Equal and Opposite
After percolating for a bit about the opposite extremes of condemnation vs. complacency from Eternal Security, I suddenly realized that it goes a lot further than I had really imagined. My thinking stems from one of the laws of physics (if I remember correctly, it’s been a few years and I don’t feel like looking it up) that states something like this:
“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
I realized that the same principle works with today’s doctrine and belief systems, including those who are of the Christian persuasion. In general, for every extreme, there is the opposite extreme that goes to the other side of things, doing just as much damage as the first side.
Satan, as you should well know if you have studied the Bible, is the master of deception. You don’t have to read far into Genesis before it begins, and it’s near the end of Revelation when it finally ends. He (especially) wants to deceive people who are in a good relationship with God because he wants that relationship to suffer and even end. Thus he needs to attack from every angle so that as many people can be sucked into it as possible. Hence for every one who gets deceived into believing something false, he would want someone to believe the opposite direction, yet also be deceived. To spin off of the physics law, it would look more like this:
“For most deceptions, there is an equal and opposite deception.” (I don’t like blanket statements, hence “most”)
Examples are easy once we identify the deception on the first side.
When Will Jesus
Return?
I know many people hate the thought, but the popular Pre-Trib Rapture doctrine is nothing more than very good deception, causing people to believe in a promise that God never made. What then is the opposite of this very good deception? The first response from many would be “Post Trib”, right? Not the case, instead it is to believe that Jesus won’t ever bother coming back at all:
“3: Knowing this first, that
there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4: And saying, Where is the promise of his
coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things
continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” Second Peter 3:3-4
KJV
Don’t see Jesus coming back do we? Guess He’s really not that interested in giving us that final redemption. No, He’s not slack, as Peter clarifies:
“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” Second Peter 3:9 KJV
Since Peter foretold it, we know that there are going to be people doing this (and I’m certain already are). The longer it takes for Jesus to come back, the more people will be willing to believe that Jesus really isn’t coming back, and the end deception could actually be worse than the first! Either way tremendous damage is dealt.
How Much Will Do You
Have?
I’ve spent some good time debating the free-will argument with myself and after a long time came to the conclusion that both extremes can be proven wrong Biblically. If our free-will is totally at 0, then everything we do is exactly what God wants and is in fact His “fault”, although people generally wouldn’t admit that. If I can only do what God wants and I commit evil, then my evil is actually God’s doing and fault. I wouldn’t want to accuse God of that. We can easily find verses refuting the belief though:
“They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:” Jeremiah 19:5 KJV
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest
them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children
together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under
her wings, and ye would not!” Matthew
There are of course more verses along these lines.
Way over on the other extreme is the belief that we have total free-will and can therefore do anything we want at any time. Not true at all, because God reserves the right to step in and make changes. This does not mean that He does it all the time, but He certainly can and has the right to.
“And the LORD said unto Moses, When
thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all
those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden
his heart, that he shall not let the people go.” Exodus
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26 KJV
“No man can come to me, except the
Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
John
On a personal level I think that our free-will is somewhere between 60% and 75% so that we can for the most part do as we want – we can still do evil after we meet God, for instance – but we can’t be proud and think it’s all about us. God must initiate salvation, for instance, as John 6:44 makes clear. What we do with it, however, becomes our responsibility.
Faith and Works
I don’t
want to spend much time on this subject because one of these days I will
hopefully write on “The Works Concept”, which has been on the back burner of my
mind for a while. In short, we are saved
by grace through faith. However, you’ll
find that there is a lot of “do” to Christianity as well. A works salvation is false and deception,
yes. A “faith without works” salvation
is also false. They are a package deal,
but it starts with the faith. Works
without Jesus involved are pointless just like faith without works is dead.
“Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,” Hebrews 6:1 KJV (Emphasis added)
“Even so faith, if it hath not works,
is dead, being alone.” James
To make things a little clearer, in many ways I consider “works” to mean “doing the will of the Father”, as shown in this scary passage:
“21: Not every one that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22: Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23: And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me,
ye that work iniquity.” Matthew 7:21-23 KJV (Emphasis added)
Just remember, package deal. Believe and do.
