A 5th Gospel?

A church minister from abroad once had a strong influence over the forty-plus years of being a Christian believer. Back in 1976, the pastor of a Pentecostal Church in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires, came over to visit the UK, and delivered a series of sermons at a public auditorium in Reading, not far from where I live. After the sermon was over, I sauntered to the front where he was standing, with both of us ending in a clinch of a tight hug which must have lasted for a better part of a whole minute.

His sermons had a big impact on me, especially when it comes to praising God. His church was typically Pentecostal, where informal services, free from any fixed liturgy, normally include the four phrases of worship: Praise God!, Hallelujah!, Glory be!, and Amen! Then one day he asked his own congregation what they were praising God for. Where anyone would think that his greatness and power, the source of the free gift of salvation should have been the obvious answer, instead his congregation was shocked into stunned silence. It was then that the pastor coined up the term Empty praise.

Their praises were likened to boxes with gaily-coloured wrapping, very much like unopened Christmas presents under the decorative tree. Praises are offered to God as if we are offering to him all the well-wrapped presents. Then the Lord takes each of these gifts, excitedly unwraps each one, only to find each box to be empty. Empty boxes. His insistence that our praises to God can be ritualistic without any real substance given for praising him, has struck a cord in my heart, causing me to ponder on why I'm praising God. His effect had lasted for the rest of my life. Whenever I want to praise God, I always try to reason why I'm praising him. Praising him for who he is - the Almighty, the Creator and Sustainer of all life, along with his love and mercy - the most obvious being the free three-fold gift of salvation: Justification, Imputation, and Eternal Security. But there are many more reasons: Such as the beauty found in this world, a healthy marriage to a loving wife, our daily supply of food and clothing, having a roof over our heads, a history of travel, both as a singleton and as one of a couple, and thanking the Lord to see this particular day in human history.

It looks to me that there is an overlapping link between thanksgiving and praise, even though praise for what it is actually means to exalt God for who he is. It is difficult to praise someone who is a spirit: invisible, inaudible, and untouchable. So, as Paul wrote to the Romans, that the invisible qualities of God, his eternal power and divine glory, are seen in his Creation (Romans 1:20). Little wonder whenever I gaze upon something naturally spectacular - like a powerful waterfall, the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef, or for that matter the stars in the night sky, or admiring trees, whether its the Traveller's Palm trees of Singapore, the Mangroves of Queensland or the sturdy English Oak, I can't help but magnify the goodness of God as Creator in my heart. Hence a gift of praise offered to God which is actually worth opening.

Travellers Palm - I saw plenty in Singapore

But praising God was not the only topic this pastor was delivering. He was also the same man who coined up the term The Fifth Gospel. That is, we as Christians tend to favour parts of the Bible which is favourable, and leaving out the less favourable. Rather like a child licking off the jam and then handing back the bread. The Gospel of Offers versus the Gospel of Demands. Basically, the Fifth Gospel is man-centred, in opposition of a far less popular God-centred demands. Maybe looking at these Scriptures may enlighten such statements this Argentinian pastor has made.

We have this verse, found in Matthew 11:28:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28 may be called a verse of the Fifth Gospel, according to the pastor. It is a popular verse found quoted by itself in text books or preached from the pulpit. However, the very next verse may not be held so highly, because here the Lord is asking for something:

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me...

A yoke is a wooden bar strapped across the necks of two oxen for the purpose of pulling a cart in unison. What the Lord Jesus is really offering is a lighter yoke in exchange for the heavy yoke in trying to keep the Law of Moses. But even the offer of a light yoke is not seen as part of the Fifth Gospel. 

A more striking example is found in Luke 12:32 - 

Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.

What a lovely example of a verse from the Fifth Gospel - the offering of the kingdom from the Father in Heaven. But then the Lord takes a very different direction in the very next verse, one of demand and certainly not part of the Fifth Gospel:

Sell your possessions and give to the poor.

Ah, not quite so nice after all! This voluntary impoverishing approved by the Lord has been the cause of my envy towards the homeless back in the 1970's, particularly in London, due to a false belief that by the state they were in, they were closer to God than the average citizen such as myself. He doesn't even stop there. Soon after conversion towards the end of 1972, I was drawn to this verse: Luke 14:33, which reads:

In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

In the forty-plus years of being a Christian, I don't think I have ever heard this verse preached from the pulpit. Far from being an example taken from the Fifth Gospel, I once read that this particular verse is the most unpopular verse in the entire Bible. Of all statements Jesus has uttered, this one must be the most demanding. What does it mean, forsaking all that he has, as the KJV puts it? Comparing this verse along with others of the same topic, Jesus does seem to indicate that selling our possessions to the poor in order to qualify for discipleship was part of his mainstream teaching. To the extent that Peter gasped at such a statement and asks:

Who then can be saved?

In which Jesus replies:

With man that's impossible, but with God all things are possible - Matthew 19:26, Luke 18:27.

