Deceitful Phrases Used To Share False Gospels

This past weekend I attended my church's annual Men's Retreat at Land O Lakes in Brooksville, MS. It was a good but rainy weekend. We had about 25 men at the retreat and our guest speaker was Dr Fred Chay. Dr. Chay is the Dean of Doctoral Studies at Grace School of Theology. He did an amazing job talking about the differences between man-made theologies that twist and distort Scripture and what Scripture actually says. It is sad to see that most of the churches in America today hold to what theologies say rather than taking scripture as it is. Whenever I listen to a sermon or read stuff from Christian authors, 9 times out of 10 a false gospel is presented. Sadly, most church laymen won't recognize this false teaching.

As I've previously written, most of these false Gospel presentations combine Justification and Sanctification.  This problem leads to unbelievers thinking they must do good works in order to be saved. Of course the teachers of this confusing false gospel messages have some type of philosophical semantic loophole that they use to explain how their conditions for salvation aren't good works, but that is simply an attempt to make scripture fit their theologies. I believe that many of these teachers of this false Gospel mean well. I think many of them are saved. I just think that their minds have been twisted by false teaching of theologies that do not line up with scripture. I pray for them and I hope that their blinders are taken off and they see the simplicity of the Gospel of God's amazing grace!

Dr. Chay gave a list of the most common phrases used by teachers that teach this false gospel.

1. "Give your heart to Christ"
2. "If any man wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me"
3. "James 4:7-10 is the clearest presentation of the gospel: "submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double minded."."
4. "May the Lord reveal to the sinners that the only way for them to be saved from their sins is to repent with godly sorrow inn their hearts to the Lord."
5. "We have the warning of Christ that He will not receive us into His Kingdom until we are ready to give up all, until we are ready to turn from all sin in our lives."
6. "Do we literally have to give away everything  we own to become Christians? No, but we do have to be willing to forsake all."
7. "Come forward and follow Christ in baptism."
8. "No one was ever saved by simply believing  without a commitment and the manifestation of righteousness."
9. "Repentance, confession, and submitting to the lordship of Christ are the intrinsic elements of gracious salvation and transformation."
10. "Believing in Christ is: believing God is the loving Father and that Jesus Christ is God and that all that He says is true and have an unswerving, unchanging, unquestioning obedience to that belief. That is saving faith."
11. "How are we saved? We must accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. That's the beginning, but then we must come to Him as Lord and commit our entire life to Him. And there must be the manifestation of the fruit of repentance."

In his book, "Desiring God", theologian, author, and pastor John Piper puts forth six conditions for salvation:

"These are just some of the conditions that the New Testament says we must meet in order to inherit final salvation. We must believe on Jesus and receive Him and turn from our sin and obey Him and humble ourselves like little children and love Him more than we love our family, possessions, or our own life. This is what it means to be converted to Christ. This alone is the way of Life everlasting."(pgs. 65-66).

Likewise, another popular theologian, author, and pastor John MacArthur lists three conditions for salvation in his book "Hard to Believe":

"It's pretty simple. Anyone who wants to come after Jesus into the Kingdom of God - anyone who wants to be a Christian - has to face three commands: 1) Deny himself, 2) take up his cross daily, and 3) follow Him." (pg. 6).

Those 11 phrases and the two quotes from these well-known authors are prime examples of how this popular false gospel of faith plus good works is presented.

Scripture tells us many places that the sole requirement for salvation is to simply believe.
Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."
In Acts 16:30-31 we read: " 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?' So they said, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved...'."
John 3:16 says: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

The purpose of the book of John is stated in chapter 19 verse 31: "These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name". With a book with that evangelistic purpose, you would expect for it to tell how to receive everlasting life. If what all the 11 phrases and the quotes from the pastors say are correct, you would expect to see those conditions of good works listed in this evangelistic book to tell people how to be saved, yet not once in the entire book are any of those conditions listed. On the contrary, over 73 times in that book alone the word "belief" or "faith" is used as the sole means by which one is saved.

Adding all these other conditions for salvation is in complete opposition to scripture. Don't get me wrong, all of those things are great things that we should do as believers, but they are all listed in scripture as acts of good works that we should do AFTER we are saved. We are not obligated to do these things. Yet, we should do them out of love and thankfulness to the Lord. These good works are a part of our sanctification, our Christian life, becoming more and more holy and Christ-like. These things are not automatic or inevitable for all Christians.  More times than not this attitude and living a life of good works in service and commitment to the Lord comes from discipleship and spending time in in the word and in prayer.

These things are not conditions for eternal life, but are conditions for walking in fellowship with God, sanctification, and receiving rewards in the Kingdom.

