Great read. Over the years of my faith life, I have attended 6 different denominations of churches. The differences on the finer points of doctrine never bothered me as long as Christ was proclaimed, and the Bible was preached. When I began to study theology more deeply later in life (primarily at Ligonier), I came to appreciate the friction between denominations as credible. The reason I landed with the Presbyterians was their way of dealing with that dissonance. The theme of this article is a part of their confession.
In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity
God PROVIDES every human being with EVERYTHING they need, INCLUDING FAITH, but every human being still MUST independently CHOOSE for themself, eternal Life or Death.
The problem comes with WHAT the Arminian's are presenting as "Salvation". True salvation is the rebirth that GOD gives. They are NOT stating that WE cannot "Claim" it. God has to BESTOW it. They are claiming that one who Christ died for can be taken from Him, when scripture CLEARLY states that none of His TRUE CHILDREN can be snatched away. They present satan as having some kind of sovereignty of his own, when truthfully he has none. He has to get permission from God, only if it is God's purpose and will. God would have to allow someone to lose salvation, and allow Satan to overturn it. God would NEVER die to let Satan overturn His Elect's salvation. If so, they were NEVER saved, just a "Measure" of faith, common grace. The salvation would be USELESS if it could be overturned. We can't save or keep ourselves, the whole point. GOD keeps us. He is sovereign, in control of all. He has ordained all that comes to pass. If you don't believe God is sovereign, you can't believe He brought about the crucifixion, or that ANYTHING foretold in the Bible will ever take place. The problem is that Arminianism us a DIFFERENT GOSPEL. It is COUNTER to scripture. The rebirth is not for all, not all are Children. Not all are saved, or meant to be. They are misguiding others. They are saying salvation is saying a prayer or alter call. Without the rebirth, there is NO salvation. People are being LIED TO. THAT is the PROBLEM. It is BLASPHEMY. The "Rebirth" of the believer correlates to the "Shema" in Deuteronomy 6, something only God could do perfectly.. It is a love in the head and the heart that only GOD can give, and the Law NEVER could produce on its own. Only God, Christ.
I don't believe the scripture presents that God is sovereign in the way you describe it. But what I find very ironical in all you said is that you say on the one hand that God chooses who is saved and who isn't and that He ultimately destines all things. So why then do you turn around and become upset about the arminians and this "other gospel" they're preaching then? Wouldn't that according to your theology just be God who has predestined them to believe what they believe so that they don't get saved???
And what's wrong with them preaching what they're preaching since God will have His elect saved in any case (according to your viewpoint)??
As we study God's word, we grow closer to him. We understand his character more and more each day. Through our sanctification, that which is against God tends to bother us more and more. We see a distortion of truth when people reject the full sovereignty of God. This is what upsets us. We want the truth to be known to our Arminian brothers in Christ. It may be God's will for certain people to be left to their sins, but we have a desire, and are commanded to speak the true gospel of Jesus Christ. We don't know how God will choose his elect, we don't know the specific interface he will use. It is not our job to know how. It is our job to speak truth to confusion.
Second, I never heard about Arminian was in the first place.
Third, the other gospel stuff is completely wrong and goes against every thing about Christianity. Like for example, the gospel according to Thomas. First, written way after Jesus came, died, and rose. Second, at the end, it says For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven." What!?!? That goes against what the Bible says about sex stuff. And this supposedly came out of Jesus mouth. Really? Jesus would never say that, as that goes completely against what the Bible says. And that is sin. And Jesus never sinned.
More Issues:
1. No apostle actually wrote the Book of Thomas. It was at least in 140 AD(probably even later, since it is mid-second century), and that is over the 120 year cap God set after Adam and Eve sinned.
2. Depends too much on the canonical 4 Gospel Books: Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. Since it took time for these to circulate (and remember, it wasn't popular back then, thus the government would try to suppress it) it means that this author had access to all 4 Gospels, thus meaning it wasn't within any of the disciples lifetime. Including Thomas. Plus, he was beaded in 72 AD!
3. Does not align with other canonical books. Although it depends on the 4 Gospels, quoting them left and right, it does not ALIGN. Big difference.
4. Thomas was one of several Gnostic texts in the Nag Hammadi discovery. In cause you didn't know, Gnostic is polytheistic, thus believing in more than one God. Again, non-canonical. This same thing taught the god who created the world was evil, and thus, his entire creation was evil. And then, because of that, Jesus never actually died, because physical form is evil, he came as a spirit and made is suffering apparent (Docetism). Again, non-canonical.
