An Introduction to TANC 2015: Why the Protestant Reformation is a Lie
Protestants don’t know anything. That’s not a derogatory remark, it’s merely a staple of Reformed ideology. It’s who we are supposed to be. Protestantism is predicated on the idea of spiritual caste as an accepted norm. The average Protestant parishioner is not supposed to know anything, and again, this is an accepted norm. In fact, many Protestant laymen who didn’t get the memo will concur; knowing something in the institutional church will usually get you in trouble. If you know something, you lack humbleness, and are trying to undermine… The Pastor.
This should not surprise us at all if we understand our authentic roots and the ideology of our spiritual heroes. Though Martin Luther’s 95 Theses is credited with launching the Reformation, its first and defining doctrinal statement came six months later in the form of the Heidelberg Disputation to the Augustinian Order. In the 22nd thesis of that document, Luther declared knowledge to be a vice that does nothing but puff people up, and like with all lust, it can never be satisfied. Luther’s disdain for reason is well documented, referring to it as…
Reason is the Devil’s greatest whore; by nature and manner of being she is a noxious whore; she is a prostitute, the Devil’s appointed whore; whore eaten by scab and leprosy who ought to be trodden under foot and destroyed, she and her wisdom … Throw dung in her face to make her ugly. She is and she ought to be drowned in baptism… She would deserve, the wretch, to be banished to the filthiest place in the house, to the closets.
Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but more frequently than not struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God.
Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed. Faith must trample underfoot all reason, sense, and understanding, and whatever it sees must be put out of sight and … know nothing but the word of God.
There is on earth among all dangers no more dangerous thing than a richly endowed and adroit reason… Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed.
Reason should be destroyed in all Christians.
Whoever wants to be a Christian should tear the eyes out of his Reason.
To be a Christian, you must “pluck out the eye of reason.”
In our day, this fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree as reflected in this quote by a pastor sent to our ministry by one of his former parishioners:
Paul told the Corinthian church that “‘knowledge’ puffs up but love builds up” (1Cor 8:1). So, if you love knowledge and look into the word of God to gain mere knowledge and you absolutely love doing it to the exclusion or ignoring of everything else, you may be “puffed up” and indeed not “building up.”…. Puffiness rips and tears. Puffiness pushes people away. Puffiness divides. Perhaps even more critical is the fact that puffiness portrays a small gospel and devastatingly distorts God’s glory.
To the puffy I say, “Stop studying your Bible.” Go on a quest for Jesus. He is the Word! Study Him, not it.
Studying Jesus and not any knowledge regarding Jesus is the most popular rendering of 1Corithians 2:2 in our day: we are supposed to make every effort to know NOTHING but Christ and him crucified. After all, according to another popular truism in our day, “He is a person—not a precept.”
Of course, most Protestants would deny all of this out of hand when confronted, but the roots and foundation of Protestant ideology has at least resulted in a lax view of knowledge while leaving the thinking to Protestant academia. Some well-known evangelicals such as Dr. Jay Adams have stated the obvious: Protestants are biblically illiterate, and have no wisdom in regard to Christian living other than God-given commonsense and even that is at an all-time low.
Christians, who strive for wisdom and spiritual maturity in the institutional church, if they don’t give up, will eventually find themselves in turmoil and at a crossroads. Striding towards commonsense spiritual objectives will continually put them at odds with the Protestant herd. I was certainly no exception. As someone who was always considered knowledgeable wherever I attended church as a Baptist, in reality, I knew nothing. The knowledge that I had accumulated in various seminaries and Bible colleges was all but worthless. Though I read and studied my Bible more than most, I understood little of it. Most of what I read made no sense at all. Nevertheless, I deemed myself knowledgeable relative to the environment, yet in my heart, I knew the Christian life made no sense and I was for the most part confused. In reality, I was good at constructing Protestant sentences with orthodox bumper stickers and pithy truisms.
So, I set out on a journey eight years ago to search for clarity after 23 years of confusion and strife. The part of my journey that really made everything come together began in 2011 when I embarked on a personal study of Paul’s letter to the Romans. I was determined to make this the time—the endeavor that would reveal once and for all what I was searching for: why my God seemed to be a God of confusion. I prayed earnestly at the beginning of the study that I would just let Paul’s words say what they plainly said. If something he wrote was definitive, I would use that as a building block of understanding.
