The Protestant Misuse of the Word “Grace”
The Reformed, and Calvinists in particular use the word “grace” to nuance what they really teach about salvation. Primarily, to nuance the idea that sanctification is the progression of justification, they refer to the doctrine of “duplex grace.” This is a soft term for “duplex salvation,” or the idea that both justification and sanctification are part of a single salvation process, viz, “complete justification.”
For another example, consider the expression, “We are all just sinners saved by grace.” According to Reformation orthodoxy, this is really stating: “We all remain unregenerate and need continued salvation.” Evangelical superstar John Piper is far less ambiguous than Protestant bumper stickers:
We are asking the question, How does the gospel save believers?, not: How does the gospel get people to be believers? When spoken in the power of the Holy Spirit, the gospel does have power to open people’s eyes and change their hearts and draw them to faith, and save them. That’s what is happening on Tuesday nights and Wednesday nights this summer. People are being drawn to Christ through the power and beauty of the gospel. But I am stressing what Paul says here in verses 16 and 17, namely, that “the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” Believers need to be saved. The gospel is the instrument of God’s power to save us. And we need to know how the gospel saves us believers so that we make proper use of it.
“Believers need to be saved.” Any questions? However, again, most Protestant scholars nuance this falsehood with the word, “grace.” What people assume is being said follows: “Believers still need grace.” Precious few would deny that—of course we need God’s grace continually, but what do we mean by that?
The word “grace” in the Bible rarely refers to salvation if at all; it is NOT a synonym for salvation. The word is simply little different than the word “love” in the biblical sense. The two words could easily be used interchangeably throughout the Scriptures. Grace, according to the Bible, evoked God to save mankind, but is not the act of salvation.
If you want a definition of grace read Paul’s treatise on love in 1 Corithians 13; the meaning of the two words are all but identical. Salvation is one of many, many things that grace does, but it’s NOT salvation.
In yet one more example of Protestant premeditated deception, scholars will concur that grace does not mean “salvation,” but then proceed to use it that way for purposes of disguising their progressive justification gospel.
paul
ABWE Missionary Kids Recap
“In all of this, the MKs have dragged ABWE’s dead corpse to a decrepit alter of repentance, but thereby preventing untold additional sorrow.”
“For starters in a long list of healing remedies, ABWE could create an oversight department and appoint the MKs to operate it…Instead, they are offering the same counseling that couldn’t cure Donn Ketcham; for free in a pathetic attempt to feign some semblance of the Spirit’s presence.”
As human beings living this life, we do what we can to heal after tragedy. Time heals, obtaining justice heals, and lessons learned resulting in good coming out of the tragedy definitely heals. But when tragedy occurs, parts of us die that we will never get back until redemption. That’s when Christ will make us whole and dry every tear from our eyes. Having that hope also aids present healing.
This week, ABWE released what would appear to be a final report on its longstanding culture of child rape among its missionaries. Like the GRACE unpublished report (because Boz Tchividjian capitulated to ABWE criminals), the Pii 280 page report reveals little more than what the Missionary Kids revealed on their blog in 2011. One wonders how much GRACE and Pii were paid to do little more than follow-up on the legwork already accomplished by the victims. At any rate, CT has a pretty decent post on the report HERE.
Oh, and in regard to healing, the MKs have dragged ABWE kicking and screaming for more than 20 years towards whatever confession they could get out of them and thereby, more than likely, preventing the rape of other children. Just this week, 20+ years later, ABWE is going to put new procedures in place. Whatever. It’s nothing more than window dressing; all changes and rape prevention will always come from outside of ABWE. Perhaps the MK’s work has just begun.
Additionally, all repercussions thus far have been the direct result of MK tenacity—nothing more, or nothing less. In all of this, the MKs have dragged ABWE’s dead corpse to a decrepit alter of repentance, but thereby preventing untold additional sorrow. Read the CT story for yourself and remember that a tree is known by its fruit. ABWE is a classic example of an organization that travels land, sea, and air to make others three times the children of hell that they are.
But if ABWE had a soul, they could affect real healing in this situation, but no black heart has knowledge of such. As you will read in the CT post, ABWE has never repented of the 40-year cover-up that led to additional child rape for years after the fact. Again, a tree is known by its fruit. For starters in a long list of healing remedies, ABWE could create an oversight department and appoint the MKs to operate it, and pay them at least as much as they paid Boz Tchividjian who had his homework done for him. Instead, they are offering the same counseling that couldn’t cure Donn Ketcham; for free in a pathetic attempt to feign some semblance of the Spirit’s presence.
