Cringing at The Light

   The way in which God speaks to His people has never changed: loudly and clearly.

   The actual mode of delivery is different now than it was in Baalam's day when a donkey literally turned and spoke to him, or in Moses' day when God spoke to him from a burning bush, yet we can rely just as surely upon the written Word we have today as those men of old did on the audible voice of the Creator.

   When we come to Scripture, we must realize that IT is reading US. It is alive and active, piercing to the division of the soul and spirit, bone and marrow. It is this exact realization that turns so many away from the precious Word of God. It convicts them to their core. I even remember reading about a homosexual in San Francisco who after reading Romans 1, immediately began to wage a grass roots efforts to get the entire chapter banned from any new printings. Indeed, there is a very popular, ongoing agenda to have warning labels placed on all Bibles, like so much as a pack of cigarettes. Nevermind the absurd collective worldview that we must never offend someone's "safe space", it is rampant sin and total rebellion against God that has our nation in a death grip.
   The Word of God is the very real and simple declaration by God to us about who He is, who we are, and how He works in His world. These things are all wrapped up in the ultimate reality of Jesus and His atonement. One, seamless story acting as a rudder and helm of our life.

Without it, we are utterly lost.


 
   Friend, you can trust the Word of God. You can stand upon it, like it is the immovable tip of Mount Everest. It is more than that. The mountains and skies will fall, but not one Word of God shall ever fail, it will last forever. Love it! Embrace it! Stare at it! Study it! Engage others about it! Take it deep within your breast, cherish it with all your might, and through the power of the Holy Spirit it will be your help, comfort, and guide with a depth that no earthly storms could ever assuage.

   Recently, on a new local Christian radio station which I actually enjoy, the morning DJ was lamenting the recent statement by a one Jesse James of motorcycle and hot rod based reality tv fame. He is the ex-husband of Sandra Bullock, whom he reportedly emotionally abused as well as cheated on. What he said would be stunning in any other society but today's liberal post-modern one. He said, "I never should have married her. Everyone cheats. She just wasn't the right decision for me."
That is bad. What may be even more disheartening is the critique by the DJ. He admitted how horrible a thing that is to say, and then he said this. "That kind of reaction is due to a rough past."

Rough past?

   Buddy, there are lots of folks out there with rough pasts who would never say such a thing. Conversely, there are lots of folks out there with amazing, Christ-influenced pasts, who flatly deny God and promote immorality.

The issue here is that of something called sin. Heard of it?
Yeah, that is the thing God hates. It is sin which corrupts, kills, and destroys. Sin is the reason Jesse James made such an asinine statement. Sin is the reason we see so much rebellion. Sin is the reason people deny the Word of God as truth. Sin is very loudly and clearly exposed by Scripture for what it is-- the wholly corruptive force at work in all parts and members of man, so that man is completely unable to please God of his own will.
   I was speaking the other day at work to a young man who professes Christ. He expressed his appreciation of those who understand that not only could anyone ever know that there certainly is NO God, likewise no one could ever truly know that there is a God. Conversation ensued and as I began to press him with the Words of Scripture, he simply brushed off the Bible as something that could easily have errors and that is constantly interpreted by each of us to mean different things. He was most concerned that each of us having our own personality and character traits would always be a factor on how we read Scripture.

    It is fine to talk about the ideas and beliefs you have, and often there are genuine, different views. However, truth by definition is absolute. Truth is true for everyone. Using your own experience or opinion to determine what actually is only leaves you bereft of real truth. The goal is to get your beliefs aligned with truth. Today's society wants to do the exact opposite. This subjective, relativistic view of Scripture and consequently of all truth has virtually destroyed the American mindset. It has completely invaded the visible church and it is the overarching worldview of all millennials and most of generation X. One conversation I had with a conservative, hardened old southern truck driver from the baby boomer era surprised me greatly when the individual began arguing with me that we cannot know truth!
He stated that since we only "see through a glass dimly", and since we will only know the full truth of the matter when we enter the presence of the Lord, anything we think we know down here is just hearsay and opinion.
One wonders how we could ever know truth "then" if we cannot know any truth at all "now", but that would be too obvious a question I guess.

