It is very popular these days for people who profess
to be Christians to say that what a particular church denomination teaches does
not really matter. Many people believe that it does not matter whether a church
is a Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist church or a community church, as long as the
church believes in Jesus Christ.
While many believe this, what does God have to say?
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach
to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be
accursed. As we have said before, so now
I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you
received, let him be accursed.
(Galatians 1:8-9).
Recently, I came face-to-face with this very situation. My experience also provoked a review of the things I long ago learned about denominational differences.
Many think that the “Gospel” that Paul talks about
involve the “basics” of the faith, and the “basics” only. Those “basics” are
the belief that God is One in Three Persons, that Jesus is the Son of God and
God the Son, that He was raised from the dead on the third day, and that
salvation can only be found through Jesus. It is certainly true that these
“basics” are very important and we must agree on them if we want to be
followers of Christ and to receive salvation (cf. 2 John 1:7-11). But the
letter to the Galatians makes it clear that the “Gospel” of which Paul speaks
is much more than the basics!
Paul’s letter to the Galatians makes it clear that
there were false teachers going around to the various churches in Galatia
teaching the Gentile Christians that they needed to be circumcised and follow
the Law of Moses (Galatians 3:3-4, 4:8-11, 5:1-5). This was the “other gospel,”
the idea that the Gentiles needed to also follow the Law of Moses. According to
Paul, those who taught these things were accursed– and those who accepted them
were cut off from the grace of God in Christ (Galatians 1:6-9, 5:1-5)!
What’s going on?
Evangelicalism is in the midst of a Calvinist revival. Increasing
numbers of church preachers and bible college professors teach the views of the
16th-century French reformer. Mark Driscoll, John Piper and Tim Keller —
megachurch preachers and important evangelical authors — are all espousing the
Calvinist interpretations of biblical doctrine. Attendance at Calvin-influenced
worship conferences and churches is up, particularly among worshipers in their
20s and 30s.
In the Southern Baptist Convention, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, the rise of Calvinism has provoked serious discord. In a 2012 poll of 1,066 Southern Baptist pastors conducted by LifeWay Research, a nonprofit group associated with the Southern Baptist Convention, 30 percent considered their churches Calvinist — while twice as many were concerned “about the impact of Calvinism.”
Okay, many will ask… “is Calvinism necessarily a bad thing?”
Calvinism is a theological orientation, not a denomination or organization. The Puritans were Calvinist. Presbyterians descend from Scottish Calvinists. Many early Baptists were Calvinist. But in the 19th century, Protestantism moved toward the non-Calvinist belief that humans must consent to their own salvation — an optimistic, quintessentially American belief. In the United States today, one large denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America, is unapologetically Calvinist.
But in the last 30 years or so, Calvinists have gained prominence in other branches of Protestantism, and at churches that used to worry little about theology.
Lately, many church leaders, preachers and theologians
have boldly asserted that a Christian cannot lose his/her salvation. In fact, many well-meaning religious folks
have built an entire theology around the assumption that it is impossible for a
Christian to fall away and lose his salvation. You’ve most likely heard the
cornerstone doctrine of Calvinism… once saved always saved.
But what if that entire theological assumption of
Calvinism is false?
Let’s examine what the Bible says about a Christian
losing his or her salvation. There are several passages which are often used as
proof-texts. But if these verses are examined, they quite definitely do not
teach the impossibility of apostasy (turning away; abandonment; revolt). Let’s consider a couple of these “once saved, always saved” proof-texts:
Romans
8:35–39 (ESV)
Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep
to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor
rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor
depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the
love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This, of course, is a beautiful passage of Scripture
and should bring much comfort to Christians. However, it simply does not say
what many attempt to make it say. Paul is talking about outside forces
separating the Christian from the love of Christ. He never once says anything
similar to the idea that Christians cannot choose to walk away from Christ. In
other words, Paul says, “No matter what anyone does to you, they cannot take
away your salvation.” It is wrong, however, to suggest Paul said a Christian
cannot forfeit his salvation if he so chooses.
John
10:27–29 (ESV)
My
sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal
life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to
snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
Again, it is a great abuse of Jesus’ words to make Him
say Christians cannot lose their salvation. In context, Jesus had told the
Pharisees multiple times that they had rejected Him because they did not know
God or His word. Those who followed Him, however, did so because they
recognized His deity. John 10 speaks to Christ’s deity, His power to save, and
(like Romans 8) the inability of outside forces to snatch a disciple from
Christ’s hand. But it certainly does not teach “once saved, always saved.”
Those are two of the passages many use to prove their
premise. But, of course, those passages say nothing of the sort. Let’s look at
a few passages of Scripture that most definitely refute the idea of “once
saved, always saved.”
John
15:5–6 (ESV)
I
am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is
that bears much fruit,
for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is
thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown
into the fire, and burned.
Those who teach “once saved, always saved,” say that
if someone lives a Christian life and then goes back into the world, that
person was never really saved to begin with. However, Jesus clearly teaches in
John 15, it is possible for someone to “not abide” in Him. The word “abide”
means to stay, continue, or remain. If I said, “Bob didn’t remain in the room,
like I told him to do.” You could know for certain that Bob was in the room at
one time.
Hebrews
3:12–13 (ESV)
Take
care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading
you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long
as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness
of sin.
Again, it is pretty hard to deny that the Hebrew
writer is addressing saved people. He begins this statement by saying, “Take care, brothers.” Obviously, we are
talking about Christians. He warns these Christians, it is possible for an
“evil, unbelieving heart” to develop in them which would cause them to “fall
away from the living God.”
Galatians
5:1–4 (ESV)
For
freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again
to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept
circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every
man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You
are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen
away from grace.
Let us take notice that Paul warns them to “not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” These were people who had been freed from a yoke of slavery, by becoming Christians. Paul warns them not to leave Christ by trying to be justified by obedience to the Old Law. He says to these Christians, if they do so, Christ will be “of no advantage” to them. There were some in those churches who were already doing this and Paul said they had been, “severed from Christ” and they had, “fallen away from grace.” How could these passages be any more clear?
Hebrews
10:26-31 (ESV)
For
if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth,
there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of
judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has
set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three
witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one
who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the
covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For
we know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord
will judge his people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God.
Obviously, the Hebrew writer was addressing those who
had received “the knowledge of the truth” (vs. 26) and had been “sanctified” by
“the blood of the covenant” (vs. 29). He said, if Christians “go on sinning
deliberately” they could expect “judgment,” “punishment,” and “vengeance.”
Please understand, this doesn’t mean a Christian must
be perfect, or else he will lose his salvation. John wrote, “But if we walk in
the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the
blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin…I am writing these things to
you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 1:7, 2:1). As long as a
Christian is doing his best to live a life that is pleasing to God (2
Corinthians 5:9) – even though he will likely continue to fall short – the
blood of Jesus will continue to wash him clean.
Please hear me, friends. Study the Scriptures to see
if these things are so (Acts 17:11).
According to God’s word, a Christian is saved so long as he walks in the
light; but if he chooses to go back into the world, he is trampling under foot
the Son of God and is throwing away the gift of salvation (see Romans 6:1-7). That, makes the concepts of Calvinism... false doctrine.