 Eternal life is given freely as a gift from God, received simply by believing in Christ for salvation. Being saved is only the beginning of the Christian life. Yes, many who have simply believed do not grow in their walk with the Lord, they remain as babes in Christ, but Scripture tells us that God wants so much more for us. Although we are saved and will spend eternity with Him, there is so much more that He wants for us. Yes, getting saved is great, and that is how we receive everlasting life, but that is not all that is available to us as believers. He loves us and wants to fellowship with us here and now in our earthly bodies. As believers, if we choose to accept His offer of fellowship, He can bring about amazing experiences for us now.

In his book, "Absolutely Free!", the late Zane Hodges describes this amazing experience that Christ offers specifically to believers:

"The Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, offers Himself to individual believers as a divine Guest. If they will respond to Him, if they will love and obey Him, He will make their hearts and lives His personal habitation so that their experience will be like having supper with their Savior. Across the common 'table' which they share, they can communicate freely and He can make Himself known to them. He can manifest Himself to them... Yes, our bodies are the temple of God (1 Co 6:19-20). But our lives—our earthly experiences—can likewise become His place of residence." 

“For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ... that He would grant you ... to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith..." (‭‭Eph‬ ‭3:14, 16-17‬) 

But did not Christ already dwell in their hearts? Most assuredly He did. Yet Paul can conceive of a special kind of inner experience of the Savior, which he associates with inward, spiritual strength (Eph 3:16) and with 'being rooted and grounded in love' (Eph 3:17). "
No, love is not an automatic response which every believer inevitably gives to God. The Christian is not a robot who has been programmed to love the Lord and who can do nothing but what he or she was programmed to do. The very thought is unnatural and abhorrent. 

God did not create machines. He created real flesh-and-blood human beings. And when humankind fell in the Garden of Eden and lost the capacity to love their Maker,  God redeemed them through the cross and re-imparted this capacity to every believer in Christ. Now He calls His children to the kind of loving obedience which is rooted in a gift of life that is absolutely free. 'We love Him because He first loved us' (1Jn 4:19).
But God Himself loves us freely and He loves us with infinite spontaneity. So He obviously desires that our love for Him should mirror His own for us and be spontaneous in return. 

For that reason, in the New Testament Scriptures, God seeks our love. He encourages and invites it, and He promises to meet it with an experience of rich fellowship with Himself. He desires our love greatly, to be sure. But He will never compel it: 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock.' "

        This summer I have been living with a couple outside of DC and every Friday I have been going with the husband to his men's Bible Study that meets weekly at Panera Bread for breakfast, fellowship and devotion. They have been going through a book called "In Christ Alone: Living the Gospel Centered Life" by  Sinclair Ferguson, a Scottish professor of systematic theology at Redeemer Seminary in Dallas, Texas. He is a reformed/Calvinist Christian, which as any of you who know me well enough know, I strongly am against that deceptive teaching. Regardless of that, in a chapter of Dr Ferguson's book, he writes about the assurance of salvation. This is something that is totally backed up by scripture that Catholic teachings are against. I have also met many reformed/Calvinists who are against it. Heck, the entire reformed/Calvinist teaching of salvation is completely contrary to having and knowing assurance of salvation. However, I digress... Despite Dr Ferguson's un-biblical beliefs, his writing comes across as very biblical and is spot on. I guess that goes to show that the Lord can work through and speak through even the most flawed teachings and theologies. Anywho, I wanted to share this chapter with y'all.

“The Greatest of All Protestant Heresies”?

by Sinclair Ferguson

"Let us begin with a church history exam question. Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542–1621) was a figure not to be taken lightly. He was Pope Clement VIII’s personal theologian and one of the most able figures in the Counter-Reformation movement within sixteenth-century Roman Catholicism. On one occasion, he wrote: “The greatest of all Protestant heresies is _______ .” Complete, explain, and discuss Bellarmine’s statement.

How would you answer? What is the greatest of all Protestant heresies? Perhaps justification by faith? Perhaps Scripture alone, or one of the other Reformation watchwords?

Those answers make logical sense. But none of them completes Bellarmine’s sentence. What he wrote was: “The greatest of all Protestant heresies is assurance.”

A moment’s reflection explains why. If justification is not by faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone — if faith needs to be completed by works; if Christ’s work is somehow repeated; if grace is not free and sovereign, then something always needs to be done, to be “added” for final justification to be ours. That is exactly the problem. If final justification is dependent on something we have to complete it is not possible to enjoy assurance of salvation. For then, theologically, final justification is contingent and uncertain, and it is impossible for anyone (apart from special revelation, Rome conceded) to be sure of salvation. But if Christ has done everything, if justification is by grace, without contributory works; it is received by faith’s empty hands — then assurance, even “full assurance” is possible for every believer.

