Being called a neo-Gnostic brings a sort of anticipatory feeling of angst or intuition that something turbulent is happening; sort of like that feeling you get right before you sneeze.
I don’t know, it’s weird mainly because society in general does not have categories for such kind of name calling, and I am hardly the exception, although I do try.
Recently, a young Calvinist thought it necessary to apply such a label to me. Why?
Well, because what I said sounded gnostic to him.
Let’s be clear:
A neo-gnostic would be a modern day Gnostic. Gnosticism embodies a great deal of doctrines, especially the modern versions. For the sake of this writing, it is relevant to point out that Gnosticism has to do with secret knowledge, the obtaining of which sets one above and beyond the rest, even heaven-bound while those without said secret knowledge are hell-bound, or at least severely incapacitated.
I used a logical syllogism, and this is what I said that prompted the obscure title of neo-Gnostic:
P1. Heresy is defined as a lie
P2. All lies are damnable
P3. Freewillism is a lie
C. Therefore, freewillism is a damnable heresy.
I must say, calling one who uses logic a Gnostic is comical since Gnostics are some of the most illogical folks in the world. However, we have another reason this young and reforming man used the word neo-Gnostic and that is this.
He is saying that when I say freewillism is a damnable heresy, I am saying that
all who hold to it go to hell. He is focusing on the people who believe it, instead of the lie itself.
And he is also saying that since the right understanding is obviously hidden from those who hold to it, then I myself am superior to them as I infer my own
understanding as being right.
So since we are talking about salvation vs. damnation this whole idea that just because someone holds to their own freewill as cooperating with God makes them a heretic, then I am a Gnostic for suggesting that my view is the only holy view.
So since we are talking about salvation vs. damnation this whole idea that just because someone holds to their own freewill as cooperating with God makes them a heretic, then I am a Gnostic for suggesting that my view is the only holy view.
Mind you, this young man holds to reformed doctrine. He is concerned that I would bring a bad light upon Calvinism or otherwise spurn others from listening to the Gospel by using such words as ‘freewillism is a damnable heresy’.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the concern also comes from not really taking the Doctrines of Grace as seriously as the Bible takes them, however I can only speculate over limited online interaction of which this particular discussion was. At the time, I said as much to him and he was offended, however I will point out that a huge problem exists today with what is known as “para-church” ministry or ministry outside the church. There are good things about it, but it easily leads to compromise and not taking the most important things seriously. But that is for another post.
Let's work through my syllogism a bit and dive into what
exactly it is that I am trying to say.
First, let’s be clear on what I mean by Freewillism. When I say the word Freewillism, this is a shocker word that is intended to jolt people awake from lethargy. The complacency of most Christians is more than a little frustrating and if we love Christ we will care about everything He has said and we will want to look at Him and point others to Him. We do this with words, and this word is powerful.
First, let’s be clear on what I mean by Freewillism. When I say the word Freewillism, this is a shocker word that is intended to jolt people awake from lethargy. The complacency of most Christians is more than a little frustrating and if we love Christ we will care about everything He has said and we will want to look at Him and point others to Him. We do this with words, and this word is powerful.
Freewillism
is just another word for synergism, so the definitions for synergism and
monergism will be the most helpful.
Synergism:
Synergism is the doctrine that the act of being born again is achieved through a combination of human will and divine grace. (From Greek sunergos, working together : sun-, syn- + ergon, work). The Century Dictionary defines synergism as
"...the doctrine that there are two efficient agents in regeneration, namely the human will and the divine Spirit, which, in the strict sense of the term, cooperate. This theory accordingly holds that the soul has not lost in the fall all inclination toward holiness, nor all power to seek for it under the influence of ordinary motives."
So Synergism is A Belief That
Faith Arises Out of An Inherent Capacity of the Natural Man.
This system includes Arminianism, Pelagianism, Semi-Pelagianism, and every false religion on the face of the planet who all affirm man as the master of his destiny.
In stark contrast, the Bible teaches what we know as Monergism.
This position teaches that salvation is entirely a work of God; That man can contribute nothing toward the price of his salvation and that one is saved wholly and unconditionally by grace alone through faith alone. That faith itself is a gift of God (Eph 2:8, John 1:13, 2 Tim 2:25, Phil 1:29, Hebrews 12:2, 1 John 5:1, Rom 3:24, Ezekiel 11:19-20; Ezekiel 36:26-27) which is not the cause, but the witness of God's regenerative grace having worked faith in the inner man. This gracious act of God was based on nothing meritorious in the individual, but rather, entirely on God's sovereign good pleasure (Eph 1:5). It was not because God knew which persons would believe of their own free will, for there are no persons which fit that description. This is because apart from grace their is no delight or inclination to seek God (in man's unregenerate nature). And since those dead in sin will not seek God (Rom 3:11), regenerative grace precedes justifying faith. God must, in effect, raise them from the dead- (see Eph 2:5, Col 2:13).