Those finalising words - "With man that's impossible but with God all things are possible" - has lifted a yoke so heavy that it was practically impossible for me to bear, especially during the early years after conversion. And such an impossible yoke was placed around my neck by a cult group using false teaching aimed mostly at hippies and the desolate roaming around the streets of the city. With very little to give, what they had was easy for them to turn over to this particular group, which in return gave them a sense of belonging, together with a special favour with God. Really, it was nothing short of salvation by works, and as one as myself struggling in those days between Roman Catholicism and the free gift of salvation, all this was just an additional burden. However, these conclusive words from the Lord's mouth has changed the perception of everything. To make a choice to sell everything he has to give to the poor is impossible for a believer to undertake in his own strength, unless the grace of God works in the person's heart in such a way to bring him to the decision to voluntarily impoverish himself for the sake of the Kingdom. Even then, such a decision is the result of salvation, and not to merit it.

But the contrast of attitude towards which is part of the Fifth Gospel to what is not, could not be more apparent than the key verse which defines our church. the verse referred to is John 10:10, which reads

The thief comes only to kill and to steal and to destroy. I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full. It is John 10:10 which was chosen to be the church's catchphrase, and not, for example, Luke 14:33.

I'm not at all surprised that this verse, which could be considered as one from the Fifth Gospel, has become the catchphrase for our fellowship in Ascot. But such an offer by God through faith in Jesus, is necessary to attract the crowds. So such occurred during his ministry. Crowds gathered to hear the teachings of Jesus, to be healed by him, and to be fed supernaturally. They were indeed "lost sheep without a shepherd" as he expresses it. Then he suddenly turns around to this same crowd following him and utters strong words such as leaving father and mother, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, sons and daughters, along with everything he has, and even his own life as well, if anyone wants to follow him seriously. Impossible?

But actually, what he was doing was showing the truth of the First Commandment given by God through Moses to Israel:

You shall have no other gods before me - Exodus 20:3.

If this is true, then the forsaking of father, mother, brothers, sisters, children, his wealth, and even of his own life for God's glory falls within the realm of keeping the Law of Moses perfectly. According to the Law, my love for God must exceed everything else in my life. If I don't measure up to this standard, then I'm in serious trouble and in need of a Saviour. And that is the whole point of the first three Gospels, often referred as the Synoptic Gospels. Their main purpose was to demonstrate the true purpose of God's Law, how the Law is meant to be fulfilled, and how every person ever born falls short of such perfect keeping and in danger of Judgement. Just as the Synoptic Gospels shows up our sins, our weaknesses, and our shortcomings, so the Gospel of John reveals the solution to a universal problem.

The commandment of God is an impossible yoke to bear. As Peter gasped, "Who then can be saved?" The correct answer is that left alone to human devices, it is impossible to be saved. Each and everyone of us stands condemned!

That is why the teachings of Jesus contains many offers and promises, most of them found in the Gospel of John, but also found scattered across all four Gospels. These offers Jesus makes to the crowds are not from the Fifth Gospel, as such a "gospel" does not exist. Instead they all are from the true Gospel of salvation by free grace given to everyone who believes.

Experience has taught me, over the years, that such "wisdom" including that which was delivered by the Argentinian pastor simply plays upon semantics, and can be dangerous, even if the speaker meant well. I am aware that he would like to see churches, including his own, take on a more devout commitment towards God, including holding a deeper and more sincere meaning to praising God, but to tamper with the free grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, is the highway to damnable heresy and will bring down the curse of God, according to Paul's entire letter to the Galatians.  

Road Rage & Balloons

Do you ever feel that life as a Christian believer is a bit like a roller-coaster? Like the time, quite recently, a friend and I spent the day at Thorpe Park near the English town of Chertsey. Not unlike Disneyland or any other theme parks across the world, this fun attraction features rides where we climbed into a roofless car, then hear it go clunk-clunk-clunk up a slope, until there was quite a panorama of the entire park, along with surrounding countryside below us, as we watch the bend approach, looking almost exactly like a dead end - a rail track leading up to the sky and suddenly ending nowhere. Then as the car reaches the apex, the clunking ends and the car suddenly gathers speed as it shoots down the first slope.

 

Or in blowing up a toy balloon. With eyes shut, I push short breaths into the expanding skin, when suddenly - POP! The large spheroid vanishes instantly as a rupture breaches the thin rubber, leaving a small split residue which now makes a funny noise when I blow into it. That's why to this day I get nervous whenever I see someone blowing up a balloon, say for celebrating Christmas or someone's birthday.

 My experience in the Christian faith seems to resemble these two illustrations: A time of spiritual ecstasy, when I feel close to God and in union with him, followed by times of feeling low and all alone. As one who grew up in the Catholic faith before conversion towards the end of 1972, I must admit, to this day, I'm not totally free. Neither am I unique. Abraham, for one, had his struggles. Failing to believe God's promise that he would have a son out of his wife Sarah, he thought of helping a dilatory Jehovah by giving in to his wife's demands by fathering a child from Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian maidservant. But even before this, he twice lied to foreign kings that Sarah was just his sister, to preserve his own life, forgetting the promise God gave that he would father a nation which will bring a blessing to every family on earth. And who can forget the suffering Job went through, when he thought that God was playing some cruel game with him?

