The myth of grace-only & easy-believism shattered forever

[Dave L]

Do you care less about those in the churches who are habitually sinning?

News Flash ...
It is very possible for BACs to be deceived into believing in "grace-only"!

It's not a fair fight ...
God's still small voice ... VS ... Satan + the flesh + the church!

They are false churches if the sin continues.

 

[BCsenior]

They are false churches if the sin continues.

If you bothered to read the OP, it says MOST churches today are false.

 

[Chris V++]

TRY YOUR BEST WHILE REPENTING OF (i.e. stopping) YOUR KNOWN SINS.

Doesn't every BAC know this already even if they choose to ignore it? I don't recall ever hearing a single sermon from any denomination promoting a ' Christians have a license to sin' approach.

 

[Dave L]

If you bothered to read the OP, it says MOST churches today are false.

I haven't been to church for decades as a matter of conscience.

 

[BCsenior]

Doesn't every BAC know this already even if they choose to ignore it? I don't recall ever hearing a single sermon from any denomination promoting a ' Christians have a license to sin' approach.

Most churches today just do NOT deal with it, confront it, etc.
Why would they when the pastors are hooked on inappropriate contentography.
Many of them are!

BTW, Satan is "god of this world", etc. ...
even though John's "the world" refers to the world of non-believers!
Please note 1 John 5 ... BACs have overcome "the world" just by believing.

Satan attacks his most influential enemies (e.g. TV evangelists) the hardest.
So, let's not judge these brothers who have fallen.
We have not walked in their shoes!

 

[archarios]

Don't judge televangelists but judge the other evangelists? Why?
-----------------
I've seen a couple looneys on the internet claim that repentance is a work from satan but I've never heard it from a genuine pulpit. Funny enough, I did hear it from Televangelist Joseph Prince.

 

[BCsenior]

I've seen a couple looneys on the internet
claim that repentance is a work from satan
but I've never heard it from a genuine pulpit.
Funny enough, I did hear it from Televangelist Joseph Prince.

Yes, they are looneys, as is Joseph Prince.

 

[Kenny'sID]

Today's churches are full of sinners? Or today's churches are full of born again believers who believe God is giving them special permission to knowingly commit sin?

I've been around enough "Grace only" people to know for certain they felt they had a license to sin. Mean and dishonest as they could be and heaven bound regardless.

Can't beat first hand proof.

 

[zoidar]

Thank you for being humble enough to ask this.
TRY YOUR BEST WHILE REPENTING OF (i.e. stopping) YOUR KNOWN SINS.
God will honor this effort and He will bless you and lead you unto holiness.
Romans 6 says we must become slaves of righteousness unto holiness!

I will do this... Thanks! Christ love!

How do you deal with sexuality? Not fully sure, what is sin and not.

 

[aiki]

Most churches today teach false doctrines for several reasons:
ignorance, unbelief, for popularity, for financial benefit, etc.
Only a few churches are teaching correct doctrine these days.

And, of course, you have personal, first-hand knowledge of most Christian churches and what they do and don't teach. This would mean, though, that you have such knowledge of tens of thousands of churches. Do you? If so, how?

There is more to correct doctrine than “Jesus is Lord and Savior”.
Many Spirit-filled Christians are warning, “The church is fast asleep!”

I'm not aware that any of the churches I know of personally believe or teach that all there is to correct doctrine is "Jesus is Saviour and Lord."

Grace-only, cheap-grace, hyper-grace, easy-believism …
are all called antinomianism!

I don't know of any Christian Bible teacher who teaches "cheap grace" or "easy-believism." In my experience, these are just Strawman labels that legalistic Christians like to throw around.

This is the notion that a one-time
justification saves … apart from sanctification. But, this is an
incomplete understanding of God’s wonderful free gift of grace!

Both justification and sanctification are, in Christ, accomplished facts for the believer. (1 Corinthians 1:30-31) Positionally, in Christ, the born-again believer is already fully justified and sanctified before God. S/he cannot be in a relationship with God as His child without this being true.

The problem with easy-believism is that it allows
those who are living in hypocrisy, disobedience, and sin
(i.e. those who are NOT walking in obedience)
to live comfortably with a false assurance of salvation!