Security and
Condemnation
It’s been a little more than a year and a half since I started my first research, and that was on the doctrine of Eternal Security. The deception actually lies in the word “Eternal”, for if people would simply talk about security in Christ, we could probably all be on the same page. The deception is that because you’re saved today, eternity is already settled, making what you do (read: Sin) only a small issue rather than a huge one. To counteract this, the doctrine of “Never Really Saved” comes in so that someone who insists on sinning must actually not be a real Christian.
But of course you’re a real Christian.
The deception becomes obvious when you realize that the person who was “never really saved” is never really you! The day that really gets into you is the day you reject Eternal Security as the baloney that it is.
The Bible is clear that you can lose your salvation. Or if you want to think of it in a different way, the Bible is clear that you can still go to Hell. In fact the entire Bible shows that if you stop serving God, He is not responsible for your consequences.
“He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.” Revelation 3:5 KJV
Way over on the other side lays condemnation and feeling like you can’t make it, or “Eternal Insecurity”. Instead of realizing your position in Christ and the power in repentance and confession, you wind up bogging yourself down in failure. You can’t make it, you can’t fight sin, and God really isn’t on your team. Wrong.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” First John 1:9 KJV
It’s tough to keep the balance to be sure, but it must be done.
Gracious and Loving
or Harsh and Demanding?
You can view God in different ways. The deception is to only look at one side and not take into account the other and keep them in balance. God is gracious, loving, merciful, and wants to save you. But if you take it too far He can become warm and fuzzy and a pansy that wouldn’t dare send YOU to Hell. Grace grace grace just doesn’t fly by itself.
On the other hand you can look at God as a dictator who demands and doesn’t give, fearsome and unwilling to spend time on a little peon like you. The instant you mess up He’ll be on you like a mad hornet and it’s all over, there are no second chances.
No, that doesn’t work either. I like this passage, which sums it up the best I’ve ever seen:
“6: And the LORD passed by
before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious,
longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
7: Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and
to the fourth generation.” Exodus 34:6-7 KJV (Numbers
Tongues,
Miracles, Etc.
Did God close up shop when the apostles died out or did those amazing things stick around for our use today?
One side says that these things are not for today, hence those who speak in tongues, heal the sick, work miracles, and the like are not operating under God’s power. Scary thought, since if it’s not God’s power then we are talking about Satan’s power. While people don’t like to admit it, the definition of “Blasphemy of the Spirit” is essentially to give Satan credit for what the Holy Spirit has done (see Matthew 12 and Mark 3, the Pharisees claimed Jesus had a demon). This is another good deception in its own right. Most teaching I have seen or heard about it basically says that only someone who hates God would blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Since the religious leaders were the ones Jesus went after, that really can’t be true. As usual, it’s someone else.
The other side embraces these things, often to the extreme that “anything goes”, so as not to “quench the Spirit”, even if what is happening violates scripture. We’ll see someone who can talk in tongues not showing love for their neighbor, violating First Corinthians 13. “Prophets” are chased because people are desperate for a nice “word” from God. It sickens me, even though I would be labeled as one of these people.
Perhaps even worse is the doctrine that essentially says that if you don’t speak in tongues you’re not saved. Paul told the Corinthians that he wished they all did so, but he actually held prophecy in higher regard:
“5: I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.” First Corinthians 14:5 KJV
I’ve spent a long time on this subject elsewhere, called “The Holy Spirit: A Complete Package” http://kengoding.com/Writing/HolySpirit.htm
Christians and Demons
I’ve contemplated a lot about whether or not I wanted to go here. It is indeed a difficult and complex subject which merits a lot of study by itself. However, I definitely see deception in the blanket statement that “Christians can’t have demons.”