   Our Lord and Saviour is a big God. He is big enough to have created all things, and He is big enough to have gotten His Word to us down through the ages. The Word of God is proven out with the most stunning historicity and accuracy like no other book in the world. Nothing touches it. With even a cursory glance at the facts, we find the Bible blazing forth from  history like a shining beacon in the night.
The problem is that we now live in a world where people want to declare facts as tyrannical, evil things. Rather than pay attention to the clear, undeniable voice of God, they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. They declare as hate speech anything which flies in the face of their own beliefs. Rather than even have a coherent conversation, they rail and rant with the intent of drowning out any rational voice with their noise.

   Much like trying to hold down a beach ball in water, using all your energy to hold down clear truth because it doesn't suit you, won't last.

    Sooner than later, the voice of God that everyone knows is there, will come thundering through penetrating the harsh crust of the seared consciences of all who exist. The goal will have been to be awakened before Christ comes. You will want to be on His side as He splits the sky open, riding with His vast armies, His Word going forth, only this time that precious, everlasting Word will destroy nations and cleanse the world of sin forever.
 

Far Past Time to Expose Universalism: Part 2

   What is the lie called Universalism? In Part 2 of this series exposing Universalism, I'll provide a brief description, and then we'll look at some verses they twist in order to affirm their belief.
There are so many divisions within this camp of belief, that it is nearly impossible to nail down a definitive statement describing it as a whole.

Basically, it is a theological doctrine that all will eventually be saved. This is the view that all human beings and fallen angels will ultimately be restored to right relationship with God in Heaven and the New Jerusalem. Universalists will sometimes affirm and sometimes deny the lake of fire spoken of by Christ and in Revelation, but they all declare that any such punishment is only temporary for the purging away of sin from those who have died in their sins.

Those who adhere to this way of thinking like to refer to ancient first Christians who believed it, but we actually did not see a real formation of the idea until the early 1800's. Though these particular apostates had renounced creeds and confessions, they had to draw up their own, because no one had ever set down the errant doctrines in full on paper before. So, they came up with what has been called the "Winchester Profession" of 1803.

    The Winchester Profession is rife with erroneous teaching. True Confessions and Creeds such as the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Heidelberg Catechism, and others are very sound in their teaching and while not infallible, provide us with clear lenses into what Scripture says. Unlike the Winchester Profession of much later years, these real confessions always begin their understanding with a clear focus on the actual nature of God and how he reveals that nature through what He has made.
True Christianity and the joy of theology must begin with Who God is, His character, and the understanding of how His very Being is made known through His actions.

Universalism can appear to do this by presenting arguments which focus on God’s love and His showing of that love by grace. This is deceiving, however, because the major premise of their whole scheme is the predetermined decree of God’s objective to save all men. In other words, they insist that God has determined to save every human He ever created, and then from there they go on to describe what the love of God is. This is decidedly backwards.
This wrong-headed starting point posits a predetermined objective that is then used to define and justify God’s character of love and His functional grace.

   It is well and true that “God is love” (I John 4:8,16).
However, love describes Who God is, not a possession of God's existing for the purpose of giving it to others. The God Who is love has no beginning, and He has ever been fully satisfied in His Trinitarian love expression from eternity-past. God did not have to save mankind through Christ in order “to prove Himself” to be love. There was nothing outside of God that necessarily implied that in order “to be true to Himself,” He had to act to save all fallen creatures.
It is man's idea that God must save all people or He is not loving.
This idea infringes upon the absolute freedom of God to function as the God that He is, and ever so subtly binds God in a logical necessity (which deifies human logic and relegates God as the instrumentation of such).

    Well, the Universalist believes he has quite the battery of Scripture at his disposal to back the notion that God saves all humankind.
     As is always the case with aberrant views of what the Bible says, Universalism fails to take passages into context when making their case. When it comes to studying Scripture, one very important rule is that of reading passages within context.