No wonder Bellarmine thought full, free, unfettered grace was dangerous! No wonder the Reformers loved the letter to the Hebrews!

This is why, as the author of Hebrews pauses for breath at the climax of his exposition of Christ’s work (Heb. 10:18), he continues his argument with a Paul-like “therefore” (Heb. 10:19). He then urges us to “draw near … in full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:22). We do not need to re-read the whole letter to see the logical power of his “therefore.” Christ is our High Priest; our hearts have been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience just as our bodies have been washed with pure water (v.22).

Christ has once-for-all become the sacrifice for our sins, and has been raised and vindicated in the power of an indestructible life as our representative priest. By faith in Him, we are as righteous before the throne of God as He is righteous. For we are justified in His righteousness, His justification alone is ours! And we can no more lose this justification than He can fall from heaven. Thus our justification does not need to be completed any more than does Christ’s!

With this in view, the author says, “by one offering He has perfected for all time those who come to God by him” (Heb. 10:14). The reason we can stand before God in full assurance is because we now experience our “hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and … bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:22).

“Ah,” retorted Cardinal Bellarmine’s Rome, “teach this and those who believe it will live in license and antinomianism.” But listen instead to the logic of Hebrews. Enjoying this assurance leads to four things: First, an unwavering faithfulness to our confession of faith in Jesus Christ alone as our hope (v.23); second, a careful consideration of how we can encourage each other to “love and good works” (v.24); third, an ongoing communion with other Christians in worship and every aspect of our fellowship (v.25a); fourth, a life in which we exhort one another to keep looking to Christ and to be faithful to him, as the time of his return draws ever nearer (25b).

It is the good tree that produces good fruit, not the other way round. We are not saved by works; we are saved for works. In fact we are God’s workmanship at work (Eph. 2:9–10)! Thus, rather than lead to a life of moral and spiritual indifference, the once-for-all work of Jesus Christ and the full-assurance faith it produces, provides believers with the most powerful impetus to live for God’s glory and pleasure. Furthermore, this full assurance is rooted in the fact that God Himself has done all this for us. He has revealed His heart to us in Christ. The Father does not require the death of Christ to persuade Him to love us. Christ died because the Father loves us (John 3:16). He does not lurk behind His Son with sinister intent wishing He could do us ill — were it not for the sacrifice his Son had made! No, a thousand times no! — the Father Himself loves us in the love of the Son and the love of the Spirit.

Those who enjoy such assurance do not go to the saints or to Mary. Those who look only to Jesus need look nowhere else. In Him we enjoy full assurance of salvation. The greatest of all heresies? If heresy, let me enjoy this most blessed of “heresies”! For it is God’s own truth and grace!"

An Atheist and a Calvinist: A Tale of Two Methods

Thursday night I went to hear a Christian speaker on campus who is a scientist and he was speaking on how modern genetics proves neo-Darwinism wrong. The event was sponsored by the Society for the Advancement of Creation Science (SACS) which their president goes to church with me. The auditorium was almost packed, I estimate about 75 people attended. There were a lot of atheist who came, as well as Christians. The atheists were pretty easy to spot. It was interesting and VERY scientific, so it was all over my head. The speaker hardly mentioned God at all, but when he opened the floor up for questions the majority of people were angrily attacking him for being Christian and believing in God, which had nothing to so with his thorough presentation about modern day genetics. It was getting a little too hostile for me in the Q&A so I left and just sad down in the hallway and prayed for the speaker. I prayed that The Lord would give him strength and the right answers to give these harden-hearted people. And I prayed for the people,that they would see the love and amazement of God.

While I was sitting out there, a guy approached me. I've known him for over a year and he is a very strong Calvinist who is a follower of John MacArthur, a well known scholar who has some very far fetched misinterpreted  views on salvation. I've had some dealings with the student before and he has always been very hostile, even when he is being nice, he just comes across as hostile. So anyways, he and I are making small talk about the lecture we just heard when two guys walked by. One I recognized as a atheist that my friend Corbin and I talked to 3 years ago on the drill field. Corbin shared the gospel with him and brought him to Mr Jabe Nicholson to talk to. The guy has since been involved with the atheist group on campus. I've seen him many times in passing throughout the years but he didn't remember me. But I always had a feeling like I needed to share the gospel with him, but I was never in a situation where the opportunity presented itself.

