The Errors of Lordship Salvation

LORSHIP PROGRESSIVE PIC BEWARE

Note:  this is probably the longest article placed on our little blog, all of 83 pages long. Take your time to read and understand this serious error being taught today, a damnable heresy called Lordship Salvation.  I have found this to be the most clear and explanatory article I have yet read about this serious error which is proving to be so  popular in, so-called, Reformed circles. It is my prayer that this is of value to you, the reader, as it was for me.

 The Errors of Lordship Salvation

 

By Pastor Kelly Sensenig

D L  Moody told this story:

“An old man got up in one of our meetings and said, ‘I have been forty-two years learning three things.’ I pricked up my ears at that. I thought if I could find out in three minutes what a man had taken forty-two years to learn, I should like to do it. The first thing he said he had learned was that he could do nothing toward his own salvation. ‘Well,’ I said to myself, ‘that is worth learning.’ The second thing he found out was that God did not require him to do anything. Well, that was worth finding out, too. And the third thing was that the Lord Jesus Christ had done it all, that salvation was finished, and that all he had to do was to take it.”

 

Can it be true that God does not require the sinner to do anything in order to be saved? Can it be true that God only asks a poor lost sinner to take salvation as a free gift? Can it be true that salvation does not require any previous commitment to following Christ or obedience? It is true because eternal life is called “the gift of God” (Rom. 6:23). It is true because salvation is called “the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8) and a person receives this gift “through faith” (not following). It is true since a sinner is only asked to “come” (Rev. 22:17) and “take the water of life freely” (not follow). It is true since salvation is offered freely “without money and without price” (Isa. 55:1). However, not everyone in the evangelical community would agree with this conclusion.

 

Those who embrace the teaching of Lordship Salvation would disagree and convey that a person must promise to follow Christ, obey Him, and make Christ Lord over area of his life before he can be saved. Lordship Salvation teaches there is a price or cost that is attached to salvation. In short, a person must meet the requirements for discipleship, become a follower of Christ, commit himself totally to Christ, step out to obey His commands, make Jesus Lord over area of his life, take the initiative to serve Christ, and comply with the conditions that Jesus requires for salvation, if he wants to be saved.

 

Lordship Salvation is a serious departure from the historic and Biblical teachings regarding the content of the Gospel message, old-fashion repentance, and simple faith in Christ. When this teaching is analyzed in the light of God’s Word it is found to be spurious and misleading. Lordship Salvation pertains to the area of a person’s salvation and specifically how a person is saved. For this reason it becomes a serious issue in relationship to what a person must do in order to be saved. It strikes at the very heart of the orthodox Christian faith. Continue reading

Charles Haddon Spurgeon: Preacher of Free Grace, or Religious Idiot?

Spurgeon Freeness-of-Grace

Grant Swart

Of course there are those who do not regard Charles Haddon Spurgeon as a preacher of solely the truth. Admittedly, no man can be perfect by his own means, and even perfect holiness is acceptable to God only through Jesus Christ. There are also those who ignorantly rummage about in the published works of Spurgeon in the hope that they will find some shards of support for their own deceived religious belief system, and thereby falsely portraying the famous and well-beloved preacher as a will-worshipping Arminian, like they themselves have been misled to be.

While many Christians have had the misfortune of making the acquaintance of some unrepentant religious idiots, nevertheless, they do exist in larger numbers and their written works proliferate throughout the digital media – their presence is evidenced clearly by the overabundance of their deceitful and misrepresentative contributions. Now, please don’t get me wrong, I do not refer to them as religious idiots because I regard my own capabilities as superior to theirs in any way. I would not dare do that, because in all honesty, many of them are highly intelligent people and some are even academic giants, with qualifications way beyond my own.

Neither do I refer to them as religious idiots because I harbour some form of hatred for them, quite to the contrary, I must have compassion for their lostness. Why would I resent them? For financial gain or for fame? No, I refer to them as religious idiots because they ascribe false man-made doctrines to the Scriptures and then they promote and cling to a damning form of religion, which is set worlds apart from Christianity. I refer to them as religious idiots because they oppose Christ. Continue reading

TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT SALVATION

truth-is-still-truth

Grant Swart

I pray that it is my humble and heartfelt intent to write concerning an earnest directive which believers have been given, and that is, to truthfully pass on to those who do not know the Lord, the liberating and glorious facts concerning the means of salvation which the Gospel proclaims. When we consider all which constitutes the doctrine of salvation in the Gospel, it is impossible to disentangle it from the truth about God, the truth about men, the truth about sin, and the truth about Christ.