Although I admit, those two are hoary with age, I have no doubt that many of us believers have very similar problems with believing, right up to this day. For example, I wonder if you too ponder whether God really loves you, and has accepted you as without sin us Jesus Christ himself. This is a very difficult concept to swallow, for I am aware how holy and pure God is, and how I fall short of this standard everyday of my life. Then there are a number of warnings found in the New Testament indicating what looks like being in spiritual danger in my standing with God if don't measure up efficiently. And so, over the centuries, as believers find it more difficult to reconcile justification by faith with their sinful natures still lurking within, new doctrines were suggested, absorbed into the faith, then developing into new laws which must be believed and acted upon in order to receive salvation. In short, where Heaven was originally opened by the atonement Jesus made on the cross, it eventually became accessible only through a lifetime of ritual, customs and good works.

For an example, the Catholic Church throughout the Middle Ages used the presence of our sinful natures to suggest the idea of Purgatory, a temporary Hell where the soul of the believer goes after death to be purged of any venial sins remaining. This idea became church law, and must be believed by all, and acted upon in order to be saved. Thus, by playing on the terrors of the ordinary people, the Church became rich from payments made for the clergy to pray them out of Purgatory. Not forgetting too, that if both believer and unbeliever dies in mortal sin, then its eternal Hell, with no hope of release.

So as the centuries transpired, the efficiency of the Atonement Jesus made on the cross became less and less effective, until it came to the point where the Catholic believer, even helped with God's grace, had to work his own way to Heaven. The result of when Church and State merge, as was the case with Roman Emperor Constantine in the fourth Century, had resulted in a society riddled with corruption. Only this weekend, while reading an article in the newspaper analysing the coming World Cup in Brazil, I came across these words:

Last year alone, 6,000 people "disappeared" in Rio, and many are believed to have been murdered by police or their gangland enemies. Meanwhile, violent crime remains a terrifying daily occurrence, and Brazil's murder rate is one of the highest in the world.*

And isn't it over the city of Rio that the giant statue of Jesus Christ has his arms raised in blessing and protecting the city? Then again, if the Jesus Christ of Roman Catholicism has a heart of stone, well portrayed by the statue, then little wonder that the hearts of the people in Rio, and Brazil in general, are just as stony towards each other, most likely the love of money in connection with the high murder rate.

 

 

Then the Reformation came along. Martin Luther and his associates tried to reform his own Catholic church with the truth of Justification by Faith, gotten by browsing the first chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans and coming across verse 17 - The just shall live by faith. Then John Calvin came along with the idea of eternal security of the believer, gotten from John chapter ten and Romans chapter eight, and other verses elsewhere. Some years later, Dutch theologian James Arminius challenged John Calvin over the issue of eternal security of the believer, and his ideas became hugely popular among many Protestant churches, most likely remaining unaware that Arminius' ideas were a reversal towards Roman Catholicism, even though the majority of these churches denounced Romanism as the Whore of Babylon of Revelation 17. So the years go by with many churches and individual Christians believing that unless one holds faithful, and constantly sticks close to Jesus, there is that danger of a lost eternity in Hell, along with allowing unconfessed sins to pile up until salvation is lost, even though nobody knows just where this line is crossed, neither Catholics or Arminians.

In this train of thought, I wonder whether I love God for who he is, a God of love, grace and mercy, who sent his Son to atone for my sins by physically suffering, and then dying nailed to a wooden cross, and rising from the dead three days later - or living a life of fear of a god (small g) who is constantly monitoring my performance as a believer to see whether I am worthy enough to enter Heaven after death. I know at least two people at Ascot Life Church who holds to this point of view, and I how found them to be always serious, hardly ever smiling, prone to be judgemental, and to put it bluntly, quite uncomfortable to have around! They are the sort of  people whom in their presence, I have to mind my Ps & Qs and wish, at least with one of them, that my prayer life matches his.

Yet that's the case with million across the Western world, where Christianity is either a State religion, as the case of European nations, as well as Latin and South America, or holds sway as in the case of the USA. It looks to me that the majority don't believe in eternal security of the believer, and in mainland Europe as a whole, this idea is virtually unknown. Yet it seems such a paradox in a way, that among such nations where Catholicism holds such power, it is extremely difficult to find anyone who is devoted to Jesus Christ with the understanding that faith in him alone brings eternal life through means of a re-birth of the spirit. Instead both Catholics and Arminians (along with Jehovah's Witness, Mormons, Unitarian, Church of Christ, and other splinter groups) insist that from the moment of conversion, only the past sins were forgiven, leaving a blank slate where the believer must hold out faithful and prevent any unconfessed sins piling up in order to be saved.

Yet only last week I was pondering on a verse of Scripture which I quoted in my last blog:
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
James 2:10.

This is a serious case to ponder on! Paul also endorses this by quoting Deuteronomy 27:26, which reads:
Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.
Galatians 3:10.