                             Context, context, context. This cannot be over-stressed.

  Many people have been known to rip a passage out of its context in order to verify some belief they hold. Reading the verse along with the entirety of what God is saying always clears up any confusion. Many times, we even refer to additional passages elsewhere in Scripture to explain a given text in question.

              A wise man once said that a text without a context is just a pretext for a prooftext.

     In other words, without examining the context in which something (in this case, Scripture) was said, one can easily (or even intentionally) misappropriate or misuse or misapply or misrepresent a text to support a position that it in fact does not support.

   One favorite verse of the Universalists is that of Romans 5:18.
It says this:
       
     Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

    Of course, the Universalist wants to say here that just as all men were condemned in Adam, so all men will be saved in Christ.

Sounds reasonable right?
After all, Christianity tells us that every living human is born into sin. Doesn't the above verse then state that every living being will also be saved?

The answer is of course a resounding no.

                                                    So lets read it in context shall we?

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mene because all sinned— 13for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 
16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 
17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 
19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 
20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 
21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

     First of all, the word "all" and the word "world" in Scripture do not always refer to every human who has ever lived, in fact rarely.

    The word world actually has at least ten different meanings in Scripture.
It is paramount to find out which meaning of the word world is being used in the passage you wish to study, don't you think?

     Likewise, the word "all" rarely means every human being who ever lived, and so if we love God and His Word, we should find out how these words are being used before jumping to our own conclusions.
What you are reading in verse 18 is an 'argument' nestled right in the middle of an even greater 'argument'. The Jew/Gentile issue is in the background.
If you miss verse 17, you'll misinterpret 18. 

    v.17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

                                       "...those who receive the abundance of grace."

That clearly designates a category of people that "all in Christ" REFERS TO.

   Paul's usage of "all" in 18 in reference to Christ is considerably different than his reference to Adam in the same verse. "Condemnation for all men" is obviously universal, whereas "leads to justification and life for all men" speaks to the non-limiting effects of Jesus' salvific work, not just Jews, but "all" men..in the universal sense of without limit it is viable to all who "receive" rather than "all" like in Adam, where all men, every man, has condemnation.

    IN CONTEXT, Paul is speaking of a particular union. This is the natural birth/life union in Adam and our subsequent condemnation.  "All" men have this. Paul then contrasts this with a reception of death and union in Christ's "life". This "all" is for "all" men with no tribal or cultural distinction but only those who receive this death/life have this new union/life in Christ.

Notice, there is in fact a transition highlighted by Paul as he moves from the "all" in Adam to the "all" in Christ. The transition Paul speaks of from Adam's "all" to Jesus' "all" is faith.

    So, hopefully that is clear. The text in no way, shape, or form supports the idea that every human who has ever or will ever lived is saved.

    This is but one of the literally thousands of errors made by the Universalist camp as they attempt to cram their own thinking into Scripture.
Not only do these confused folks insert outside meaning into the texts, but they obfuscate and equivocate on the clear meanings of words. Words such as hell, damnation, judgement, and punishment take on completely new meaning within the dens of Universalists thought.
We will look closer at just what is happening there in the subsequent posts within this series.
For now, let's have a look at some additional Scripture passages in whole.

Two more passages that are typically twisted out of context in support of Universalism.
These are John 12:32, Philippians 2:11, and 1 Timothy 2:4.

Very briefly, it can be shown that when such passages are interpreted properly, they of course do not support Universalism:

•John 12:32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."

This verse says that Christ's work on the cross makes possible the salvation of both Jews and Gentiles. Notice, however, that the Lord - in the same passage - warned of judgment of those who reject Christ. v. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. 

