Perfect Mistranslation (Part 2) "For what does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.' Now to him who WORKS, the wages are NOT counted as grace but as DEBT! But to him who does NOT work but BELIEVES in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness."(Rom. 4:3-5, NKJV) "Jesus Christ, AUTHOR AND FINISHER of OUR faith." (Heb.12:2) Oh, dear precious brothers and sisters, PLEASE let those words of Paul soak into your minds and hearts until the grace that comes with that promise oozes out of your very being! I can only assume that John Wesley was blinded by some of the translational errors in his Bible translation. If John Wesley had the information you are about to receive, he may have dramatically rewritten what he wrote in "A Plain Account of Christian Perfection." Conditional Salvation There are countless denominations and movements that stem from John Wesley's teachings. His ideas about Holiness and Sanctification have affected many tens of thousands of church leaders and their congregations. The Charismatic, Pentecostal, and Holiness movements all have their roots Wesley's teachings. The Wesleyan strain of teaching owes its origin to an earlier theologian by the name of Jacob Arminius. The theological name used to describe this line of teaching is commonly called Arminianism. (By the way, I'm NOT writing as a Calvinist to expose Arminianism's errors! Calvinism is also a perversion of the gospel.) In a nutshell, Arminianism advances the idea that people must "choose salvation" in this lifetime by accepting Christ's sacrifice on the cross for their sins. Moreover, this human will-centered ideology asserts that all mankind is guilty before God and the punishment for that guilt is endless torment in a fiery hell. However, after accepting the free gift of grace, one must begin to show signs that they have indeed received grace; one must begin to DO works that would indicate they have Christ within them. And one must begin to refrain from doing works that are considered sinful or evil according to how their denomination or church defines what is sin and what isn't. What determines whether a person has crossed the line is probably as varied as the number of people who believe in conditional salvation. Ultimately, each individual believer must make up their own minds what that line may be. It's interesting that most Christians draw a different line for themselves than for others. The reader can be assured they have a hard time finding two pastors who will both draw that line in exactly the same place. That should tell you something about this system. (I have been to one church in my community where a small mustache on a man's face would send them to Hell. This denomination has over 20,000 churches and almost 3 million adherents.) According to this line of teaching, there are sins Christians can commit which would cause them to lose their salvation and "go to Hell." Therefore one who has indeed been "born again" CAN lose their salvation and find themselves in a Hell of everlasting punishment. The message is clear: "Even as one 'chose' to get saved, they can also 'choose' to get unsaved." So it is clear that the "eternal" life promised at the "altar call" by this "survival of the fittest" theology REALLY isn't "eternal" after all! (Food for thought: Was Darwin's survival of the fittest theory simply the logically produced fruit of the teaching of a corrupted church?) Most pastors will not drill home week after week on Sunday mornings all the things that one must do or not do in order to maintain their salvation. No, this doctrine is usually used in a more subtle way. This doctrine most often comes out when a sheep begins to get out of line. Most human beings are incapable of sustaining a continuous bombardment of sermons that center on walking thestraight line to avoid the fiery flames of Hell. They'll go find another church or go insane. Once the teaching that one can lose their salvation is injected in a soul, it is not necessary to keep the message But phrases like that do NOT neutralize the poisonous seed is already firmly planted in the hearts of souls. Once the seed is planted, it's power to rob us of the power of the life of God is in effect. The sugar coated words about how hard it is to lose one's salvation merely serve to prevent us from ejecting the seed.They are Satan's subtly at its best. Under this system, because one is ever in a condition of never knowing honestly whether they are truly saved or not, there is a strong impulse to do works that would "appear" righteous. These "works" become proof that God is indeed working in their lives and that they are on the road which prevents them from falling into Hell. The central core of life then, under this teaching, becomes saving oneself to the everlasting exclusion of billions of people who will perish in Hell for all eternity as "failures" who didn't measure up. I know this may shock some readers, but this teaching is pretty much at the heart of modern Christianity and especially in Evangelicalism. Click Here to CONTINUE to PART 3 Conclusion |