Ah, the old "scare you straight" tactic of the legalist. Fear must motivate the believer's righteousness. Never mind that the Bible clearly points to love as the ultimate motive for Christian living (Matthew 22:36-38; 1 Corinthians 13:1-3; 1 John 4:16-19, etc.) which is a motive antithetical to fear (1 John 4:18-19)

This leads to the tragedy described in Matthew 7:21-23 (for example).

The tragedy of this passage is that those who did good works in Christ's name had not obeyed the First and Great Commandment (Matthew 22:36-38) which is where all obedience to the Father's will begins.

“… some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches,
saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives.
… they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (Jude 4-5, NLT)

Who teaches this? None of the Bible teachers I know teach such a thing, though they would reject your works-salvation, fear-based form of Christianity.

There are at least 10 NT verses for each of the following truths

Believers prove they have true saving faith:
1 -- by their obedience
2 -- by practicing righteousness
3 -- by living holy lives
4 -- by having a healthy fear of God
5 -- by repenting of their occasional sins
6 –- by overcoming sin, the world, Satan, persecution
7 –- by enduring in the faith to the end of their lives

And these all are in evidence in a genuinely born-again believer's life because s/he is saved, not in order for them to be saved. An apple tree bears apples because it is an apple tree, not in order to be an apple tree.

Re: #4 … If people are believing and trusting in grace-only, cheap-grace,
hyper-grace, easy-believism, etc., HOW can they be fearing God?

This is always the heart of legalism and works-based salvation: Fear. But fear is ruled out as an important factor in living the Christian life. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3; 1 John 4:18-19)

So, all of these verses PROVE the road to eternal life is indeed narrow,
and believers are responsible for playing their part in their salvation!

Nope. Scripture flatly denies that anyone can contribute to their salvation. (Ephesians 2:8-9; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:5)

Or, shall we view these verses as merely bluffs, exaggerations, lies even?

Not at all. We just don't have to see them as threats, like you do, but as descriptions of the natural result of walking with God in loving, joyful fellowship.

Initially, through His grace, God gives to new believers:
Jesus’ righteousness, redemption, reconciliation, etc. and salvation.
However, this grace/salvation is NOT guaranteed to last forever!

Baloney. This is just your legalistic fear-mongering that is twisting Scripture.

And because NT verses warn about the possibility of losing salvation.

No, it doesn't.

The Scriptural Basis For O.s.a.s. | Christian Forums

Some believers became “estranged from Christ”
… they had “fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4).

Which only means "lose salvation" when seen through your hyper-fear legalism.

Some believers are “of those who draw back to perdition” (Hebrews 10:39).

Nothing in the verse or context indicates this is speaking of genuinely born-again people.

1 John 2:19
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

 

[HatGuy]

Most churches today teach false doctrines for several reasons:
ignorance, unbelief, for popularity, for financial benefit, etc.
Only a few churches are teaching correct doctrine these days.
There is more to correct doctrine than “Jesus is Lord and Savior”.
Many Spirit-filled Christians are warning, “The church is fast asleep!”

Grace-only, cheap-grace, hyper-grace, easy-believism …
are all called antinomianism! This is the notion that a one-time
justification saves … apart from sanctification. But, this is an
incomplete understanding of God’s wonderful free gift of grace!

The problem with easy-believism is that it allows
those who are living in hypocrisy, disobedience, and sin
(i.e. those who are NOT walking in obedience)
to live comfortably with a false assurance of salvation!
This leads to the tragedy described in Matthew 7:21-23 (for example).

“… some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches,
saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives.
… they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (Jude 4-5, NLT)

NOTE: We are talking here about believers who have received the Holy Spirit.

There are at least 10 NT verses for each of the following truths

Believers prove they have true saving faith:
1 -- by their obedience
2 -- by practicing righteousness
3 -- by living holy lives
4 -- by having a healthy fear of God
5 -- by repenting of their occasional sins
6 –- by overcoming sin, the world, Satan, persecution
7 –- by enduring in the faith to the end of their lives

Re: #4 … If people are believing and trusting in grace-only, cheap-grace,
hyper-grace, easy-believism, etc., HOW can they be fearing God?

So, all of these verses PROVE the road to eternal life is indeed narrow,
and believers are responsible for playing their part in their salvation!