•Philippians 2:10-11 "so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

This text assures us that someday all people will acknowledge that Jesus is Lord, but says nothing of believing upon Him as Savior. (Even those in hell will have to acknowledge Christ's Lordship.)  •First Timothy 2:4 "who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

In this text, Paul is referring to the "all" of certain types and classes. If you read the verse in its whole context we see that Paul is speaking about praying for the King and rulers.
Look:
1 Timothy 2:1-4 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Who are the "all people" of verse 1? I believe the "all people" of verse 1 are the same "all people" of verse 4, as the subject matter does not change in any way at all in the intervening verses.

Paul's message to Timothy was clearly this:

Do not just pray for the peasants, the farmers and the uneducated (the people who seem to be coming to Christ in great numbers right now), but remember to pray for kings and the very rulers in society who are at this moment persecuting Christians. Make prayer of this kind a priority - do it "first of all" - pray for these people Timothy - make sure the Church is praying for these people - because God desires all kinds of people - even kings (or Emperors like Caesar) and the elete in society - people of every kind, to be saved.     The Scriptures consistently categorize people into one of two classes (saved/unsaved, also called believers/unbelievers), and portray the final destiny of every person as being one of two realities (heaven or hell).

•In Matthew 13:30 Jesus in a parable said, "Let both [tares and wheat] grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn." Here unbelievers and believers are spoken of as tares and wheat. Two classes!

•In Matthew 13:49 Jesus said, "This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous." Again, two classes are mentioned - unbelievers and believers spoken of as the wicked and the righteous.

•In Matthew 25:32 Jesus said that following His second coming, "All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats." Here believers and unbelievers are differentiated by the terms "sheep" and "goats." The sheep will enter into God's kingdom (vs. 34) and
inherit eternal life (vs. 46). The goats go into eternal punishment (vs. 46).

•In Luke 16:26 we find Abraham in the afterlife telling the unsaved rich man: "Between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us." Hades apparently had two compartments: "paradise" for the saved, and "torments" for the unsaved - and these compartments were separated by a great chasm or gulf.
The Universalist wants to allegorize Luke 16:26. They certainly don't want to believe that it is not a parable, but an actual account.
Nevertheless, one is still left with Jesus highlighting reward for the saved and punishment for the lost. 

Clearly then, the  Scriptures speak of two classes of people (the saved and the unsaved) and two possible destinies (heaven for the saved; hell for the unsaved). And each respective person ends up in one of these places based upon whether or not he or she placed saving faith in Christ during his or her time on earth (Acts 16:31).

    Again, the Universalist wants to flip-flop on the meaning of words such as salvation, sheep, goats, afterlife, eternal punishment, and many more.
They come up with things like God saving people after they have died in their sins.
Despite any Scriptural backing whatsoever, this is what they must believe in order to skirt the Sovereignty of God.

A simple way to know whether the doctrine if hell is real or not, is simply to look to the very cross of Christ.

These and many other things we will look at as I continue to lay out this grievous error of Universalism and allow the light of Scripture to expose it for the terrible lie that it is.
 
 

Far Past Time To Expose Universalism: Part 1

  Time.
It is truly a fascinating thing. When viewed through the eyes of Christ, it is a conundrum almost beyond our comprehension....almost.


        For we are temporal creations and while time was made to say something about God and His glory as were all things, time was created for our purposes, to "contain us" as it were. As such, it can be known to the extent that God has given us the information about it that we have. We know that it consists of three distinct parts, as do so many things in life, each one wholly separate, yet without one of them there is no complete whole. Past, present, and future make up the trinitarian nature of what is time. It flows forward without any hesitancy nor care for what it effects. It is unstoppable, all-governing, and seamless. A vast number of words would carry zero meaning if it were not for the existence of time. Indeed, it is difficult to comprehend existence at all without the constraints of time.

