ephesians 1:17, 18; Ezekiel 36:26; Deuteronomy 30:6; Ezekiel 36:27; Ephesians 1:19; Psalm 110:3; Song of Solomon 1:4)” (THE BAPTIST CONFESSION OF FAITH)  (http://www.vor.org/truth/1689/1689bc00.html))

“What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.” (Romans 9:14-16)

Christ in You: Prophet, Priest, King

"There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness" (Prov. 30:12).

There is a paradigm that exists in today's evangelicalism that amounts to a corruption of the doctrine of “justification by faith alone.” The advocates of this corruption do not permit in their thinking that this doctrinal corruption they promote creates in the objects of their evangelism a faith that is disingenuous, insincere, and spurious. They refuse to acknowledge the difference between true and insincere believers, which the Bible speaks to loudly and clearly:

”Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.” (2 Cor. 13:5; NKJV)

And though the church today is full of those who think they are believers based on a prior experience and give no biblical proof in their lives of true salvation in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the purveyors of this paradigm offer little more than a faith based on a mental assent, an intellectual grasp of some gospel history, to the detriment of souls.

"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Prov. 14:12; KJV).

In the simplest of terms, mere professing believers want a salvation in Jesus Christ to save them from hell but they do not want all of Christ. They want assurance they will be saved from hellfire and brimstone but they don't want what comes with the real deal: Lordship. They want the mercy of Christ but not His dominion and rule in their lives. Another way of saying it is that this paradigm offers a salvation from the consequences of sin but not from sin's dominion. The problem is that if one is “in Christ and Christ is in them,” the Bible says this of the true believer:

“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:12-14)

In the context of Romans 6, earlier in the text, Paul writes that those who are in Christ by faith alone are “baptized into the likeness of Christ's death and resurrection” and therefore cannot continue to have sin reigning in his or her life.

“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.” (Romans 6:1-4; NKJV)

A true believer does not continue in sin but rather walks in newness of life. A true and genuine faith wants Christ not only as Savior but also as the One who rules his or her life so that he or she walks in newness of life, showing the fruit of repentance in daily life.

What I am saying here is that if someone professes to be a Christian, there can be no continuance in sin in the life of that professor.

The verses contained in Romans 6 have often been called the “Identification Truths.” What this means is that among many wonderful and marvelous things that happen at the moment God regenerates us, makes us alive together in Christ, the Holy Spirit baptizes us into the likeness of Christ's death and resurrection. The death Christ died He died to sin once for all, the Romans 6 text says, but the resurrection life He lives He lives to God. It is in both of those acts, death and resurrection, into which we have been baptized or identified that we too might be free from sin's consequence and rule. Christ's death to sin is our death to sin. Christ's resurrection becomes our resurrection. His death and resurrection bought for us freedom from the penalty of sin, death (hell), and freedom from sin's evil rule in our lives.

Someone who professes Christ and yet has sin ruling over his or her life betrays the person’s profession of faith. This person cannot be a Christian.

The sickening implication of this is that churches are full to overflowing with those who want fire insurance from eternal burning in hell and yet they don't want the rule of Christ in their lives. They come to church each week for an emotional experience or to do their Christian duty of once a week church attendance and then live like the rest of the world Monday through Saturday. These are shallow and empty professions of faith that do not save.

The problem boils down to this: The massive doctrinal corruption that has infected Evangelicalism is that the message preached in churches today is how one can “receive Christ” with no mentioning of sin, freedom from its dominion, and that you must, as Romans 6 teaches, by virtue of your baptism into the likeness of Christ's death and resurrection, walk in newness of life with sin having no dominion over you.

When one receives Christ, Christ enters that person's life as Prophet, Priest, and King.

When Christ is received as Prophet in the believer's life, He is absolute prudence, He is the supreme instructor in all spiritual things, and He is the ultimate advocate in the believer's life.

