I have been putting off this topic but even now my own church people often claim salvation as finalized by one trip to the alter. They may feel secure now, but their faith may make them vulnerable to spiritual attack when they now least expect it! It is a hard thing to write, but here it goes:
As a precursor, "sozo" in the Greek can be translated as either "safe" or "saved." Likewise, "soteria" can be translated as either "safety" or "salvation." Context makes a huge difference. Also, note that the parent English Bible, the King James Version, was mainly translated by Calvinists and that it is a version, not the textus receptus.
Have you been in the Presence of
God? If so, you may feel so safe that nothing can undermine you, even get under
your skin. The Jews traveled in the Presence of God, yet Satan still got into
them; they had been "saved," so no worries!
My purpose is to reveal what
scripture leads me to believe is truth. It may offend because the truth does offend,
but my intention is to reveal the danger that lies ahead with unsound doctrine.
Sometimes it would be much easier
if I did not question doctrine. Face it, Calvinistic doctrine is easy doctrine.
The acronym for their five points is TULIP, summarily meaning the following:
1. Total
Depravity: The belief that sinfulness pervades all areas of life and human
existence, and that people cannot independently choose God.
2. Unconditional
Election: The belief that God can save everyone without any condition.
3. Limited
Atonement: The belief that Jesus died only for the elect, not for everyone.
4. Irresistible
Grace: The belief that God's grace is irresistible and that the elect cannot
resist it.
5. Perseverance of the Saints: The belief that the elect will persevere in faith and good works until the end of their lives.
The reader can refer to the
source for more comprehensive understanding of those points, but I will now
focus on the idea that the person has no responsibility nor activity in the
process and that God is Sovereign; that He alone has supreme power and is in
full control. Indeed, that is true, and if you do not believe that, then you diminish
God.
The concept of God is that all things
must have been created because it is unscientific to believe that anything
happened without a cause. Hence, the basis of faith is that God is the only and
“First Cause” to put it scientifically.
Since God is reality (He IS
Existence; Exod 3:14) then individuals cannot overcome the science. As it turns
out, only God can alter His creation and His creatures. God has free will in
that He can do whatever pleases Himself, and the Earth was populated for His
pleasure, and for His alone.
The Sovereignty of God also includes
the capacity for Him to make decisions. He determines what is right and good
but is fair in judgment. Our own wills can influence His Will whether it be for
good or ill. However, God is a free agent to do what He pleases and his subjects
lives, freedom, and happiness seems fair play to Him.
God indeed has free will does He
not? or He would not be Sovereign and as such there would be no God. Without
God there scientifically would be nothing, for the things that were made is the
evidence that God exists (Rom 1:20).
It should be obvious that things
do exist. Life is reality, not an illusion. Anyone can touch and feel things
and both sense pleasure and pain. You know that things are real because you
have senses.
So, the argument that there is
not God is insanity. You may argue What is God? but any rational person can
understand that Some Powerful Thing, an unseen Divine Being, created all
things, and has Supreme Power. If you do not believe that, then continue no
further, because only s fool would believe that all there is was without a
cause — an effect without a cause is unscientific!
So, let’s agree that God is
Supreme. Part of that Sovereignty is the capacity to do His own Will freely
without interference from anyone. In fact, the entire Bible is “The Last Will
and Testament of God,” and the New Testament a codicil… a modification
of The Will of God without having to rewrite the entire will. It is not that
God changed the basics nor His heirs, but the “codicil” was to clarify the
deceased, the heirs, and the meaning of the conditions of the Will of God.
Hence, the Will of God is just
that — a written copy of His will for His man-heirs for His Estate. It is His to do with as He pleases. The Bible is the Will of the Sovereign God for His
Estate and His people.
In the Will, heirs who are emancipated
are excluded from His Will and they are free to do as they please. The
conditions of the Will grant freedom to please or displease God. He is not a
tyrant, but a King that loves all His subjects. However, the subjects in His
Kingdom are there by choice. They must recognize the Sovereign, that it is His
Estate, and that the Sovereign is in control.
The Bible is a record of the Will
of God to be done, as the prayer indicates: that “Your (God’s) kingdom come, Your
(God’s) will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Mat 6:10). God is asking
that the prayer of the believer should be that the Will of God be done — all
the conditions of the Will — and not the will of each person.