  We know that God is literally outside time. He has formed time with His very breath. He has created it to say something about Himself, namely that He is eternal. If God were defined by temporal means, He would be no God at all. He is the very definition of eternity. He has no beginning nor end. When we die, we will meet God face to face as either forgiven or unforgiven, justified or unjustified. We will then enter our eternal state accordingly.
Time as we know it will cease, but we must by necessity ask what time will actually look like, since though we are thrust into the great eternal realm, we will have had a beginning. There will be a certain sense of time as perceived by our minds, but the essence of it will have changed and therefore finality or "end" as it were must needs change to a much more immediate, ever-present, and ongoing thing rather than some future event. In other words, progression will also be completion, and this will never stop being. These last few words are of course extremely ssubjective. Revelation speaks of a half an hour passing in Heaven. No creature will ever be outside of time, but I wonder if time Will look different once we pass from this life to the next. Maybe it won't, however the point is that we as creations cannot ever escape the notion and reality of time, for we have "started", we have begun, we have been created.


  Time is something that I have very little of these days, though I do enjoy spurts of extended time to read and write, well.....from time to time. As I write this, it is my final day with the ones I love as I prepare to embark on yet another venture from home, leaving my family for an extended period in order to provide for them in my chosen mode of employment. This time home has been very short, and even now I am missing time spent with my young son and wife in order to make this blog entry. The thoughts I wish to impress upon this blog screen are many and varied and have to do with the apostate beliefs of Universalism. Nevertheless, I do not wish to devote the time it will take to flesh out the particular things about which I wish to write. I will be saving the majority of my dismantling of Universalism for a series of blog posts I've decided to do; I'm guessing a total of three, give or take. Please subscribe and stay tuned for that.

  Universalism as a worldview is on the rise. We are seeing a great many people ensnared in this false view of God and salvation. Since the Doctrine of Hell is what theologians know as an essential doctrine to the Christian faith, when it is altered or tampered with, you are left with a different Gospel altogether.
There are many different factions of Universalism, but for our purpose we will focus on what has been dubbed "Christian" Universalism which is to contrast Unitarian Universalism. These so-called "Christian" Universalists, hereafter termed "CU", like to affirm the existence of hell and of God's judgement upon the wicked, but they insist that it is only temporary and a purging of the wicked, so that even after death in their sins, all persons who lived without Christ will eventually be saved. They believe they are thoroughly Christian, even affirming Orthodoxy by referencing errant early theologians such as Origin as having affirmed their position.
  They equivocate on terms like elect, hell, judgement, destruction, lake of fire, redemption, and many others.
They have to change the meaning of Biblical terms that have been soundly understood from the days of Christ Himself, in order to cram in their false ideas.
CU is a doctrine of demons, for it changes the very nature of God as well as how He works within creation and what He has said about sin, righteousness, death, and life. It is pure heresy.

  While many of these apostate Christians are just parroting things they've gleaned from Youtube channels like TentMaker or from heretical pastors and books, occasionally we see an intellect or two trying very determinedly to be academic about the subject and affirm from Scripture, logic, and reason the position of CU. I have discovered such an individual online and he has fully engaged me on the subject, providing extensive paragraphs for my perusal. It is the kind of stimulating dialogue that he has provided which I admittedly enjoy a great deal, and I always find that great fruit comes from such an interaction, even with apostates, because it causes me to dig deeper, learn more about false beliefs, learn how to expose them, and of course to draw nearer to Christ.

  Rather than studying more about CU right now, pick through the aforementioned individual's advanced wording and elaborate presentations, as well as prepare well thought out rebuttals, I have quickly jotted down these few words to begin this several part series, and to let you know I am still alive!

  I began this post speaking of time. One thing to keep very clear when discussing CU, is that adherents to this belief must bring God down to a temporal idea of existence in order to validate their claims.
They will vehemently deny this, because they see themselves believing that God simply purges all evil out of the wicked and then the lost are redeemed post-mortem. What is actually happening is a maligning of God's perfect eternal justice upon eternal crime against Him, and they must think in temporal terms with regards to how God saves, what He does to the wicked, and His design of real justice.

