NINE AWFUL
FALLACIES
Nine awful fallacies that seek to excuse
sin, and which Satan uses to defeat the purpose of Christ in
the lives of those who believe them:
There are some men who put in their
creed, 'We sin every day, in thought, word, and deed.' Then,
ignoring God's laws, they will often proceed To walk with
the devil, and live by their creed.
Fallacy No. 1---Those who insist upon
teaching that "we sin every day in thought, word, and deed"
will often quote Paul's words. "There is none righteous, no,
not one" (Romans 3:10). They insist that this applies to
Christians, and many are misled to believe that it does,
because their preacher or Sunday School teacher says it
does. But does it? Let us see. Here is the complete passage:
"As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.
There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh
after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are
together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their
tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asps in under
their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery
are in their ways and the way of peace have they not known."
Can it be truly said of Christians, "The way of peace have
they not known." Surely then it is indeed a fallacy or false
teaching, to say that this passage applies to Christians,
and to use it as proof that Christians sin every day, or
that there is "none righteous" among those who have repented
of their sins.
Fallacy No. 2---might be called "the
filthy rags fallacy." Many, many times those who teach that
"we sin every day," quote in defense of their statement.
"Our righteousness are as filthy rags." And multitudes hear
this quotation and are misled to believe that it applies to
Christians. Let us see if it does. The only place the
passage is found in the Bible is in Isaiah 64:6. Here is the
whole passage: "But we are all as an uncleaned thing, and
all our righteousness are as filthy rags. And we do all fade
as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us
away. And there is none that calleth upon Thy Name that
stirreth up himself to take hold of Thee. For Thou hast hid
Thy face from us and hast consumed us because of our
iniquities" (Isaiah 64:6 and 7).
Should this picture of the backslidden
Jewish nation be used to describe the normal Christian Life?
Surely, only the devil would like to have it so, and some
Bible teachers are fooled enough by his Satanic Majesty to
teach what he wants them to teach.
Fallacy No. 3---Often those who defend
the idea that we "sin every day" will tell their hearers
that "conscience is not safe as a guide." It is true that
the Word of God must be used to enlighten the individual
conscience more and more: and true also that some conscience
are more enlightened than others. But at the same time it is
wrong to say that one should not follow one's conscience.
"Conscience,' says Webster, "is the moral sense within which
urges to right conduct." Conscience will always lead us to
follow the Word of God so far as we know it. And conscience
will also lead us to study more of the Word of God. A man
can ignore and even "sear" his conscience, but if followed,
it will lead him in the right direction.
No one at any time should disregard his
conscience. The apostle Paul said' "Herein do I exercise
myself to have always a conscience void of offence toward
God and toward men." In other words "I always try to keep a
clear conscience" (Acts 24:16).
Paul's exhortation to Timothy leaves no
doubt about this matter of conscience. He says, "That thou
mightest war a good warfare, holding faith and a good
conscience; which some having put away concerning faith,
have made shipwreck" (I Tim. 1:19). A moral shipwreck,
indeed, is any man who disregard his conscience.
Fallacy No. 4---One of the most absurd of
all modern fallacies is to teach that "we cannot keep God's
commandments." Yet, believe it or not, many teachers are
actually teaching this to their congregations. So let us see
what God says about it and what Jesus the Son of God from
Heaven taught. More than 3000 years before such teachers
were born God spoke in an uncertain terms about the
imperative necessity of keeping His commandments. Let us
note especially whether God really meant that the Jews
should keep His commandments.
Through Moses, God said, "Know therefore
this day and consider it in thine heart that the Lord He is
God in Heaven above and upon the earth beneath. There is
none else. Thou shalt keep therefore His statutes and His
commandments which I command thee this day, that it may go
well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that
thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth..."
"These words which I command thee this
day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them
diligently unto thy children, and thou shalt talk of them
when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by
the way, and when thou liest down and when thou risest
up---ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord
your God---Know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God,
the faithful God which keepeth covenant and mercy with them
that love Him and keep His commandments unto a thousand
generations. Behold I set before you this day a blessing and
a curse. A blessing if ye obey the commandments of the Lord
your God, and a curse if ye will not obey the commandments
of the Lord your God" (From Deuteronomy 4th to 11th
chapters).