Though I stayed true to the plan, not much happened until Romans 4:15. That’s the day my life came to a full stop.
For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
What in the world did Paul mean by that? NO law, NO sin: especially in the context; speaking of Christians. I kept it mind and continued to work through the letter. Then I came to Romans 5:13…
for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.
There it was again: no law, no sin. I stopped there in my verse by verse study and read through the rest of the letter and found the following:
Romans 7:6 – But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. 7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.
Apart from the law sin lies dead. There it is again. No law, no sin. Then I read the following as well:
Romans 10:4 – For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Conclusion: Christ died on the cross to end the law, and where there is no law, there is no sin. That’s how Christ took my sins away: He died on the cross to end the law. The true Christian is free from any judgement or condemnation—we are not under the jurisdiction of the law.
I wasn’t the least bit sure where this left the law in regard to the Christian life, but pondering the simple fact that we are no longer condemned was exhilarating and freeing. The old self that was under the law of sin and death died with Christ; you can’t indict a dead person, they are no longer under the law. And even if you exhumed my body and presented it in court, the judge has no law in which to convict me (Rom 7:1-6). There is NOW no condemnation for those in Christ (Rom 8:1).
Again, I was not sure where this left the law in regard to the believer’s life, but I had my building block; part of the pieces fit together which would lead to more pieces fitting and an increased understanding of the bigger picture.
Then I came to Romans 8:2.
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
Remember, I had committed to simply letting the words say what they say. As a result, I saw something in this verse that I had never seen before; clearly, Paul wrote of two separate laws…the law of the Spirit, which I had always thought of as the Spirit’s realm of influence, and the law of sin and death.
“Wait a minute here,” I thought to myself. “If the law of sin and death refers to the written law that condemns mankind, and the two laws spoken of here are the same Greek word, and they are, why would one refer to a realm while the other one referred to a written law? Could it be that this is two perspectives on the same law?” I knew that a literal take on this verse would demand that, and then John 17:17 came to mind:
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Then another verse came to mind:
And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment (Jn 16:8).
That’s when I realized that the law has two different applications/perspectives: one for the lost and one for the saved. But verses were not done coming to mind:
Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law (Rom 13:10).
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love (Gal 5:6).
So, the Christian is free to aggressively love God and others through obedience without ANY fear of condemnation:
There is no fear in love, but perfect [mature] love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected [matured, or growing] in love (1Jn 4:18).
Therefore, why the Reformation is a lie is not complicated at all. This SIMPLE fact makes Protestant theology a house of cards: it keeps so-called believers under the law of sin and death; its very definition of a Christian is the Bible’s definition of a lost person…under law (Rom 6:14). Protestantism is predicated on a single perspective on the law that Christians remain under; they remain under condemnation. This condemnation is covered by Christ’s righteousness as the “Christian” lives by faith alone. Living by faith alone works (usually some kind of ritual like “preaching the gospel to ourselves everyday”) imputes the obedience of Christ to our Christian lives as a way to keep ourselves justified. The Reformed call this “double imputation.”
Once one gets past all of the theological Protestant-speak, it boils down to extremely simple theological math: a Christian is NOT free to love—Jesus must love for us lest it be works salvation. And it almost goes without saying that there is a love famine in the institutional church for this very reason. The Protestant is not free to love, but must focus on a convoluted life formula that supposedly imputes the righteousness of Christ to our lives and thereby keeps us saved. Yes, this is the dirty little secret: total depravity doesn’t merely apply to the unregenerate, but also to the “saints.”
Yes, yes, many a Protestant doth protest against this accusation because few Protestants know what Protestantism is. Nevertheless, it is a false gospel that denies the new birth and keeps people under law and not under grace—a grace that frees the individual to aggressively love without fear of condemnation and the mire of unhealthy introspection.
We are saved APART from the law of sin and death…period (Rom 3:21), and it does NOT matter who keeps the law, the law of sin and death itself is the issue. Salvation is accomplished by the ENDING of the law of sin and death—not the fulfilling of it. Christ came to fulfill the law of the Spirit of life (and love) through us (Rom 8:4)…NOT the law of sin and death.