When Christ is received as Priest, He is received as the One who offered himself as the atonement for the penalty of sin and lives forever to make intercession for us as our Eternal Great High Priest.

When Christ is received as King, He is received as the One who is the Sovereign Ruler in and through that true believer's life.

It is impossible to call oneself a Christian if one has not received Christ in His completeness. This false salvation paradigm wants to offer sinners Christ as the mediator that bridges the unrighteous gap between God the Father and sinful man. But, as that Mediator between God and man, Christ is Prophet, Priest, and King.

It is all three or it is nothing at all.

Christians Do Sin.

  Lordship salvation does not teach that Christians can't sin. It does teach that Christians can't live complacently in it. Lordship salvation does not say Christians will be sinless. But it does insist that Christians will sin less. Christians do sin, but they don't practice it (1 John 3:6). Christians sin; sometimes seriously. But if they are Christians, they will suffer for it (Heb. 12). Complacency and contentment in sin are the hallmark of the unregenerate soul. Conviction is the sign of the saved one. In other words, the Christian will sin, but it will make him miserable. (Sam Storms)

Saving Faith

I never cease to be astounded at some of the things professing believers in Christ come up with in their attempts at interpreting the Bible. One recent cause for my astonishment is a graduate of a reputable Bible College using Exodus 22:16-17 as a justification for a young woman of tender years being compelled to marry the equally-naive and immature young man. The passage goes like this:

“If a man entices a virgin who is not betrothed, and lies with her, he shall surely pay the bride-price for her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money according to the bride-price of virgins.”

I wonder just what kind of “bride-price” this reckless Bible School exegete had in mind for this young lady?

I digress.

This kind of cafeteria-style Biblical exegesis (pick and choose Biblical interpretation), this recklessness, is all too apparent when such eternal life and death issues are in the forefront of a discussion of the Gospel. When this lazy, good-for-nothing method of Biblical interpretation is adhered to, the exact nature of saving faith is lost to the eternal perishing of man's soul. That is precisely why this issue is so important. Without a clear understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, how...how...how can a man obtain that righteousness without which no man shall see God?

This discussion is not just important. It is a life and death issue on an eternal scale.

An idea, no, an error, courses through professing evangelicalism that a man may be saved without mentioning sin, without explaining Biblical faith, without saying a word about confessing Jesus Christ as Lord (See Romans 10:9), and without saying anything about submission and obedience to Christ's commandments (See 1 John 2:3-9). There are those, and I am talking about professing Christians, both laymen and clergy, who teach that these issues have nothing to do in presenting the Gospel in an evangelistic presentation.

This half-baked false gospel has produced shallow and insincere conversions in society. Instead of genuine conversions producing true believers who show evidence of their submission to their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, there are pews filled with people who have a faith empty of any ethical meaning. In other words, their practice betrays their profession of faith. They made a “decision” for Christ, but there was no conversion. There was no becoming a New Creature in Christ (See Galatians 5:17). There is no repentance of sin.

So, what is being missed in the Gospel presentation of the 21^st century?

1) Some who are in error (false teachers) preach that one may be saved with a mere intellectual assent to the “facts” of the Gospel without making Christ Lord of their lives. This is not just absurd; it is unbiblical:

“And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved.” (Acts 2:21)

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” (Acts 2:36)

“that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ” (Romans 10:9)

If one is truly born-again, then Christ is Lord of his or her life!

2) Crucial to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is repentance. This is not merely a “change of mind” where one moment you don't believe the facts of the Gospel and the next moment you do. It is turning from sin and turning to Christ as Lord and Savior. It is a change of mind that always produces a change of moral conduct. It is an act of God generated in the heart of those whom He has chosen to redeem.

3) What is the nature of saving faith? The object of our faith is not the facts of the Gospel but the Person and work of Jesus Christ. It not an ideology that saves us. It is a Person who saves us: Christ. A faith that saves is one that confesses that Jesus is Lord, and believes God raised Him from the dead. A person who has that faith is the one who is saved.