5. Gnostic teaches that one can achieve salvation with a secret knowledge.
The first sayings says “Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death.” Gnostic teaching. The Bible taught salvation by faith. Romans 10:9 says "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
6. Since it has no apostolic authority and divine qualities, it is not Scripture, and the church had no motivation to think it was Scripture, either.
It was obvious that the Church rejected it. It never made it into the Bible, and worse (for the Gospel of Thomas, not the church) the church rejected the Gospel of Thomas as heretical. Meaning it didn’t come close.
That is why we get upset about this 'other gospel' stuff, because it was not even close to canonical, had no apostolic authority and divine qualities (very important), and was reject by the church so badly, it could make a blob fish cry looking at it (yes, it is a roast).
You say:"I also need the Kingdom vision of NT Wright". NT Wrights version of the kingdom has all evidence pointing it to be not one of personal salvation from penalty of sin for all glory to Jesus alone, but rather an ecumenical spirit of unity with the ways of world. No wonder in Wright's perspective, Biblical creationism as per God's word is exchanged for a form of godless naturalistic evolutionism. We are commanded to test the spirits. There is no other plain example of bad fruit than in the swirling moral and ethical liabilities of Wrights mentee and Biologos founder, Francis Collins.
Yeah, well... RC Sproul had absolutely no charity for my mentor, Clark Pinnock, whom he deemed anathema, and was on record saying that he was hellbound. Sproul also went after him to oust him from the Evangelical Theological Association. So, RC Sproul might have been charitable and funny with Billy Graham, but he did not exhibit this sort of charity to others. He was a complete jackass. (I have no charity, as you can see...)
I’m very encouraged by your insight here Pastor Scott. I too have been impacted in my walk with believers with different perspectives on the non essentials.
M. L’Engle said we draw people by displaying “ a light that is so lovely that they want with all their heart to know the source of it.” I don’t agree with her in a lot of areas but this quote has impacted me!
Great read. Over the years of my faith life, I have attended 6 different denominations of churches. The differences on the finer points of doctrine never bothered me as long as Christ was proclaimed, and the Bible was preached. When I began to study theology more deeply later in life (primarily at Ligonier), I came to appreciate the friction between denominations as credible. The reason I landed with the Presbyterians was their way of dealing with that dissonance. The theme of this article is a part of their confession.
In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity
A good one, thanks.
God PROVIDES every human being with EVERYTHING they need, INCLUDING FAITH, but every human being still MUST independently CHOOSE for themself, eternal Life or Death.
Of course, you realize Sproul was palagiarizing Whitefield's alleged response to a similar question about Wesley?
The problem comes with WHAT the Arminian's are presenting as "Salvation". True salvation is the rebirth that GOD gives. They are NOT stating that WE cannot "Claim" it. God has to BESTOW it. They are claiming that one who Christ died for can be taken from Him, when scripture CLEARLY states that none of His TRUE CHILDREN can be snatched away. They present satan as having some kind of sovereignty of his own, when truthfully he has none. He has to get permission from God, only if it is God's purpose and will. God would have to allow someone to lose salvation, and allow Satan to overturn it. God would NEVER die to let Satan overturn His Elect's salvation. If so, they were NEVER saved, just a "Measure" of faith, common grace. The salvation would be USELESS if it could be overturned. We can't save or keep ourselves, the whole point. GOD keeps us. He is sovereign, in control of all. He has ordained all that comes to pass. If you don't believe God is sovereign, you can't believe He brought about the crucifixion, or that ANYTHING foretold in the Bible will ever take place. The problem is that Arminianism us a DIFFERENT GOSPEL. It is COUNTER to scripture. The rebirth is not for all, not all are Children. Not all are saved, or meant to be. They are misguiding others. They are saying salvation is saying a prayer or alter call. Without the rebirth, there is NO salvation. People are being LIED TO. THAT is the PROBLEM. It is BLASPHEMY. The "Rebirth" of the believer correlates to the "Shema" in Deuteronomy 6, something only God could do perfectly.. It is a love in the head and the heart that only GOD can give, and the Law NEVER could produce on its own. Only God, Christ.
I don't believe the scripture presents that God is sovereign in the way you describe it. But what I find very ironical in all you said is that you say on the one hand that God chooses who is saved and who isn't and that He ultimately destines all things. So why then do you turn around and become upset about the arminians and this "other gospel" they're preaching then? Wouldn't that according to your theology just be God who has predestined them to believe what they believe so that they don't get saved???