  Time as we know it ends at death. Our "test" is over. In eternity, there is the fullness of God in all His many attributes. He moves as one, completely at peace and harmony with Himself, exacting all actions through His attributes as a whole. God does not come apart. There is no "time" for the wicked at death. Time is up. Eternity is now faced, and for the wicked this means they will pay eternally for their eternal crimes against Eternal God.
To say that there is only a space of time that the wicked will be purged through punishment, is to miss the eternality of God altogether as well as the atonement of Christ, not to mention His Holiness and all the rest of His attributes.

                           Hebrews 9:25  Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own,26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
  Yeah, that would be "ONCE TO DIE...AND THEN JUDGEMENT". They will twist this verse though to mean something entirely different than it means, but it stands as a clear refutation of any eventual salvation of all who ever lived.
Before I close, I will leave you with a quick-shot of expository truth from Revelation, and in addition provide two philosophical questions put to me. The answers to these questions could easily be drawn out and will be done so in subsequent posts, however I will be providing the most basic, short answer available.

      Revelation 20:10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.


This figuratively portrays the Coming of Christ for what it represents to the wicked. Christ returns "in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ^" (2 Thess. 1:8).
Before Satan can actually harm the Christian order (he merely surrounds "the camp of the saints and the beloved city," Rev. 20:9), Christ's Second Advent ends history and sweeps all evil into eternal judgment. This is forever and ever and will indeed be unending torment upon those who have rebelled against God.
At this event, men enter their final, eternal abode: either the New Heavens and New Earth or the Lake of Fire.  Not only will the Lord vindicate His people by historical sanctions on earth, but there will be a final and conclusive judgment of the wicked and a blessed confirmation of the righteous.


  Here are two questions that were put to me. Remember, they will be dealt with at length later, but they are quickly undone as well.
These should serve to whet your appetite for more exposure of the heresy of CU as we shred it for the grievous error that it is.
Please submit questions and comments and let's allow truth to set us free.

  ///////"How is it that God vanquishes evil without actually vanquishing evil?"///////

          This is barely a real question, for it is a misunderstanding of the nature of God's eternality and His goodness. All one must really do is look at the cross.
Evil is the corruption of a good thing. All it takes for evil to exist is for God to dump the creation out of His divine and special upholding grace. Those who have embraced their own depravity over the Holiness of God, will receive divine justice. Their sins against Him are eternal because they are against eternal God.
God removes all wickedness and rebellion from the pure life of creation, nevertheless He must punish sin, which He has done for many upon Christ, and which He will also do unto many who are without Christ.
Evil is vanquished by a simple act of God, and it will be punished in those who have embraced it.



////////"How can the sinful nature sustain itself in the presence of God pouring Himself directly upon it?"//////

Again, evil is the deprivation or corruption of an otherwise good and real thing. All God does is remove His divine sustaining of a thing for evil to exist. Men go to hell on their own, though of course God physically places them there. They are fast running from God into the crushing torment of hellfire. God does nothing for them to perish.
Hellfire (whatever it is) has been created by God to specifically exact eternal punishment upon those who have sinned against Him, both demons and men. The Bible is clear on this. The nature of man is fallen and as such is totally infested by sin. It will be given to its utter depths in hell where men will suffer for all eternity. These mortal bodies can no more withstand the flames of hell as they could the glories of Heaven.
All will be raised, and all will be given immortal bodies. For those wicked destined for hell, their new frames will be submitted to eternal death, and their sinful natures will be at maximum destruction both within and without.

Beyond this, the question is really struggling with the stuff of hellfire, what it is made of, and that we just have no Biblical information for.

      God is actually God. He has a real salvation from real sin. He has also prepared a place that will serve to exact Holy justice upon those vast eternal crimes against Him. For all who have been given this life to live, time is truly running out.....

   

All of me or All of Christ?

   What do you think of when you hear the word "synergism"? 

Energy? A business model? Relationship? Maybe you just don't care because it isn't a word you use. Well, in the most important realm of all human knowledge, theology, the term synergism denotes a particular way in which God acts. It describes a togetherness of God and man in the working of salvific power over a rebellious, sinful heart. It states that we cooperate with God in assuring our own salvation. You have been exposed to synergism if you have ever heard the statement, "Just allow Jesus to come into your heart!" or "Let go and let God!"

