Condemnation Claims Another Casualty
I was deeply saddened to hear of the recent suicide of Keith Emerson, the keyboard mad scientist of Emerson, lake, and Palmer. My teenage years took place while ELP dominated the progressive rock scene. The depths of their talent created enchanting songs like “Lucky Man” and “From the Beginning.” Their unique brand inspired many rock icons that would follow.
In reading accounts of his suicide and comments from close friends cited in various articles, we find THE familiar theme: fear. If you have been following our recent series on depression from a biblical perspective, you know that I am beginning to suspect ALL, or at least most depression flows from condemnation. Obviously, one who commits suicide has condemned themselves. Perhaps the premier example is Judas. Of course, this doesn’t include other forms of suicide that are in the minority.
Always in every kind of depression and mental illness, and this according to mental health professionals, anxiety is present. In other words, “fear.” Biblically, this makes perfect sense. According to the Bible, the law condemns leading to fear of death and judgement. The conscience also condemns, and you can also add fear of failure and loss of life-purpose to the ugly mix. Granted, present fears of this life may override fear of death, and depending on one’s beliefs, death may be a desperate escape.
However, let me point out that God is not the primary proponent of condemnation. The primary proponents of condemnation seem to be man himself and the kingdom of darkness. Adam and Eve are the ones that chose to hide from God because of what? Right, read it for yourself: fear. God didn’t tell them to hide; in fact, He went looking for them. And what “accuser of the brethren” gets thrown out of heaven in the book of Revelation? And who throws him out? Toward the end of Revelation, who are the ones outside of the holy city? Right, the fearful.
Couple this with the Bible statement that God did not send Christ into the world to condemn the world, but to save it. God does not seek to condemn, he seeks to save that which is lost…mankind. But it doesn’t stop there: He sent His only Son because He wants to save mankind in order to make us His very family for all of eternity: He is the “Son of God” and the “Son of Man.”
The great hope that we represent is escape from condemnation and fear. Sin condemns, not God. He not only hates sin, but He hates condemnation. He sent His only Son into the world to defeat death, sin, and condemnation. Beware of any religion that makes condemnation part of God’s repertoire; God and condemnation are mutually exclusive, and death is the final enemy that He will defeat.
Condemnation is the source of death and fear. God is the source of life and peace. That’s the good news…that’s the gospel.
paul
Paradox?
The good news is that "the promise" (gospel) is a paradox? How can a promise be a paradox?
— Paul M. Dohse (@PaulMDohse) March 16, 2016
7 Reasons Protestantism is a False Gospel
I. The standard for righteousness is perfect law-keeping. This is not righteousness “apart from the law.”
II. Since perfect law-keeping defines righteousness, the law must be maintained through perfect obedience (by Christ as part of the “atonement”) which makes salvation progressive. Righteousness must be maintained because perfect law-keeping is the standard and definition of righteousness/justification. Hence, we are not saved by believing in a finished work since we cannot keep the law perfectly, but rather a perpetual imputation of perfect obedience to keep the “righteous demands of the law” satisfied. Salvation, therefore, must be progressive because a perfect standard to the law must be maintained for righteousness to exist.
III. A righteousness based on the law negates the new birth. The new birth is redefined as a process that fulfills the law of sin and death rather than a one-time transformation that releases us from the law’s condemnation. Instead of being free to fulfill the law for purposes of love via the new birth, the new birth is redefined as something that fulfills the law of sin and death.
IV. People are either lost and “under law” or saved and “under grace.” If the law has to be continually satisfied in order for us to be declared righteous, that is “under law.” A standard of perfect law-keeping, therefore, demands that Christians are still under law which is the biblical definition of a lost person.
V. Righteousness/justification defined as perfect law-keeping, according to Galatians chapter 3, adds an additional “seed” to “the promise” that can give life. The law of sin and death cannot give life—no matter who keeps it.
VI. The purpose of Christ’s resurrection is redefined as fulfilling the law of sin and death instead of ending it, and freeing God’s people to fulfill the law of the Spirit of life.
VII. It redefines the death of Christ as having perpetual efficacy because we are supposedly still under law and need forgiveness for “present sin,” but where there is no law there is no sin—the motive is now love. No further imputation is needed; imputation only occurs once.