"What have you that you did not receive?"
(1 Cor. 4:7),
and,
"But by the grace of God I am what I am"
(1 Cor. 15:10).
This system includes Arminianism, Pelagianism, Semi-Pelagianism, and every false religion on the face of the planet who all affirm man as the master of his destiny.
In stark contrast, the Bible teaches what we know as Monergism.
This position teaches that salvation is entirely a work of God; That man can contribute nothing toward the price of his salvation and that one is saved wholly and unconditionally by grace alone through faith alone. That faith itself is a gift of God (Eph 2:8, John 1:13, 2 Tim 2:25, Phil 1:29, Hebrews 12:2, 1 John 5:1, Rom 3:24, Ezekiel 11:19-20; Ezekiel 36:26-27) which is not the cause, but the witness of God's regenerative grace having worked faith in the inner man. This gracious act of God was based on nothing meritorious in the individual, but rather, entirely on God's sovereign good pleasure (Eph 1:5). It was not because God knew which persons would believe of their own free will, for there are no persons which fit that description. This is because apart from grace their is no delight or inclination to seek God (in man's unregenerate nature). And since those dead in sin will not seek God (Rom 3:11), regenerative grace precedes justifying faith. God must, in effect, raise them from the dead- (see Eph 2:5, Col 2:13).
"What have you that you did not receive?"
(1 Cor. 4:7),
and,
"But by the grace of God I am what I am"
(1 Cor. 15:10).
Second,
let’s have a look at a fragment sentence from the Westminster Confession. Here
is how they used the phrase “damnable heresy”.
“Is not heresy among the greatest of evils? If it is wrong to destroy a human life, how much worse is it to destroy a human soul with damnable heresy?”
Here is why my syllogism is shocking and men have not bothered to think things through before speaking.
Traditionally, the understanding of damnable heresy is that which is taking you straight to hell when you believe it.
So, the Westminster divines are saying that those who hold to a damnable heresy are destroyed.
That is only true in the sense that they have not been regenerated from death to life by Christ and are actually trusting in the power of something else besides Christ.
Bad doctrine ruins lives, without fail. Likewise, teaching bad doctrine does damage to others. However, one can actually believe something untrue and still be a Christian bound for the glory land, and actually I do not believe the Westminster assembly would have disagreed.
Let me write that again:
One can be known by Christ, be saved, and believe wrong things about Christ.
To be sure, it is your faith in Christ that saves you, but that faith is a gift and not only can you not generate it yourself, but if you have saving faith, it will in fact be the right faith in the right Christ, whether you understand Him or not. The evidence will be your obedience toward Him….and this includes things like being submissive to His Word and teachable.
“Is not heresy among the greatest of evils? If it is wrong to destroy a human life, how much worse is it to destroy a human soul with damnable heresy?”
Here is why my syllogism is shocking and men have not bothered to think things through before speaking.
Traditionally, the understanding of damnable heresy is that which is taking you straight to hell when you believe it.
So, the Westminster divines are saying that those who hold to a damnable heresy are destroyed.
That is only true in the sense that they have not been regenerated from death to life by Christ and are actually trusting in the power of something else besides Christ.
Bad doctrine ruins lives, without fail. Likewise, teaching bad doctrine does damage to others. However, one can actually believe something untrue and still be a Christian bound for the glory land, and actually I do not believe the Westminster assembly would have disagreed.
Let me write that again:
One can be known by Christ, be saved, and believe wrong things about Christ.
To be sure, it is your faith in Christ that saves you, but that faith is a gift and not only can you not generate it yourself, but if you have saving faith, it will in fact be the right faith in the right Christ, whether you understand Him or not. The evidence will be your obedience toward Him….and this includes things like being submissive to His Word and teachable.
In
Matthew 7, we see Jesus declaring that there will be those who say to Him,
“Lord, Lord…..Lord, Lord”, and He will say to them depart from me, I NEVER KNEW
YOU.
Here is the verse.
Here is the verse.
“Not everyone who says to
me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the
will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord,
Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and
do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I
never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Matthew 7:21-23
Notwithstanding the fact it will be frightening to hear Jesus say those words, notice that it is whether Jesus knows you, not whether you know Jesus that is on display. Jesus did not say “YOU never knew ME”, but He said “I never knew YOU”.