So often today the word “salvation” is used in very loose terms, ascribing to it many man-centered, phony ideas and fanciful doctrines which sound reasonable and very appealing to man’s conscience and which man readily accepts. Many of these are simply intended to soothe man’s guilty conscience, and leave him with a false comfort that man himself remains the ‘captain of his soul’ and in control of his eternal destiny. However, biblical truth about salvation is that man is not in any position to determine or secure his own salvation, by means of a decision or by applying his will or effort.

One is not likely to hear from the mouths of most preachers, that man is hopelessly unable to choose to follow God, or to decide to allow God into his life. Contrary to what many billboards around our country proclaim, man cannot, and indeed will never want to, turn back to God, unless he has been called to do so by God. Continue reading

GET ANGRY! It’s the deeply offensive Bishop of Rome (Part 3)

Roman Catholic church 6

Grant Swart

Roman Catholic doctrine steeped in pagan tradition, and the Roman Catholic Pope, also known as the Bishop of Rome, should present every Christian saved by the grace of God with good reason to get angry. Angry? Really, should a Christian get angry over this?

Certainly, very angry indeed, as our Lord instructs. The three articles which follow below will explain. In the light of the fact that tolerance of all religious systems is taking precedence over truth, millions, if not billions of people are being duped into believing that there are many roads which lead to God, and that all religions worship the same God. Nothing could be further from the truth. Continue reading

GET ANGRY! It’s the deeply offensive Bishop of Rome (Part 2)

Roman Catholic church 7

Grant Swart

Roman Catholic doctrine steeped in pagan tradition, and the Roman Catholic Pope, also known as the Bishop of Rome, should present every Christian saved by the grace of God with good reason to get angry. Angry? Really, should a Christian get angry over this?

Certainly, very angry indeed, as our Lord instructs. The three articles which follow below will explain. In the light of the fact that tolerance of all religious systems is taking precedence over truth, millions, if not billions of people are being duped into believing that there are many roads which lead to God, and that all religions worship the same God. Nothing could be further from the truth.

When it comes to defending the truth of the Gospel, Christians should stop being such limp-wristed, quivering, overly cautious, meek little men, uttering whimpered politically correct complaints. We have the protection of the One Almighty Omnipotent Father God, we partake in the nature of the bravest of Sons ever to walk the earth, we have the examples set by those early saints who stood immovably for the Faith and who were martyred in the most gruesome ways imaginable, so why are we so sickeningly tolerant of the world which is clearly in opposition to our Faith? Speak up, man, get angry, be a courageous Follower of Christ, not Arminian will-worshippers, use the Scripture which is your sword, stand squarely and immovable.

The “human right” to worship all forms of false gods, Continue reading

The Cross of Jesus is offensive

Eugene Vermeulen

The Cross of Jesus is offensive

It offends those who reject it. It offends the politically correct and it offends even the believer. It offends our pride and our independence. It offends our notion that we determine our own fate, that we can decide for ourselves what is right and wrong.

It offends our belief that freedom is gained by promoting self, not from humility and servanthood. It offends the self-pity of our own pain & misery.

It offends comfortable religion. It offends believers when they don’t want to return to it for complete forgiveness and acceptance. It offends everyone who will not put it as the central focus of their lives. It offends all of humanity everywhere with its simple claim that we are a fallen race, that we cannot achieve salvation or enlightenment on our own – that God came in human form to redeem us from our hopelessness.

It offends me more often than I’d like to admit. Even so, I embrace its offense, because it shows me that I still have dying to do.

This irrational offense shows that something greater is at work here, that there is a war being waged for the souls of men. Therefore I will embrace the Cross of Jesus Christ. I will embrace the offense and stand counted with those who admit their sin and failing and fall on it for salvation.

Without the Cross I am nothing and life holds no real meaning. Because of the Cross there is hope and there is life, joy and power, not only in this life, but for all eternity. The Cross is a divine epiphany, a thought greater than what the human mind can conceive – that God could redeem a fallen race in such a radical, selfless way. It is love undeserved, that causes sinners to take on the very nature of God.

No historical event has impacted as many people so mystifyingly and profoundly. It is a wonder that, if not true, should be true. It cannot be fathomed or rationalized, only experienced. It stands as a monument and triumph above every other event in the history of mankind. Thank you for the Cross, My Lord , My Saviour, My Friend.

(The above article was posted here by Grant, with much gratitude to its author, Eugene Vermeulen)