Synergists teach that that we are born as God's children by the will of man but the Bible teaches that we "were born, not of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:13)

Do you see that? 

No one can believe in Jesus unless God grants it.

In context verses 12 and 13 say,

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.   No man receives Christ unless God first opens his heart in regeneration. John continues this theme throughout his book in chapter 3 and again in chapter 6. No one can believe in Jesus unless God grants it (John 6:65) and ALL to whom God grants it will believe (John 6:37) The Spirit gives life, the flesh counts for nothing (John 6:63).
This is resistless logic. This is a syllogism which leaves no room for synergism.

The opposite of synergism is monergism.

   Monergism of course states that it is God alone who effects the act of salvation over a sinful, rebellious heart, and only at that point, after God has worked the miracle of a born again life, may a person then become a co-laborer with Christ. Even then, we know that truly good works performed by a saved person are works prepared before the foundation of the world as written down in Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
This is the right and true way of how God works. This is called regeneration

Walk a minute with me through Scripture.

"All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out." (John 6:37)

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. (John 6:44)

It is the Spirit who gives life (quickens, regenerates); the flesh is no help at all. ..."This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." (John 6:63, 65)

Simply put, no one can believe in Jesus unless God grants it and all to whom He grants it will believe.
The Spirit quickens [regenerates, saves, makes born again], the flesh counts for nothing.
John 6 is one of many Bible passages which clearly demonstrates that regeneration is intimately tied to faith and that salvation is by Christ alone, utterly abolishing any remote possibility of synergism. 

Christ not only commands us to believe but gives us what we require to do so.
A great theologian of ancient times names Augustine said this:
"When God crowns your merits, He crowns nothing but His own gifts."
This is a profound quote that one can spend a great deal of time dwelling on! 

Is faith a requirement for salvation? 
Of course it is, but that very faith is itself a gift from God!!

Philippians 1:29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,

The reason why one person believes the gospel and not another is not because one person was more prudent or wise but because of the grace of God in Jesus Christ alone.
Synergistic theology leaves the saved person with something in themselves in which to boast. However, God is very clear in His Word that there is nothing whatsoever that a person may boast in save God's glory alone.

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Jesus clearly told Nicodemus that in order to even see the Kingdom, an act entirely of the Holy Spirit must be done and He called it, 'being born again'.

John 3:3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is  born again  he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

You see then that if even the act of choosing to believe hinges on the sheer volition of the individual, then it is true that one could say salvation is all of oneself, one's own choosing.

However, if one actually adheres to the Biblical declaration that salvation depends entirely upon the will of God Almighty, only then can one honestly say that salvation is All of Christ!

Synergism is a lie.  Monergism is the only thing the Bible teaches.

GMO = God Move Over

   {This post is also to be found at my alternate blog Exposing the Darkness. It is of such great importance I included it here as well]


   Recently, it has been amazing to me that there are people who actually argue for the existence of GMO's.  While some are simply thinking about technological advancements which could benefit society, many others are going full steam blitzkrieg and refusing to look at real data, swallowing the lies of Big Pharma and chemical giants like Monsanto.

    One very important thing to remember in any debate is to define your terms. The GMO issue is certainly no exception.
 An argument I've seen several times in support of GMOs is this: 'Hey, what's the big deal, GMOs have been happening since the dawn of time!" One individual was so deluded on the issue of GMOs that he actually said to me with regards to his defense of GMOs that his family had been in the seed breeding business for many generations. Obviously, he had not spent any time learning the seed business, because a GMO is not simple seed breeding!!!
Additionally, the very existence of GMOs is eliminating the age old practice of breeding your own seed in agriculture as the modified seed is engineered to produce zero sowable seed SO THAT more seed will have to be purchased!!!!  Sheesh!
Another argument was brought up about genetic mutations in nature in an attempt to justify GMO. It is wearying to have to labor with people over these things, especially when they call themselves Christian. Just as we would handle the arguments of an evolution-pushing scientist, so it is that the answer is that mutations happens inter-species and they ALWAYS mean that information is being lost in the DNA strain! This is exactly opposite of not only the macro-evolution myth itself but the very process of lab-engineered genetically modified organisms.