4) The Two-Step Plan of Salvation: There are those who teach that one becomes a Christian at their initial salvation experience in which they believe the facts of the Gospel and later, or perhaps never, he or she makes Christ Lord of his or her life. This is such a misunderstanding of the Gospel and is on the level of the charismatic-Pentecostal error of the “second work of grace.” It is to say that Christ did “His part” to save you, now you have to do “your part” in making Christ as Lord of your life. This “Two-Step Plan of Salvation” is essentially the argument that the “Easy-Believism” crowd espouses. It also reduces the Biblical requirement to obey the commandments of Christ (See 1 John 2) to a “second blessing or a second work of grace” experience.

5) Where's the changed life? A shallow and watered-downed gospel offers an “unchanged” life at the moment of salvation. It is even said that someone can fall into unbelief and still have eternal life because they once “believed.” The Bible teaches that someone who apostatizes was never a believer in the first place (See 1 John 2:19).

Some say that this error really is the old heresy, Semi-Pelagianism. The more I study this issue; the more and more I believe this is the case. This kind of fraudulence is nothing more than an appeal to the sinful, fallen nature of man with a gospel in which a turning from sin will not be required. Man is not totally depraved, the appeal goes, but “tainted” and all he needs to do is “believe” with nothing more expected or needed.

J.I. Packer said this:

“When Scripture speaks of regeneration, which it represents as a new birth, a quickening of the dead, what is in view is an inner transformation of one's being, or "heart," which makes it impossible for one to go on living under sin's sway as one lived before. The effect of regeneration is that now one wants, from the bottom of one's heart, to know, love, serve, trust, obey, and honor the Father and the Son, so that obedient devotion and discipleship spontaneously spring up where there was only resentful hostility to God before.” ⁱ

i  http://www.fpcjackson.org/resources/apologetics/Modern%20Unbib%20Chall%20to%20Covt%20Theology/packer_lordship_controversy.htm

An Ancient Heresy?

Dr. S. Lewis Johnson once said, “...the central error underlying no-lordship doctrine is nothing but the ancient heresy of semi-pelagianism--the belief that saving grace cannot be efficacious without the prior cooperation of human free will.”

Semi-pelagianism is the theological system that teaches:

“...a moderated form of Pelagianism, taught that man has retained the ability to seek God in and of himself apart from any movement of God's grace. Pelagianism denied any real effect of original sin on human nature. Semi-Pelagianism, admitted that man's nature was "injured" by original sin, but maintained that man still has free will and the ability to cooperate with God's grace in the salvation process.”

Though I do not understand all of the nuances of Dr. Johnson's statement, I do see some connections between the Easy-Believism heresy and semi-pelgianism.

Easy-Believism is just another way of expressing “decisionalism salvation.” Until the 1800's, this idea of decisionism, or decisionalism salvation, was never a part of an explanation of the Gospel of Salvation. Through those centuries, there were theological and doctrinal debates concerning various doctrinal positions on different Biblical truths; however, there was no "decisionism" salvation. We can thank Charles Finney for introducing decisionism salvation to the church.

Finney, a theological Arminian, rejected the Biblical doctrine of total depravity. He held to the error that man could exercise himself Godward salvifically. Man could "decide" himself in and out of a state of salvation with God. So pervasive was his error that he taught that one could lose one's salvation while in heaven. Amazingly, Finney had a huge following.

Decisionism, or easy-believism, salvation has as its root, its very foundation, that man "can" exercise himself toward God in a salvation sense when confronted with the facts of the Gospel. It means that man is not hindered from seeking God, and if man likes what he sees, can choose Godward.