All ABWE/MK posts are archived below:
paul
Articles Referencing ABWE/Bangladesh MKs
Too Bad About the “Kids,” But Like GM, ABWE is Just Too Big to Fail – 4/18/2011
Former Abused Missionary Children Are Loving ABWE God’s Way – 5/8/2011
Donn Ketcham, ABWE & the GARBC – 10/30/2011
A Slow GRACE for the Former Missionary Children: Part One – 11/12/2011
Two Latest Posts From The Former ABWE Missionary Children – 11/13/2011
Our Daily Dose of the Former ABWE Missionary Children (FAMC not “MKs”) – 11/15/2011
ABWE Scandal Has Too Much Gospel – 11/16/2011
Your Daily Dose of the Former ABWE Bangladesh Missionary Children – 11/17/2011
When Gospel Seperated From Law Becomes Bad News For Our Children – 3/20/2012
ABWE Bangladesh MK’s Fighting On for Allusive Justice and Protection of Others – 4/27/2012
OUTRAGE!!! Michael Loftis Appointed to Board of Trustees at Cedarville University – 5/28/2012
Some Hope in GRACE, and ABWE’s Position on the MKs via the Michael Loftis Letter – 5/31/2012
With Permission: The David C. Bennett ABWE Exposé – 6/6/2012
Spiritual and Sexual Abuse in the Church: I Can See Clearly Now – 7/23/2012
ABWE Scandal: Commentary on Dr. David Bennet’s “Remember Paterno’s Statue” – 7/30/2012
The Philosopher King Wars – 8/6/2012
New Finding: Truth the Root Cause of the Isolation Plague – 8/20/2012
David C. Bennett, D. Min.: ANOTHER INVESTIGATION INTO CHILD ABUSE BY ABWE MISSIONARIES – 8/23/2012
ABWE Edits Us from their Facebook Page – 8/24/2012
An Open Letter to ABWE-Supporting Churches – 8/28/2012
Another High-Profile ABWE Missionary Disciplined for Child Sexual Abuse – 8/31/2012
ABWE Fires GRACE: GARB Can No Longer Be Taken Seriously as a Denomination – 2/11/2013
A.B.W.E and the Missionary Kids Back in the News: A Call for Action – 11/27/2013
It’s Official: The World Knows More About Justice Than Calvinists – 12/5/2013
Articles Referencing G.R.A.C.E./Boz Tchividjian/Spiritual Abuse in the Church
The “Cross Story” and Sanctified Rape in the Church – 1/31/2013
DisG.R.A.C.E: The Boz Tchividjian Fraud; Gracing the Victims into Obscurity – 9/25/2013
The “Discernment” Blogosphere’s Celebration of Boz Tchividjian’s Hollywood Gospel – 5/8/2014
The Protestant Culture of Death and the Folly of Discernment Blogging – 7/31/2014
The Bob Jones DisG.R.A.C.E. Report: Hope for Change if God Cooperates – 12/11/2014
Why Home Fellowships Can Help Abused Women and the Institutional Church Cannot – 3/31/2015
The Bob Jones DisG.R.A.C.E. Report: Hope for Change if God Cooperates
Editor’s Note: It has been 15 months since the original release of the Bob Jones University G.R.A.C.E. report, and BJU abuse survivors are STILL incredulous that nothing has changed!
bjugrace.com/2015/03/23/an-open-letter-to-bob-jones-university-from-the-survivors-of-the-abuse-response-task-force
Originally Published December 11, 2014
G.R.A.C.E. stands for “godly response to abuse in the Christian environment.” GRACE is a mediatory organization funded by the institutional church that investigates sexual abuse within Christian environments such as churches, missionary societies, and universities.
Their investigative report process in all cases so far has been slower than mud sliding to the top of Mount Everest. In the case of Bob Jones University, the report will finally be released tomorrow as the Christian community awaits with bated breath. Gag.