Even if it is 100% true we still have a problem, the same one posed by Eternal Security. You know that you’re a Christian, so it can’t possibly be you.
If I may bring up a real-life example, I have met more than one “Christian” who most definitely has demons. Not a whole lot of people, of course, but there have been a few. With the blanket statement in hand, how would you ever convince them that they are not a Christian at all? When paired with Eternal Security it becomes an impenetrable fortress since they always will be a Christian (at least in their mind).
In short, if it makes you invincible, it probably isn’t a safe doctrine (which goes for all doctrine actually). Some day I may take the time to go through it all, but consider this one verse:
“He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.” Ecclesiastes 10:8 KJV
You can break your hedge and give Satan the right to attack you at the very least.
What lies on the other side of this subject? I have actually heard that there are people who teach that you inhale demons with every breath. I suppose that the rationale is since Satan is the “prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2) and you breathe in air, you’re breathing in demons all the time.
Yeah, that crazy. But if you look at it that way it kinda makes sense, except that would mean that you have absolutely no hedge of protection. There is safety in Jesus!
After considering for a while I realized that there is even yet another facet to this subject which contains deception in its own right. The Sadducees aren’t given a whole lot of time in the Bible; the Pharisees get a larger portion comparatively. However this verse in Acts reveals an interesting insight into their belief system:
“For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.” Acts 23:6 KJV
These people, whom Jesus said to beware of (Matthew 16:6) simply didn’t give any credit to demons at all. Granted it doesn’t use that specific word, but if you don’t believe in angels, chances are you don’t believe in demons. Perhaps they explained it away, perhaps they just ignored the evidence, but either way it was something they didn’t need to deal with because it didn’t fit their belief system. Not wise.
If there aren’t any demons, then we don’t have to deal with them at all. Makes life easier, does it not?
Predestination vs.
Foreknowledge
In many ways this is just free-will revisited, but it is a little bit different as well. The problem with the predestination belief is that it tends to become the “be all and end all”. I was predestined; therefore I am saved, etc. When you lean too hard on that it becomes essentially “absolute predestination” making it 100% what God felt like. This is taught by Calvinism, particularly with the “Unconditional Election” point (That’s the “U” of TULIP).
What’s the problem? The problem is that no matter how predestined you think you are it’s still your responsibility to live a Godly life.
Not to
mention it’s given very little time in the Bible. I can think of 4 uses, twice in Romans and
twice in Ephesians, although I believe somewhere there is one more. We were told to love one another a whole
lot more than we were told we’re predestined.
For that matter, foreknowledge isn’t given a whole lot of time in the Bible either, you might find it 5 times or so in the New Testament. I always shied away from predestination because it was weird and scary and as it turned out, too easy to use as the “be all and end all”. Too easy it is to believe in foreknowledge, so that God who knows the beginning from the end knew who would be saved. With predestination out of the way we are left to our own devices and have complete control, and God simply knows who will make it in the end.
No, no, no. Each by itself is nothing more than deception, because they are (like other things) a package deal. One passage combines the two, see how they fit together:
“29: For whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might
be the firstborn among many brethren.
30: Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he
called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”
Romans 8:29-30 KJV
Predestined through foreknowledge. Paul lays it out straight, and we twist it for our doctrines to work. Predestination does not work without foreknowledge, and foreknowledge needs predestination to be completed. God knows and sets things in order. He gets all the credit, but we must live the Godly lives.
Of course this means that Calvinism is deception. It’s very good deception, I will give it that, but deception nonetheless. Sometime I hope to show the true message behind Calvinism; it is shocking what it says to the unsaved.
Conclusion
I actually want to go in a different direction just a little bit. At the end of the day, when things get tough, are you going to trust in doctrine which could be deception, or are you going to trust in Jesus?
We’ve been
taught to trust in doctrine. People
trust and cling to Eternal Security; people get offended if the Pre-trib
Rapture is held in doubt, when really all that matters is to keep trusting in
Jesus and keep fighting sin!