He asks that the will be the same
for both of His Estates; the one here within the world and the one in another
realm. His Will cannot only be adhered to in one or the other but in both places.
You must choose whose Will it is that you choose to follow in this world to live
in the Kingdom of God.
Lucifer is a squatter and fake ruler
on Earth. Paul wrote, “in time past you walked according to the course of this
world, according to the Prince (Ruler) of the power of the air, the spirit that
now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephes 2:2) The ultimate "ruler" for
those that disobey is an invisible pretend God, Lucifer (Isa 14:13-14).
Hence, in this world, there are
two masters. Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate
the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the
other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Mat 6:24). Your ability is to choose whether
you serve God or Satan. God does not force Himself on you, nor did he
make you a child of the Devil.
The original sin is of our progenitors who made wrong choices, and now since it is genetic; we are indeed depraved people,
but if we were totally depraved, then the decision for us would have been made by
Eve, as the mother of all living, back in the beginning. Everyone would be
cursed with nowhere to turn for grace.
Mankind is worth saving and God
provided the Way; He came into the world, took on our sins — our genetic
depravity — and died, so that we need not.
The concept of “irresistible
grace” is that you can neither accept it nor reject it (grace) since you are not God.
However, God has Free Will and wrote His Will for us. We are not His “children”
genetically but by “adoption,” God “predestinated us unto the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His Will”
(Ephes 1:5). So, God has a Will to dispense grace onto whom He pleases without
any action by any other being.
If we were God’s children because
of our birth, then indeed we would have no choice; we would be what we are genetically,
and that is of the Wicked One. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, because
your genetics are not the Genome of God. If they were then you would be born
preserved and ready for heaven whether you resist the call or not.
Yes, you are called to be children
of God: Paul wrote, “When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's
womb, and called me by His grace…” (Gen 1:15). God’s grace was due to His sovereignty.
God adopted Paul when after he left the womb then Jesus called Paul in His
time.
He calls whosoever and whenever He
chooses. We cannot call ourselves to God because we are not God. Great care
must be taken because we cannot decide when to answer the call. Hence, it up to
sinners whether we answer the calling of God, but not the time,
situation, or place. We cannot decide to go to church at any certain time and
expect to be converted. God determines that, but perhaps going someplace to
make yourselves prepared is your choice only in preparation for the calling as
if now is the time to begin salvation.. You cannot say, “I will be persuaded
today at the end of the church service,” because that would make you Sovereign.
However, you were predestined.
John wrote about that, “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life” (John 3:16). When were you predestined? That would be in the
beginning, would it not? Well, if you are a human being, yes you were
predestined. Where would you look for that? To before time began.
You were predestined after the
animals were made: “Let us make man in our Image, after our likeness: and let
them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and
over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that
creeps upon the earth” (Gen 1:26). God decided that it would be upright man
that would be imbued with His Image, not the animal kingdom, nor even angels. Mankind,
of all the kinds, were chosen. It was humans that would have dominion above and
beyond the rest of the kinds. Mankind would dominate the other kinds and even
Satan. It was us that would be like God and not any others… sorry, Satan, it
was not you and your demon angels!
Mankind was predestined. However,
what happened? Mankind, the woman of the species, made herself God (Gen 4:1) and
lost what God had predetermined for her progeny as the mother of all living. By
disobeying God, God emancipated both her and her lost husband. A new kind
ensued wherein both the Spirit of God and the spirit of Lucifer fought an
internal battle for the soul of the Adam and Eve, the sons of God, the progeny
of the ‘adam and the Serpent. Mankind
was no longer the only human existence because the male named a new kind of
extant being, “Eve” (Gen 3:20). She was not totally depraved because her
genetics were of both God and the Wicked One as John wrote (1 John 3:12).
Mankind is depraved, but not
totally so, because God had grace on them and provided for their safety and
preservation coats of skin (Gen 3:17). He, like John who wrote, “whosoever” should
not perish “for God so loved the world.”
That is past tense. It was the
Will of God from the beginning, that all of us, not just a select few, would live
forever. The “election” was for all mankind. Where in the Law does anyone read
about any other predestination or election? What is there is there. Anything else
is adding to the truth to make things easier for mankind to go to heaven.