The reality of these two verses are an indication of the utter impossibility for a believer to "stay saved" if only his past sins were forgiven. If God through Christ has forgiven only the believer's past sins, then there will not be a single believer in Heaven! In fact, absolutely everyone will end up in eternal Hell, including Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Solomon, all the prophets, along with Peter and the other apostles, Paul himself, and all the churches - languishing in Hell for all eternity - if God forgives only the believer's past sins at the moment of conversion, as so many teach. And here is where the real danger of diabolical heresy lies: The teaching of only past sins forgiven with the believer's conversion has made the cleansing power of the Crucifixion totally ineffective. To put it another way, Jesus Christ's mission on earth two thousand years ago was a total failure!

Rather, I thank and praise the Lord for forgiving all my sins at conversion - past, present and future, and on top of this, having received God's own righteousness into my account. After all, if only my past sins were forgiven, then imagine my frustration when someone blocks my path while cycling - and the offender, instead of looking where he's going, he buries his scowling face towards a tablet, as he is busy texting. My resulting ire and impatience would make me a lawbreaker - and bound for Hell. And talking of motoring, according to my observations, the steering wheel is the hotbed for foul tempers and anger towards other drivers not flowing with the traffic smoothly, to the extent that the words Road Rage are now accepted in the English dictionary. A believer with just his past sins forgiven wouldn't stand a chance! Christ's atonement would be entirely powerless to save.

Hence, when reading of warnings for believers found in the New Testament, little wonder that my spiritual life is like a roller-coaster ride or a balloon bursting during inflating. This is due to my immaturity, and not any contradictions in the Bible. As believers, we have received full acquittal from all our sins, and received a righteousness from God which, because of its divine origin, cannot be undone. But the covenant between the believer's heart and God cannot be seen by other men. Hence warnings to the believer to be worthy of his calling in the sight of all men, to make his calling sure in their sight. After all, it was Jesus himself who instructed to let my light shine so other people can glorify my Father, and they too, can be saved. (Matthew 5:14-16.)

Seeing someone turning to Christ and being saved? Now that is a good reason to release balloons into the air.

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* Dominic Sanbrook, The Daily Mail, Saturday June 7th, 2014. Page 17.

Come Unto Me...

This has been quite a week. Last weekend Alex and I went to see the movie Noah, and since then I have given a lot of thought throughout the working week. But it was the Biblical Noah which stuck on my mind, not the Darren Aronofsky's version which has populated cinemas across the UK. But the Scriptural account which drew much of my attention was the drunkenness which followed sometime after the Flood. We as Christian believers tend to frown at such behaviour, tut-tutting with either a threat of losing salvation and facing the prospect of Hell after death, or proving that one was not really saved after all, and that despite the devotion shown to God and the church over the years. In other words, whether you believe in Probational Salvation or Once Saved Always Saved, it is impossible to imagine a believer in such a state without involving the issue of sin.

 

But by taking a closer look on the lifespan of Noah, (i.e. the Biblical version) it is not difficult to read that for the first six hundred years of his life he had supportive family members. For a start, he had his good old grandpa, Methuselah, who died just a week before the fountains of the deep burst open. Just five years before that, his dad Lamech died. But he had his wife and his three sons, and their wives. Then his mother and grandmother - were they still alive when the Flood was ushered in? Probably not, for it looks likely that by God's grace, they were laid to rest some time earlier. But the parents of the sons' three wives were most likely still alive, along with their brothers and sisters. Then not forgetting Noah himself had brothers and sisters from his parents, and aunts and uncles from his grandfather Methuselah. For all this, just read the fifth chapter of Genesis, where we assured that Noah was by no means all alone before the Flood as one might first suspect.

 

However, Noah was by no means the first to know of the coming Deluge. Rather, God had already revealed this to his great-grandfather Enoch, who in turn named his eldest son "Methuselah," meaning When I die the waters will arrive. So Enoch knew of the future catastrophe, obviously Methuselah did too, and of course, so did Lamech, Noah's father. Yet all of them had "other sons and daughters." Enoch was a father of many, his son also, so was Lamech, by seeing how old his father was becoming, yet had other sons and daughters who would all drown in the deluge. Odd, I would have thought. So with all those relatives - the numbers unknown but they seemed many - only eight finally made it into the Ark and were saved.

 

This led me to conclude one of two ideas, or both may apply to a certain extent. One was that all family members loved Noah as one of their own, but believed him to be rather delirious, or a bit of a nutter, and very eccentric with the revelation of the forthcoming catastrophe. They looked with wonder and stunned unbelief as the Ark was under construction. The other idea was that they had followed the way of Cain's descendants, and therefore turned hateful and violent, even among themselves. Which ever way, I can't be sure, but the fact of Noah's drunkenness seemed to have indicated the former attitude. They loved him, and proper support was given to him by his parents and grandparents.