I am not going to spend much time on this post because I prefer to let the dead bury their own dead in regard to all of this institutional church drama. GRACE, and their approach, is predicated on Protestant Gnosticism and will not help anyone or do anything towards solving this problem. Boz Tchividjian, the director of GRACE, believes a false gospel and is a blind man leading the blind.
Let me keep this post simple and short because I have written other articles that delve deeply into what the mystical Boz believes, and I will do so by focusing on the closing words of Steve Pettit who read a statement today in regard to the GRACE report. Pettit is the President of BJU. At the end of what he stated must happen as a result of the GRACE report which apparently informed BJU of what was going on in their own university, he said that what must happen will happen by, watch it, here it comes…”the grace of God.”
Right. You see, there is only one thing worse than rape: people bringing about change in their own efforts. The “godly response” must be grounded in what Jesus did, not anything we do. And note that this change comes about by the “grace” of God. Let me rephrase that to clear things up for you: “This will happen by the justification of God,” or “This will happen by the salvation of God,” or “This will happen by the gospel of God.”
They all believe the same thing: we are sanctified by the same gospel that saved us. And you know, this is really “hard work” because of our tendency to do things ourselves, or in our own efforts like you know, Penn State. Sure, they slam-dunked the problem, but God didn’t get any glory. We can’t have that! And as Pettit also stated, the “process” (there is still a process?) is going to take a really, really long time. Hopeful yet?
Apparently, God deliberately takes a long time to deal with these situations so that we will know it has nothing to do with anything we do, but what Jesus has done. That’s the “godly response.”
Now back to the Boz. Why is the mere reporting of all of this such a big deal? Pharisees like us are inclined to say, “A report, so what?” Well, how were you saved? “By faith and repentance.” There you go. The report is designed to elicit deep repentance which results in the manifestation of change brought about by God’s grace, not anything we do. That brings me to the final words of Boz in regard to his statement on the report:
As this historical process comes to an end [no kidding], we continue to pray that the words of this report will fuel hope and healing in the lives of many as well as bring about transformational changes in the life of Bob Jones University. To that end, we look forward to having a front row seat at watching God work.
Right. We only need the GRACE reports to show us how wicked we are, and how much we need God’s grace, then we sit back and watch “God work.” And you know, when it comes to rape God is in no big hurry to stop it lest we believe we did something in the process. If it takes a really, really long time, it must surely be of God.
And these guys are getting paid for this stuff with your hard earned tithe money. You may want to give that some thought.
paul
Protestant and Catholic Progressive Justification
Both Protestantism and Catholicism hold to progressive justification. This is the idea that salvation is a process, and not a onetime completed event that redirects the believer to focus on representing God’s characteristics in life. Salvation is a gift, life is a reward. Protestantism and Catholicism both make salvation the reward for persevering in church orthodoxy.
With Protestantism and Catholicism, salvation cannot be finished, nor an individual matter between people and God, or the church would have no cause to be supported as an institutional industrial complex. In order for their massive institutions to be supported financially, they must claim God’s authority in overseeing the salvation of humanity.
Protestants claim that the Reformation was necessary because of the issue of “infused grace.” Luther and Calvin believed that all righteousness remains outside of the “believer.” The new birth, as defined by Protestantism, is a mere ability to perceive “truth” while doing no good work. Mortal sin (unforgivable) results if one thinks any person can do a good work. Venial sin (forgivable) results if it is believed that any person, whether saved or unsaved, can do no good work. Venial sin can be forgiven by the “means of grace” found only in the church.
Catholicism believes that the new birth enables the individual to cooperate with the church in finishing salvation. The individual is infused with God’s righteousness and can do good works. Mortal sin is sin committed by those outside of the church. Venial sin can be forgiven through the means of grace found in the church whether Protestant or Catholic. However, in Catholicism, the person actually grows in righteousness. In the end, Purgatory finishes the process, and in fact, makes the person perfect enough to obtain eternal life and enter into heaven. Only members of the Catholic church qualify to enter Purgatory.
Church doctrine is therefore the essence of sin because sin is a master that seeks to control humanity through condemnation (Genesis 4:7). If “believers” still need salvation, they are not free to love without fear of condemnation.
In truth, salvation is finished, and yes, we do “move on to something else” where sin is the exception and not the rule. We are not under law and its demands, but rather under grace and free to fulfill the law through love. The motive of the true believer is love—not law-keeping in regard to orthodoxy.
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
leave a comment