“Finney believed that conversions could be obtained by the "use of means" to get people to walk the aisle, and he seemed to get results.  But, many of his converts fell away soon after making their "decision." ” ⁱ

This is not the entire picture, however, with the decisionalism or easy-believism error. It is not just a matter of “conversions that do not last.” The core issue is a faulty view of the doctrine of original sin and a presentation of a Gospel that is not based in the exegesis of the Biblical texts, is it not? Consequently, what is preached from the pulpits or in one-on-one encounters with the unsaved is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ; thus the person's soul hangs in the balance.

The most appalling aspect of this error is the belief that salvation is a two-step process. First step: You accept the facts of the Gospel in a sort of mental assent much like you would a fact of history you learn in a classroom textbook for the first time. There is nothing else required of you but your mental assent. There is nothing said in the easy-believism plan of salvation about turning from sin—repentance. There is nothing said about a commitment to following Christ as the Lord of your life and soul. That is an issue of discipleship. That comes later—the Second Step.

“Shallow preaching that does not grapple with the terrible fact of man's sinfulness and guilt, calling on ‘all men everywhere to repent,' results in shallow conversions; and so we have a myriad of glib-tongued professors today who give no evidence of regeneration. Prating of salvation by grace, they manifest no grace in their lives. Loudly declaring they are justified by faith alone, they fail to remember that ‘faith without works is dead.'" - Harry Ironside, Except Ye Repent”

When you confront these so-called converts as to how they can still call themselves Christians while living as though God does not exist in their impenitence of sin of any ilk, they will often tell you that they made a decision for Christ when they were seven years old (or any age) and therefore God “has to forgive them.” I find this incredible. Listen to what the Prince of Preachers of 19^th-century England had to say:

"Just now some professedly Christian teachers are misleading many by saying that ‘repentance is only a change of mind.' It is true that the original word does convey the idea of a change of mind; but the whole teaching of Scripture concerning the repentance which is not to be repented of is that it is a much more radical and complete change than is implied by our common phrase about changing one's mind. The repentance that does not include sincere sorrow for sin is not the saving grace that is wrought by the Holy Spirit." - Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Royal Saviour

The stupidity of all of this is that Evangelicalism is preaching a man-centered, fraudulent gospel. Often through psychological tricks in church dog-and-pony shows, unbelievers are manipulated into jumping through conversion hoops that have nothing at all to do with the Biblical Gospel and the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who come forward in the abominable practice of the “altar call” are further tricked into saying the “conversion magic words,” the easy-believism prayer that the decisionalism “counselor” leads them to say, and the person is then deemed a Christian.

“It is one thing to show some interest in salvation; it is quite another thing to be saved." - David Cloud

Is it not the point that in the long run, those who uphold the decisionalism, easy-believism (semi-pelagianism) doctrine are simply denying the Truth of Scripture? Do they not have a man-centered soteriology? In conclusion, I offer just one text of Scripture that, at least in my mind, obliterates the decisionalism, easy-believism heresy. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit would minister this, and other texts, to your heart and mind to correct this error that has invaded Evangelicalism.

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.” Titus 2:11-15 NKJV

Note if you will these points from Titus 8-15:

First: Paul exhorts to be a pattern of good works (Titus 2:8).

Second: Then, Paul gives the doctrinal explanations for the exhortation to be a pattern of good works.

1. The Grace of God that brings salvation teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts.

2. The Grace of God that brings salvation teaches us that we should live soberly, righteously, and

          godly.

3. The Grace of God that brings salvation purifies for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

Could this be any plainer? The Grace of God, while free, is costly. It cost us our ungodliness and worldly lusts; it requires us to live soberly, righteously, and godly. It purifies us for Christ as a special people zealous for good works.

That, my dear friends, is the Biblical Gospel.

i http://www.rogershermansociety.org/easy-believism.htm

The Role of the Church Elder

The primary duties of an elder(s) of the church is to teach and protect sound doctrine to the members. They overstep their boundaries and take on cult-like roles when they seek to intrude into a family within their assembly and seek to undermine the head of the household by telling them who they can and who they cannot consider to be a part of their home. It is the elders duty to teach sound Biblical theology and ethics and the practice of it but it is NOT their role to tell families who they can accept into their family household as members of their family though not blood related. When they do, they've got one foot in the door of a cult.