So the atheist asks us what we thought about it and we told him, and I mentioned that, even though I am a Christian and I believe that God created the world in 6 days like the bible says, I get kind of frustrated when Christians put arguing about Creation/Evolution above sharing the gospel. I agree with them on the issue, but I see sharing the gospel as a much bigger thing than arguing over how old the earth is. The atheist guy agreed with me on that issue. He mentioned that he was an atheist and talked about how he sees issues like climate control as a much bigger issue. Not wanting to open or discuss that can of worms, I kept quiet.

In comes the Calvinist.

C: Are you a good person?

A: I'd like to think so...

C: Have you ever broken any of the Ten Commandments?

A: I don't think so. I grew up Catholic.

C: Have you ever lied?

A: I uh, um, yes, I've lied before

C: What do you call someone who lies?

A: a liar?

C: Correct! You're a liar

A: You're being kinda mean....

ME: That's just his voice, he can't help it (trying a bit of humor to lighten the tension)

C: Have you ever stolen anything?

A: Uh......yeah. When I was in second grade I stole this crystal rock thing because it looked really cool. But then I found out that it was quartz and it was worthless so then I felt bad.

C: What do you call someone who steals?

A: a thief...

C: Have you ever looked at a woman with lustful thoughts?

A: Um......yes....

C: Well, the bible says if you even look at a woman with lust then you have committed adultery in your heart. So by your own admission you are a lying stealing adulterer at heart. You are a sinner

A: I uh, um...

C: The bible says that if you are a sinner you deserve to go to hell.
(At this point the atheist is clearly offended and upset from the time and hostility that the Calvinist is using towards him)

ME: May I interject?

C & A: Yes

ME: Look, I see this all as like a courtroom setting. You know, like the courts we have in America. Laws are set up and if we break those laws we go to court and the judge gives us our punishment. Well, God set up these laws and told us what we can and can't do. But we have all sinned, and the bible says that if we even do one little sin, we deserve to go to hell. God requires perfection to go to heaven, and we aren't perfect. We all deserve hell! Even me! All the terrible things I've done, I deserve hell.

A: But why would you serve a God who is such a tyrant?

ME: He's not a tyrant, I was just getting to that in my analogy.

A: Oh, sorry, go ahead...

ME: It's cool. Now, I'm sitting in front of the judge and he tells me that I've broken his laws and that I deserve punishment. Which I do. But all of a sudden, a man stands up and comes I between the judge and I and says "let me take his punishment instead. I love him and I don't want him to suffer, let me take the pain and suffering so he won't have to". So the judge agrees. The man who stood up turns and says, I'm taking your punishment, if you simply believe that I am paying for your crimes and am saving you from that, then you can be free and live in eternity with me." That man is Jesus, God in the flesh. He loves us so much that he was willing to die for us and he offers everlasting life to all those who simply believe that he is who he claimed to be and that his death  accomplished what he claimed it accomplished. See? He's a loving God, not a tyrant. And even though we may mess up sometimes, he is waiting their with open arms as our father who loves us.

A: Huh....interesting...

C: May I say something?

ME: Sure

C: God doesn't want you. You're a sinner, you admitted it, and God doesn't want sinners. He won't take sinners. All the sins that you have done, you have to stop doing them and then he will take you when you believe in him. You have to turn away from all the sin in your life and the come to him because he doesn't want you right now

*At this point the atheist is very confused and still frightened by the hostile and accusative tone of the Calvinist. Throughout the Calvinist's confrontation the Atheist was slowly backing up, and I could tell by his body language that he was very nervous and uncomfortable.  Luckily, some more outspoken confrontational atheists come up and start arguing with the Calvinist, and he starts using the same questioning tactic with them. I notice that the first atheist is kinda slinking away and I can tell that he is very distraught and confused and timid. While the Calvinist is arguing with the other atheists, I approached the first one a bit always from the group of the others.*

ME: Hey man, I just wanted to let you know that I am sorry about the way he was acting. He and I don't see eye to eye on a lot of things and I'm sorry he came across so hostile.

A: Oh......it's fine....he was acting very mean. If someone is trying to share an idea or their faith with you, they should do it in love and compassion, not mean attacking and hostile

ME: Dude! I completely agree with you. And unfortunately there are many people like him that aren't loving like they should be, and I hate it because it isn't right. I can't stand it

A: I can tell that you're a nice guy

ME: Ha, well, I'm a PR major and I love people, and I'm all about showing love and kindness to everyone.

A: That's good

ME: Look, here's my number, and if you ever want to talk more about this stuff, or if you have any questions, I would love to sit down and talk to you about all this in a non confrontation way.

A: I graduate at the end of this semester, but that sounds good, I'd like to do that sometimes.