That would make the law of sin and death a co-life-giver with Christ. The law cannot give life unto salvation. If Christ fulfilled the law of sin and death with loving obedience to the Father, that law is a co-life-giver. That is Paul’s entire point in Galatians chapter 3. There is only ONE seed. If we are still under the law, the law is an additional seed that can give life…but there is only ONE!
Hence, Protestantism goes the way of most other false religions; some ritual or tradition fulfills the law of sin and death and separates the individual from the freedom to love without condemnation and according to the law of the Spirit of life. Love is replaced by obeying men and faithfulness to their institutions. The law of love is replaced with the traditions of men and their orthodoxy.
Consequently, we are in a Protestant dark age. In the same way that secular America has awakened to the failure of the elitist political class, Christians must awaken to realize the failure of Protestant academia. The assembly of Christ was a laity movement, and only the laity can return God’s people to the truth of the gospel. This is a repeat of history when God’s elect where continually troubled by the 1st century Gnostic elitists. Paul wrote to them…
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
Likewise, the beloved James addressed the problem as well:
Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?
This is our mission at TANK, to aid the priesthood of believers in rediscovering the truth of the gospel and kingdom living robbed from us by 500 years of Protestant orthodoxy. The light has been covered by the Protestant basket long enough, and this is a matter of simple theological math: the new birth is the standard of righteousness, NOT the law of sin and death, and it matters not who keeps it—it CANNOT give life.
So, the speakers at this year’s conference are partaking in this journey in the arena of ideas. This is an issue that addresses every area of life and culture. Other than the gospel of first importance stated here, everything is being examined and revisited. It’s not group think, it’s collective truth made up of individuals seeking the one mind of Christ, not the traditions of men.
Let all be convinced according to their own conscience. Protestant elitists will not stand in our stead regardless of their claims, but each person will give an account for the sum and substance of their own lives. Let us do it with trembling and fear; not any fear of condemnation, but a fear of trading the life of Christ for the death of tyranny.
Because only truth sanctifies,
Paul M. Dohse
Bible Prophesy is Directly Linked to Assurance of Salvation: Part Two
The contention of part one states that assurance of salvation is contrary to Protestant soteriology because “Christians” remain under the law, or “under the eyes of the law,” and condemnation cannot be separated from being under the law of sin and death.
Also, because all remain under the law of sin and death, final justification must take place at a judgment where the law is present.
A third point that will be added here is also relevant: if we remain under the law of sin and death, Christ could not have come to end the law, but rather fulfill it in our stead as a covering or imputation perpetually obtained by returning to the same gospel that saved us. In our Heidelberg Disputation series, evangelical and John MacArthur associate Phil Johnson is quoted as stating that as the very definition of faith.
Sin is Empowered by Condemnation
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Both “righteousness” and “justification” come from the same Greek word, dikaiosynē. For all practical purposes, Romans 10:4 can also read, “the end of the law for justification.” The two words, righteousness and justification, mean the same thing.
Nevertheless, Protestant soteriology is predicated on the idea that Christ fulfilled the righteous demands of the law through His own obedience, and Christians must keep the law satisfied by faith alone in what Christ accomplished in His death AND life. Therefore, the Christian “rests and feeds” on Christ in order to keep the righteous demands of the law satisfied. The final judgment determines who rested in Christ’s works well enough to qualify for heaven rather than having a “righteousness of their own.”
In contrast, multiple judgments/resurrections allow for judgment based on something other than condemnation. If Christians are no longer under the law’s condemnation, there is no reason to be present at any judgment where there is law. Our fear is to be judged by the law; it goes without saying that if we will not even be present at such a judgment, assurance is greatly enhanced. There is a resurrection of the “just” and “unjust” because one’s condition when resurrected is already a settled issue. These are two separate resurrections.
What then is the standard for righteousness? Not law, but the new birth. This is a concept that stands in opposition to the status qua of world philosophy; the infusion of the divine into mortal man is not possible. To the contrary, we have this treasure in “clay vessels.” The body is not inherently evil, but weak. A clay vessel is weak—not evil. The new spirit is willing, “but the flesh is weak.”
Sin resides wherever there is mortality, but is empowered by condemnation. If you take away sin’s ability to condemn, it cannot enslave.
1 Corinthians 15:56 – The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
A saved person receives a new heart that is no longer indifferent to God’s law, but rather loves God’s law. Psalm 119 is a psalm of the saved person who is truly born again (1John 3) and loves God’s law. The unregenerate are indifferent to God’s law and are condemned by it, and will be judged by it.