 

And according to 2 Peter 2:5, Noah was a "preacher of righteousness." The Greek word used for "preacher" in this verse was keruka, a herald, which seems to indicate that during the building of the Ark, Noah was warning the antediluvian world that the Flood was on its way, and this was enforced by the ageing of Methuselah, and if anyone wants to be saved, he must enter the Ark with him and his family in order to be spared. This was a matter of believing. The Ark might have been ready for use sometime before the Flood, maybe by weeks or even months. The vessel was open to anyone. Any family, either from the line of Seth or of Cain, could have gone in. But this required faith, the believing in the coming judgement was necessary, and such faith acted upon. Noah's answer for the cry, "What must I do to be saved?" would have been, "Believe in the revelation of the coming Flood and enter the Ark, then you shall be saved, you and your house." (Acts 16:30-31.)

 

Noah would have welcomed anyone who had faith. This is the proper meaning of repentance. A change of mind from unbelief to believing. The same is true at present. God has already reconciled the world to himself through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. A change of mind from unbelief to believing is all that's required for salvation. Once having believed, he is safe in Christ and no threat of eternal death awaits him, just as anyone inside the Ark cannot be touched by the waters of the Flood. That is the wonderful thing about the Gospel. Just as the structure of the Ark was strong enough to protect all those inside, so Christ, who is even stronger, is able to protect us and keep us safe as well, for God is a strong tower where all the righteous run into, and they are safe. The enemy forces cannot touch them.

 

Yet it is an unfortunate reality that the common belief among Christians is that our lives must be blameless and without sin, regardless of the circumstance, or either he is in danger of losing his salvation, or mere proof that he was never saved in the first place. Both are nonsense! If you are a believer in the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, then you are eternally safe in him, just as all those in the Ark were safe from the deluge outside. Later, long after the waters had receded, the narration states that after planting a vineyard, Noah drank of the wine (fermented grape juice) and became drunk. It is worth looking at his set of circumstances that brought this on him.

 

For the first six hundred years of his life, Noah had support from his family, perhaps including his wider family of brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, and maybe the brothers and sisters of his three daughters-in-law, along with their parents and wider family. It was certainly a crowd, and despite the evil and raw wickedness and violence among the descendants of Cain, it was likely that Noah was loved. But instead of believing his message, they probably thought that Noah was crazy, and no flood will occur. After all, no rain had ever fallen in the last 1,600 years or so since Creation. So why should it rain now? So although he was in the midst of Methuselah's wider family, shortly before the Deluge, none of them believed the revelation except Noah, his grandfather, his wife and his three sons and their wives. With the death of Methuselah, there were just eight believers among Seth's family line altogether, and no believer at all from Cain's descendants, which by then, most likely would have numbered into the billions in world population.

 

What crushing loneliness Noah must have suffered, perhaps while still in the floating Ark. Like with many Christians today, it would not have been unnatural for depression to have set in. Such emotion was likely present even when Noah offered a sacrifice on a makeshift altar after disembarkation. Noah's first grandson, Canaan, was born from Ham's seed maybe even during, or shortly after, the flood. It was during this time when sons and daughters were soon to be born to all of his three sons, but none of this soothed his depression. It must have been a few years later, when Canaan was growing up, when Noah fell into a drunken stupor, and probably, while the rest of the family were out and about, young Canaan sexually molested him, while his father called his two brothers, Shem and Japheth, to his attention, and the two sons of Noah acted appropriately in honouring their drunken father.

 

Noah woke up, and found out about his grandson's misdeed. He cursed Canaan, taking away the birthright and the Messianic lineage from Canaan and giving both of these to his uncle Shem, to be passed down through Arphaxad, one of Shem's sons and Canaan's younger cousin. So we see a righteous man lying in his tent, drunk out of his mind, perhaps mistaking Canaan's assault for his wife's endearments. Yet no one, as far as I know of, had ever condemned this man to Hell for such a misdeed, on the contrary, he is included in the faith hall of fame in Hebrews 11:7.

In the last forty years as a believer myself, I have not come across any other Christian in a state of drunkenness. As for myself, I have hardly ever allowed myself to become intoxicated, although I am not a teetotaller, I like a tipple on certain occasions. Christians, especially advocates of Probational Salvation, tend to quote 1 Corinthians 6:10 - ...nor drunkards...shall inherit the Kingdom of God. And whether verbally or by writing, such a quote is usually wrapped in a judgemental attitude. This to me, does not present a pleasant atmosphere, nor emphasise the love of God, especially to someone who is depressed. And here is the irony, by the looks of it. If an intoxicated unbeliever was to stagger into a group of Christians, chances are that he would be lovingly approached and counselled to receive Jesus as Saviour. But if an established believer with one too many is seen staggering around, he would most likely be reprimanded and quite possibly be questioned whether he is saved. It would have been interesting if a typical group of church-goers were transported back in time to witness Noah in such a state. How would they have re-acted?

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:12:
Everything is permissible for me - but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me - but I will not be mastered by anything.