Not only was it made unmistakably clear
to the Church of the Old Testament that they were expected
to keep the commandments of God, but through Moses, God said
He expected us to keep the commandments of Christ. "I will
raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto
thee, and will put My Words in his mouth, and he shall speak
unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to
pass that whosoever will not hearken unto My Words which he
shall speak in My Name, I will require it of him"
(Deuteronomy 18:18-19).
Peter says this prophecy refers
especially to Christ, and, in the light of this passage,
what infinite folly for any to say we need not keep the
commandments of Christ or that we cannot do so. Yet many
preachers are actually teaching this today!
Jesus Himself urged, "If ye Love Me, keep
My commandments" (John 14:15).
Again, "He that hath My commandments and
keepeth them he it is that loveth Me" (John 14:21). And
again: "If a man love Me he will keep My Words (John
14:23)."
And again, "If ye continue in My Word,
then are ye my disciples indeed and ye shall know the Truth
and the Truth shall make you free" (John 8:31). And again,"
go--teach all nations ... to observe all things whatsoever I
have commanded you" ... (Matt 28:19,20).
Finally, to John on the Ilse of Patmas,
Jesus said, "Behold I come quickly, and My reward is with
Me, to give to every man according as his work shall be. I
am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and
the last. Blessed are they that do His commandments, that
they may have a right to the tree of life, and may enter in
through the gates into the City" (Rev. 22:12-14).
Fallacy No. 5---Some say that if we keep
the commandments of God we would have no need of God's
Grace, but would then be "saved by works". They stress Pauls
words, "For by grace are ye saved, through faith, and that
not of yourselves, It is the gift of God, not of works, lest
any man should boast."
To say that keeping God's commandments,
after one repents of sin, is being saved by works, reveals a
total misunderstanding of what "saved by grace" really
means. Suppose that I am haled into court to be tried for
murder. After due process of law I am found guilty of first
degree murder. Can I plead, "but Judge, I've learned my
lesson. I repent of this sin. I will never do it again,
therefore I expect you to set me free."? Never; the Judge
would point out that for my past crime, I am guilty, even
though I should henceforth be a model citizen. I must pay
the penalty for past crime. My "good works" could not save
me. Neither can doing our duty, after repentance, save us
from due penalty for our past sins. Only the suffering of
Christ in our stead can save us from this due penalty, under
the just Government of God. Only the grace of God in
Christ---"His unmerited" favor can set us free from our
guilt for past sins.
But the grace of God can be applied only
to those who stop sinning, or get right with God. It is
only, "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, that
the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin"
(1 John 1:7).
This imperative necessity for repentance
is acknowledged wherever mercy is shown by human
governments, as well as throughout the
Scriptures.
The chief engineer of one of American's
foremost engineering firms, after reading the manuscript of
the book, reminded me that any convict appearing before a
parole board must:
1. Admit guilt 2. Convince them he is
sorry. 3 Convince them he won't continue his criminal
practice.
Let us further illustrate this relation
of "works" to "grace" by the true story of the crime and
imprisonment of Samuel Holmes of Frankfort, Kentucky. While
imprisoned for the crime of murder, Mr. Holmes was visited
by lucian Young who was a former schoolmate. When Lucian
Young appealed to Governor Blackburn for the pardon of his
friend, the governor remembered the bravery of Mr. Young in
rescuing several lives from a wrecked vessel and granted the
pardon, in recognition of the merits of Young. With this
pardon in his pocket Young hastened to the prison to see his
friend Holmes. Before revealing that he had power to make
him a free man, Young began a conversation with Holmes.
After talking on other subjects for a while, Young finally
said, "Sam if you were turned loose and fully pardoned what
would be the first thing you would do?" The convict quickly
responded, "I would go to Lancaster and kill Judge Oursley
and a man who was a witness against me." Young uttered not a
word but turned mournfully away went outside the prison
walls took the pardon from his pocket, and tore it to bits!
(This true story was published in the Richmond
Register).
Holmes lost his pardon because he would
not forsake the sin from which he was wanting forgiveness.
Neither can the infinitely just "Lord of Heaven and earth"
pardon a sinner while he continues in sin, even though
pardon is offered through the merits of Christ.
Fallacy No. 6--A prominent Bible teacher
of recent years managed to secure such a following that he
finally had a Bible published under his name. Though this
Bible contains many constructive helps for Bible students at
the same time some terrible fallacies are included against
which warning should be sounded in no uncertain
terms.