If we had no part in our future,
then we could live for the Devil and still squeak through the portal to
Paradise and get back in! Why else would God have the gate guarded to the Tree
of Life (Gen 3:24)? Obviously so the unworthy cannot get back in without the code
Word, “Jesus” “the Way, the Truth, and the Life”(John 14:6).
Jesus put a condition on obtaining
eternal life: “Whosoever believes (pisteuo) in Him.” It is whoever maintains
fidelity to God. That implies that fidelity can recede. It is not a one-time
event, but an enduring faith that you exercise. Hence, eternal life is
conditional; you must obey the will of God to the end (Mat 10:22). There was
not one condition for the Jews and another for the Gentiles… whosoever must
endure to the end. Endurance is your responsibility. The Will of God places
that on you!
It is Adam’s kind that must “dress and
keep the Garden” (Gen 2:15). As Sovereign, God soundly placed responsibility on
mankind. Maintaining the Garden is maintaining the Estate of God, both in
heaven and on Earth just as the prayer goes. It is both maintaining the land,
the Kingdom wherever it extends, its economy, and the very Will of God. It is
your responsibility, as the very intended Image of God, to perform all that He
wills for you to do.
The Sovereign God made things simple
for those hard of understanding: love God and other human beings. Basically
love (agape) is goodwill toward God and your fellow “whosoevers.” That
is the condition to remain an heir to the Estate of God; to maintain the
conditions for adoption.
God’s Will is that all who are
His Image be adopted. Mankind was the only species made in His Image, were
they not? There were not sub-kinds until sin when Adam wandered off to his own
estate in the land of Nod — anyplace that he willed to go.
God calls everyone but only some
respond. If you do not go to Him, adoption cannot take place. We must be
persuaded, according to Paul, to follow Christ, not just for awhile but to
continue following Him, to wit: “Many of the Jews and religious proselytes
followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue
in the grace of God. (Acts 13:43). How far to continue in grace? All the Way so
long as you are able to follow — to your own death or to the rapture, whichever
comes first.
Paul wrote, “For to me to live is
Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). The “gain” is salvation which occurs at
death, but there is a condition attached — live as Christ; to maintain the
Image of God in which the Holy Ghost imbued you; to “dress and keep the Garden”
by maintaining goodwill for God and others. That is to maintain the grace and
faith that your Sovereign God has so generously provided.
“Saved” is a future event. It is when a person dies and the soul, engendered by God (“born again;” John 3:7), is fully made whole again. “You shall be saved,” at it is written so many places!
(God) Whom having not seen, you love; in whom, though now you see Him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. (1 Pet 1:8-9)
We are not God. It is Him who
decides when to save and who to save. When is the time of salvation? Paul, in
the passage above, places the time of salvation as when the faith that God
provides terminates. Christians must endure to the end to be saved. You cannot
decide when it is because you are not Sovereign. It is God’s Estate and while
in His Estate, we do not make new rules!
Furthermore, it is God that truly
baptizes with the Holy Ghost. It is God who is sovereign, not the water and the
preacher. You do not decide when God baptizes. God will take care of that
whether you are near water or not, because it is the living water of the Holy
Spirit that begins the generation of a new creature.
Denominations and creeds are
always making new rules for salvation. On the Estate of God, the rules have
been intact since day one and the codicil left them remains intact. How to
dress and keep the Garden Estate of God? “For this is the love of God, that we
keep his commandments: and His commandments are not grievous” (1 John 5:3). They
are easy!
What is your part in your
destiny? Do whatever you want to do because you think you are already saved? No,
you are to keep His commandments, which is to operationalize the love, or
goodwill, of God… for both Him and His other creatures.
Hatred of either God or others is
cause enough to be removed as an heir to the Estate of God. His mansion has a
room only for those who do His Will; hence salvation to that place is
conditional for the duration of your presence while here on Earth. You must
comply with God here to be able to comply with God there! God is
not a divine idiot or a "Woke" God who accepts any criminal onto His grounds.
God has a timeline for our lives and our future. It is this: “Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Rom 13:11). Salvation is not now but getting nearer. It is a future event. It is now the time to be awakened. When God calls, we must both hear, and answer, the knock. If there is no response to God’s knocking, then the call is missed. We do not determine when the knock occurs, but we do determine whether the knock is answered or not.
(Perhaps a better expression of conversion is "awakened.")
