John MacArthur’s Protestant False Gospel Made Easy: Christians Are Unholy
In an article titled, “Whatever Happened to the fear of the Lord?” (http://www.gty.org/Blog/B160810 August 10, 2016), Pastor John MacArthur, without question the most notable evangelical of our day, states that “Christians” are unholy. Of course, the difficulty is in the utter simplicity of the issue.
Protestants believe that conversion is only a declaration by God as opposed to a holy state of being. Their definition of the new birth follows: one is gifted with the ability to see our sinfulness as set against God’s holiness. In contrast, the Bible emphasizes an effort to be more like God because we are also holy. True Christians sin because they are weak, not because they are still unholy and only changed positionally. Salvation is a state of being, not a mere legal declaration.
Protestants like MacArthur get tripped up on the law. They believe perfect law-keeping brings about eternal life / righteousness / justification / holiness. Supposedly, Jesus came to pay the penalty for our sins, and to live a perfect law-keeping life that can be imputed to us by faith. But the law cannot give life regardless of who keeps it. All sin is imputed to the law so Jesus could end it, and all of the sin imputed to it.
The true Christian is justified by new birth, not the law. Our focus is to fulfill the law by loving God and others with all of our heart, soul, and mind. Our focus is to use our temples to offer holy sacrifices to God through obedience to His word. All of the sin offerings were ended on the cross; our focus is the love offerings. In contrast MacArthur states:
When we see God as holy, our instant and only reaction is to see ourselves as unholy. Between God’s holiness and humanity’s unholiness is a gulf. And until a person understands the holiness of God, that person can never know the depth of his or her own sin. We ought to be shaken to our roots when we see ourselves against the backdrop of God’s holiness. If we are not deeply pained about our sin, we do not understand God’s holiness at all.
Without such a vision of God’s holiness, true worship is not possible. Real worship is not giddy. It does not rush into God’s presence unprepared and insensitive to His majesty. It is not shallow, superficial, or flippant. Worship is life lived in the presence of an infinitely righteous and omnipresent God by one utterly aware of His holiness and consequently overwhelmed with his own unholiness.
Note that MacArthur only sees one distinction between the “born again” and humanity in general: an ability to see the depths of our sin. And, the sole focus of “worship” is also our own sinfulness. This puts MacArthur squarely in the same camp as those who published the “Cross Chart” that illustrates progressive justification.
So-called saints primarily focus on one thing: a deeper and deeper realization of our own sin. Obviously, any notion that we have any goodness at all would diminish the cross by raising the downward trajectory of the bottom line.
The apostle Peter and Jude both wrote that we are holy. Who is John MacArthur? Jude also wrote that the Lord will return to execute judgement on the unholy…those that the Protestants identify with.
It’s not complicated; if you are unholy you are unsaved.
paul
Why Does TANC Confront Churches?
As recovering Protestants it is important to reevaluate what we do and why we do it from time to time. As an alcoholic craves liquor, Protestants crave guilt and condemnation; so, unhealthy introspection will continue to be with us to some degree. Not only that, we struggle with the guilt of doing things for the Lord without elder approval. There seems to be a little voice whispering in our ear, “What if they are the Lord’s anointed?” followed by balmy hands and rapid, shallow breathing. I understand.
So, let’s reevaluate why TANC Ministries confronts abusive evangelical churches publically. Sure, the basic reason is Matthew 18:15-20, but in most cases Protestant elders are going to reject the use of that process from the perspective of an offended congregant. That doesn’t fit their authority motif. Elders don’t answer to the peasantry even though the peasantry pays their way.
Here are some reasons why we do it. The Neo-Calvinist movement is returning the Protestant church back to its medieval traditions. Remember, the founding orthodoxy of Protestantism was structured around the church-states of that time. After the American Revolution the Protestant church no longer had the state at its disposal to enforce orthodoxy, so they improvised with manipulation and mind control. This is the cradle of cultism. This is where the concept of cult was born. Americanism also gave birth to Communism. These two, Cultism and Communism filled the void of America’s eradication of the church-state.
Therefore, what we are seeing in our day is Protestantism as cult. When we publically confront these closed societies, we are educating people at large, and warning others away from the danger of brainwashing. That’s not only a duty before God, it’s a civic duty. Moreover, it’s evangelism: Protestantism has become one of the largest venues for evangelism in our day as its false gospel of progressive justification is the tree that bears its cultish fruit of control-lust.