For example on page 1000 at that Bible he
says in his notes, "the sermon on the mount, in its 'primary
application' gives neither the privilege nor the duty of the
Church." He says in other words that neither the promises
nor the commands of the Sermon on the Mount were for
believers in general (The promises are the privileges and
the commands are the duties). Now let us see what Christ
Himself said of His own Sermon on the Mount.
To determine this all we need to do is
look at the conclusion of that sermon itself. Here are Jesus
words: Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth
them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house
upon a rock. And the rain descended and the floods came and
his winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for
it was founded upon a rock. And every one that likened unto
a foolish man which built his house upon the sand; and the
rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew, and
beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of
it" (Matt. 7:24-27).
In the great commission Christ commanded
that all of His words be taken "to every creature;" and here
He says that everyone who hears these words and does them
not is building on the sand. Certainly, therefore both the
promises and the commandments of this sermon were intended
for all believers. But, obviously the enemy of souls has
sought, by human tradition to undermine the commands and
promises of Christ.
However those who have courage and faith
to trust and act upon these words of Christ, find that our
Almighty Father fulfills His promises found in the Sermon on
the Mount.
For example, George Muellerfed and
clothed and educated more than nine thousand orphans, by
looking to God alone, and never asking a man in any case to
meet his need.
He says When I first began to allow God
to deal with me, relying on Him, taking Him at His Word, and
set out fifty years ago, simply relying on Him for myself,
family, taxes, traveling expenses and every other need, I
rested on the simple promises I found in the sixth chapter
of Matthew (Matt 6:25-34). For those unfamiliar with it, the
sermon on the Mount consists of the fifth, sixth, and
seventh chapters of Matthew. What a blessing it is that men
like George Mueller have not been influenced by modern
teachers, who say that the Sermon on the Mount is not for us
today! How often have new converts started out to believe
with holy fervor what they found in their Savior's words,
then while going to Bible School or attending some church
they were told that such words of Jesus do not apply to us
today, and in discouragement and disillusionment they would
lose their joy, and fervor, and often finally backslide
entirely---all because some teacher or preacher had
misrepresented Christ to them.
On the other hand we should thank God and
take courage when men like Billy Graham will come out
strongly and make it known that living by the Sermon on the
Mount would change every evil condition in this nation or
any other nation.
Actually, much that passes today for
"rightly dividing the word of Truth" when viewed in the
celestial Light of the words of Christ, is found to be
nothing more nor less then "Making void the commandments of
God by your tradition!"
By teaching a spineless
"believe-it-and-live-as-you-like" theory and by sitting
aside the Savior's own commands and promises and
substituting theological sophistries; the power of Satan has
largely hamstrung the Church and in many places made of its
professed members a lot of fearful and unbelieving stumble
blocks to sinners. The average sinner, looking on, says, "If
what these professors have is religion we want no part of
it!"
Surely, when the world seems about to be
set on fire with hydrogen bombs it is time for Christians of
the world to "get in there and pitch," and forget the very
thought of compromising with sin.
Before we are haled before "people's
courts" as Christians are in China and are forced to
literally stab to death members of our families who in any
wise opposed Communism, as millions have actually been
forced to do in China, we'd better go "all out" for Jesus
Christ and let Him show the world what true Christianity
is!
Fallacy No. 7---Might be called the
stinking corpse fallacy." involving the illustration used by
the Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Romans.
Those Bible teachers who insist that we
"sin every day in thought, word, and deed" assume that Paul
in the seventh of Romans is describing the normal Christian
experience.
Those of us who stand for what Jesus
taught about sin believe Paul would be horrified at such
misinterpreting of his words.
Let us briefly look at the 6th, 7th, and
8th chapters of Romans and seek to interpret the words of
Paul in harmony with the words of Christ as Paul would want
us to.
In the sixth chapter the apostle points
out the absolute necessity of holy living, in the words:
"Let not therefore sin reign in your mortal body that ye
should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your
members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but
yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the
dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness, unto
God" (vs. 11-13).
"Being then made free from sin, ye became
the servants of righteousness.
"For when ye were servants of sin ye were
free from righteousness...but now being free from sin, and
become servants unto God, ye have fruit unto holiness and
the end unto Everlasting life." (Romans 6:18.22).
Obviously these statements in the sixth
chapter make no allowance for serving the devil.