Reality does not hinge upon our own ability to grasp or command the knowledge of Christ, but it in fact does hinge upon the apprehension of our souls by Christ.
So, let us be very clear. When I say that freewillism or synergism is a damnable heresy, I do not mean that all those who adhere to it are damned to hell. I also do not mean that I am in some way superior to them in my understanding that it is false. What I mean is precisely what the syllogism spells out. The doctrines of free will are lies. They will all perish. It is the inherent worth and state of the doctrine itself that I am speaking of. I weary of those who want to make different classes of heresy and put some on a certain level and others on other levels, and blah, blah, blah.
Look, a lie is a lie. Heresy is heresy. How far do you think we should go in perverting the Gospel before we say stop? I mean how much is too much? As soon as we really entertain that question, then we have stopped caring about the Gospel. Whether you add, subtract, divide, or multiply the Gospel, whatever injustice you do to it at all is a crime of ultimate proportions. You are lying about the Gospel and therefore lying about God. All lies, every one, will be destroyed. All misstatements about the Gospel will perish in everlasting flame. When we use a strong word such as damnable, we should reserve it for the description of the hellfire of God’s wrath.
I do.
When I use it as an adjective for freewillism, I am speaking of the doctrines themselves and not necessarily those who adhere to them.
Recently, when I made this statement it was online and in so doing acts as a virtual Bible tract of sorts, certainly with respect to the fact that true interaction is quite limited through cyberspace. Saying such a thing about free will is intended to spur conversation and debate and cause people to think more deeply about Christ. It sort of had the opposite effect, but let me say this. While we should always be mindful of how we approach people with the Gospel and we do indeed want to be winsome, telling the truth is often itself very offensive and tends to expose people’s hearts.
Notwithstanding the fact it will be frightening to hear Jesus say those words, notice that it is whether Jesus knows you, not whether you know Jesus that is on display. Jesus did not say “YOU never knew ME”, but He said “I never knew YOU”.
Reality does not hinge upon our own ability to grasp or command the knowledge of Christ, but it in fact does hinge upon the apprehension of our souls by Christ.
So, let us be very clear. When I say that freewillism or synergism is a damnable heresy, I do not mean that all those who adhere to it are damned to hell. I also do not mean that I am in some way superior to them in my understanding that it is false. What I mean is precisely what the syllogism spells out. The doctrines of free will are lies. They will all perish. It is the inherent worth and state of the doctrine itself that I am speaking of. I weary of those who want to make different classes of heresy and put some on a certain level and others on other levels, and blah, blah, blah.
Look, a lie is a lie. Heresy is heresy. How far do you think we should go in perverting the Gospel before we say stop? I mean how much is too much? As soon as we really entertain that question, then we have stopped caring about the Gospel. Whether you add, subtract, divide, or multiply the Gospel, whatever injustice you do to it at all is a crime of ultimate proportions. You are lying about the Gospel and therefore lying about God. All lies, every one, will be destroyed. All misstatements about the Gospel will perish in everlasting flame. When we use a strong word such as damnable, we should reserve it for the description of the hellfire of God’s wrath.
I do.
When I use it as an adjective for freewillism, I am speaking of the doctrines themselves and not necessarily those who adhere to them.
Recently, when I made this statement it was online and in so doing acts as a virtual Bible tract of sorts, certainly with respect to the fact that true interaction is quite limited through cyberspace. Saying such a thing about free will is intended to spur conversation and debate and cause people to think more deeply about Christ. It sort of had the opposite effect, but let me say this. While we should always be mindful of how we approach people with the Gospel and we do indeed want to be winsome, telling the truth is often itself very offensive and tends to expose people’s hearts.
The other day, a Reformed brother of mine
who is a career open-air street preacher was preaching at our local
(plural)-versity campus. He was literally thrown to the ground by a “Christian”
who had become very upset that this brother was even proclaiming the Gospel,
let alone describing it in detail.
I am absolutely convinced that when full persecution of Christians arrives, it will be in the form of “the church”.
Those of us who proclaim the fullness of the counsel of God, or the predestinarian faith of Christ, or the Doctrines of Grace, or authentic Christianity, or Calvinism as it is sometimes called, have always been and are now under the most severe of attack from the Christian community. Calvinists will become the most hated of all by mainstream evangelicalism as we move closer to the Day of the Lord, whenever that may be.
This will happen no matter how winsome, charitable, or compassionate you are toward those who suffer cognitive dissonance and do not grasp the sovereignty of God, make no mistake.