                                                 
                                                                  CLICK ON PIC

So, If you’re comparing GMOs to how a grapefruit is made or how a multi-colored rose is made, you're a bit off and we need to get on the same page. A grapefruit or a new rose is made by hybridizing two members of the citrus family or of the Rosaceae family respectively. Hybridization can occur naturally....in nature. 

   GMOs combine genes of completely unrelated species, say a tomato with a fish. They also interject artificial material in the gene splicing in the form of pesticides, herbicides, etc.
This is completely unnatural and the long-term effects of these foods within the diet, as well as the possible impacts these GMO seeds may have upon the environment, have not been studied to a sufficient degree.

 One particularly alarming study would be the sharp rise in respiratory disease in the Indian farmers who handle GMO seeds by hand in the sowing process.

   Creating combinations of plants, bacterium, animals, sea life, humans and insects was never meant to be.

                                                 This is not advancement, its perversion.

                                                                        

    The honest truth is that the effects of these non foods will not be fully realized until decades, even centuries later.
 Just simple nutritional deficiencies took hundreds of years to understand; deficiencies like scurvy.
Even today many people who suffer from nutritional deficiencies such as b vitamins(Re: Abram Hoffers work) and serotonin/melatonin are given drugs(Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil) or are locked up. Drugs and incarceration are the results of ignorance and fear, as well as literal actions of  intentional slow-kill by the establishment, but I digress.

     Clearly, nutritional deficiencies take time to develop, let alone pathological conditions involving foreign proteins/ genes that have never existed before. So any assurance that you hear coming from these chemical companies is sheer snake-oil, peer reviewed or not!
              This is the folly of human "science". It hails itself as the great vindicator of itself. Nonsense. It is a myth that science is the great source and progenitor of all truth.
             All attempts by humans to "improve" upon nature have been a failure! Antibiotics kill all bacterium which are required by the human body! They destroy the immune system, and kill its ability to create various vitamins such as k, intrinsic factor, and so forth. All the while, natures antibiotics such as garlic, pau de arco tea, Vitamin D, nascent iodine and so many others are ignored, demonized, or otherwise discarded so that Big Pharma can just keep rollin' on..
       One must remember that mad cow was created by humans feeding cows other cows. What did they hope to discover? Who can determine the outcome of this bio engineering experiment which has no oversight rules as to the amount of genes added or taken out? Not only this, but what gives these companies the "right" to alter our food and to avoid labeling.
  This removes my choice and this removal is not democracy but is arbitrary law forced upon citizens by a multinational company that has bought out politicians who enacted laws which are unconstitutional. This is only a B-Gates' idea of applying a monopoly over the food supply just like Microsoft was to the software industry.

  I love my country. I love Christ. I reject the lies of evolution and global warming. I will keep my guns and relinquish them only bullets first. I was raised on a decent sized crop farm. We used Monsanto seed, Round-up, 2-4D, and Sinbar. I now understand their destructive nature and will continue to speak against them.
 The thing is, could my dad have found alternative methods? Sure! But at the total cost of the farm. You see, most farmers can't do anything but the conventional methods, because they have been subjected to nothing short of an hostile takeover.
In 1913 100% of corn and wheat were farmer owned. Today, 95% of these crops are corporation owned and 90% of these crops if not more are GMOs.

    Make no mistake, we are talking about weaponized biology. They know exactly what they are doing and what they are doing is taking over the number one resource used to enslave cities and nations down through history-----FOOD.

Ephesians 5:11
                                                                     

GMO = God Move Over

Freewillism, Synergism, and Syllogisms

          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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

   “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.

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.

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.

However, free will theology is the very height of idolatry.
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.