Paul's Passing Thoughts

“Get it? Church membership is a ‘means of salvation.'”

I received a solicitation for a donation to The Gospel Coalition this morning by email. Why their false gospel is false is explicitly stated in the email:

” In the waning hours of the decade, we at The Gospel Coalition rejoice at how God has used our ministry over the last 10 years—serving more than 130 million people with thousands of free digital resources to help them grasp the gospel and apply it to all of life.
Our mandate for the next decade is clear. As the internet grows darker, and the search bar becomes ever more a spiritual battleground, ministries like ours must be steadfast in our mission to offer gospel-centered hope for the searching.

If you have read our articles, attended our events, or supported TGC in any way over the last decade, thank you. A coalition cannot exist without its stakeholders, and our impact thus far could not have happened without you. As we look to the next decade, we need your support more than ever before. We are seeking to raise $100,000 by year’s end to propel our Hope for the Searching campaign in 2020 and beyond.”

Simply stated, the TGC gospel makes salvation a PROCESS and not a onetime finished work by God alone for eternity. If salvation is a process and you are living in that process, you, in same way, must be a part of that process; that enters human activity into salvation and that’s works salvation in all cases.

The email was sent by false teacher and president of TGC, Don Carson. Like with all TGC double-speaking liars, “salvation” is replaced with the word “gospel” for purposes of nuance and deliberate deception. Hence, here is what is really being said: “…free digital resources to help them grasp the gospel salvation and apply it to all of life.” Note that we must apply salvation to our whole life. Maybe you have heard it stated this way: “We must preach the gospel to ourselves every day.” It is, as Carson also writes, “gospel-centered hope.”

We are not sanctified by salvation—salvation is finished by God in your life apart from anything you do or don’t do with intentionality. This is a fact IF you believe the true gospel of justification by new birth. Salvation (justification) is a completely finished work and totally separate from the Christian life (sanctification). Only sanctification progresses and depends on our activity apart from the finished work of salvation. Any doctrine that conflates the two is overtly false; TGC teaches a blatantly false gospel in broad daylight. One of their favorite truisms is, “Justification and sanctification are distinct, but never separate.” Of course, this is just more deliberate double-speak. In ALL instances where a soteriology does not completely separate justification and sanctification; justification by the law is present. There are no exceptions to this rule.

Furthermore, according to this false gospel, submission to the institutional church is needed to facilitate the salvation process. Church is where you access what they call, “the ordinary means of grace.” That’s really saying, “the ordinary means of salvation.” Get it? Church membership is a “means of salvation.”

Everyone knows what the word “means” means in that context, so the word “salvation” is deliberately replaced with the more ambiguous word, “gospel.” It’s deliberate deception.

paul