Paul's Passing Thoughts

“In all of the rhetoric by John MacArthur et al, if you observe their specific words carefully, what is missing is the idea that we are in fact righteous beings who DO righteous deeds. This is the same old Gnostic song and dance that has plagued God’s people since the angel blocked access to the garden with a flaming sword.”

“MacArthur et al cannot escape this fundamental Reformed error regarding law and gospel. They can dance around it all year long, but there is ultimately no escape, this is simple theological math”. 

“Ever heard of a dead person being indicted? In our case, being saved, the old us could be exhumed and dragged into court, but even then there would be no law to judge us. This is why Christ died on the cross—to end the law. Glory to His name, and I love to tell this story.”

Presently, I am taking part in a discussion over at Spiritual Sounding Board. It’s one of the more beneficial discussions I have taken part in on any blog. Bottom line: why do we need a commercial building to do church? Who owns truth? What is the true authority structure of the New Covenant? Why are we at the mercy of choosing these answers from a smorgasbord of “experts” who do not agree? Why are we at the mercy of institutional leaders to stop abuse? Why are we begging them to do something about it? And, for the love of mercy, what’s up with the Nones? Think about it, to say “enough is enough” with the institutional church is to quit church altogether. Huh? See the problem here? The Reformers have effectively sold the whole idea of orthodoxy versus heterodoxy. Orthodoxy is a catechism given to the masses to live by from those who were chosen to be enlightened. It’s dignified mythology which is truth in storybook form palatable for the unenlightened masses.

And in order to control us according to European caste tradition, they have effectively dumbed us down. You can’t control an empowered priesthood of believers who have studied to show themselves approved. Weak saints are fleeceable and manageable. Point is case among many: “We know the institutional church is bogus, but we attend so our children can be involved in activities with other children.” Wow, just wow. Saving our kids from boredom is more important than the truth? Really? And then we get on blogs and whine about abuse? Truly, the 500 year campaign to make God’s people weak and manageable has been a grand success. Now, I don’t know if any of us would die for the truth, but why throw all doubt of that to the dogs by making the inbred weak sensibilities of our children more important than the truth? Let’s be honest with ourselves: we have bought the Reformed package that salvation can only be gained in the institutional church.

But in the aforementioned discussion, a question was posed that once again reminds us of the following: 500 years later, and billions paid to Reformed academics by laboring saints later, there is still confusion about what salvation is. This is by design. We are paying philosopher kings to keep us confused. I was sent a link by someone yesterday written by one of the premier Reformed academics of our day, John MacArthur Jr. In the article, he concedes that confusion about salvation is rampant among Christians, but his causal theory is very interesting, and frankly, as old as the hills: Christians want to figure everything out through reason and they don’t understand “paradox.” In fact, the Reformed tradition is littered with pithy truisms that state this very idea:

“Already—not yet.”

“Justification and sanctification are distinct, but never separate.”

“Simultaneously saint and sinner.”

These truisms are expressed in lofty Latin terms for purposes of intimidation. The Protestant psyche is perpetual doubt and fear—this was Calvin and Luther’s very definition of the Christian experience. Fearful people are easy to control, and put their hope in the magical yellow salvation bus driven by Plato’s philosopher kings. I have written of this and supplied specific citations until I have become blue in my fat face. In my book It’s Not About Election, I denote a whole chapter to this fact and cite many references. The title of chapter 5 is, “A Gospel of Works, Fear, and NO Assurance” (PS, my offer to send 10 free copies to 10 people involved in said conversation still stands. Send request to pmd@inbox.com this also includes The Reformation Myth). And as I discuss in the book, the icing on the cake is Calvin’s trump card, the get out of election free card. While propagating fear on the one hand, the power of the keys are propagated on the other. Let me give you the thumbnail: if your local Reformed elder thinks well of you—you are going to heaven because whatever he binds on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever he looses on earth will be loosed in heaven.  It is the perfect storm of control. That’s why it is important that your children are involved in the institutional church. Come now, look in the mirror and be honest with yourself.

Now, let’s get to this…

…very telling question by one using the internet handle, “Waking Up”:

To paulspassingthoughts or anyone else able to answer, what does salvation look like, and act like? How does a saved person live and think about God? Since most of us have been fed various flavors of errors, from Calvin on down, please shed some light.

“What does salvation LOOK LIKE, and ACT LIKE.” Stop right there. This is why Protestants will never have the assurance promised to us by John, Jude, Peter, and Paul. Salvation is something that we can merely look at and observe what IT acts like. This is Luther’s alien righteousness to a T.

“Oh, that means God’s righteousness is a gift given to us when we are saved; such saving righteousness was of course foreign to us before salvation.”