In other words he did not allow "horrible religious restrictions" get in the way in his walk with God.  If he wanted a alcoholic drink, he did not allow himself to be judged by the Law, nor allowed anyone to condemn him or to pass judgement. But if he did not see anything beneficial in alcohol consumption, then he refrained rather than risk dishonouring Jesus Christ, whom he so fervently loved. Paul's mission was to expound the love of God to a helpless, sinful world, yet at the same time warn of the coming judgement. Since mercy had triumphed over judgement, his emphasis was to exhort people to repent, to change their minds and embrace the risen Jesus.

But to portray God in a punitive manner is a big turn off from conversion, and from the faith altogether. While this blog was written, I had a chance to watch a short movie about two black teenagers in South London who wanted to band together to produce their own Rap music. Ah, Rap! Not very church-like with its traditional hymns and spiritual songs, and already some Christians would be tut-tutting over such an idea. So did the mother of one of the lads, who was a devout believer. At the dining table she delivered Christ's disapproval of his project in front of his siblings. The look on the adolescence's face was so thunderous, that it would not be any different had a husband received news of his nagging mother-in-law's sudden and unexpected arrival.

The vast majority of the unbelieving world perceives God in exactly the same way. Punitive, picky, constantly watching our performance, very much like how Santa is portrayed to children - that he only gives presents to good children for Christmas, while ignoring naughty children. It would be enough for the child to angrily respond that Santa can keep his presents! Isn't that familiar? Let's face it, if God was portrayed in the true character of love instead of the punitive personality he is often portrayed, then there wouldn't be so many influential atheists such as Bertrand Russell, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and others who had swayed the public general thinking by their theories. I personally think that Christians who advocate Probational Salvation (known better as Arminians) have done enormous damage to the minds of many. And I dare say that the doctrine of Lordship Salvation had always been equally damaging. But even among those who believe in Once Saved Always Saved, or Eternal Security, are not let off the hook either. If they see a depressed saint on the bottle for instance, they would poo-poo with the idea that perhaps he wasn't saved after all. What psychological damage such thinking could bring.

Jesus always preached a message on love. Just a short while before his crucifixion, he stood on the Temple porches and cried out to the blustering crowd during the Feast of Tabernacles:

If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Who ever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. John 7:37.

Earlier he also said,
Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30.

One particular day, Jesus found himself sitting opposite a Samaritan woman at a well. Feeling thirsty, and having no vessel of his own to draw, he asked the woman if she would draw for him as well. It was a simple request any person with a small amount of decency would have happily obliged. But instead, she looked at him with a startled expression and asked,
"Who are you, a Jew, to ask of water from me, a Samaritan, a woman at that, and the lowest of the low?"
In other words, You Jews have always been judgemental and punitive pigs towards us for centuries past. Are you expecting me to show you kindness now? (See John 4.)

The woman had a point. Despite her previous five husbands, none of whom she was able to keep an ongoing healthy relationship, she was looked down upon and condemned by the Jews, who believed that they alone held the oracles of God, and kept his laws. Really, it wasn't too different from the attitude of many Christians today. But Jesus loved her as she was and she could see it. His exposure of her past life was not to condemn, nor even to convict, but to demonstrate to her that he was the Christ. When she believed, she went out, deliberately leaving the water jug behind so he could have a drink, and encouraged others to come and hear him. Such was the wonderful display of love.

Jesus said, "Come to me." To this day, his plea to everyone is, "Come to me, and live."
If only those who stood at the Ark in unbelief heeded the message of Noah, who would have said the same thing:
Come to me and live, you with your wife and children. Who knows. Their distant descendants might well have been with us to this day. It only needed faith in God's love.
 

On Probation - Love or Fear?

In preparation of this blog I have been reading the contribution of other bloggers, both on this site and on other websites, and I always feel down whenever someone writes articles opposing Once Saved Always Saved. Now I don't write my stuff with the aim of converting - that's something only God can do, but with the aim of edification.

 

Edification - from the Italian word edificio,  a noun meaning a building, of whatever purpose it serves, whether it serves as a residence, office, factory, church, hospital, or any other purpose, it has first to be constructed. It is this construction of the building which the Bible borrows as a term to build up Christian faith. To build is to bring something to existence which wasn't there before, and usually slowly, brick by brick. The construction can take weeks, months or even years. Then the very opposite of to build is to demolish. To demolish is to wipe out of existence a structure that was there before. And usually, to demolish a building takes much quicker than to build, especially at present, when dynamite can bring a building down in a matter of seconds. That is how my joy in the faith can be so quickly demolished when reading articles denying Once Saved Always Saved as unbiblical, even soul-damning heresy.

 

This teaching that we can lose our salvation if we sin severely or turn from the faith is normally known as Arminianism, after the 16th Century theologian James Arminius, who read the works of a Roman Catholic Jesuit monk, Luis de Molina, accepted them into his own beliefs, and then later embraced by many non-Catholic churches, particularly Methodists. With me, I now prefer to call this teaching Probational Salvation. Don't attempt to Google this term, it was I who coined it up. It was thought up after comparing it with the experience a candidate usually goes through when applying for a career at a particular company. He is given between one to three months of probation. During this period, the potential employer monitors and analyses his performance. If, after this period expires, the employer is satisfied, the candidate gets to keep his job. Otherwise he faces dismissal.

