The Gospel According To J.D.

An Example Of A Subtle False Works Gospel

 

“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” [1John 2:19]

 

An acquaintance of mine, whom I will refer to as J.D., has made an astounding transition for someone who seemed to possess true salvation for many years… After many years in reformed protestant churches he is no longer content with their doctrinal stands on many important issues and is now checking out churches that he should know – if he is a true twice-born believer – are apostate.  He seems convinced that he will be happy if only he can find a visible ecclesiastical “institution” that he feels God has entrusted the truth to for the past two millenia.  I guess J.D. never read Luke 17:21:

 

“Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”

 

My point being that the true Church (with a capital C) is a collection of Spirit-born believers.  No major sect or denomination can rightly claim that it is the one true Church.  Oh sure, they can lie and boast about anything they wish, but their pronouncements do not create truth.

 

After “investigating” the Eastern Orthodox church, this poor soul (J.D.) is now looking at the Lutheran church to see if they just might be that one “true” preserved Church that is alluded to in Matthew 16:18.  After J.D. expressed his belief to me in the unbiblical doctrine of transubstantiation (with its implications that a piece of bread can become Christ, the eternal god-man), he is now looking to make himself at home in a church that believes in an equally unbiblical doctrine – consubstantiation.  Of course belief in these manmade dogmas (heresies no less) is a prerequisite to even considering any one of the associated institutions to be that elusive preserved ecclesiastical body.

 

But let us get back to the subtle false works gospel we wish to investigate here.   If you examine something about the doctrine of salvation that J.D. wrote, you can see some terminology that points to a very subtle works gospel that I have seen elsewhere online and offline. Here is that terminology summed up by someone else (not J.D.) who wrote their own erroneous article about salvation which I am referring to first, to show that others use this same terminology and have the same incorrect understanding of biblical faith:

 

“When someone trusts in their own deeds or a ceremony, such as baptism, they will not be saved because they have not used the conduit” that God has given.” (http://www.letusreason.org/OCC4.htm) – anonymous author at “Let Us Reason Ministries”, a ministry that believes in “decisional regeneration” as deduced from their description of how to recieve the free gift of salvation at this web page: http://www.letusreason.org/saving%20grace.htm.

 

This false doctrine brings in special terminology (like the word “conduit” used above) to give itself credibility based on the use of words that are either ambiguous, yet reasonable sounding, or words that can have multiple meanings. Here is J.D.’s blog posting on this “conduit” idea with my emphasis added:

 

There is only one means of atoning for sin, and that is the blood of Christ. Faith is like a hand that receives that blood and all its benefits, but the hand itself does not do any saving. Faith cannot appease God’s wrath for sin. Only the blood of Christ can do that. It’s the difference between a cause and an agent. To use an analogy, if you are underwater and breathe air through a straw, what is the thing your body needs to remain alive—the air or the straw? It needs the air. It needs the straw, too, but only as an agent through which the air is breathed in. The straw, in and of itself, cannot directly keep your body alive because the straw does not keep your lungs going. It is the air coming through the straw that does that. If you were in outer space and you had a hose to connect you to an oxygen tank, but the tank were floating out of reach of the hose, trying to breathe through the hose would do you no good at all. It’s similar when we talk of faith and the blood of Christ. Faith—like the straw and the hose—is the conduit through which the benefits of Christ’s saving blood come to us, but that precious blood—like the air—is what actually saves.” – J.D.

 

This as you know may know, is where the cults and the blind leaders have some true believers scratching their heads…. because those wolves in sheep’s clothing mean one thing with their words and we think they are inferring something else entirely. The buzz words in the above problematic paragraph are faith, agent and conduit and perhaps even the word “benefits”. What do they mean to the writer and what do they mean to the reader? Often they mean two different things.

 

And so here is that crack I mentioned above:

 

Faith is not some “conduit” as inferred by its use above. You can say it is a conduit but it is not. It does not mean that, not in the dictionary and not in the Bible, and no, not in the original Greek either.  The word for faith, as used in Ephesians 2:8 for example is the Greek word pistis, which does not mean conduit nor does its usage in Ephesian 2:8 and elsewhere in any way imply that we are saved through our ability to utilize something be it our faith or our ability to utilize some spiritual conduit, etc. Faith does mean to trust, and to trust in the completed work of Christ – which is what this verse is referring to.  And that ability to trust Christ is something that only regenerated souls can do, and they do it through the Holy Spirit, not through their own strength or through their own ability to grab onto something…

 

“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” [Romans 8:16]

 

In the realm of the Bible and true Christianity, faith is a trait or characteristic of a believer, not a mechanism (like a stretched out hand or like a straw) for acquiring something. Faith is the “ability” to trust Christ and to believe and understand the Gospel – an ability that the spiritually dead do not and cannot possess. This faith – this ability to trust/believe/understand Christ and His gospel – is a gift of God granted – by God – at salvation. That faith – which we possess upon regeneration – is not “like a hand that receives the blood and all its benefits”.