NO! Protestant orthodoxy insists that this righteousness remains outside of the believer. Saving faith is the ability to merely EXPERIENCE “saving acts” done TO US and not done BY US. In all of the rhetoric by John MacArthur et al, if you observe their specific words carefully, what is missing is the idea that we are in fact righteous beings who DO righteous deeds. This is the same old Gnostic song and dance that has plagued God’s people since the angel blocked access to the garden with a flaming sword.  I don’t give a damn what these guys seemingly state, the official contemporary designation for their authentic Reformed gospel is “The Objective Gospel Outside of Us.”

Much could be said about this, but for now, let’s answer the question with definitive theological mathematics. Teacher Andy Young said it well at this year’s TANC conference: the law is for sanctification. There is no law in justification; we are justified apart from the law, and justification ENDS the law for those who believe. Reformed theology keeps the law as an ongoing standard of justification. Where there is no law, there is no sin, so sin is ended, but in the Reformed gospel where law remains the standard for justification after salvation, sin is not ended, it is “covered” by the “saving acts” (plural) of Christ’s life as well as His death. So, according to the Reformed gospel, Christ’s death did not end the law for justification, it was only a perpetuation for our past sin, now the obedience of Christ must be applied to the law in order to keep us saved. And of course, this requires a perpetual reapplication of the same gospel that saved us by faith alone to fulfill the law in order to keep us saved.

MacArthur et al cannot escape this fundamental Reformed error regarding law and gospel. They can dance around it all year long, but there is ultimately no escape, this is simple theological math. There are two salvific relationships to the law: the law of sin and death, and the law of the Spirit of life (Romans 8:2). Before we are saved, our mortality is enslaved to the law of sin and death, what the Bible calls being under law and not, under grace. This is the very definition of a lost person: “under law.” Ironically, the Reformed gospel keeps “believers” under law and defines a Christian according to the biblical definition of a lost person. So, there is warfare between two laws within a lost person: the law of sin and death which provokes them to sin, and the works of the law written on their hearts and judged by their conscience which either accuses or excuses. This is why the lost are not even totally depraved, much less the saved.

When a person is saved, they are no longer under the law of sin and death nor enslaved to it. That law is ended. Therefore, for purposes of justification, the believer is PERFECT for two reasons. First, there is no law to judge his/her justification. Second, said person died with Christ, and a dead person cannot appear in a court of law (see Romans 7:1ff). Ever heard of a dead person being indicted? In our case, being saved, the old us could be exhumed and dragged into court, but even then there would be no law to judge us. This is why Christ died on the cross—to end the law. Glory to His name, and I love to tell this story. Sin is not covered—it is ended for those who are justified. The old us is so dead to the law, that our mortality must be kept alive by Christ (Gal 2:20). In regard to the law of sin and death, it is no longer we who live, we died with Christ.

But according to the law of the Spirit of life, that’s a different story. We do live; we not only died with Christ, but we now share in His resurrection. The death part of our baptism is a finished work, but the resurrection life is just beginning. The new us is under grace, and able to please God by walking in the Spirit. And, the Spirit calls on us to learn and obey the law (the Bible); this is what he uses to change us (John 17:17). He promises to help us in our endeavor to please God and lead others to this same life. Yes, all that we do in obeying the law is out of love because we know that there is no law for justification. We have no motive to earn our justification—that’s absolutely impossible—there is no law that we can obey to do that. “If you love me, keep my commandments.” We are under grace and obey the law of Christ for love. As new creatures, it is impossible to attempt to obey any law for justification unless we do so out of ignorance and a fundamental misunderstanding of the gospel.

Granted, there is a salvation and a rest yet waiting for Christians: the redemption of our mortal bodies. Until then, the law of sin and death can still provoke us to sin, but it cannot condemn us. It can provoke us, but it can’t judge us (Romans 7:23). It can provoke us, but we are not enslaved to it, but we are rather now enslaved to the law of the Spirit of life (Romans 6;18, 7:25). There is NO fear in the love of the Spirit of life, but yes, in working out the salvation of the mortal body, there is fear, for judgment begins in the house of God. There are present consequences for sin, but not eternal ones for the believer.

Protestantism keeps us under the law of sin and death, and fear, but there is no fear in love. Our obedience cannot have any kinship with justification. Hence, in the same way that one violates all of the law if he/she violates one point while being under it, the Christian fulfills all of the law by one act of love. I love this story. The story of freedom from the law of sin and death.

To all Protestants in the institutional church I say: come out from among them and be separate. Come out from among them and be free from the law of sin and death. Come, love our blessed Lord who died on that cross to free us by obeying the law of the Spirit of life. You are free to aggressively learn and obey—you are free to love your neighbor and God with your labor of love.

To “Waking Up” and all of us I say…

“’Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.”

paul