Irreconcilable Differences

Is it wrong to go against one’s conscience and what you believe to be the revealed will of God? What other recourse is there if you are even a modest student of the Word and upon embracing what you honestly discern as God’s truth you see whole movements and teachings either compromising these truths or worse yet changing them altogether? Are these teachings of the Almighty to be taken lightly or even flexible enough to make room for other points of view, or are they of such immutability that our understanding compels us to remain intransigent in our stand? Is there something of eternal value at stake or does the Spirit soften us enough to expand their original intent to such an extent as to make former men of God appear confined by their generation as to their ability to fully develop their encyclopedic and unrestricted nature?

The times they are a changin.

The currency that continues to pay for the right to change the quintessence of faith necessary for revelation concerning the gospel and in some cases the very meaning of salvation is good intentions. The heart relationship between a sinner and the Lord Jesus has been redefined as plutonic rather than a life long commitment of surrender, obedience, and worship. Now either throughout the previous centuries the expansiveness and exclusivity of the gospel has been completely misrepresented thereby disallowing many to enter into the salvation offered by the Christ, or it is being misrepresented by today’s costless discipleship which sees millions entering as it were into a believing followship of the Lord Jesus without a cross and carrying all the earthly hedonistic accoutrements they came with heretofore. There is a theological tension between these two historical views which makes them both mutually exclusive. In other words they cannot both be true.

I do not say this to make my own or anyone else’s experience a matter of pride or even as a theological substance, only the Scriptures can be the absolute basis of truth. But is this question not one of such eternal importance that it comports us to prayerfully and excruciatingly study the will of God in order to glorify our Father and divest ourselves of deceptive complicity? And as far as dialogue can be used of the Spirit to leverage our spiritual understandings let it be so, but let us never be convinced outside the sphere of Scripture itself. And as comfortable and enjoyable it may be to interact with brethren from a different persuasion, no one must rely on the persuasiveness, oratorical prowess, or literary dexterity of any human when it comes to one day standing before Almighty God and give an account for that which we believed. Do you not think that God will hold all who could read and had the written revelation of His Word responsible for discerning His precious truth or will He consider it of little value?

So what are we speaking of when we deal with the gospel, the only message of salvation? Everyone knows the facts. Christ was God in the flesh, He died for our sins on the cross, and on the third day He resurrected. There are the cold, hard facts that even the devil knows. So what does a sinner have to believe to be saved and how should we present the gospel in a clear and urgent way absent any manipulation? And if creative and attractive manipulations are used do they so cloud the truth that the intended responses are of little value and only represent an earthy data base rather than an addition to the Lamb’s Book of Life? These are serious questions for all of us, orthodox, seeker friendly, purpose driven, and emergent alike. It is easy to succumb to the clandestine machinations of the flesh disguised as, of all things, the love of God. Ever softening and ever contouring God’s truth so as to attract believers eventually will not only present the gospel of man, but it will become accepted as the gospel of God.

So to what degree does a person have to understand the nature of sin and specifically his own, or does he only have to understand an innocuous “flannel board” explanation that has all its attachment to Adam and little if any to himself? And if a person desires heaven and wants to avoid hell is that in and of itself enough to be saved? And can a person walk into a service unconcerned about his spiritual situation and at the end of a theatrical presentation that includes lighting, heart stirring stories, and mood music believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved? The answer is yes, by the Spirit. But is it also possible that at the end of such a well oiled production a sinner can make a shallow commitment based on the atmosphere rather than the leading of the Spirit and then be falsely told he is saved? The answer is also yes. It is an extremely serious matter to tell a person he is saved and completely irresponsible and the height of careless conjecture when that pronouncement is endued upon a complete stranger. And when that same pronouncement is conferred like a college degree through the pages of a book and upon an unknown reader it goes beyond irresponsible, it is both reckless and cruel.

Giving false assurance is the devil’s business, not ours. So if a sinner does not have even a elementary comprehension of his sinful standing before God he cannot be saved. Any so called commitment would then be based on a dangling carrot with a disregard for the very nature of the cross. This is what appears to be happening today with great joy and numerical results but little sacrificial disciples. The “count the cost” dimension of the gospel has been completely dismantled and replaced with the “ask Jesus into your life” convenient and costless model which has millions running toward it to get an extreme makeover, which of course is translated into a positive and culturally enhancing experience. This was foreign to the early disciples and much of the former generations of Christians to say nothing of the Fox’s Book of Martyrs.

So the sum total of this little essay is this,

“The differences between the historical salvation gospel presentation and many of the presentations and definitions of the saving gospel today are irreconcilable”.

More to come.