 

Many unbelievers don’t get this. They look at Ephesians 2:8 which states that “we are saved by grace through faith” and think “Oh, I just need to have enough faith, and my faith, is the “conduit” God will then use to save me. I just need to believe the gospel.” – whatever “believing the gospel” means to a spiritually dead sinner… like “believe whatever that evangelist just said even if I believe one thing and he meant quite another thing.” …. Sadly, what this means in many instances is that a person thinks he is saved because he believed something, not because God truly regenerated him.

 

The word “conduit” when defined in its normal sense… is a device or mechanism like a pipe, by which something is transferred from point A to point B. The mechanism (or “conduit” if you will) by which a sinner knows and trusts God (by which he is able to possess “faith” – this attribute of a truly converted believer) is the Holy Spirit not some sinner’s ability to do something or hold onto something or reach out for something. It is Christ in you. Those who do not possess the Spirit often see themselves (or “their” faith) as the conduit (or as the “agent”) and not the Holy Spirit.

 

People who think that they need to participate in their salvation will confuse faith for some kind of mechanism employed by a sinner.  We who are genuine Christians need to question the salvation of those who hold to this belief.  As I read someone else’s description of the gospel written up here: http://www.abideinchrist.com/selah/dec4.html I got the impression that that is the gospel that J.D. subscribes to. I saw some of the same buzzwords and same ideology.

 

Dear reader, I hope and pray that if you subscribe to the kind of salvation that depends in any way on something that you, the sinner do, did or or will do, then I urge you to set aside your works, your filthy rags as the Bible describes them, and trust solely in the completed work of Christ at the cross.

 

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.”
[Titus 3:5]

 





Words To Evangelists About Preaching The Gospel

By C.H. Spurgeon

charles spurgeon famous christian pastor and evangelist

Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892, Pastor & Evangelist)

 

Preaching About Hell

 

“In some professed Christians their pity for the criminal has overcome their horror at the crime. Eternal punishment is denied, not because the scriptures are not plain enough on that point, but because man has become the god of man, and everything must be toned down to suit the tender feelings of an age which excuses sin but denounces its penalties, which has no condemnation for the offence, but spends its denunciations upon the Judge and his righteous sentence. By all means have sympathies manward, but at the same time show some tenderness towards the dishonoured law and the insulted Lord”.

 

The Life Changing Gospel

 

“If the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows the Lord’s will but does not mean to attend to it, you are not to pamper his presumption, but it is your duty to assure him that he is not saved. Do not suppose that the Gospel is magnified or God glorified by going to the worldlings and telling them that they may be saved at this moment by simply accepting Christ as their Savior, while they are wedded to their idols, and their hearts are still in love with sin. If I do so I tell them a lie, pervert the Gospel , insult Christ, and turn the grace of God into lasciviousness.”

 

The Responsibilities Of The Hearers

 

“The hearing of the gospel involves the hearer in responsibility. It is a great privilege to hear the gospel. You may smile and think there is nothing very great in it. The damned in hell know. Oh, what would they give if they could hear the gospel now? If they could come back and entertain but the shadow of a hope that they might escape from the wrath to come? The saved in heaven estimate this privilege at a high rate, for, having obtained salvation through the preaching of this gospel, they can never cease to bless their God for calling them by his word of truth. O that you knew it! On your dying beds the listening to a gospel sermon will seem another thing than it seems now.”

 

The Seriousness Of The Gospel Message

 

“Do you know, my dear unsaved hearer, what God’s estimate of the gospel is? Do you not know that it has been the chief subject of his thoughts and acts from all eternity? He looks on it as the grandest of all his works. You cannot imagine that he has sent his gospel into the world to be a football for you to play with–that you may give it a kick, as Felix did when he said to Paul, “Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee” (Acts 24:25). You surely cannot believe that God sent his gospel into the world for you to make a toy of it, and to say, as Agrippa said to Paul, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian” (Acts 26:28), and then put away all thought of it out of your souls. You cannot even speak of it irreverently without committing a great sin.”

 

Seek The Real Unadulterated Sin-Exposing Gospel

 

“Avoid a sugared gospel as you would shun sugar of lead. Seek the gospel which rips up and tears and cuts and wounds and hacks and even kills, for that is the gospel that makes alive again. And when you have found it, give good heed to it. Let it enter into your inmost being. As the rain soaks into the ground, so pray the Lord to let his gospel soak into your soul.”