Why Church is Bogus: Its Denial of New Birth Centrality
What’s wrong with church? Let’s be honest; you have been going to church with the same group of people for years, but the spectacle of radical change is conspicuously missing. Failure is the big news, not amazing personal growth. Some of the kids who are growing up in your church turn out ok, others end up completely off the reservation. Week in, and week out, everything is about the gospel, the gospel, the gospel. Church community is really little more than sanctified secularism, and in many cases, indicative of things that are unspeakable among the Gentiles. Church drifts from fad to fad, and functions on a steady diet of new books from celebrity pastors and other guru types. Rather than immersing themselves in the word of God, most pastors just tap into whatever is trending in church culture. Those in denial can point to the “rich personal relationships,” but believe it or not, such relationships are found in abundance among the unsaved as well.
When it gets right down to it, the only difference between the secular world and the church is labeling. Oh, but the church helps the poor? So does the world. But the church has strong marriages? So does the world, and the divorce rate is the same to boot. And, the actual differences are not commendable; often, the secular world is far less tolerant of evil.
Why? Starting as early as the 4th century, the apostolic centrality of the new birth was rejected by the church. The reason is simple: new birth is about the individual. If your literal Father is God, and your Brother is the king of the world, and you are God’s literal offspring, you have something to bring to the table in your own right. Shortly after the passing of the apostles, the church usurped the organized body of God’s family and made it an hierarchical institution.
Gospel centrality became, “Christ died for your sins,” not, “You must be born again.” The new birth, as the standard for righteousness, was replaced with the law. Instead of Christ dying to pave the way for the new birth and true righteousness, He was made, not only the substitution for sin’s debt according to the written code, but also perfect law-keeper so that our righteousness can be according to law and not “apart from the law.” The law as written code therefore remains as opposed to the law’s purpose for sanctification among the born again. Christ alone must fulfill the law with love lest you have “a righteousness of your own.”
In the official soteriology of the church, the new birth is neither here nor there because being made better still doesn’t enable you to keep the law perfectly, so the new birth serves no soteriological purpose whatsoever in the church. For all practical gospel purposes, you remain unchanged, and that’s why church is bogus. The apostles fought this same justification by law tooth and nail while they were alive, and as they warned night and day with tears, it would launch an out-out offensive after their departure. It’s called, “the church.”
It’s not complicated; supposedly, we are no longer under law because Jesus keeps/kept the law for us. Note: we are no longer under the law because the old us that was under the law literally died, not because Jesus keeps the law for us. We are either under law or under grace; it’s one or the other—it can’t be both. And of course this leads to the last days religion of antinomianism because you don’t keep the law—Jesus keeps it for you. That’s why the love of many will wax cold in the last days; churchians don’t love God and others by keeping the law, Jesus supposedly keeps it for them lest it be works justification. This is the invariable formula when justification is not a finished work. Hence, we can expect the church to be divided into two primary groups: antinomians and those tolerant of antinomianism.
ANY gospel that proclaims a substitution for fulfilling the law necessarily denies the new birth outright, or at least redefines it in an other-than-biblical way. The often heard idea that Christ was resurrected to confirm His perfect law-keeping is an egregious false gospel that reflects the same justification by law that, and I will say it again, was the primary nemesis that plagued the apostles.
You see, God tried to make this point with all kinds of manifestations of the Spirit during the apostolic period. Unfortunately, these historical events found in the gospels and the book of Acts are relegated to all kinds of mysticism. Christ wasn’t deity in the flesh because of His perfect law-keeping, he was perfect because he was born into the world by the Spirit through the virgin Mary. Christ is the Son of God and the Son of Man, or the first fruits of many made righteous by the new birth—not law-keeping. You are righteous because you are born of the Spirit, not because Jesus kept the law for you. To doubt that a believer is literally reborn by the Spirit is to also doubt, or deny, the Spirit’s like work in the virgin Mary. That’s what the Spirit does, He gives new birth. This is why unbelievers push against salvation; intuitively, they understand that who they presently are will be vanquished resulting in an all new person recreated by God. That’s radical unpredictable change that people fear.
True Christians need to begin focusing on new birth centrality. I had an interesting conversation with my five-year-old grandson while running errands in my car yesterday. The following is my best remembrance of the words:
“Papa, why are you happy all of the time?”
‘Because I am born again.’
“What does that mean?”
‘It means I have been born again into God’s family, it means God is my literal Father and Jesus is my literal brother.’
“What about our family?”
‘When you are born again, you have two families; your earthly family and your family in heaven.’
“I was born by my mommy and daddy, I was in my mommy’s tummy.”
‘Indeed you were,’ but when you are born again, you have two fathers, and many brothers and sisters who are also born into God’s family.’