The portion of the letter found in the
seventh chapter is where the confusion usually starts. In
the ninth verse of chapter seven, Paul speaks of his first
experience of encountering the law of God; which was, of
course, before his conversion. He says, (quoting the
Amplified New Testament) "Once I was alive, but quite apart
from and unconscious of the law. But when the commandment
came, sin lived again and I died---was sentenced by the law
to death" (Romans 7:9, Amp. Ver)
"Did that which is good then prove fatal,
bringing death to me? Certainly not. It was sin working
death to me by using this good thing (as a weapon) in order
that through the commandment sin might be shown up clearly
to be sin, that the extreme malignity and immeasurable
sinfulness of sin might plainly appear" (Romans 7:13, Amp.
Ver).
Note: At the end of the 13th verse Paul
continues his description of his past and sinful experience
but uses the present tense in describing that experience
like we hear many do in their conversation today.
We need to bear in mind he is describing
an experience totally different from that pictured in the
sixth chapter and also totally different from that presented
in the eighth chapter; yet all this is apparently written at
one sitting or without his experience actually changing. In
other words though at the same time of his writing his
experience was that portrayed by the sixth and eighth
chapters, he pictures in the seventh chapter his former
experience which was totally different. This must be our
conclusion if we stay in line with the words of Jesus
concerning sin.
Note how his words of the seventh chapter
describes the sinner's experience. "I do not understand my
own action. I am baffled, bewildered. I do not practice, or
accomplish what I wish but do the very thing I loathe (which
my moral instinct condemns" --vs. 15, Amp. Ver).
"Now if I do habitually what is contrary
to my desire (that means that) I acknowledge and agree that
the law is good (morally excellent) and that I take sides
with it" (vs. 16, Amp. Ver.). Note this is exactly the
experience of the sinner, whose conscience tells him what is
right and what he ought to do. "However it is no longer I
who does the deed, but the sin principle which is at home in
me, and has possession of me. I know that nothing good
dwells within me, that is in my flesh. I can will what is
right but I can not perform it. I have the intention and
urge to do what is right, but no power to carry it out" (vs.
16-18, Amp. Ver.).
Note: Who doesn't know that this is not
the experience of the true Christian nor is it Paul's
experience when he writes in Eph. 6:13, "Wherefore take unto
you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand
in the evil day. And having done all to stand, stand
therefore having your loins girt about with Truth and having
on the breastplate of righteousness, and with your feet shod
with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. And above all
taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to
quench all the fiery darts of the wicked" (Eph. 6:13-16).
Thus in Ephesians, and in many other of his writings we see
Paul's Christian experience. But in the seventh of Romans he
concludes his experience as a sinner in the 23rd verse: "I
discern in my bodily members--in the sensitive appetites and
wills of the flesh---a different law (rule of action) at war
against the law of my mind (my reason) making me a prisoner
to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs---in the
sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh" (Romans 7:23,
Amp. Ver.).
Now notice carefully what brought him out
of his awful condition of slavery to Satanic power. In
Paul's day it was the custom, if one was accused of murder
to tie a corpse of the murdered one face to face to the body
of the accused prisoner. Paul views the awful state he has
just described as though a dead and decaying body were bound
to his With this custom in mind he cries, "Oh wretched man
that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this
death"? Then, exultantly he exclaims, "I thank God, through
Jesus Christ our Lord!!"
He continues: "There is therefore now no
condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus who walk not
after the flesh but after the Spirit" (Romans
8:1).
Then in unmistakable language, Paul goes
in the 8th chapter to clearly show the difference between
the sinner and the saint. He says: "for those who are
according to the flesh and controlled by its unholy desires,
set their mind on and purse those things which gratify the
flesh. But those who are according to the spirit and
(controlled by the desires) of the Spirit, set their minds
on and seek those things which gratify the (Holy) Spirit.
For if you live according to the dictates of the flesh, you
will surely die. But if through the powers of the Holy
Spirit you put death--make extinct, deaden--the (evil) deeds
prompted by the body you shall (really and genuinely) live
forever. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the
sons of God" (Romans 8:5, 13, 14---Amp. Ver.).
The above interpretation of Romans 6, 7,
and 8 agree with what Jesus taught, and is surely what would
please both Paul and the Lord Jesus. For Paul said, "Be ye
followers of me even as I also am of Christ" (1 Cor,
11:1).
In view of the clear teaching of Christ
Himself, I submit that, in the sight of the Risen Christ, it
is a very serious fallacy to teach that, as Christians, we
are to carry this "stinking corpse" of spiritual defeat
around with us all our lives.
