Paul's Passing Thoughts

We hear it all of the time and have heard it for years: “Justification is a legal (forensic) declaration.” The ways in which this short statement alone is antithetical to the gospel is surprisingly simple. First, if righteousness, a synonym for justification, is “apart” from the law any idea that we are justified by a legal declaration has problems right out of the gate. We cannot say that we are NOT justified by the law and then say we are justified by a legal declaration. This would seem evident.

That is, unless you are a Protestant and buy into something else we hear constantly: “The gospel is a paradox.” This means the truths that make up the gospel contradict each other but are yet truth. In other words, reason or logic is not a valid epistemology except for the logic that makes us subordinate to authorities that make truth what it is by edict. “Leave the thinking to us” and be saved through obeying authority.

But what logic should one use to decide which authority saves? When it gets right down to it, I think people believe they are saved through the “humbleness” of submitting to any religious authority found upon the earth. Why would the Catholic religion be enjoying the popularity that it is in our day regardless of its absurd behavior and history? I don’t think it is complicated; it’s salvation by submission to Catholic authority.

Catholics, especially those who have left Protestantism for the Catholic Church have stated this to me in no uncertain terms. The reasoning used is that Catholicism was around hundreds of years before Protestantism. So, one uses that logic to select a mode of salvation, and then abandons reason/logic to keep their salvation. “By their fruits you will know them” becomes just another paradox. And we wonder why we get the vibes we get from people when witnessing to them. Go figure.

The above screen shot sent to me by a friend of PPT is Martin Luther’s Simul Justus et Peccator (simultaneously saint and sinner) and is a cardinal doctrine of the Protestant Reformation claimed by all strips of Protestantism including Baptists and Methodists. I challenge you to find one Protestant scholar or pastor who has ever denied or refuted this statement; you search in vain.

This is a prime example of Protestantism’s “paradoxical gospel” and the deliberate deceptiveness of its communication. The statement allows you (deliberately) to assume a state of being paradox when the statement is not really a paradox at all. Note that Protestants are unique in that they are often wrong about their own error in a sort of multifaceted confusion. Sometimes we call this, “doublespeak.” However, Protestantism often engages in orthodoxy that has several layers of doublespeak in regard to a single doctrine. Simul Justus et Peccator is taught as a paradox but it really isn’t a paradox.

Why would they do that? Here’s why: in the mind of the deceived Protestant a mere legal declaration can also be a state of being. When convenient, it’s nothing but a legal declaration while we remain “evil,” but when otherwise convenient, it is a state of being. You see here the multilevel contradiction in one truth. That’s Protestantism.

Clearly, the Protestant Reformation was predicated on the denial of the new birth as a literal state of being. This is critical because no biblical transformation of being happens in Protestant soteriology. This means that we are not really born of God while remaining in a weak mortal body. Rather than now needing grace for a help in overcoming weakness for the glory of God, “grace” is redefined as a continued covering (not an ending of sin) that prevents us from being condemned because we are still under the condemnation of the law. The cardinal point of 1John chapter 3 refutes these ideas with prejudice.

Let me explain. In the Bible, there are ONLY two groups of people: under law, and under grace. These are denoted by ONE thing and one thing only; and please do not miss this simple fact: they are differentiated by a change in state of being. “You must be born again.” The changes are the difference between salvation and damnation.

Here is where condemned Protestants get confused. “Under grace” does not mean that you are not under law per se, it means that the saved person’s relationship to the law is changed. When one is under law, the law can do nothing but condemn them. But after one’s state of being is changed by the new birth, the law can no longer condemn them; in regard to condemnation, they are said to be “perfect.” The law is now our guide to love God and others, not our condemner. And it is also said to set us free from our prior relationship to the law.

Don’t miss this: it’s a LIKE perfection (righteousness) that is Christ because we are born again into God’s family and Christ is our brother, but it is NOT exclusively Christ’s righteousness that only covers our unchanged state of being. According to the Bible that would be yet…”under the law of sin and death.” If we are still “sinners” at all, the definitive biblical definition of the unregenerate, we are still under the law of sin and death. Those who claim that they are “sinners saved by grace” are proclaiming themselves as unregenerate. Again, this kind of confusion is unique to Protestantism while it claims to be the intellectual stalwart of Western culture.