Easy-Believism is Antinomianism

Someone asked me why the sudden focus on “Easy-Believism” in my blog. After thinking about it for a while, I suppose the answer to that question is the crushing weight of incredulity I felt when I recently heard someone offer the excuse for his sexual immorality, violence, filthy talk, binge drinking, and threats of physical harm was because he was a “babe in Christ.” Actually, it was the one who “led him to the Lord” who offered up that excuse on his “disciple’s” behalf. The person who was discipling the younger man was from a prominent Evangelical Bible School.

Easy-Believism is nothing more than your good old-fashioned antinomianism. It is the system of doctrinal error that states that obedience to the law, in any form, is not required in the Christian's life. This gigantic threat to orthodoxy and orthopraxy must not only be understood but must also be denounced from the housetops. But, to do so requires an understanding of what antinomianism is in order to understand the true threat Easy-believism is to orthodox Christianity.

Antinomianism is a compound word meaning against (anti) the law (nomos). Understood in the realm of theological studies, it means that the Christian is not under the law as a moral code of conduct. An antinomianist takes to an unbiblical extreme a misunderstanding of what the Bible actually teaches. What the Bible teaches is that we are not under the Law written in the Old Testament as a means of salvation (this was the Pharisaical perversion of the Law). Christ's death, burial, resurrection, and ascension fulfilled the Law (See: Romans 10.4; Gal. 3:23; Ephesians 2:15). To say that there is no moral law that believers in Christ must obey is not scriptural.

The insidious core of Easy-Believism is that a person can hear the facts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then exercise himself or herself salvificially Godward. The key player in this “transaction” is the human. The human, in other words, does his or her part and then God does His part. This “decision of the will” initiates the salvation act saving the person but effecting no moral change in the person. This belief concentrates on the justification of the believer but there is no “setting apart unto holiness” either positionally or conditionally. If sanctification is to take place at all in the life of the believer, than it must be on man's terms in something called “yieldedness.” To put it simply, repentance of sin in coming to faith in Christ is not necessary at all.

Not only do these folks believe that there is no moral law to be exhibited in the life of the believer, but also that the so-called Christian can remain a “babe” in Christ during his or her entire life and never show the fruit of the Spirit.

My concluding remarks are these:

Titus 2:11-15: "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee."

Recommended: Examine Yourself

Rejection: Easy-Believism

If you've been reading my blog, you will no doubt understand that I do not believe in what has come to be called, “Easy-Believism.” This is a doctrine of salvation (soteriology) that teaches a sinner can get right with God (saved from his or her sin) by giving a mental assent to the doctrines described in the Bible about Jesus. This idea of “Easy-Believism” is also called “Decisionism.” By whatever name it is called, I reject it.

I reject to the core the teaching that salvation can be accomplished by the intellectual acceptance of a few biblical facts about the person and work of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and then for the person to go forth living life like everyone else on the planet as though nothing has happened.

I know many people who profess Christ. What I mean is that they call themselves Christians and yet they live like the devil. Their “salvation experience” had no sense of the crushing weight of their own sin, which should cause them cry out, “God have mercy on me, a sinner.” (Luke 18:13) Yet, they point to a time in their past in which they prayed a prayer, walked an altar-call aisle (went forward), or raised their hand in a revival meeting and call themselves Christians though their lives show no evidence of being New Creatures in Christ (Gal. 5:17).

The Gospel of Jesus Christ was not, nor is not, just a call to receive “fire insurance” from the damnation of hell. Rather, it was (is) a call to be saved from the penalty and power of sin. Did you see that last phrase: “...from the power of sin?” Someone who truly is born again, has been brought by the Holy Spirit to faith in the finished work of Christ, is saved not only from the wages of sin, but is saved from the rule, dominion, control, or power of sin in their lives. That is why John wrote in 1 John 2:6:

“He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.”