 

The True Gospel Depends On The Power Of God, Not The Sinner

 

“I do not come into this pulpit hoping that perhaps somebody will of his own free will return to Christ. My hope lies in another quarter. I hope that my Master will lay hold of some of them and say, ‘You are mine, and you shall be mine. I claim you for myself.’ My hope arises from the freeness of [sovereign] grace, and not from the freedom of the will.”

 

“Never lose heart in the power of the gospel. Do not believe that there exists any man, much less any race of men, for whom the gospel is not fitted.”

 

The Heart Of The True Gospel Is Jesus Christ

 

“Jesus is the Truth. We believe in Him, —not merely in His words. He Himself is Doctor and Doctrine, Revealer and Revelation, the Illuminator and the Light of Men. He is exalted in every word of truth, because He is its sum and substance. He sits above the gospel, like a prince on His own throne. Doctrine is most precious when we see it distilling from His lips and embodied in His person. Sermons [and songs] are valuable in proportion as they speak of Him and point to Him. A Christ-less gospel is no gospel and a Christ-less discourse is the cause of merriment to devils.”

 

“Let this be to you the mark of true gospel preaching – where Christ is everything, and the creature is nothing; where it is salvation all of grace, through the work of the Holy Spirit applying to the soul the precious blood of Jesus.”

 

“On Christ, and what he has done, my soul hangs for time and eternity. And if your soul also hangs there, it will be saved as surely as mine shall be. And if you are lost trusting in Christ, I will be lost with you and will go to hell with you. I must do so, for I have nothing else to rely upon but the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived, died, was buried, rose again, went to heaven, and still lives and pleads for sinners at the right hand of God.”

“The heart of the gospel is redemption, and the essence of redemption is the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ.”

 

“When we preach Christ crucified, we have no reason to stammer, or stutter, or hesitate, or apologize; there is nothing in the gospel of which we have any cause to be ashamed.”

 





Telling It Like It Is:

Seeing The World Through The Eyes Of A Holy God

adam and eve being cast out of garden of eden

ABORTION

  • God calls it child sacrifice and murder.
  • We call it a woman’s right to choose.

HOMOSEXUALITY

  • God calls it sodomy and an abomination.
  • We call it an alternative lifestyle.

PROFANITY

  • God calls it blasphemy and taking His name in vain.
  • We call it colorful language.

SEXUAL IMMORALITY

  • God calls it fornication and adultery.
  • We call it shacking up.

DRINKING & DRUGGING

  • God calls it drunkeness and debauchery.
  • We call it partying and having a good time.

LYING

  • God calls it bearing false witness.
  • We call it stretching the truth.

LOTTERY & GAMBLING

  • God calls it coveting and greed.
  • We call it “harmless” fun.

ATHEISTS

  • God calls them fools.
  • They call themselves free-thinkers.

CATHOLICS & ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS

  • God calls them idol worshippers.
  • They call themselves true Christians.

MORMONS, JEHOVAHS WITNESSES

  • God calls them imposters.
  • They call themselves true followers of Christ.

JEWS, MUSLIMS, HINDUS, etc.

  • God calls them spiritually lost.
  • They call themselves God’s children.

 





The Worst Thing That Could Ever Happen To You

So what is the worst thing that could ever happen to you? Become blind? Get into a car crash that leaves you totally paralyzed?  Lose your home, your family and everything you own in a flood or tornado?  Lose your entire life savings in a stock market crash – all that you worked for you entire life? Lose a child? Lose your spouse?  Get severely burned over most of your body?

 

No. Believe it or not, NONE of those tragedies is the worst thing that could ever happen to you. 

 

You may not realize it … yet, and you may not even believe it when I tell you… but the worst thing that could ever happen to you is to die and wake up in hell, the eternal dwelling place of the damned.  And more than likely, that is EXACTLY where you will end up.  Don’t think that you are too good to end up there compared to other people.  Don’t assume that your good deeds will outweigh the bad.  You are just deceiving yourself with the worst of all deceptions.   Another HUGE deception that is commonly believed today is that when you’re dead you cease to exist, that there is no heaven or hell.

 

One of the things about God that most people never think about is not just that He is the Creator of the universe, but He is also the LAW GIVER of the universe.   His laws are a direct reflection of Himself and His character.  His laws are summarized in the Ten Commandments.  Please note that they are referred to as COMMANDMENTS, not suggestions or guidelines.  Do you even know what these 10 commandments are?  In order to get into heaven, you would need to keep ALL 10 ALL THE TIME – for your entire life – or else pay for breaking those commandments, by spending eternity in hell.  Because of how holy and righteous God is, even one lie is enough to send us to hell forever.   Jesus said if we ever hated someone, that makes us a murderer in our heart.  He also said that if we ever lusted after another person, we are an adulterer at heart. We even sin in our thoughts.  And since we will continue to sin in hell, we will never get out of hell.