Sin makes its appeal to the flesh through desire; believers have the wherewithal to say no for the most part because they are not under law or its condemnation. They have been freed to serve God through love as properly defined by the same law. The believer does not keep the law perfectly because sin still resides in mortality…
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
However, this has no bearing on the believers true state of being, i.e., a true child of God who has a righteous nature by birth.
The Other Salvation and the Other Fear
As discussed in part one, what is Philippians 2:12,13 really talking about? If you believe in one salvation, one resurrection, and one judgment, this text must be interpreted as pertaining to the salvation of the soul.
Hence, we are working out our salvation while properly motivated by fear of condemnation, a “sanctification” principle wholly endorsed by Luther and Calvin in no uncertain terms, and God actively works through our passive will to accomplish this IF we live by faith alone. The text calls on us to obey, but this is really the “obedience of faith” or “obedient faith” that is performed by God through us as we live by faith alone and progressively accomplishes our salvation.
However, though that seems to fit very well at first, it makes the Spirit a poor communicator and a God of confusion because Paul first tells us to obey, then seems to say that it is God who is really doing the work. Who is obeying, God or us?
A clearer understanding can be demonstrated. There remains a salvation left for the believer which is redemption. Salvation of the soul and redemption are not the same. Redemption is the other salvation; it is the salvation of the body where sin still resides. The apostle Paul asked the rhetorical question: “Who will save me from this body of death?” At some point, Christ will come to claim what He has already purchased with His blood—that’s redemption, and salvation from weakness that makes sin possible in the born again believer.
Redemption: the Other Salvation
This is what Paul is calling on us to work out through obedience: our sanctification or progressive setting apart until God completely finishes the work when we are resurrected. It is us doing the obedience. This does not exclude God working in us as well; it is not one or the other, it is both. As God’s children, He will always make sure we have enough in the tank to obey and work in our sanctification.
But with that comes a great responsibility. Though we are never to fear in regard to our justification, there is a fear in sanctification because “judgment begins in the household of God.” This is present chastisement that can occur in many forms for using our salvation as a cloak for unrighteousness. As believers we are called on to work hard in sanctification, a jurisdiction of love where there is no fear of eternal judgment. However, there is a fear of present chastisement that should be taken seriously.
This is the other fear, but it is NOT fear of condemnation. It is fear of chastisement.
Definitive Assurance
Our assurance comes from the definitive knowledge that we are not under the law, and the law cannot judge us or condemn us. We are not under the bondage of condemnation, nor the fear thereof; there is no fear in love. Consequently, our assurance is enhanced as we actively engage in our calling to love God and others.
Fear has to do with judgment, and the law of sin and death has no jurisdiction over the child of God. This is why John wrote that indeed, we can KNOW we are saved. Moreover, we will not appear at any judgment that involves the law of sin and death. We are not under law, but under grace.
paul
The Imputation of Christ’s Righteousness Denies God as Father
Originally published March 10, 2015
One of the most popular truisms in our day is the often-heard “righteousness of Christ” mantra. “We have the righteousness of Christ,” “The imputation of Christ’s righteousness,” etc. The mantra is indicative of the rampant last-day’s false gospel propagated by the institutional church.
The Bible never states that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us or covers us, but rather states that we have the righteousness of God. Why is this seemingly technical difference all-important? Because the notion distorts the identity of the Trinity. God is no longer a father, and Christ is no longer our brother.
Have you ever wondered why God is called the Father? Because a father is able to give life—the same kind of life that makes up his own essence; in this case, righteousness. Because we are fathered by God through the Holy Spirit via the new birth, we are not merely declared righteous, we are MADE righteous. Therefore, the Reformation’s forensic justification gospel denies the Trinity and the new birth.
The idea that we can’t really be righteous and are only declared righteous further denies that God is a true father. How? It denies that we are truly born of God because we fall short of keeping the law perfectly. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul argues that this replaces the seed of God with the law and actually makes the law a life-giving seed. Paul states that only one seed was promised to Abraham and his offspring (Christ), not two, and “God is one.”