Or, shall we view these verses as merely bluffs, exaggerations, lies even?

Initially, through His grace, God gives to new believers:
Jesus’ righteousness, redemption, reconciliation, etc. and salvation.
However, this grace/salvation is NOT guaranteed to last forever!
Because ONLY their old-past-former sins have been forgiven (2 Peter 1:9).
And because NT verses warn about the possibility of losing salvation.

Some believers became “estranged from Christ”
… they had “fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4).

Some believers are “of those who draw back to perdition” (Hebrews 10:39).

And there are many more warning verses.

The problem with this sort of teaching is that it, in fact, does not really address antinomianism.

You can't tell people to stop sinning by telling them to stop sinning, or threatening them with losing salvation. Sin is not defeated by trying harder, or being full of fear. It is only faith that produces good works. But this post (and others like it) doesn't speak of faith, nor does it encourage faith, it only encourages despair.

I for one have a ton of sins in my life I wish I could snap my fingers and be rid of. But alas, some are persistent, and it seems those take some walking in faith to deal with - by the Spirit, not the flesh.

The reason why this doesn't address antinomianism is because it also doesn't make use of the Law properly. If one wants to show what sin does, one has to also show what grace does. You don't defeat antinonianism by just insisting on Law - the antinomian doesn't care about Law. But show how Law and Grace work together and you'll begin to break down the antinomian defense. Most antinomians are actually not anti-law. If you note carefully, they will often simply have their own sort of law - for example, you have to believe the law is no longer valid to be a Christian. Hyper-grace people can be quite legalistic about their doctrine... it would be more helpful to show them that they have simply changed the Law, because it is impossible to have no Law, God didn't make the world that way.

 

[BCsenior]

I've been around enough "Grace only" people
to know for certain they felt they had a license to sin.
Mean and dishonest as they could be and heaven bound regardless.
Can't beat first hand proof.

Many thanks for your "first-hand" proof testimony!

 

[HatGuy]

Most churches today just do NOT deal with it, confront it, etc.
Why would they when the pastors are hooked on inappropriate contentography.
Many of them are!

Because most live in an extremely pressured environment to be perfect. And they live under a very pull-yourself-up-from-your-bootstraps culture. Incidentally, perfectionism leads to sin, it does not lead to perfection.

 

[timothyu]

Jesus said the foundation His church would be built upon was the simple truth from God, not the boundless truths from man.

 

[BCsenior]

The problem with this sort of teaching is that it, in fact, does NOT really address antinomianism.

The OP addresses it by exposing it, explaining it, warning against it, etc.

There are several reasons why believers go along with grace-only, easy-believism, etc.
IMO, the #1 reason is that it is NOT taught against ... in the churches!

News Flash ...
God has been pouring out His (limited, so far) punishment on America for 2 major reasons:
1) the horrendous sin against God of aborting 70 million babies
2) to wake up the sleeping church ... it's going to result in "from death to life"

Next up soon ... the horrendous economic crash
(which has happened already, but has been papered over with worthless dollars)
will manifest itself ... and it will be way beyond devastating!

 

[Gregory Thompson]

Most churches today teach false doctrines for several reasons:
ignorance, unbelief, for popularity, for financial benefit, etc.
Only a few churches are teaching correct doctrine these days.
There is more to correct doctrine than “Jesus is Lord and Savior”.
Many Spirit-filled Christians are warning, “The church is fast asleep!”

Grace-only, cheap-grace, hyper-grace, easy-believism …
are all called antinomianism! This is the notion that a one-time
justification saves … apart from sanctification. But, this is an
incomplete understanding of God’s wonderful free gift of grace!

The problem with easy-believism is that it allows
those who are living in hypocrisy, disobedience, and sin
(i.e. those who are NOT walking in obedience)
to live comfortably with a false assurance of salvation!
This leads to the tragedy described in Matthew 7:21-23 (for example).

“… some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches,
saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives.
… they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (Jude 4-5, NLT)

NOTE: We are talking here about believers who have received the Holy Spirit.

