"I am always worried by groups that want to talk about God but do not make much effort to talk to him. I felt that they were using dogma to defend their inner uncertainty, using a system of belief to protect them from the world around them. The real world will always challenge our human, dogmatic claims, it will disturb our fantasies and seek to put us in touch with God. But for rigid dogma, this is unacceptable, God must approach them through the channels they have chosen or he will be unrecognized. We all live with the danger of a selective egotism that would censor the world, the preacher, the Church, the Bible, and even God. We make our belief, our prayers and our God act like a sedative, preventing us from full engagement with the world. It would be better to lose a God that we could grasp and a faith that hid us from our fears, and stand before him with whom we have to do. At some stage we need to discover our God is a consuming fire and is not tameable by us."
Adams, The Road of Life, 110.
Yesterday I wrote about those who hide behind shallowness and superficiality to protect themselves from God. While I do believe these traits dominate the majority of American churches, they are not the only sin tendency. In fact, they probably are not the most deadly. In the above quote, Adams points his finger squarely at those who move in the opposite direction of shallow expressions of the Christian faith.
In reaction to the shallow life of many believers, a different breed of Christian has arisen. This breed is one that is academically and theologically rich. It seeks to know God. It investigates the avenues of faith throughout church history. It plumbs the depths of scripture. Eventually, it finds that systems of thought have walked these paths before them. This brings joy because it means they are not alone! This propels them into deeper study. For those with this personality type, in a few years they know more about God than their friends and the pastors of many churches. This is very satisfying.
Again, the problem is life. This time it is not the life they experience outside of themselves. These folks have the intellectual tools to understand creation, sin, and redemption. Many of these folks excel in their professions. They are insightful people! The problem is that many cannot understand why they know so much, yet they personally struggle to live out what they believe. They struggle to love. They struggle to feel and know the presence of God. In the words of Adam, they have been using "dogma to defend their inner uncertainty, using a system of belief to protect them from the world around them. The real world will always challenge our human, dogmatic claims, it will disturb our fantasies and seek to put us in touch with God."
How do we escape the trap of being either being shallow and not growing in knowledge of God or being academic and not growing in our relationship with God? We believe the gospel!
If life is about repentance and faith (which it is in a fallen world!), we learn to live this life. We do not fake our need. We nurture and grow in our knowledge of this need. We repent of our sin and learn to cling to Jesus. We do not tolerate shallow knowledge because we want to know the lover of our soul. We struggle to understand scripture and theology. This should lead us to deeper repentance and faith, which is deeper relationship. We keep an active eye out for our growing pride, and we develop a faith that recognizes that maturity means deeper dependence worked out in repentance and faith.
Authentic faith lives a life of growing knowledge and growing relationship. To diminish either leads to error in life and practice.
In other words, reject both cultural trends. Take the path less traveled and learn to grow in humble, truth seeking, repentance and faith.
CAN A PERVERTED GOSPEL SAVE?
ReplyDeleteDoes it matter what men believe concerning salvation? Can men who preach a gospel different than the one the apostles taught still go to heaven?
Galatians 1:6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel;(NASB)
The Judaizers, who were Jewish Christians, were deserting God by teaching that men had to keep some of the Jewish ceremonial practices to be saved. They were perverting the gospel.
Galatians 1:7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. (NASB)
Today there are many different denomination that are not preaching a completely new gospel, they are just distorting the old one.
IS IT A SERIOUS OFFENSE TO PREACH A GOSPEL PLAN OF SALVATION OTHER THAN WHAT THE APOSTLES TAUGHT?
Galatians 1:9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! (NASB)
Galatians 1:9.......let him be eternally condemned! (NIV 1984)
Galatians 1:9.......that person should be condemned to hell. GOD'S WORD Translation 1995)
Galatians 1:9 ......let him be anathema. (ASV)
PERVERTING THE GOSPEL IS SERIOUS!
Is the doctrine, of saved by grace alone, a distortion of the gospel? The doctrine of, grace alone, stipulates that men have no responsibilities concerning their salvation. The teaching is, that God does it all.
Hebrews 5:9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,
You have to believe in order to obey Jesus. Keep in mind, the words of the apostles were the words of Jesus.
Acts 16: 30-31 ..."Sirs, what must I do be saved?" 31 They said, "Believe in Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."
Paul and Silas did not answer the jailer by saying, "If you have been preselected for salvation; God will cause you to believe so you may be saved." The jailer and his household were not saved by grace alone. They believed and were baptized in water.
JESUS IS THE SOURCE OF SALVATION FOR ALL WHO OBEY HIM.
1. Obey by believing: John 3:16, John 8:24
2. Obey by repenting: Acts 3:19, Acts 2:38
3. Obey by confessing. Romans 10:9-10, Acts 8:37
4. Obey by be baptized in water. Acts 2:38, Mark 16:16, 1 Peter 3:21
CAN MEN PREACH ANOTHER WAY OF BEING SAVED AND STILL GET TO HEAVEN?
THE APOSTLES DID NOT TEACH MULTIPLE PLANS OF SALVATION!
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Again Steve, I find your comments interesting, but puzzling. You should be very careful that you are not preaching a gospel different than that which was delivered once for all to all the saints. You appear to love to bash "Calvinism" as a false doctrine, but you obviously do not really understand what you are supposedly critiquing.
ReplyDeleteRepentance and faith are essential. They are our experience in our relationship with God. Faith is the instrumental cause of salvation. This is essential to Calvinism (and the clear Biblical teaching).
Yet, somehow in the mystery of a sovereign and great God, He works His will and it cannot be thwarted. His will is the essential/primary cause of salvation. This is also essential to Calvinism (and the clear Biblical teaching).
Both are true, right, and correct. One is from our experience and the other is from God's experience/position.
I am sorry that you cannot wrap your head around how both can be true from these perspectives. Instead, you deny the clear teaching of scripture that we are dead in our sins (Eph. 2:1-3) before God works. You deny the reality of God's work in bringing people to faith (Romans 9).
Furthermore, you have perverted and distorted the teaching on baptism to make it a condition for salvation. In other words, you have joined the Judaizers in adding to the gospel a human work.
Overall, be careful that you do not preach a different gospel than the one Paul does! (Gal. 1). I would also caution you to stop critiquing what you cannot or refuse to understand. A bit of humility might help your exegetical process.