Fallacy No, 8---Those who insist that "we
sin every day" will often pick one ambiguous passage in the
book of John, to prove it while totally ignoring nine other
plain statements in the same epistle, which lead to an
opposite conclusion.
Let us briefly line up these ten
statements about sin in John's letter and see what he really
teaches on the sin question. The passage that "sin every
day" teachers quote is 1 John 1:8: If we say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves and the Truth is not in us.
Statement number two, in the same letter of John reads,
"Hereby we know that we know him: if we keep his
commandments" (1 John 2:3). We certainly do not sin while
keeping His commandments!
No. 3--"He that saith I know Him and
keepeth not His commandments is a liar and the Truth is not
in him" (1 John 2:4).
No.4--"He that saith he abideth in him
ought himself so to walk even as He walked" (1 John 2:6).
(If we walk as Jesus walked will we walk in sin?)
No.5--"And every man that hath this hope
in him purifieth himself even as He is pure" (1 John 8:8)
This is the hope of seeing Jesus when He appears. Are we
sinning while we are pure "as He is pure?"
(Must we conclude that those who say we
are always filled with sin do not have this
hope?)
Statement No. 6--This same epistle reads:
"Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not" (1 John 3:6). Jesus
taught that we are to "abide in Him" (John 15:7).
No. 7--"Whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world "(1 John 5:4). Certainly to overcome
the world is to overcome the evil forces that would lead us
to sin.
No. 8--"We know that whosoever is born of
God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepth
himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not" (1 John
5:18).
No. 9--"Whosoever is born of god doth not
commit sin for His seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin
because he is born of God (1 John 3:9). This is like the
statement, "as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they
are the sons of God."
No.10--"He that committeth sin is of the
devil for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this
purpose the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy
the works of the devil" (In other words, if ever we sin we
are cooperating with the devil, and not with Christ.) (1
John 3:8).
In the light of these nine statements
from the apostle John, is it not clear that John taught as
Jesus did about sin? In view of these many clear statements
it is the writer's view that John's meaning in 1 John 1:8 is
the same as what he said more clearly in 1 John 1:10 which
reads; :If we say that we have not sinned we make Him a liar
and His word is not in us." Let the reader compare also
verses 6 and 7 in the same chapter.
Obviously it is absurd to base a doctrine
on one ambiguous passage and ignore nine plain statements in
the same epistle. This is indeed a most harmful fallacy by
which the enemy draws many into compromising with
sin.
Fallacy No. 9 is
"once-in-grace-always-in-grace regardless
of-what-we-do."
While holding a tent revival meeting in
the south the, writer was preaching what Jesus preached
about sin when the pastor of a large denominational church
announced a series of sermons on "Once saved, always saved"
and he told his Church members that he would prove that we
all sin every day.
One sincere believer related to me the
following incident. This pastor conducted a branch Sunday
School in another section of town where one of his deacons
was the superintendent. One Sunday morning a young woman
stepped into the room whose life the whole town knew was
that of a prostitute; but who had formally been a Christian
and was baptized in the church. The deacon called on her to
pray. The girl replied, "I don't feel fit to pray in
public." The deacon urged. "Why you were baptized were you
not?" "Yes." "Well, if you were once saved you are always
saved so go ahead and pray." (The sincere people in the
audience were of course, disgusted).
But this true story illustrates how far
this modern fallacy has gone. The writer has since found
there are many other ministers in the north, the south, the
east and the west of this apostate nation that teach the
same destructive doctrine; though most of them do not carry
it to the same logical conclusion as did this deacon. One
pastor of a very large church in Detroit stated to his radio
audience that even though a person commit murder, he still
could not be lost, if he was once born again. (!)
Surely a doctrine that bears such fruit
needs to be re-examined!
The two strongest props that are used to
braced this false doctrine are: 1--"No man can pluck you out
of my Father's hands," and 2--"You can't be spiritually
unborn."
Let us briefly examined these props. True
the first one consists of Christ's own words. But let us be
sure we do not read into them what is not there. When Jesus
said, "No man can pluck you out of my Father's hand." He did
not say, "You cannot get out if you try," but only that "you
are secure against all attacks from without."
Our safety in the Father's hands is like
the safety of a man in a fort or castle where the windows
and doors are all barred securely against any intruder who
might come to forcibly take him out.