 

And just what is Hell?  It is a place of eternal torment with the absence of all that is good and holy, all that is pure and righteous.  It is a place absent of all hope, peace, joy, comfort, contentment and rest.  Your mind and your conscience will be in torment for ever and ever, as you realize that your grief, despair and hopelessness will never end.  There will be no one to console you and nothing to satisfy your wants or desires.  Nothing to alleviate your pain, suffering and anxiety.  No more chances to repent and seek God’s forgiveness and mercy.  Nothing to look forward to but an eternity of God’s justice, His wrath poured out against you for your lifetime of sin, your lifetime of going your own way, your lifetime of self-focus and self-indulgence.

 

God is the Person whom heaven is for and whom heaven is all about.  And it is the God of that heaven who says unless He changes us, we are filthy rotten sinners who would hate to be around someone as holy as Him for all eternity.  God is absolutely and completely JUST.  So He must punish sin and in doing that, He must punish the sinner – and yes, that includes YOU!  There is only ONE WAY to escape the punishment for sin that God says you and I deserve.  And that is if Someone else pays for YOUR sins.  But not just anyone.  It has to be someone whom God approves of as an acceptable scapegoat for YOU.  And there was only ever ONE person, a Divine person who qualified for that role, the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

While you are still alive there is still time for you to seek the Lord, to cry out for God to have mercy on your rebellious lost soul.  If you are reading this article, there is still time for you to plead with God to grant you a full pardon for your sins, to cry out to God as one man in the Bible once did: “God be merciful to me, a sinner”.  If God poured out His wrath upon His only begotten Son – the Lord Jesus Christ – to save sinners from hell, then how shall you escape if you neglect so great a salvation and instead seek salvation in some other way to heaven or through your own self-righteousness?

 





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Smiley-Face Christianity:
The Gospel For The 21st Century

smiley face Christianity

 

Modern man wants a modern gospel, a more palatable plan of salvation, one that has a more seeker-friendly message accompanied by a happy-face delivery boy.  And such a gospel – which is no gospel at all – must adhere to certain socially acceptable guidelines to be acceptable to today’s “tolerant” generation, the generation that tolerates anything OTHER THAN biblical truth.  Here are those modern guidelines:

  • Do your best to preach without hurting anyone’s feelings.
  • You must be “doing it wrong” if you upset or offend your listeners.
  • Be sure to present your views as no more valid than anyone else’s.
  • Never tell anyone that their religion or their views about heaven are wrong.
  • You cannot preach about hell… that word must be totally avoided.
  • Do not refer to people as sinners, but simply as fallible human beings.
  • Avoid using the word sin… Call sins “mistakes” instead.
  • Never talk about damnation, only about God’s “unconditional love”.
  • Use a modern bible that has been edited to remove offensive words and doctrines.
  • If you must talk about sin, never use specific examples, just speak in general terms so that no one will think you are talking about them.
  • Never ever call homosexuality a sin.  Instead, say that God loves everyone even though the bible says homosexuality is an abomination to God [Leviticus 20:13] and even though the bible says that God hates the workers of iniquity [Psalm 5:5]

Based upon the above guidelines for modern evangelism, John The Baptist would never have been beheaded if he had not been so “intolerant” about the behavior of others.  He should have just minded his own business.  But instead he had to go out and “judge” others, making himself a “bad example” for witnessing.  The evangelist Stephen would never have been stoned to death if he had not made the Jewish religious leaders so angry by his “mean-spirited” speech about their hypocrisy and sinfulness.  And the apostle Paul would have gotten many more “converts” and a lot less flack if he had only avoided certain subjects (like the exclusiveness of salvation by Jesus Christ).  But he had to be “obnoxious” and tell people the truth.  And of course Jesus Christ destroyed so many people’s “self esteem” by constantly telling them to “go and sin no more”.  If he had only stuck to miracles and healings, he would have been much more “popular” and would never have been crucified.  In fact just about everyone would have liked him… At one point during his ministry the Jews even wanted to make him their king.  But he ended up “upsetting” too many people in high places by violating the evangelism guidelines above.  Perhaps Jesus was not familiar with “friendship” evangelism, where deeds are preferred over creeds.

 

If you are in a church that uses the “modern” approach to sharing the gospel, run from it as fast as you can and find a church that preaches the whole counsel of God and that loudly and clearly warns the lost to flee the wrath to come.

 

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