Why are so many false religions like Protestantism so heck-bent on justification by the law even though in this case Jesus supposedly keeps it for us? This whole idea of “The righteous demands of the law.” The Bible tells us. Sin is fed by the law’s condemnation. When a person is under the condemnation of the law, somehow, sin is able to use that to create sinful desires within the person. The continued obedience to that desire results in enslavement to any given sin otherwise dubbed, “addictions.”
In a born again believer sin yet dwells in our mortality, but because Christ ended the law’s condemnation on the cross its ability to enslave us is ended. The Bible explains the results of the new birth: it’s a reversal of freedom and enslavement. Those under the condemnation of the law are free to do good but enslaved to unrighteousness; those who have been born again are free to sin but enslaved to righteousness. In the unbeliever, desires become so intense that they are unable to say “no” to them. But those who are no longer under the condemnation of the law are able to say “no” (Titus 2:12) to sinful desires. Because we are “weak” we will fail at times to say no, but the ability to do so for the right motive is present because of our change of being…not a mere “legal declaration.” Don’t be misled by the piety of some Protestant leaders; a desire to control people is no less a sinful desire than murder.
Remember what Protestants did in the beginning under church-states if you disobeyed them. And take note in regard to how present-day Protestant scholars give John Calvin et al a pass accordingly. They were supposedly, “men of the times.” Right, during the times of church-states. To assume the same wouldn’t happen today without American jurisprudence is egregiously naive.
That’s why we do what we do. It is an opportunity to show people how to be under the law of love as opposed to the law of sin and death.
paul
Bad Marriages and the Simple Side of Tyranny
Originally published August 18, 2015
The Bible isn’t complicated; to the contrary, its simplicity often escapes us as we look for something more complicated in the text. The journey in understanding the Bible begins with the stepping stones that you understand. You are simply looking to increase your understanding by building truth with one objective fact at a time. Pieces that fit together in the jigsaw puzzle lead to the fitting of more pieces. For some, the pieces take longer to find, and the journey is longer, but what they really know is more than most Protestant scholars who are ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth. They are blind guides leading the blind.
Be sure of this: scholars make the Bible complicated because they want to control you. When it gets right down to it, “You have no need of anyone to teach you.” Teachers are gifted people who accelerate your learning; they are not seers or mediators between you and truth. If they ask you, “Did God really say…” you are to answer, “Yes, that’s exactly what He said.”
Hence, the simplicity of a very important fundamental truth found in Genesis:
4:6 – The Lord asked Cain, “Why are you angry? Why do you look so unhappy [has your face/countenance fallen; 4:5]? 7 If you do things well [correctly; appropriately], I will [will I not…?] accept you, but if you do not do them well [correctly; appropriately], sin is ready to attack you [crouching at the door]. Sin wants [desires to control; 3:16] you, but you must rule over it” (EXB).
We also know from the New Testament that sin is a master that pays death wages, while Christ came to purchase us with His blood from that master. We are now free to serve another master who only pays life wages. A slave that dies (through the baptism of the Spirit) is no longer under the authority of the sin master, and is a new creature resurrected to life and free to serve another (Rom 7:4).
But lest we are careful, the simple truths of this passage and a wiser life will escape us. Sin is described as an entity that has a desire; specifically, a desire to control others. One of the fundamental characteristics of sin is a desire to control others.
Secondly, in this verse, sin’s means of doing so are also described: sin is crouching at the door waiting for us to fail. Sin then seeks to exploit that sin for purposes of control. At least to some degree, sin seeks to use the failure to destroy a true self-assessment and make a case for needed lordship. Certainly, this is how the serpent approached Eve. He wanted to convince her that she was unable to understand God without a mediator. Has God really said…?
At this point, this truth needs more development, but here is a basic building block that we can be sure of: the sin master uses condemnation to enslave, and pays death wages for one’s work:
1 Corinthians 15:56 – Death’s power to hurt [sting] is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But we thank God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 So my dear [beloved] brothers and sisters, stand strong. Do not let anything move you. Always give yourselves fully to [excel in] the work of the Lord, because you know that your work in the Lord is never wasted [not useless/in vain] (EXB).
This is why Christ came to end the law. Sin crouches at the door waiting to seize the opportunity to condemn, and the more law, the better. The “law of sin and death” empowers sin because the power of sin and its ability to pay death wages is condemnation. When Christ died to end the law, He stripped sin of its power to enslave and pay wages.