One important factor is too often
forgotten. This man inside the castle still possesses the
key.
The Christian is not made a prisoner in
the Father's hands, against his will. He still possesses the
key (his free moral agency---his free will to
choose).
God does not destroy our will when He
saves us. He wants us to love Him enough to walk with Jesus
voluntarily. He will not make a machine of us when we are
saved. Hence, He leaves the key in our hands and we can walk
out any time we choose, if we become foolish enough to be
so---and tragic though it is many do.
Now, let us examine the second prop the
claim that we cannot be "spiritually unborn."
The Lord Jesus likens the spiritual birth
to the natural birth. All informed people will agree that
the term "born again" is used here by the Lord Jesus as a
metaphor. Using it as a metaphor does not mean that the new
birth and the natural birth are in all points alike, though
it does mean they are alike in some points.
Webster defines a metaphor as "a figure
of speech by which a word or phrase literally denoting one
kind of object or idea is applied to another by way of
suggesting a likeness or analogy between them."
Nicodemus enquired whether this metaphor
would apply by a man entering the womb again and being born
in the natural. It is a fact that no metaphor ever applies
in all details to that which it simulates. The new birth is
like the natural birth in some respects but quite unlike it
in other respects. When a person repents of sin, evil forces
are no longer in control. In the act of repentance they have
been rejected; for when we resist the devil, "he will flee
from us", the Scriptures declare. As long as we obey God,
the Spirit life that controls and energizes us is God's
Spirit. For "as many as are led by the Spirit of God they
are the sons of God" (Romans 8:14). Those who are not led by
the Spirit of God are led by the devil. Jesus said to the
hypocritical Pharisees. "Ye are of your father the devil and
the lusts of your father will ye do" (John 8:44).
Paul says: "To whom ye yield yourselves
servants to obey his servants ye are whom ye obey whether of
sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness" (Rom.
6:16).
John says: "Whosoever is born of God
sinneth not" (I John 5:18).
And Jesus said, "Not every one that saith
unto me Lord, Lord shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in Heaven"
(Matthew 7:21).
By obeying the Word of God in genuine
repentance, we come into God's Kingdom and family and it is
a "new birth" in the fact that a new Spirit life is taking
possession of us as we give consent.
This view of the matter is clearly
confirmed by other Scriptures related to the new birth. For
example, Peter says we are "born again not by corruptible
seed but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever" (I Peter 1:23).
Paul says, "Tho ye have ten thousand
instructors in Christ yet have ye not many Fathers, for in
Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel" (I Cor.
4:15).
The Greek word translated "begotten"
which Paul here uses is exactly the same Greek word which
Jesus used in the term born again. Born and begotten are
from the same identical word. Any Greek concordance will
prove this.
A sincere and careful study of all
Scriptures related to the "new birth" reveals that the
Spirit of God, by divine persuasion, produces the change
known as the "new birth" whereby a sinner becomes a saint--a
child of the devil becomes a child of God. Thus the Spirit
is truly the agent of the "new birth; while the Word of God
and the one who preaches the word are the instruments of the
"new birth". Paul was the instrument and therefore he says
he "begot" the Corinthians "through the Gospel." Using Paul
and the Word, the Spirit of God wrought the change called
the "new birth". Thus as Peter says, they were "born again
by the Word of God."
The Holy Spirit, at conversion begins a
cleansing process to clean up selfish motives that have been
inspired by Satan. Thus (through conviction) He leads the
convert to hate and turn from all sin.
So then, the new birth is like the
natural birth, in that a new life takes possession of the
one who is "born again"; but not quite unlike the natural
birth in the fact that it is voluntary---while the natural
birth is wholly involuntary.
The infant, arriving in this world by
natural birth certainly has no choice in the matter; whereas
to obtain the spiritual birth there must be personal
response to the invitation, "whosoever will let him take of
the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17).
In the new birth it is a matter of "God
now commands all men everywhere to repent" and some will do
so and some refuse. Freedom to choose is the possession of
all.
Now certainly the new birth does not
deprive a man of his free moral agency. For this reason he
can, of course, later, turn his back on God and Christ if he
chooses and it is a matter of history that thousands do
exactly that. Because God never cancels man's power of
choice, he can of course, be "spiritually
unborn".
Because the new birth is conditioned on
repentance (or obedience) and the new birth does not destroy
an individual's freedom of will, it can be revoked or
canceled by the will of that individual. The new birth is
thus annulled, or becomes spiritually "dead" again "in
traspassess in sin" (Eph. 2: 1-2).