ME: Awesome! You got my number, just call or text me sometime and we can get coffee and talk


So that was what went down. I was shaking the whole time (partly because I hadn't eaten hardly anything all day and I was nervous) but The Lord kept me calm and let me calmly and in a loving manner share the gospel with the atheist. I was worried because the Calvinist was very hostile and mean to him and shared a false gospel about how God doesn't want him until he cleans up his life, but I now realize that it was a good thing. The atheist saw two different approaches to witnessing. He saw an angry hostile judgmental and condemning person who claimed to be Christian and a quiet loving gentle and compassionate Christian. And he showed more interest in talking with the latter because if the love and compassion. Now, Im not at all trying to make myself look better than the Calvinist, Im just merely observing how the atheist reacted to the two types of approaches. I am argumentative by nature, but the Lord gave me the confidence and the right words to speak to the atheist. I could feel God's presence there. It was amazing.

Jesus never approached lost people and immediately started telling them that they were going to hell. He showed nothing but love and compassion to people. Also, Jesus never said he didn't want sinners, in fact, he said quite the opposite. He said he came to save the sinners. And in the book of John, which was written with the sole purpose of leading an unbeliever to faith, the word faith or believe (same Greek word) is used over 76 times in reference to eternal salvation. Not once does it give any prerequisites or additions to "believe". That is because we are saved by God's grace through our faith alone in Christ alone, not by our works. "Cleaning yourself up" or "stop sinning" is never a requirement to go to heaven.
John 3:16 says that "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life."

The moral of this event is that we should always show love and compassion to people, ESPECIALLY when sharing the gospel with an unbeliever. The apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, "If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love."

He then goes on to say in the same chapter, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."

Now, some "Christians" who just pick and choose what they like from the bible will focus on the extremes. On one end you have people who focus solely on love, for instance, the author Rob Bell. He is notorious in the Christian community for writing all about how, even if you are living in a life of sin, then God is okay with that, God approves of your sin, and that it is wrong of other believers to confront you, even in love, and try to help you with overcoming your sin. That teaching is completely against scripture. The bible clearly says that if we simply let a brother continue to live in sin without trying to help them or talk to them in love, then that is the opposite of love. The bible tells us that God hates sin, and loves what is good, and that we should do the same. A person's sin does not define who they are. I hate the sin I do, but I don't hate myself. Likewise, we can love a person, but not approve of their sin.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have people like Westboro "Baptist Church", who have the infamous website God Hates Fags .org. Notice I put quotations around the second two words of their name. I put those there because these people have nothing in common with ether Baptists or the Church. These people focus on Gods wrath and judgement. They pick scripture out of context and use it to attack and viciously condemn people. They protest funerals of actors and soldiers because they believe that God killed those people because they were agents of satan. These people focus on hate. I have not heard an ounce of truth come out of these people. They are not a church, they are a violent and vicious hate group.

I do not subscribe to either Calvinism or Arminianism, nor do I affiliate with any denomination. I believe in the Bible, the inherent Word of God in it entirety and in context.

The bible teaches that we need to teach the truth of the gospel of Christ in a loving manner. We are called to tell people that we are all sinners and that we all have fallen short of God's requirement to get into heaven, which is perfection, and that we all deserve the punishment for breaking God's law, and that punishment is hell. But Jesus paid for all of our sins and took on the pain and death that we deserved. He then rose again proving that He was God and that what He said was true. And that if we simply believe that he is who he claimed to be and that his death  accomplished what he claimed it accomplished, then we will spend eternity in heaven with Him.

The word gospel means good news. So its like a bad news/good news type deal. Bad news: we are all sinners and are bound for hell. Good news: God loves us and in his grace he provided a way out. He provided a substitution. He freely offers everlasting life with him to whoever accepts it. We don't deserve this free gift of everlasting life, yet God extends his grace to us. Grace means, an undeserved gift. The offer of Salvation through faith in Christ is that undeserved gift. We are saved simply by grace. And that is amazing!

Do all that you do in a way that is glorifying to God and that shows his love for them.

*UPDATE: Since originally writing this, I have received a text from the atheist and he is open to discussing and hearing what I have to say. And to confirm my suspicions, he did comment on the harsh and hostile methods of the Calvinist, and I informed him that much of what he said and especially about "God not wanting" him was false and was not taught in scripture. I ask for your prayers as I meet with him and share the gospel and hear his views. I know that I am not called to "argue someone to Christ" because that will never work. But we are called to share the gospel. As the writer of Hebrews says: "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart."  My job is simply to share the gospel of Christ's love and grace, the Holy Spirit will take it from there. I will do my best and let God do the rest.