In fact, to come to faith and trust in Christ puts the professing believer on alert that if truly a Christian, one cannot have sin in any form reigning in his or her life.

Romans 6:12-14

“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. ”

The Romans 6 text shows that when someone comes to faith and trust in Christ, he or she is united in the likeness of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The death Christ died to sin, we in Him also died. The resurrection of Christ from the dead, we in him were raised from being dead in our trespasses and sin SO THAT we might walk in newness of life and not like we did before we were saved.

Someone who is truly a Christian CANNOT live as they did before:

“...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. “ (Ephesians 2: 2,3)

Note carefully what this is saying: As a non-Christian, you lived like everyone else did on the planet. You walked according to the dictates of the devil. You were a son or daughter of disobedience. (Living a righteous life was not in your plans.) You lived your life in the lusts of your flesh and sought to satisfy your sinful flesh and mind. Your nature, your very core, was a child of wrath just like all the rest of the world.

That’s the not-so-pretty picture of who and what everyone born in the world is like. And, this is what the “Easy-Believism” crowd thinks you can remain like when you “pray to receive Christ.” “Obedience,” I was once told, “is preferred but is not necessary.”

This is a horrific nightmare that modern-day evangelicalism will accept ANYONE who professes to know Christ and yet has a life that is not any different than those who “walking according to the course of this world, the prince of the power of the air (Satan), and are sons of disobedience.”

This is NOT the gospel. It is false and dangerous.

In the simplest of terms: the gospel call to faith presupposes that sinners must repent of their sin and yield to Christ's authority (John MacArthur)

What does the Bible teach?

The Bible teaches that the Gospel is a call to repentance: Acts 2:38, 17:30, 20:21; 2 Peter 3:9.

The Bible teaches that repentance is a true change of heart and behavior: Luke 3:8, Acts 26:18-20

The Bible teaches that repentance is NOT man's work but all of God's grace: Acts 11:18, 2 Timothy 2:25

The Bible teaches that the faith to believe is also NOT a work of man but instead is a gift from God: Ephesians 2:1-10

The Bible teaches that true faith will never be compromised: Philippians 1:6

(The Easy- Believism crowd believes you can actually stop believing in Christ and still be saved—see 1 John 2:19.)

The Bible teaches that Christ Himself is to be the object of our faith and not facts about Him: “and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” (2 Cor. 5: 15)

(Did you catch the point of that verse? The context in which this verse occurs is speaking about being reconciled to God, or in other words, salvation. Those for whom Christ died (God's elect) are not to live for themselves but for Christ who died for them. That is salvation!)

The Bible teaches that if you are Christ's sheep, you will follow Him. (John 10:27, 28) You not only will not live as you did before but if you are one of Christ's sheep (in other words a believer), you will follow Christ.

(Easy-Believism teaching says that giving an assent to the facts of the Gospel is all that's necessary and that no following of Christ is required. I actually heard this once in an evangelism meeting in which the preacher told the crowd that all one had to do to be saved is believe that Christ died on a cross and nothing more would be required of you.)

The Bible teaches that the faith wrought by the Holy Spirit in you to believe unto salvation produces a “New Creation” (2 Cor. 5:17) in the inner person that can do nothing other than bear fruit of repentance.

The Bible teaches very plainly that we can know that we have come to know Christ if we keep His commandments (1 John 2:3). And, if someone who does not obey Christ's commands and claims to be a Christian, that profession is false. In fact, the Bible calls that person a liar (1 John 2:4).

“Whoever says, “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,” -1John 2:4 ESV

The Easy-Believism bunch believes most sincerely that obeying Christ's commands is an issue pertaining to a “second-level commitment,” ¹ which sounds suspiciously like another gospel to me.