Both Jesus and all the apostles clearly
taught repentance is essential to Salvation. Even the
prophet Isaiah, 700 years before Christ understood this
fact. He said, "Let the wicked forsake his way and the
unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the
Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for
He will abundantly pardon" (Isaiah 55:7).
Since God requires forsaking all sin
today to get saved, can anyone dare to suppose that He will
require less tomorrow than He does today? If it is necessary
to stay right with God to get saved, is it not equally
necessary to stay right with God to stay saved?
How absurd---how utterly preposterous is
the view that sin indulged in the second time is not as
ruinous as it was the first, or that God requires less of a
saint than He does of a sinner! This sophistry of Satan
leads some to believe that because we are not under the law
of Moses we have escaped entirely all responsibility of
God's laws.
Certainly one is just as filthy and dirty
when dragged through the mire of sin the second time as he
was after leaving childhood innocence and becoming filthy
the first time The fact is one is more filthy, morally and
in Heaven's sight with the second trip into sin than he was
the first---because by that time one has gained more light
than he had at the start. For it is ever true that the
greater the light rejected, the deeper is the guilt of
sin.
If sin put a child outside of God's
Kingdom---when it comes to the age of accountability, it
will certainly do as much to an adult!!!
The teaching that sin does not separate
us from God is indeed an absurd fallacy. Such religious
sophistry is but one more lie of the devil and by this lie
the ranks of Christendom are filled with men and women who
profess the Name of Christ, but live in sin.
It fills the ranks of the army of the
Lord with traitors and hypocrites who actually neither into
the Kingdom themselves nor permit others to go in, because
their lives are stumbling blocks.
Thus today, many preachers who too often
themselves are living in sin, and hiding behind this false
doctrine, will stand behind the sacred desk and call "the
doors of the church are now open. If there is anyone who
doesn't have a church home come now while the invitation is
extended."
Often not a word is said about
repentance, or getting right with God, to say nothing of
saying right with God. Thus, sinners are invited to become
hypocrites! Later, these hypocrites are invited to be
baptized (thereby transforming them from dry hypocrites to
wet hypocrites)! Their damnation will be worse because of
their hypocrisy! "These shall receive the greater damnation"
Mark 12:38-40).
When Jesus saw Pharisee inviting sinners
to be church members, without leading them first to
repentance, He said, "Ye compass sea and land to make one
proselyte, and when he is made ye make him two-fold more the
child of hell than yourselves" (Matt.23:15).
The prophet Ezekiel, 600 years before
Christ, understood the righteous principles of God's
Heavenly Government and taught exactly what Jesus taught
about the necessity of getting right and staying right with
God. Here are his words: "If the wicked will turn from all
his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes
and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live.
He shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath
committed they shall not be mentioned unto him. In his
righteousness that he hath done he shall live. Here I any
pleasure at all that the wicked should die, saith the Lord
God; and not that he should turn from his ways and live ?
...
"But when the righteous turneth away from
his righteousness and committeth iniquity and dieth in them,
for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die. Again, when
a wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath
committed and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall
save his soul alive. Because he considereth, and turneth
away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he
shall surely live. He shall not die" (Ezekiel
18:21-28).
Peter, James and John were the closest to
Christ of all He disciples. We have noted how the large
majority of John's statements about sin coincide perfectly
with Christ's own teachings. Now look at these words of the
apostle James: "Brethren, if any of you do err from the
Truth and one convert him, let him know that he that
converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a
soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins" (James
5:19-20)
Note: James said if a backsliding
"brother" becomes a "sinner" his restoration is, saving a
soul, from 'death'." Does this look like "once in grace
always in grace---regardless of what we do?"
The apostle Peter puts his thoughts about
this matter in these words: "If after they have escaped the
pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein
and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the
beginning-but it happened unto them according to the true
proverb, 'the dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the
sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire'" (II Peter
2:20,22).
Instead of telling hypocrites they are
saved even in prostitution and murder, ministers who truly
represent Christ will exhort members of their church, as
Jesus Christ Himself did in the Garden of Gethsemane, "Watch
and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." True pastors will
warn them to stay right with God, to be ready for the coming
of their Savior. "Watch ye, therefore and pray always that
ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that
shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man"
(Luke 21:36).
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