“Born again” is the “awakening”
when a sinner is persuaded that Jesus is God and can save us. It is understanding
that God will indeed preserve us by providing His whole armor to withstand the
wiles of the Devil (Ephes 6:11).
If the Devil could not get us,
why put on the armor that God provides? It would be like Adam saying, “God, I don’t
want your coat of skin because we can take care of ourselves.”
The Devil can still perish you,
so God advises you to watch out for your own safety, “Be sober, be vigilant;
because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking
whom he may devour” (1 Pet 5:8). Why would God warn you to do anything for
self-protection if you were not in peril? God seals you by providing the armor,
but you must keep it on. Your safety depends on you following the wisdom of the
Sovereign of the Estate.
Now to wrap this up. Calvinism is
“cheap grace,” but grace did not come cheaply. God Himself suffered death for your
presence on His Estate forever. Grace is living in the Presence of God the Father,
Jesus having the Power of Authority on your behalf.
You cannot live like the Devil
and expect to retain adoption. However, God will keep you so long as you desire
His love. You can emancipate yourselves but once emancipated, always emancipated;
there is no turning back (Heb 6:6). That “falling away” is not just for the
Hebrews for God is not a respecter of persons; it is His rule! Falling away is “apostasia”
in the Greek; it is defection from God, obviously after once having affection
for Him. Only you can prevent perishing for God preserves you well. You must remain
clean for the seal not to be broken by you, for those of you understand the
cold-packing process.
People continue to look for the
easy way. The easy way is already there; God knows your destiny and because a Christian regains the
Image of God, you just like God, have a free will. God does not force a sinner
onto His Estate nor does He forbid those who know that He is the Way!
Christianity is a participatory
activity. If you enjoy being of the family of God, then you would want to
promote God. For years, I failed to promote God, and as I matured, I promote
the Word beyond any human doctrine.
Cheap grace is living however you want to live as if there is no King on the Estate of God. That has been the misconception since ancient times:
While in His domain, Moses revealed the Will
of God, “You shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every
man whatsoever is right in his own eyes” (Deut 12:8). There are rules for the Kingdom
and the Kingdom of God begins here. Christians cannot do whatever they want to
do here, then expect to change when in heaven. God has already decided the time
and the place, and it is not subject to your thoughts. Christianity and its economy
begin here. You should desire to do the things here as they are done in heaven,
or that is just a futile prayer to deceive God.
You are indeed once saved; always
saved because salvation is not until God’s time; it is for those who endure to the
end, as Paul wrote, for the soul to be saved.
That you are secure in salvation
is not the argument, but the time of salvation. Your Christian life
while here on earth is a time of preservation as David surely wrote, “Preserve
me, O God: for in You do I put my trust” (Psalm 16:1). Again, therein is a
condition — trust. Trust is “fidelity” not just a moment in time. Trust must be maintained in Him for so long as you live. What must you do?
Nothing physically at all; just maintain the faith that God gave to you.
Preservation is much different than
salvation; it is a condition of safety until the time of salvation.
It should be clear that you are not
saved if you are a Christian. What is it that you have? Paul wrote about
that; “That every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance
of hope unto the end” (Heb 6:11). You must remain diligent, and salvation is
that hope… “Let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the
breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
(1 Thes 5:8). Again, hope means a future event. It is fine to feel the
hope, but the reality of it, is that salvation is at the end of your days on
Earth whether it be by the rapture or death!
This may sound cruel because everyone
says it; however, you are not saved but because of your trust in the Lord Jesus, you
shall be saved. Salvation is not in the flesh because you will get new flesh, but the
soul that God filled will be rewarded with residence on the Estate of God in
heaven.
To believe that you are already
saved and secure from the Wicked One is non-vigilance and insobriety.
We play to God’s rules, and they are very clear — the Devil can get to you when you are least aware, and that is never fearing the wicked ones as if you are already in Paradise.
Adam and his
mate felt safe when they entered the place of temptation because they had the
Presence of God within. We know the outcome; they were in dire straits and in
perilous times. They could have remained dead to God, and only God knows the
outcome.
That you are saved because of one
trip to the alter is one of the cunning ways of the Serpent. Faith is a
variable that may fluctuate; however, it must be maintained. [1]
Just as the Serpent said to
mankind, “You shall not surely die” (Gen 3:5), Calvinistic “eternal security”
is perhaps the same cunning way to obtain your soul.
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