Galatians 1: 8

“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.”

1 John MacArthur

Martin Luther on "Easy-Believism"

“They think one should not frighten or trouble the people, but rather always preach comfortingly about grace and forgiveness of sins in Christ and under no circumstances use these or similar words.

‘Listen! You want to be a Christian and at the same time remain an adulterer, a whoremonger, a drunken swine, arrogant, covetous, envious, vindictive, malicious, etc!’ Instead they say, ‘Listen! Though you are an adulterer, a whoremonger, a miser, or other kind of sinner, if you but believe, you are saved, and you need not fear the law. Christ has fulfilled it all!’…And it is saying yes and no to the same thing. For there is no Christ that died for sinners who do not, after forgiveness of sins, desist from sins and lead a new life…Now he who does not abstain from sin, but persists in his evil life, must have a different Christ, that of the Antinomians: the real Christ is not there, even if all the angels would cry ‘Christ! Christ!’

He must be damned with this, his new Christ…But our Antinomians fail to see that they are preaching Christ without and against the Holy Spirit because they propose to let the people continue in their old ways and still pronounce them saved. And yet logic, too, implies that a Christian should either have the Holy Spirit and lead a new life, or know that he has no Christ.” 1 (Note Luther’s expression “antinomians” here refers to church leaders who use the wonderful teaching of being justified and redeemed by grace through faith as an excuse for them and others to ignore or underemphasise the Biblical teachings on obeying God and living a holy life daily). Luther’s comments above are highly relevant to today.

SOURCE: http://internetbiblecollege.net/Lessons/Historical%20roots%20of%20easy%20believism.pdf

The Illness that Plagues Modern-Day Evangelicalism

Do you know the story of the conversion of Paul of Tarsus whom the Bible refers to as The Apostle Paul? If not, it goes like this:

Paul, according to the New Testament, was actually called Saul. He was a Pharisee whose life work had suddenly become to kill Christians. It isn't clear whether he threw stones, fed them to lions, or any other dastardly and heinous methods of killing worshipers of Jesus Christ. But, he did hunt them down, turned them into the authorities and this is where we pick up the story of his conversion.

Paul was fuming that day over the disciples of Jesus Christ. In fact, the text says that he was “breathing out threats and slaughter” about the chance to go on a Christian hunt and return with them bound and gagged into Jerusalem. ⁱ He had to go to the high priest to get written authorization to go on his murderous way. The permission was granted and off he went toward Damascus.

When he was getting close to reaching Damascus with his entourage of fellow Christian hunters, something happened. The Biblical text describes it:

“As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone.

Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes, he could see nothing. So, they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days, he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.” ⁱⁱ

If you continue in the text (and read Paul's epistles), you will find that the result of that “Road to Damascus” experience was a complete and total change in the man’s life. He went from a Christian killer to a Christ worshiper in an instant. In the blink of eye, he stopped killing and began obeying the Lord Jesus Christ and would go on to become the great Apostle Paul.

For a brief moment, lets assume a different scenario:

Paul has the conversion experience and, though profoundly emotionally affected, he goes on killing Christians. He continues, in other words, in his previous heinous activities. He is living like the Devil.

Jesus comes to Paul again in a vision:

JESUS: “Paul, Paul, you called me Lord. You went when and where I called you to go. Why are still killing my people?

PAUL: “Oh, well, I am just a baby Christian and after all, I am not that mature in the faith yet. And besides, I just killed 75 Christians this week. That's down from my normal average.”

JESUS: “But Paul, you don't get the point. When I save someone, I make him or her New Creatures in Christ. The old man and all his lusts and evil desires are done away with and all things become new.”

PAUL: “Ok. I'll reduce my Christian kill rate to only 50 per week. How's that?”

As absurd as this sounds, I sat speechless one evening this week listening to a young man who had professed to have become a Christian, but telling me that he still engages in the sinful acts he did before he “prayed to receive Christ” and gave as his justification that this was how he was raised. The man who had allegedly “led him to Christ” offered an excuse, “We are all sinners and he is just a babe in Christ.”