As I waited for the next reply, it didn’t come, but I could tell Blayne was in deep pondering about the conversation which found me totally off-guard and frankly, ill prepared. Of course, I could have made more of the conversation, and I could have worded my responses better, but it is a start. However, a foundation was laid that can now be invoked in more conversion as we go about life. When he sins, I can now use that to revisit our original conversion and build on it. We need to leave church and the foot of the cross behind, and talk much more about the empty tomb—the hope of future glory and present love.
But the church has little need for the resurrected, because the fellowship of the resurrected is a cooperative body under one truth that operates by individual gifts—not authority. The church is a kingdom of this world striving for its stake in world dominance, for the greater good of course. The kingdom of the resurrected is not of this world, our King and brother is in heaven sitting at the right hand of our Father. The church is just another conquest endeavor of this present world among many others. This requires the following of many men, not the one mediator who is Christ.
In conclusion, if you want to pursue new birth centrality, like me, and if you would be so fortunate, you may have to find you confirmation from the mouths of children. When my daughter Heather was Blayne’s age, she wrote an essay for a school assignment that follows:
“My Dad”
My dad has brown curly hair.
My dad talks about the Lord Jesus.
His voice is a happy voice.
My dad is very happy all the time.
My dad works on cars.
I love you dad.
Funny, this is a much different perspective than I have received from church folks most of my life. According to them, I am an “angry man,” “hateful,” “rude,” “opinionated,” “a know-it-all,” “intolerant,” “an abuser,” etc., etc., etc., etc. More recently, I have been dubbed a “cultist of death” and the leader of a “tyrannical regime.” This is what I have come to learn: children see you more for what you are, adults judge you according to how comfortable you make them. In my book, I will die much better with the testimonies of children. However, there may be some merit to the adult version as children really want to simply know while adults often want to protect an agenda which I find very annoying, and no doubt with rudeness following.
In the final analysis, churchians love death and the testimony of misery. If you are a propagator of life in that culture, do not expect things to go well. Like Christ, you will not be found in the tomb of sin and death, and your glory is not a perpetual gazing at the serpent lifted up in the wilderness. You looked upon it but once, and now your tomb is empty.
paul
37 Gospel Propositions
THESE ARE DISCUSSION POINTS AND NOT POINTS OF DOGMA.
1. The word “law” pertains to the Bible and the whole counsel of God.
2. The word “gospel” pertains to the gospel of first importance and the whole counsel of God.
3. The laws in Romans 8:2 are one law with different applications for the lost and saved.
4. Antinomianism is the antitheses of love, and separates the written law from Christian living.
5. Antinomianism is the official gospel of the kingdom of darkness, and will be the predominant religion of the last days.
6. The Holy Spirit uses the law (full counsel of God) to change people. Only truth sanctifies. The Holy Spirit does not participate in errant uses of the Scripture.
7. During the era of the Old Covenant, the Holy Spirit was with believers and filled them for special tasks. During the New Covenant era, He permanently indwells them and fills them for special tasks. The permanent dwelling coincides with God’s intentions to make Jew and Gentile one body. The visible manifestation of the Spirit on Pentecost was also a sign that God had grafted Jew and Gentile together.
8. Old Covenant era believers were born again apart from the permanent indwelling. This means they had the seed of God within them apart from the permanent indwelling.
9. Saints ARE righteous BECAUSE of God and new creaturehood. Saints are righteous in and of themselves though it is a righteousness that comes from God as a gift, yet the saints possess this gift in its fullness. Saints are not just positionally righteous, they are righteous.
10. Eschatology is soteriology. Eschatology is a stated gospel. Eschatology is NOT “secondary truth.” More than one resurrection and judgment is consistent with justification as a finished work. Progressive justification is consistent with one resurrection and one judgment.
11. Epistemology is divided into two categories: “secret things” and “revealed things.” Man is able to understand the revealed things and is responsible to apply revelation to his life.
12. All three members of the Trinity were fully involved in the plan of salvation and its execution, and all three members are fully involved in our sanctification along with us.
13. God preordained the plan of salvation completely separate from man, but man has a role in accepting the gift of salvation.
14 Justification and sanctification are completely separate. Justification is a finished work that is offered as a gift. Sanctification is a progressive work that receives rewards. Justification and sanctification are separate and distinct according to gift versus reward.
15. Christians will not stand in a judgment that confirms justification; they will stand in a judgment that determines rewards. Only the eternally condemned will appear at the White Throne Judgment.
16. The four parts of soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) are, definitive sanctification, justification, progressive sanctification, and redemption.
17. The covenants are building blocks that create the full picture of God’s plan for the ages. They are also promises. The covenant is only fulfilled when the promise is fulfilled.