Don’t misunderstand; being in Christ does NOT mean that we are not under a law, but it is the “law of the Spirit of life.” Why is it called that? Because the new Master pays life wages for the obedience of love, and that has never been any different:
Deuteronomy 30:15 – “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. 16 If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, 20 loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”
Nothing has ever been different in regard to the law. When we serve God, it is the law of love that brings life wages; when we “serve other gods” it is the law of sin and death that pays death wages accordingly…
Romans 6:16 – Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
With all of this said, consider the lion’s share of bad marriages. It never fails. Two people, at war, and each with a laundry list of the other’s faults. Check that. Better said, a condemnation list. And of course backed up with many Bible verses; the Bible is either the law of sin and death that condemns, or the law of the Spirit of life that loves.
What’s going on? Answer: sin, and its desire to control using condemnation.
Genesis 3:16 – “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
This is the same exact grammatical construction found in Genesis 4:6 concerning sin’s desire to control Cain. Sin will manifest its desire in marriages by each spouse desiring to control the other, and using failure to do so. When the failure of a spouse presents itself, the other spouse will use it to make a case for ruling over the other spouse. In essence, “Since you are stupid, I should be running the show in this marriage.”
In Reformed circles, elders make a case for being the rulers because we are all…what? Right, “totally depraved.” Same deal.
If you know this simple Bible fact, you know more than most “expert” counselors. In most bad marriages, both spouses need to repent of being tyrants. They need to stop using the Bible to condemn each other, and start using the Bible to love each other. After all, “love covers a multitude of sins.”
Go and do likewise…you are now an expert Bible counselor.
paul
“No Authority” T-Shirts Now Available
In response to many requests to have one of our memes made into tee shirts:
TANC Statement on Present Issue with Pleasant View Bible Church in Warsaw, Indiana
Paul Dohse on behalf of TANC Ministries:
Per what has become a common service here at TANC Ministries, we have been approached by a fellow Christian for counsel and support regarding the “church discipline” issue.
Our goal is not to fix the one who has come to us for help, but our only question follows: is the church using “church discipline” to persecute a Christian in the name of God and pseudo love bombing? If the answer is “yes,” we are a willing advocate for the persecuted brother or sister.
Using condemnation for any and every fault to cover for some issue that challenges the authority of spiritual despots will not dissuade this ministry from standing with those who are falsely accused in the name of God.
But with me, after witnessing the destruction of many families wrought by the Neo-Calvinist movement and its progressive justification gospel, it’s personal. To a large degree, the Neo-Calvinist movement, which has all but completely taken over mainstream evangelicalism, is driven by YRRs (young, restless, reformed) coming out of schools like Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. Be sure of this: if not for American jurisprudence there would be a Neo-Calvinist police force making sure everyone is in church on Sunday morning just like the former city that the YRRs lust for in their dreams; John Calvin’s Geneva.
When I contact one of these YRR boy pastors on behalf of someone who has come to us for help, and they treat me like everyone else in their life that fears their authority that is the product of their own visions of grandeur, it becomes personal. Such is the case with “Pastor” Michael Hontz of Pleasant View Bible Church in Warsaw, Indiana.
In our dialogue with people who are members there thus far, one major theme constantly emerges: the authority of the elders and Michael Hontz in particular. This theme is predicated by a fear that rivals anything I have ever seen in churches that are being slowly assimilated into Neo-Calvinism and its false progressive justification gospel.
Let’s be clear: our only authority is Jesus Christ, and He will not share His glory with another and that includes His authority. Christ made it clear that ALL authority in heaven and earth has been given to him, and elders are a gift to the church like all other spiritual gifts, not a lordship by proxy.
YRR spiritual despots have persuaded many that they have been given authority over salvation by Christ, hence the fear we are seeing at PVBC. Of course, Hontz never frames it that way, but like all YRRs he has assimilated the idea into the minds of the congregants through nuance. We have witnessed several statements coming out of PVBC that proffer the idea that the authority of the elders must be obeyed regardless of individual understanding of the Scriptures. Even some of the elders are confused about the full implications of this doctrine as revealed in a long conversation we had with one of the PVBC elders. That conversation is documented and very telling.
While Hontz will continue to feed the Neo-Calvinism elephant to PVBC congregants a bite at a time, we fully intend to pull the whole elephant out in full view of the congregation and any other congregation that might be deceived by him. This we will do by all legal and spiritual means at our disposal.
Paul Dohse
8/15/2016
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
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