Now tell me: Would the Apostle Paul had been sincerely converted if he continued on with his murderous spree of killing Christians after The Road to Damascus experience? Can anyone really respond to that question in the affirmative?

Of the many illness that plague modern-day evangelicalism, one of the most insidious is the idea that one can become a Christian by raising a hand in a gospel revival meeting, by signing a card, by going forward in a gospel “altar call,” or perhaps by repeating the magic words found in the “sinner's prayer.” This illness is called “Easy Believism.”

I once heard an “evangelistic message” in which the one giving the message said, “All you need to do is repeat this prayer after me in your heart and nothing else will be required of you.”

Repentance of sin was never mentioned. The word “sin" is rarely heard it in today's churches.

"Today, in the ranks of our Independent Baptist churches, we are overcome by the super salesmen ‘soulwinners' who pull professions out of lost souls with a promise that they will go to heaven on the basis of a little prayer and a profession of faith in Jesus. They follow the Hyles, Hutson, Gray, Vineyard, statement of faith and never know the reality of passing from death to life. The followers of these preachers of corruption are promising lost souls liberty where there is not liberty. . . . One "Easy-Believism" preacher, Jack Hyles of the large First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, says that ‘sin does not have to be repented of, only forgotten.' ... I am afraid these preachers want to hide their sins instead of forget them." ⁱⁱⁱ

Amazingly, the idea of repenting from your sin when you are brought by the Holy Spirit to faith and trust in Christ, as taught by those like John MacArthur, is often labeled as a legalistic and heretical promotion of a works salvation. This is astonishingly incomprehensible.

"To leave out or minimize repentance, no matter what sort of a faith you preach, is to prepare a generation of professors who are such in name only. I give it as my deliberate conviction, founded on 25 years of ministerial observation, that the Christian profession of today owes its lack of vital godliness, its want of practical piety, its absence from the prayer meeting, its miserable semblance of missionary life, very largely to the fact that old-fashioned repentance is so little preached. You can't put a big house on a little foundation. And no small part of such preaching comes from a class of modern evangelists who desiring more for their own glory to count a great number of converts than to lay deep foundations, reduce the conditions of salvation by 1/2 and make the other half but some intellectual trick of the mind rather than a radical spiritual change of the heart... . Such converts know but little and care less about a system of doctrine. They are prayerless, lifeless, and to all steady church work reprobate." ^iv

Evangelizing children is easy for the “Easy-Believism” crowd. This approach is something like, “Don't you want to see your grandmother again?” or, “Don't you want to live forever with your parents when you die?” Then, a call for a round of hand raising is made and most, if not all, the children hearing this gospel fraud raise their hands and they are counted as true conversions. The problem with this, says George Eager , “...that does not mean they are saved.  The Bible says that no one can be saved unless he repents. . . .  Repentance is being sorry enough for your sins to want to stop doing them."

Gospel presentations that do not wrestle with the terrible fact that man's sin is sending him straight to hell and one that implores men everywhere to repent of sin is fraudulence. Easy-believism preaching is not only fraudulent but it produces fraudulent conversions and people who are as hell-bound as they were before their fake conversions.

Horrifically, this has infected those preaching, those listening, those engaged in missionary endeavors, and those who are book authors. Evangelicalism has become a hoard of slick, smooth-talking frauds who show no sign of being made alive together with Christ. They scream from the rooftops that they are saved by believing in Jesus and yet fail to get the point that “faith without works is dead.” ^v

Recommended Reading: The Gospel According to Jesus: What Is Authentic Faith? John MacArthur

Acts 9:1–9, AV

Ibid

_{Gaylon Wilson, Last Baptist Church}

_{- B.H. Carroll, in Repentance and Remission of Sins}

James 2: 14-26

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