18. The New Covenant is better than the Old Covenant because the New Covenant is an ending of sin and the Old Covenant is a covering of sin until faith comes.
19. The sins of Old Covenant era believers were imputed to the Old Covenant, and then the Old Covenant purpose of the law for believers was ended at the cross. The sins of those who now believe are no longer merely covered, but ended. This is because Christ went to the cross to end the law, and therefore all of the sin imputed to it as well.
20. Where there is no law, there is no sin. Therefore, the saints do not sin against justification. In regard to justification, the saints are perfect because there is no law. Their sin is against love in the family of God which grieves the Holy Spirit who has sealed them until the day of redemption. “Sin” must be qualified according to these different perspectives.
21. Creation and the body are NOT “broken” or inherently evil; they are “weak.” The body can be used for holy purposes by the believer. The creation moans with us for redemption.
23. The Old Covenant still serves the purpose of imputation for unbelievers. Though that role is ended for believers because Christ died on the cross to end the law, the sins of unbelievers are still imputed to the “law of sin and death.” This is the law that condemns them, and they will be judged by it at the Great White Throne Judgment. When one believes, all of their sin is ended along with the law—they are no longer “under law,” but “under grace.” The latter involves being led by the Spirit according to the same law, but for love without condemnation.
24. Obedience, submission, etc., are synonymous with love. Love and obedience cannot be separated in sanctification. If Christ obeys the law for us in sanctification because our sins are only covered and not ended, the Christian cannot love God—they are still under law.
25. It is not enough to believe in the historical facts of the gospel of first order (the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ), we must also believe in the promise that we follow Christ in the literal death of our personhood that was under the law, and that we are resurrected with Christ to serve the law of the Spirit of life. It is the belief that we have escaped the condemnation of the law, and are now free to obey the law in loving service to Christ and others.
26. Those under the law produce wages of death and fruits for death; those under grace produce rewards and fruits of righteousness guided by the law and the Spirit’s help.
27. Unbelievers can do good works apart from loving God’s law. Hence, their good works are selective according to their own conscience or fear of consequences. Because hell will be more tolerable for some as opposed to others, human works obviously have merit.
28. This is why unbelievers are indifferent to the law, while believers love the law. “Merit” of some sort is not the issue—love is the issue. When we are told to not “live by a bunch of do’s and don’ts, we are really being instructed not to love.
28. The law encourages us with promises, gives us hope, teaches us about God’s purposes in history, and teaches us how God thinks. Even though the applications of God’s purposes change over time, the fundamentals are the same. For example, we may not apply certain civil laws of the Mosaic law to our present lives, but God’s purposes in those laws may certainly have an application for us today. We do not have slaves in our culture, but a Christian business owner may apply the principles of some of those civil laws to his/her’s business; i.e., it is important for people to get rest! Overworking people, or for that matter animals, is a moral issue. Just because Christians are not under specific applications of many Mosaic laws, it does not mean that the information thereof has no application for us today. In fact, there is always a principle to be applied although the application may be different. The application may be applied to an employee rather than a slave. This is why ALL Scripture is applicable to the Christian life.
29. During the tribulation period, God will send angels to enforce the covenant that was originally made with Israel at Mt. Sinai. This seems to be instigated by the covenant Israel makes with hell, which will be annulled. At the end of the tribulation period which marks the beginning of the millennial kingdom, God will completely consummate the New Covenant which will entail the writing of the law on the heart of every Israelite. Again, SAME law, but unlike today, it will not have to be learned by Israel. They will teach the law to the nations and will be the “head and not the tail.” ALL of Israel will be saved—to be a citizen of Israel will be part and parcel with eternal salvation.
30. The new heaven and new earth will usher in pure righteousness. Heavenly Jerusalem will descend from heaven and God will dwell with man. This is the city that Abraham looked for. This is also the bride of Christ—the “church” is NOT the bride of Christ.
31. The colaboring between the saints and the Holy Spirit is seamless in its experience.
32. All tenets are exegetical and from Scripture.
33. Orthodoxy is the Reformed version of mythology’s metaphysical narrative. It is not synonymous with truth, and adds a mediator between God and mankind other than Jesus Christ.
34. Every person born into the world has the law of God written on their hearts with a conscience that either accuses or excuses their actions. That law also testifies to their minds concerning the existence of God.
35. Christ died for all men. Therefore, all of mankind is able to escape the condemnation of the law.
36. The Holy Spirit convicts all men of sin and the judgment to come.
37. Election concerns means of salvation and groups, not individuals.
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
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