Light Brings Salt

 

Volume 3, Issue 30                                                                        July 24, 2005

Iron Range Bible Church

Dedicated to the Systematic Exposition of the Word of God

 

 

Once Faith - Always Saved

 

In a recent article from the Grace Evangelical Journal the subject of faith was dealt with by Bob Wilkin who is the editor of  the journal and the director of the Grace Evangelical Society.  He began with a very perceptive statement of the on going situation in the churches today.

He said, "Christianity is called the Christian faith for a reason. Christianity is all about doctrines. It is all about what we believe. Our lives cannot be transformed unless our minds are first renewed by the Word of God (Rom 12:1-2).

You might think that one thing pastors and theologians would be absolutely crystal clear about is what faith is. Sadly, just the opposite is true. Faith appears to be a dense fog, an impenetrable mystery for most pastors and theologians today. People hearing them become totally confused as to what faith is."

If we are unclear about faith then what are the ramifications?  We will be unclear or confused about what is the basis for the most important decision related to our eternal future,  our salvation.

Jesus said, "He who believes in Me has everlasting life" (John 6:47). This along with many others like it, John 20:31 comes to mind,  are quite clear yet so many seem to stumble over the simplicity of the gospel. Often you hear a response from those who struggle with the assurance of their salvation by faith in Christ, well you know that the Greek word for faith, believe means much more than the English word does. But is that really true?  No!!

Zane Hodges (an excellent current theologian) cited an 1890 book by Robert L. Dabney, a Calvinist, in which he said that no one can be sure whether his faith is genuine or spurious: "There is a spurious as well as a genuine faith. Every man, when he thinks he believes, is conscious of exercising what he thinks is faith. Such is the correct statement of these facts of consciousness. Now suppose the faith, of which the man is conscious, turns out to be spurious faith, must not his be a spurious consciousness? And he, being without the illumination of the Spirit, will be in the dark as to its hollowness."

Hodges then concludes: "Obviously, the kind of theology Dabney represents strips believers of their grounds of assurance and dangles them over an abyss of despair."

Over a century later, Evangelicals today continue to repeat Dabney's contention.

Years ago there was an ad on TV by Clairol, Only your hairdresser knows for sure. Well, that is popular evangelical theology today.  Only God knows if your saved, have the right faith and we can never truly know!

Typical of this type of teaching is seen in the ministry of Dr. James White who is a leading Reformed apologist. He regularly conducts debates in which he defends five-point Calvinism.

White's ministry is called Alpha and Omega Ministries. Under the "Statement of Faith" on his website we read this startling statement:  "As a result of this faith [God's gift of saving faith], based upon the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, God justifies or makes righteous the one who believes."

Did you pick up on the problems there?  There are 2 major issues right off the top.  First is that he's saying that the faith that saves is a gift given by God. Is that what Eph, 2:8 says? No!   Salvation is the gift that results or flows from faith in (eis) Christ.  Remember, believe in Him and you have eternal life!  They come to this position from a faulty understanding of the depravity of man, that is the unbeliever. Their concept of total depravity is total inability to respond to the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit and believe the message of the Gospel. They fail to apply the truth that Paul teaches in Rom 4:16 that salvation is by faith since it is the only Grace way, to have faith in the right object, Jesus Christ, is not a work.

Secondly he says that justification is God making the one believing righteous. That he would maintain this error which is common  Catholic error is highly unusual. To be justified is to be declared  righteous by God not made righteous. This occurs when God sees in the one believing the imputed righteousness of Christ!

Many more examples could be given. The point is, for many if not most Evangelicals, faith in Jesus is a mystery which is unknowable prior to death. One goes through life hoping he is born again and fearing that when he dies he may end up in the hot spot.

Don't be Confused

Faith in the Bible is precisely what faith is in English. It is the conviction that some-thing, the object of faith, is true.

If we look at the passage I mentioned last week as an example concerning faith in John 11:25-27: Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,  26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?"  27 She said to Him, "Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world."

The Lord Jesus made two simple declarations about Himself and those who believe in Him. When He asked Martha, "Do you believe this?" He was asking if she was persuaded that His two declarations were true. She said she did believe what He said. (perfect tense)

There was no fuzziness here. In order to make a passage like this complicated, one must import a foreign meaning into the word believe (pisteuo).

Jesus' encounter with Nicodemus also illustrates the idea of faith as simple persuasion. John 3:12 reads:

"If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?"

No one suggests that Jesus was revealing a mystery when He spoke of Nicodemus not believing the earthly things. Nicodemus didn't understand what Jesus had said. Thus he was not yet persuaded it was true.

The second reference to belief in the same verse is speaking of the same verbal concept. Whatever believing means when speaking of believing earthly things is the same concept as believing heavenly things.

Clearly believing earthly things is simply a matter of mental assent. So, too, is believing heavenly things. There is not a single use of pistis or pisteuo which is mysterious or unfathomable.

Believing is the conviction that something is true. Saving faith is the conviction that the justifying message is true: that the one who simply believes in Jesus has everlasting life.

Our works, feelings, will, and desires play absolutely no role in whether we believe something and whether we know we believe or not.

If believing what Jesus has promised is not enough, then why does Jesus call people to believe Him? If trusting Jesus is more than believing what He says, then how specifically does one trust Jesus? And how does a person know when he has done it?

If we lose our grip on faith, then we lose our grip on the good news. We cannot evangelize clearly if we think faith is more than intellectual assent, that it is more than believing facts, or that it is anything other than being convinced that the saving message is true.

If a person defines "believing in Jesus" as some special kind of faith, then he doesn't believe what Jesus is saying, "He who believes in Me has everlasting life" (John 6:47). We can illustrate this concept with two ways in which people define this special faith idea.

First there are those who say we must make a commitment. For them special faith includes committing oneself to serve Jesus for the rest of one's life, then Jesus was saying, "He who commits to serve Me for the rest of his life has everlasting life." That, of course, is not what Jesus said. That would be justification by works. A person who believes that does not believe the saving message.

Others focus on perseverance in good works.  For them special faith includes perseverance in good works till death, then Jesus was saying, "He who perseveres in good works till death has everlasting life." That is not what Jesus said. A person who believes that does not believe the saving message.

It seems that many people are somehow embarrassed by Sola fide that they feel the need to dress up faith with good works of some kind, a special kind of faith. By so doing they inadvertently pervert the good news of Jesus Christ.

 


Man says . . . God Says

 

President of the National Association of Evangelicals, Ted Haggard (charismatic) has joined forces with the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) with the purpose of getting Christian leaders to  agree to be more careful about what we say about Islam. The resulting position paper criticized disparaging Islam by certain Christian leaders including Franklin Graham. Further, the paper implied that we are worshipping the same God, something faithful Muslims would vehemenently deny.
(When anyone says we worship the same God, you know that that one does not know who the God of the Bible is.)


Man Says: Try to formulate and celebrate common acts of worship. As Christians who worship God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as instructed by our Lord Jesus, we find any worship that omits those names and concepts of God (offensive to Muslims) to be impoverished rather than enriched. We do not wish to strip our worship down to the point that Muslims would find it
acceptable, nor do we require Muslims to reduce their worship to a point that would be acceptable to Christians. It is better to worship alongside Muslims, with them practicing what they consider to be proper worship while we Christians observe, and vice versa, rather than trying to have a common worship. ("Guidelines for Christian-Muslim Dialogue," Alan Wisdom, May 7, 2003, The Institute on Religion and Democracy).

God Says: (2 Cor. 6:14-15)  14 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?  15 Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?
"Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" (Amos 3:3)