I recall the first three jobs I applied for, two as early as 1967, when I was still at school. The very first one was the morning paper round. After watching classmates earning a considerable amount of pocket money, I thought - why not? So I was given a week's trial. So each day I got up early in the morning, entered the town's newsagent, and started with the "office bit" - assigning each but a different newspaper to every address which the round would cover. Sure enough, complaints from customers receiving the wrong newspaper began to be fed back to the manager. When I returned to the shop at the end of the Friday round, I was paid 14/- (fourteen shillings) - a full week's pay equivalent to today's £0.70 pence - and given my marching orders.

14/- was a fair pay for the mid sixties. With it, to compensate for my disappointment in failing the week's probation, I took a train to Reading for the day. It was only a short run - 11 miles - but for me it was the other side of the world. And it might well have been. This short trip was the first of my travel career which would take me indeed to the other side of the world - in Sydney Australia, with a host of very interesting places in between. Back to my schooldays, my next part-time job, at a town centre supermarket, also ended in failure before the probation was fulfilled. Then in 1968, immediately after leaving school, my first full time job as an apprentice electrician ended just two weeks into a month probation. Then at last, a post at a furniture factory lasted for a full five years, within that time I was transformed into a man and a believer in Jesus Christ.

The Furniture factory where I worked between 1968 and 1973.

So probation is an experience I'm fully acquainted with, allowing me to see a strong similarity between this and Probational Salvation. For example, during those different weeks of probation, did I really love the boss with a desire to serve wholeheartedly - and in the full knowledge that I will be secure in my job, no matter how many times I screw up? Or did I fear dismissal, so ensuring that all my best efforts were there? Were all my efforts to please the result of my employer taking me off the streets and guaranteeing a permanent post with a good income and promotion a little later on? Or were they an attempt to ensure that I stayed off the streets? These two motives behind my efforts reflected how I felt for my employer. One was love, serving with gratitude, the other was out of fear of dismissal, with no income to follow. The one motive was out of love, with the employer's interest at heart. The other from fear, with his own interests at heart.

And that is what I see in the faith of many who don't believe in Eternal Security. There is even a verse quoted:
Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12). This verse was used as the text for the main evening preach at the 1994 Spring Harvest Bible Festival, denouncing Once Saved Always Saved, a sermon which resulted in a near-riot among the audience, and the dismissal of the speaker from the festival. And I read over and over again this verse quoted as proof that one is not eternally secure. Yet in the very next verse, it says:
For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. (v.13)
What good purpose was Paul referring to?
The good purpose was that they shone as bright stars in the unbelieving world, as verses 14-18 so clearly demonstrates. Their working out their salvation (note: not for their salvation) was in fear that the glory of Christ would be of non-effect due to the way they lived. The whole letter is about the glory of the risen Christ, and the only hope for the world was to see this glory in their lives. It had nothing to do with Hellfire! This Hellfire threat was added in much later by the Probationists.

Another set of "proof texts" used by Probationists are found in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. I have seen the glint of satisfaction in the eye of those who thought they had won the argument, and even a hint of a smirk. These two chapters were about the risen Lord addressing seven specific churches located in the Galatian area of western Turkey. However, in the first chapter, John, who wrote the book, had recorded a vision he had of the risen Lord. In it, he was holding a Jewish Menorah with seven lighted candles. John was then told that each of these seven candles was the church he was about to address. The general message was unless each of these churches relied on divine life, the light would eventually be extinguished. This was most likely caused by dwindling membership numbers until the group was no more.

But he also reminded each of the seven churches that he who overcomes - shall be rewarded in one way or another, or shall not be hurt by the second death, nor have his name blotted out from the Book of Life. Here are some verses delivered to all seven churches:

He who overcomes, I will give the right to the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Revelation 2:7.
He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death. 2:11.
He who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna...and a white stone. 2:17
He who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations...and also the morning star. 2:26,28.
He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot his name out of the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before the Father and his angels. 3:5
Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. 3:12
To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. 3:21.

Probationists gleefully uses all these verses as bona-fide proof that the threat of loss of salvation constantly hangs over the believer's head, therefore inducing fear. But take another look at the quoted Scriptures above. Nowhere does it say:
But he who fails to overcome will be dismissed from my presence to suffer a lost eternity in Hellfire.

Yet, to them, they do seem at first to indicate a conditional salvation depending on the believer's faithfulness and his ability to overcome what looks to be a temptation into worldliness. The whole theme runs smoothly until it hits a problem right at the end of the narration, at 3:21 where Jesus said that he too overcame and is now sitting on his Father's throne. Now I wonder, supposing Jesus had failed to overcome? Yes, what would have happened to him then?