And what's wrong with them preaching what they're preaching since God will have His elect saved in any case (according to your viewpoint)??
As we study God's word, we grow closer to him. We understand his character more and more each day. Through our sanctification, that which is against God tends to bother us more and more. We see a distortion of truth when people reject the full sovereignty of God. This is what upsets us. We want the truth to be known to our Arminian brothers in Christ. It may be God's will for certain people to be left to their sins, but we have a desire, and are commanded to speak the true gospel of Jesus Christ. We don't know how God will choose his elect, we don't know the specific interface he will use. It is not our job to know how. It is our job to speak truth to confusion.
First, believe that God is sovereign.
Second, I never heard about Arminian was in the first place.
Third, the other gospel stuff is completely wrong and goes against every thing about Christianity. Like for example, the gospel according to Thomas. First, written way after Jesus came, died, and rose. Second, at the end, it says For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven." What!?!? That goes against what the Bible says about sex stuff. And this supposedly came out of Jesus mouth. Really? Jesus would never say that, as that goes completely against what the Bible says. And that is sin. And Jesus never sinned.
More Issues:
1. No apostle actually wrote the Book of Thomas. It was at least in 140 AD(probably even later, since it is mid-second century), and that is over the 120 year cap God set after Adam and Eve sinned.
2. Depends too much on the canonical 4 Gospel Books: Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. Since it took time for these to circulate (and remember, it wasn't popular back then, thus the government would try to suppress it) it means that this author had access to all 4 Gospels, thus meaning it wasn't within any of the disciples lifetime. Including Thomas. Plus, he was beaded in 72 AD!
3. Does not align with other canonical books. Although it depends on the 4 Gospels, quoting them left and right, it does not ALIGN. Big difference.
4. Thomas was one of several Gnostic texts in the Nag Hammadi discovery. In cause you didn't know, Gnostic is polytheistic, thus believing in more than one God. Again, non-canonical. This same thing taught the god who created the world was evil, and thus, his entire creation was evil. And then, because of that, Jesus never actually died, because physical form is evil, he came as a spirit and made is suffering apparent (Docetism). Again, non-canonical.
5. Gnostic teaches that one can achieve salvation with a secret knowledge.
The first sayings says “Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death.” Gnostic teaching. The Bible taught salvation by faith. Romans 10:9 says "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
6. Since it has no apostolic authority and divine qualities, it is not Scripture, and the church had no motivation to think it was Scripture, either.
It was obvious that the Church rejected it. It never made it into the Bible, and worse (for the Gospel of Thomas, not the church) the church rejected the Gospel of Thomas as heretical. Meaning it didn’t come close.
That is why we get upset about this 'other gospel' stuff, because it was not even close to canonical, had no apostolic authority and divine qualities (very important), and was reject by the church so badly, it could make a blob fish cry looking at it (yes, it is a roast).
You say:"I also need the Kingdom vision of NT Wright". NT Wrights version of the kingdom has all evidence pointing it to be not one of personal salvation from penalty of sin for all glory to Jesus alone, but rather an ecumenical spirit of unity with the ways of world. No wonder in Wright's perspective, Biblical creationism as per God's word is exchanged for a form of godless naturalistic evolutionism. We are commanded to test the spirits. There is no other plain example of bad fruit than in the swirling moral and ethical liabilities of Wrights mentee and Biologos founder, Francis Collins.
Test
Yeah, well... RC Sproul had absolutely no charity for my mentor, Clark Pinnock, whom he deemed anathema, and was on record saying that he was hellbound. Sproul also went after him to oust him from the Evangelical Theological Association. So, RC Sproul might have been charitable and funny with Billy Graham, but he did not exhibit this sort of charity to others. He was a complete jackass. (I have no charity, as you can see...)
This is beautiful! You listed so many of my favorites and I love what attributes you ascribed to each😊
Sadly, I won't get to see either of them. But at least I'll still get to see Jesus. ;-)
Im banking that He'll make his way to the cheap seats.
I’m very encouraged by your insight here Pastor Scott. I too have been impacted in my walk with believers with different perspectives on the non essentials.
Agreed and amen. Leads to the riches Christ promised us.
M. L’Engle said we draw people by displaying “ a light that is so lovely that they want with all their heart to know the source of it.” I don’t agree with her in a lot of areas but this quote has impacted me!
I love this post. Thank you.
Beautifully said Pastor! So needed in the church today…we need to build and encourage each other. Would love to visit your church someday.
Amen and Amen