I am absolutely convinced that when full persecution of Christians arrives, it will be in the form of “the church”.
Those of us who proclaim the fullness of the counsel of God, or the predestinarian faith of Christ, or the Doctrines of Grace, or authentic Christianity, or Calvinism as it is sometimes called, have always been and are now under the most severe of attack from the Christian community. Calvinists will become the most hated of all by mainstream evangelicalism as we move closer to the Day of the Lord, whenever that may be.
This will happen no matter how winsome, charitable, or compassionate you are toward those who suffer cognitive dissonance and do not grasp the sovereignty of God, make no mistake.
My point is that there are indeed times when strong language can be, must be, and indeed will be used to fire up conversations and awaken people to what matters. Meaning and worth are so vacant in so many of today’s conversations about God, and this includes a vast majority of sermons preached in America today.
With discernment, it is most well and good to use powerful words to lift the minds of men up from the complacency of hum-drum views of God and of taking His grace for granted.
I cannot tell you how many times I have pulled punches or otherwise refrained from saying what I truly wanted to say when speaking about the Gospel to those in my close sphere of influence. Yet, without fail, all those who disagree with monergism, (though they have no understanding of it) today will barely speak with me about much at all let alone the Christianity they profess.
Why? Because they know I will hold them to their profession and I will want to stare with them at the person and work of Christ.
Now, I have never told my own brother he is holding to a damnable heresy, yet he does indeed believe that it is his own faith that works together with God to effect salvation. That is a lie, and it will perish.
That does not necessarily mean my brother is going to perish with it, for truly if he is saved, he is saved by the perfect righteousness of Christ which does not change. Nevertheless, no matter how winsome and compassionate I have labored to be with him, he wants nothing to do with conversations of Christ.
The same goes not only with family but with friends.
So, I only encourage those who care about the Gospel to just be bold, and ask God how he would have you interact with others.
The problem is that when we start talking of heresy, the question always arises as to whether the person who is holding to a particular heresy is a heretic. Well, not always and in fact, it really is changing the subject because we are speaking of whether a certain doctrine is a heresy, not the individual who believes it.
Mayhaps, honestly describing the lie for what it is will by the power of God awaken the lethargic mind and soul?
This is Jeremiah Burroughs.
He says , “ Merely to neglect that which is good is an evil; but to cast off that which is good as an abomination, shows the sins of the people is grown to a great height, that they are near to judgment indeed.”
I think it fair to say that when a person is adamantly against a truth and they may even “set up weaponry against it” then they would fall into the category of heretic.
So a Rob Bell is definitely a heretic, but I am not sure I would label all those in his church as such. Does that make sense?
Additionally, just because someone could have the potential of being labeled a heretic, does not mean they are hell-bound.
My big picture here is that we are speaking of lies, their origin, their symptoms, and where they lead. Lies are of their father, the Devil. Lies are corrosive and destructive to creation. Lies are damned and will all burn in hell.
The notion that your will is free to choose Christ or deny Him as you see fit, is a lie.
Therefore……well you get the idea.
In closing, allow me to drive home my point.Those who hold to synergistic theology and believe their own free will somehow cooperates with God in their salvation, essentially hinging the very act of regeneration upon their own permission for it to happen, are not automatically hell-bound or do not automatically warrant the title of flaming heretic. I frequently refer to my “Arminian brothers” when speaking in mixed company.
Will I choose Christ or not choose Him? What can I do for God? How can I help God? What do I deserve from God?
The idea that the whole of God’s plan hinges upon your personal decisions is quite idolatrous.
Sovereignty simply is sovereignty. If God “limits” His sovereignty in order to make room in His plan for the randomness of your unexpected choices, then He is no longer sovereign, and therefore not God.
Here are a couple of quotes from something called The Book of the Law, or
Book of Thelma which is actual satanic Scriptures used in cults the world over.
“Do what thou wilt, shall be the whole of the law.”
and
"Love is the law, love under will"
The standard interpetaion of this is that "every man and woman is a star".
What is the difference with this and mainstream evangelical thought?
Synergism is damnable heresy.
At what point do we cease from the idolatry of will worship and stare at Christ as the author and finisher of our faith?
The Bible says in Colossians 2:20-23
20If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22(referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
In the KJV, verse 23 is translated as, “Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship….”
The idea that we can somehow do something for God or actually participate in the new birth is will worship and will perish forever when Christ returns.
Only truth is eternal. All lies will be destoyed.
Synergism is the brood mother of all false religions and apostate faiths.
It is a road that has its end in the hellfire of God.