The primary point of Galatians 3:10-20 is that God the Father is the only one who gives life, He is the one seed. “The promise” spoken of is the promise of the new birth through the one seed. If you note the passage carefully, “the promise” was made to Abraham and Christ. No law can give life, nor can an “intermediary” (verse 20) which probably speaks to Moses or the angels or both.
Christ’s role was/is that of Brother.
“Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters” (NIV).
“For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers” (ESV).
The “one source” is God the Father, and because of Him, Christ is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. Christ died for us, and God’s promise to Abraham and Christ was that many would be raised to glory with Christ. The impartation of righteousness was not Christ’s role in salvation—His role was to pay the penalty for our sins.
Notice in the aforementioned citations from Hebrews 2:11 that we are “made” holy and “are” holy. If that is negated by an inability to keep the law perfectly, that makes the law a co-life-giver with God the Father. But there is only one God and only one seed.
What makes a believer holy is the regeneration of the heart through the new birth. The saved person is literally born of God’s seed (1John 3:9). Because of our mortal state, this results in a change of direction, not perfection. The Bible describes it as a reversal of slavery and freedom (Romans 6:20). But at any rate, Christ came to end the law for judging our holiness (Romans 10:4). If it wasn’t for the weakness of our mortal bodies, we would not sin and therefore we long for resurrection (Romans 7:23-25).
The idea that Christ kept the law perfectly so His righteousness can be imputed to us makes the law a co-life-giver with God, makes Christ both father and brother, denies that the Holy Spirit raised Christ from the dead per “the promise,” and makes the law part of the Trinity.
It’s a really, really bad idea and an egregious false gospel. God is one, not many. There is only one life-giver, and that’s why we call Him “Father.”
paul
Helping People with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Obsessive-compulsive behavior (OCD) “is an anxiety disorder characterized by uncontrollable, unwanted thoughts and repetitive, ritualized behaviors you feel compelled to perform.” The common symptom most of us are familiar with is excessive handwashing. However, the experts also associate OCD with hoarding.
That’s interesting. According to the experts, many hoarders smitten with OCD fear that something bad will happen to them if they throw away certain items. I can relate as I will not throw a Bible away. I relate the trash with things that are of no value. When I first became acclimated to the use of computers I was emailing a close friend. I wouldn’t delete his emails because the lingo for the email service I was using was “trash.” I soon learned how to use email folders to store all of his emails. Likewise, I will not throw away cards people send me, especially family. So, I would disagree with the experts that hoarding is completely fear driven. I think other issues are at play in regard to hoarding while not excluding fear altogether from that equation.
Things like excessive handwashing are easier to address because clearly that is fear driven. The Bible is pretty clear on the dynamics of fear. First of all, we know that the works of the law are written on the hearts of all people born into the world. That means valuing life is intuitive. We are wired to love life. And of course, that is one of the many reasons that I have devoted what’s left of my life to exposing the dangers of Protestantism; the doctrine is predicated on the total depravity of man and mankind’s inherent worthlessness. So, what’s up with the anti-abortion movement? Well, with any religion, fewer numbers in the pool of resources is not beneficial, but that is a subject for another time and probably better addressed by Sean over at Oligarchy White Paper.
So, healthy and wise fear defends life; that’s first. Let’s now discuss what gets healthy fear out of whack according to the Bible. This will also explain why Protestantism will be no stranger by any means to OCD. Fear has to do with judgement or CONDEMNATION.
Fear has to do with judgement, or eternal condemnation, and judgement follows death. This is why people fear death: because they know intuitively that judgement follows death. Invariably, death means giving an account to God. The Bible states that the sting of death is the law because the law condemns.
1Corinthians 15:56 – The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Sin is empowered by condemnation. If you take away sin’s ability to condemn, it has no purpose to exist. Sin is described in the Bible as a “master” that seeks to enslave. It does so through fear of judgement. Therefore, sin is empowered by the law. No law, no condemnation, and death has no sting (fear of the judgement that comes afterward). The crux of unhealthy fear is ignorance in regard to law.
This is an “imputation” that is not discussed nearly enough in Christian circles. ALL sin is against the law. This is the way God set things up. This is reality. As the law was added over the years, sin increased. Nevertheless, this is why Christ died on the cross, to END the law. Christ didn’t go to the cross to die for sins per se, but all sin against the law. When Christ died on the cross, He cancelled the law and all sin against it. He also cancelled any judgement or condemnation; the judge has no law from which to convict.