When the Bible calls us “holy” this is in regard to no longer being under condemnation. But this is far from being a mere legal loophole; it is a change in state of being. Now, we have always been taught that good motives will not get us into heaven and that is just plain wrong. The new birth changes who we are in our heart—it changes our motives while we fail to use the law “lawfully” for purposes of love because we are still weak. “Redemption” is the future salvation of our weak bodies but that makes us no less born again in the present.

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

This where many misread a verse like this; the word of God doesn’t do this to condemn us in order to lead us back to the cross again for more salvation because we are still under law, it rather guides us in discerning between the weakness of the flesh and our intentions which are now fitted for love via the new birth…NOT condemnation.

Sorry, but the fact is, church-going is the deliberate or unwitting advocating of a false gospel. I realize that this is a VERY inconvenient truth but it is what it is.

According to the Bible, we are to use our “members” for holy purposes and the Bible also states that this is our…“logical service” based on what Paul taught in Romans prior to that verse.

Come out from among them and be saved.

paul

A lot has been happening with TANC Ministries in the past couple of weeks. Susan and I are very busy and bemoan the reality that we don’t have time to chime in on all of the exciting changes going …

Source: TANC Ministry Roundup: Sunday 10/16/16 @ 4PM Expanded with Program Prep

A lot has been happening with TANC Ministries in the past couple of weeks. Susan and I are very busy and bemoan the reality that we don’t have time to chime in on all of the exciting changes going on.

Therefore, we will be using this program to catch up on recent posts on paulspassingthoughts.com blog and the encouragement we are receiving from new friends. There will also be an overview of our various ministries and an announcement regarding a new one.

Do call in and join the fun: (347) 855-8317

Live Link: http://tobtr.com/s/9546381

Topics:

Upcoming mission trip.

7questions.me

Present ministries and a new one.

2017.ttanc.com

The Weekend Gospel Challenge

Recent posts by Andy Young.

https://paulspassingthoughts.com/2016/10/14/redemptive-historical-interpretation-of-reality-makes-presidential-elections-irrelevant/

https://paulspassingthoughts.com/2016/10/12/the-secular-world-understands-reality-better-than-protestants/

Recent Posts by Paul

https://paulspassingthoughts.com/2016/10/12/nothing-but-the-blood-why-new-calvinism-has-all-but-completely-taken-over-the-protestant-church

https://paulspassingthoughts.com/2016/10/16/a-no-brainer-god-is-but-who-is-he-the-tanc-journey/

https://paulspassingthoughts.com/2016/10/12/some-clarification-on-the-love-story-post/  We are to function according to love not “under law” but this does not exclude the practical responses to abuse, tyranny, and justice. Our focus is the positive outworking of love, not sin-sniffing.

https://paulspassingthoughts.com/2016/10/09/the-protestant-ruse-donald-trump-death-and-taxes/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democide

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=cide

Home fellowships are no longer an alternative, but a biblical mandate.

https://paulspassingthoughts.com/2016/10/13/why-going-to-church-is-disobedience-against-god/

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/a-sample-statement-on-regular-church-attendance

New friends and old ones. 

Comment from “John”:

“Well, I hope there is going to be a post-recording link/clip available.

This site has crept into my heart for many reasons: It promotes people to think for themselves, there are Andy’s intellectual yet perspicuous articles, and there are Paul’s unexpected angles. But, the biblical truth is found here too, in abundance; and the love for those who are lost is most obvious. And Jesus Christ is glorified, and that’s the clincher for me. And the true, uncomplicated, biblical gospel is presented all the time.

And I wonder how many people actually know the purpose of The Potter’s House. I was touched when I found out.

I always thought I was the only one in this universe (parallel or otherwise) who was not able to fit into the institutionalized church and all its diabolical traps; so, great was my joy when I stumbled across PPT and found there were others too. And not just that, but others who actually helped people escape the man-made shackles of “church” while encouraging one to be part of the body of Christ in a way that we are supposed to be.

I expect a signed copy of the “Institutes of the Christian Religion” by Calvin (peace be upon him) for my little comment. Or a bang on the ear.”

Why Hillary will win, and why the American people elect presidents of the baser sort.

The future of Capitalism according to the Bible.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/10/14/spain-no-government-economy-booming_n_12489226.html

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+18

http://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-3.htm

http://biblehub.com/revelation/6-4.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democide

It’s a box, not a boat. A look at Ken Ham’s ark.