We as believers have already become overcomers, not by our own efforts, but entirely by Jesus' efforts. In 1 John 5:4-5, he wrote:
For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory which has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it who overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

And this was most likely the same author as the writer of Revelation. And John emphasises that everyone born of God overcomes the world, not just some with a strong willpower. And furthermore, there is even a stronger word than overcome. It is conqueror, to conquer. One who overcomes is one who defeats a problem or adversity in his own life, including his lure into worldliness. But a conqueror takes over an enemy territory and rules over the indigenous population. Yet Paul, in Romans 8:37 wrote that we (as believers) are more than conquerors through him who loved us. In other words, not only are we overcomers, but above conquerors too. Through him who loved us.

With these Scripture verses I get a picture of Jesus laying a path for us to Heaven. But a mountain blocks the way. So what does he do? Climb the mountain? No, it has a sheer cliff all around, making it impossible to climb. So he blasts a tunnel through the mountain. When the tunnel opens out on the other side, all we do is walk through. There is no need for further blasting. The job is already accomplished. So why did the Holy Spirit inspire John to write about overcoming if we as believers are already overcomers, according to his own word?

Could it be that Jesus was addressing each of the seven churches corporately? That is, individual members come and go, as with all churches at present. In a typical church, although the majority of members are true believers, non-believers can find a niche and fit in. History has shown that non-believers could outnumber believers, and that is true particularly within leadership. I read from several sources* that in America, some of the larger Methodist churches acquired liberal leaders, often known as modernists, which enticed the congregation away from the historicity of the Bible - such as denying the truth of the virgin birth, the power of the Atonement, and the physical Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Bible itself was seen as a book of fables which contained a moral truth, rather than being the inspired Word of God. Darwinian evolution was taught in place of divine Creation, and there was even one case where it was taught in all seriousness, that Jesus was an illegitimate son of a Roman soldier and prostitute Mary. Then, together with the rise of Roman Catholicism in the fourth Century A.D. we wonder why the risen Lord warns each of the seven churches that only those who overcome (true believers) shall receive the benefits of salvation.

Then I try to look at the Probationist's point of view from a psychological angle. One way I did this was to compare my relationship to God to married life. I think it's important to realise that this is not a chicken-or-egg case. The Bible did not use marriage as an analogy between Jesus Christ and his Church as Bride. Rather, in his omniscience, God the Father had already thought about a bride for his Son from eternity past, and in Creation arranged for a man to be married to his wife as a reflection of this. This could be the reason why laws against adultery applies to us humans while nothing of the kind exist in the animal kingdom.

I love my wife dearly, unconditionally. In the past I have wondered what the outcome would have been if she was caught in her unfaithfulness. But I have decided that I will love her just the same. And this ability is not my own, it is from God, who gives me grace and strength every day. But it is, and will always be, extremely unlikely that she would commit such an act. Why? Because of her love, adoration and devotion to me as her husband. Because of her love to me, nothing outside is of any interest to her. I think this was enforced by her illness, her inability to walk. It gave me the opportunity to lavish my affections which sealed our marriage for life.

And this highlights the major problem which occurs in probational salvation. God is seen as a strict, moral perfectionist who is constantly monitoring the believer's performance, and threatening separation and eternity in a fiery furnace if the believer does not measure up. Now try to imagine how a wife would feel if her husband was to act that way. Personally, I can't see the marriage lasting, and it would not be long before the wife is found in the arms of another man, maybe a smooth-talking colleague in the office. I guess I would feel the same where God is concerned. I would not have any love for the tyrant. Fear, yes - even terror. But certainly not love. And my performance would be self-centred rather than in God's interests, mainly as a means to escape Hell. No, I would not want to serve that kind of god (small 'g') and I would not even be sure if I wanted to be in his presence in his kingdom forever.

And so stories abound with apostasy among church members, the rise in atheism, Darwinism as scientific fact, the rise in adultery and the divorce rate, and the reports of domestic violence. Bullying husbands are often perceived as a reflection of a tyrant in the sky who is constantly monitoring their performance. One story I can relate is about an expletive-exploding builder who was a regular visitor to the sauna. Always a life of the party, I felt intimidated in his presence. One day however, when we were alone together, I asked him what he thought of Jesus Christ. Immediately he exploded into anger with his explanation of his Roman Catholic upbringing. I could understand his anger perfectly as a former Catholic myself. I too can recall an extremely maddening situation of one mortal sin committed resulting in a lost eternity in Hell. A fickle God impossible to please. He was the one case of a vast majority who shuns anything spiritual. A fearful perspective of God does not create crowds of true converts.

Once Saved Always Saved means everything to me. It enables me to keeping trust in God during averse situations, and enables me to thank God for his goodness especially when the chips are down. It has been a great morale-booster when facing various challenges life throws at us. Most important, Once Saved Always Saved has been the bedrock of a strong, happy marriage, no matter what Hell tries to throw at us.

Jesus had already blasted a tunnel through the mountain. So there is no need for me to pick at the rock face.

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* Dr. John R. Rice; False Doctrines Answered from the Scriptures, Sword of the Lord Publishers.
Tim LaHaye; The Beginning of the End, Tyndale.