Keep in mind, there has always been the law of God written on the hearts of every individual that is administered by the conscience, and either accusing or excusing us, but God added the written code for the purpose of imputing sin. All sin is against the law (1John 3:4). The written code was added for the express purpose of holding sin captive (Galatians 3:22).
Let’s take a look at a particular Old Testament passage.
Zechariah 3:1 – Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” 3 Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. 4 And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” 5 And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by.
6 And the angel of the Lord solemnly assured Joshua, 7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. 8 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch. 9 For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. 10 In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.”
The new garments are NOT Christ. The new garments represent the righteousness of the Old Testament saint as a result of believing in the coming branch that would take away the sins of the world, not just cover them. If anything, other than representing righteousness, the new clothing would represent the law before it would represent Christ. The Old Testament saint, along with his/her sins, was held captive by the law of condemnation until Christ died on the cross to end the law and “set the captives free.”
But don’t get lost in all of the theology. Here is the simple point: those who are under grace are able to keep fear in perspective. There are only two people groups in the world: under law, and under grace (Romans 6:14). The Bible is very specific about the difference: those under law face judgment according to the law and certain condemnation. This empowers sin and puts the sting in death leading to all kinds of unhealthy fear in various and sundry forms.
Where confusion comes, in follows the idea that there is no law in grace. The law (the Bible) is the Holy Spirit’s law; He will use it to convict the world of sin and the judgement to come, or He will use it to sanctify believers. This comes about by believers learning about the Bible and using its wisdom for the sole purpose of loving God and others while knowing that the law’s ability to condemn has been cancelled. For the believer, death is still an affront to their love of life, but death doesn’t threaten to condemn them for eternity. Those under threat of judgement may be given to debilitating fear. “The unbelieving flee when no one pursues.”
Let’s pause to examine a particular verse:
1John 4:18 – There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
Unfortunately, the English doesn’t do well in accurately reflecting the Greek word “mature” in this verse. Mature love casts out fear. Those who are overtaken with fear are not maturing in love. This verse is better thought of in this way:
There is no law in love, but those who are growing in grace experience a casting away of the law’s condemnation because law has to do with judgement. Those who have a hopeless fear of death are not learning the law and applying it to their lives in order to love God and others. This is what casts out fear.
This is why OCD will be just as prevalent among Protestants as it will be among the under law crowd. Protestantism has a singular perspective on the law: it can only condemn. This results in confusion about law among many professing Christians. Because there is only one perspective on the law, i.e., it must be kept perfectly in order to fulfill righteousness, complex soteriologies emerge that seek to fulfill the law via substitutions of all sorts. Think, “various and sundry denominations.”
For the most part, these false constructs replace the pursuit of love via the law with rituals that fulfill the law completely in our stead. In the case of the Galatians, they replaced “faith WORKING through love” with circumcision and the observance of days and dietary laws. They believed this fulfilled the whole law in their place. Whether folks want to face up to it or not, Martin Luther and John Calvin did the exact same thing with the following construct:
If you obey these certain rituals, the perfect obedience of Christ to the law will be imputed to your life, and this will keep you justified positionally.
But that’s still under law. It matters not who keeps the law—under law is still under law.
The fearful person must know that the law cannot condemn them. They must know that there is NOW…NO condemnation for those who believe in Christ (Romans 8:1). Death is indeed unfortunate and sad, but to the one under grace it does not destroy the present life as well through unhealthy fear.
The motives for obedience by the one under grace should not be questioned because obedience for justification is a metaphysical impossibility. The only reason left for one under grace to obey the law is love. But if you will notice…
…the fearful are crippled in their ability to love others, no?
For example, those who have an unreasonable fear of crowds will fail to support loved ones at special events, etc. When you are spending all of your time washing your hands along with all sorts of other preventative rituals, it is obviously more difficult to serve others. And unfortunately, these fears become habit patterns. The body will be trained over time to react to certain situations and fears in habitual ways.
We are created in the image of God and have many of God’s characteristics…but it is never said that God fears as far as I can tell from the Scriptures. After Adam and Eve disobeyed God, fear indeed was the very first symptom causing Adam and Eve to hide from God. Death brings us face to face with God.