The ark was a huge floating box…period. So, is it any big deal if it is presented as an elaborate boat contrary to Scripture? What’s the big deal?

https://arkencounter.com/about/

https://ncse.com/cej/4/1/impossible-voyage-noahs-ark

In the first place, the analogy with the Seven Wonders does not hold. Only one, the Great Pyramid of Cheops, comes within two thousand years of Noah’s day, and it is really the only one whose construction could conceivably approach the level of sophistication of the ark. But the Great Pyramid did not spring de novo from the desert sands; rather, it was the culmination of over a century of architectural evolution, beginning when the “experimenting genius,” Imhotep, inspired by the ziggurats of Babylon, built the Step Pyramid around 2680 BC, passing through some intermediate step pyramids to the Bent Pyramid of Snofru, then the first true pyramid, and finally the masterpiece at Cheop (Stewart, pp. 35-39).

On the other hand, in an era when hollowed-out logs and reed rafts were the extent of marine transport, a vessel so massive appeared that the likes of it would not be seen again until the mid-nineteenth century AD. Before he could even contemplate such a project, Noah would have needed a thorough education in naval architecture and in fields that would not arise for thousands of years such as physics, calculus, mechanics, and structural analysis. There was no shipbuilding tradition behind him, no experienced craftspeople to offer advice. Where did he learn the framing procedure for such a Brobdingnagian structure? How could he anticipate the effects of roll, pitch, yaw, and slamming in a rough sea? How did he solve the differential equations for bending moment, torque, and shear stress?

Ancient shipbuilding did achieve a considerable level of technological sophistication, so much so that marine archaeologists are divided over its history (Basch, p. 52). But this was for vessels that were dinghies compared to the ark, and this skill emerged slowly over many centuries: nearly a millennium passed while Egyptian boat lengths increase from 150 to 200 feet (Casson, p. 17). Despite this, the craft remained a prescientific art, acquired through long years of apprenticeship and experience, and disasters at sea due to faulty design were so persistent that the impetus was strong for a more scientific approach (Rawson and Tupper, p. 2). Obviously, the astronomical leap in size, safety, and skill required by Noah is far too vast for any naturalistic explanation.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+5:32-10:1

Addendums:

If you want proof that there is a God, go to nursing school. There aren’t any atheists in nursing school, and if there are, you wouldn’t want them attending to you; that is, a person who denies obvious reality. If evangelicals want God taught in the public schools they should be more efficient about it and simply encourage good Physiology classes.

Is there a God? That question is resolved; the question is, who is He? Is He the person described by the Western church? And if He is, how does that affect our lives? Fact is, we are a culture that defines God through the traditions of the Western church. Documented orthodoxy defines God this way:

Sovereign. In total control. But why would He want to be in total control? Because if man has any free will at all—that subtracts from God’s glory. Unless God is in total control any ability of man shifts glory from God to man. God’s primary purpose for existence is to bring Himself glory for the sake of His self-love. This is stated Western orthodoxy.

Should we buy into that? TANC Ministries asked that question 5 years ago by starting with this fundamental question: what does orthodoxy say about justification in comparison to a historical-grammatical method of interpreting the Bible?

Plainly, orthodoxy is errant concerning a biblical interpretation of justification. The equation is almost too simple: it’s not a justification APART from the law via the new birth; rather, the new birth is defined by the imputation of perfect law-keeping. Supposedly, that’s ok because Christ is the perfect law-keeper and not us.

So, in other words, “no,” we shouldn’t accept orthodoxy’s definition of God because orthodoxy has the gospel wrong. And here we are; there are no extensive studies on who God is apart from orthodoxy which must be completely reevaluated because it teaches a blatant false gospel.

Orthodoxy itself answers the question of “how much” in regard to sovereignty through its incessant decrying of “semi-Pelagianism” which is a gargantuan strawman argument to begin with. Orthodoxy has always chosen who it will compete against as if there are no other arguments. Truthfully speaking, there is a diminished semi-orthodoxy that has been confused by integrating the historical-grammatical method of interpretation with orthodoxy. In contrast, orthodoxy has always been predicated on a reality that is a prewritten metaphysical narrative by God for His own glory. Everyone in all of history are simply characters written into the script for God’s glory whether heaven bound or hell bound.

This is why it can be said that we are in a Protestant Dark Age. TANC Ministries is dedicated to mining the real truths about who God is from the Bible and through the collective efforts of the priesthood of believers.

We invite you to join our cause.

Paul Dohse on behalf of TANC Ministries.