But those under grace have no need to fear judgement or condemnation from God. The Bible states that this particular fear of condemnation is the source of fear run amuck, and it cripples our ability to love. Christ died on the cross so that we can follow Him in death—this is the Spirit’s baptism. One who is dead is not under the law (Romans 7:1ff). Even if your body is exhumed and taken into court, the judge has no law to judge you with for Christ ended it. You only went to one court hearing after you were resurrected to new life: adoption court where the Holy Spirit stood with you and testified that you have been adopted by God the Father. He knows, He resurrected you with the same power that He resurrected Christ with.
The unbelieving must be born again, and the Protestant must come to a proper understanding of the law. The fearful must follow Christ in the baptism of the Holy Spirit through trust in what both have accomplished for us. In both cases, unhealthy fear is robbed of its power. Death is unpleasant, but not a terror. Slowly but surely, fearful believers who keep reminding themselves that they are not under condemnation will replace fear with love more and more.
Christ came that we may have life, and have it more abundantly. It is our duty to call on believers to seize and lay upon the many precious promises secured by Christ on the cross through horrendous suffering. Seize upon the purpose of his death, that is, to give life. Christ died for life, not more death…unless you speak of the former self.
Romans 8:14 – For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
As Christians love more and more, their consciences do not condemn them. The law written on the heart is still operative. If Christians are weak in love, an accusatory conscience can tempt them to believe they are still under condemnation of the law. When Christians violate their conscience whether biblically informed or not, they should seek fatherly forgiveness, but not forgiveness to prevent condemnation. By the way, part of the cure for fearful Christians is to address God as Father in prayer, not just God, especially a god of condemnation. Christ did not come to condemn the world, but to save it. Also, the Bible is clear: Christians should fear present consequences for sin, but NEVER eternal condemnation.
I know that a popular consensus claims that ALL phobias are a medical problem. Nevertheless, the spiritual aspect should always be addressed. In most cases, the need for medication will eventually vanquish, and with the doctor being in agreement. I must point out that I am aware of situations where medical doctors insisted that medication for such things are an ongoing need for life, and such did not end up being the case at all. In most cases, it is a spiritual problem.
And by the way: counseling that teaches the fearful to devalue life is an ill-advised solution. The fear of death may be gone because life deserves death anyway, but that will hardly lead to a life of love. Obviously.
paul
The Key to Revival: Stop Saying “Sins of the Flesh”. The Flesh is NOT Sinful
Protestantism wasn’t born of Gnosticism; it was born of Neo-Platonism which became Gnosticism. Most Protestants would deny that they are Gnostics, but because the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree, they often embrace ideology that is Gnostic. In other words, they are functioning Gnostics.
The prime example is the whole “sins of the flesh” Christian mantra. That’s not a biblical idea, and is essentially Gnostic.
A primary tenet of Gnosticism is Either/Or epistemology. If you pay attention to the words used in this Sunday’s sermon, more than likely, you will notice that everything is either/or with no middle ground. I realize that the Bible does contain sentences that refer to the “desires of the flesh” and “sins of the flesh,” but that refers to when the flesh, the bodily members, are used for sinful purposes. Please note that the Bible also states that we can use our members for holy purposes as well.
Furthermore, the Bible even states that as believers, our bodies are the temples of God. Moreover, a more careful examination reveals that the reference to “temple” in regard to our bodies actually refers to the Holy of Holies. If you think you can presently hear Calvin and Luther rolling and screaming in their graves in response to that assertion—the problem is not in your cranium set.
If you are actually free to present your body as a living sacrifice to God in the Holy of Holies, what do you need the vast Protestant industrial complex for? You don’t.
The flesh is NOT sinful, according to the Bible; it is “weak.” The idea that weakness is part and parcel with the evil material world is a Gnostic presupposition. For example, the holy angels are weaker than God, no?
Pastors, do you want revival? Stop telling your parishioners that they are “sinners saved by grace.” They are not sinners; they are literally a nation of holy priests.
“But we still sin.”
If you just said that, you are not fit for the ministry—you don’t even understand Biblical Law/Gospel 101.
Get with the program. You will never have revival with a bunch of sinners—that would seem evident. Grow up in Christ, and stop listening to men. You are like my adorable grandson, Blaine, who is 4 years old. He is a great listener and repeats everything he hears.
That’s just adorable, but when grown men who dare to call themselves pastors do the same thing—not so much.
paul
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
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