There are at least 10 NT verses for each of the following truths

Believers prove they have true saving faith:
1 -- by their obedience
2 -- by practicing righteousness
3 -- by living holy lives
4 -- by having a healthy fear of God
5 -- by repenting of their occasional sins
6 –- by overcoming sin, the world, Satan, persecution
7 –- by enduring in the faith to the end of their lives

Re: #4 … If people are believing and trusting in grace-only, cheap-grace,
hyper-grace, easy-believism, etc., HOW can they be fearing God?

So, all of these verses PROVE the road to eternal life is indeed narrow,
and believers are responsible for playing their part in their salvation!

Or, shall we view these verses as merely bluffs, exaggerations, lies even?

Initially, through His grace, God gives to new believers:
Jesus’ righteousness, redemption, reconciliation, etc. and salvation.
However, this grace/salvation is NOT guaranteed to last forever!
Because ONLY their old-past-former sins have been forgiven (2 Peter 1:9).
And because NT verses warn about the possibility of losing salvation.

Some believers became “estranged from Christ”
… they had “fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4).

Some believers are “of those who draw back to perdition” (Hebrews 10:39).

And there are many more warning verses.

When I read this, I get a "gnashing teeth" kind of sense. So it tells me not to listen, i.e. not the voice of the shepherd.

 

[HatGuy]

The OP addresses it by exposing it, explaining it, warning against it, etc.

There are several reasons why believers go along with grace-only, easy-believism, etc.
IMO, the #1 reason is that it is NOT taught against ... in the churches!

News Flash ...
God has been pouring out His (limited, so far) punishment on America for 2 major reasons:
1) the horrendous sin against God of aborting 70 million babies
2) to wake up the sleeping church ... it's going to result in "from death to life"

Next up soon ... the horrendous economic crash
(which has happened already, but has been papered over with worthless dollars)
will manifest itself ... and it will be way beyond devastating!

The idea that "most" churches (as per the OP) don't teach that sin has consequences is false in my experience of churches all over the world.

If one wants to address liberal churches, one must realise that liberal churches are not antinomian. In fact, they quite like law - but a law of their own choosing.

Likewise, legalistic churches are often quite antinomian, in the sense that they disregard God's law and insist on their own codes of morality.

In both cases, the law adopted is often adopted from culture, not from the Bible, and the Bible is used incorrectly to validate their own forms of law.

Your post (and others like it) is ineffective in really dealing with the issue. You're shooting blanks, not real ammo.

Secondly, your doomsday prophecies about America only serve to create fear, not faith. How does any of this help anyone to actually deal with sin? Can sin be defeated by the flesh?

 

[friend of]

Grace-only, cheap-grace, hyper-grace, easy-believism …
are all called antinomianism!

False. Stopped reading here.

 

[redleghunter]

Most churches today teach false doctrines for several reasons:
ignorance, unbelief, for popularity, for financial benefit, etc.
Only a few churches are teaching correct doctrine these days.
There is more to correct doctrine than “Jesus is Lord and Savior”.
Many Spirit-filled Christians are warning, “The church is fast asleep!”

Grace-only, cheap-grace, hyper-grace, easy-believism …
are all called antinomianism! This is the notion that a one-time
justification saves … apart from sanctification. But, this is an
incomplete understanding of God’s wonderful free gift of grace!

The problem with easy-believism is that it allows
those who are living in hypocrisy, disobedience, and sin
(i.e. those who are NOT walking in obedience)
to live comfortably with a false assurance of salvation!
This leads to the tragedy described in Matthew 7:21-23 (for example).

“… some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches,
saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives.
… they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (Jude 4-5, NLT)

NOTE: We are talking here about believers who have received the Holy Spirit.

There are at least 10 NT verses for each of the following truths

Believers prove they have true saving faith:
1 -- by their obedience
2 -- by practicing righteousness
3 -- by living holy lives
4 -- by having a healthy fear of God
5 -- by repenting of their occasional sins
6 –- by overcoming sin, the world, Satan, persecution
7 –- by enduring in the faith to the end of their lives

Re: #4 … If people are believing and trusting in grace-only, cheap-grace,
hyper-grace, easy-believism, etc., HOW can they be fearing God?

So, all of these verses PROVE the road to eternal life is indeed narrow,
and believers are responsible for playing their part in their salvation!

Or, shall we view these verses as merely bluffs, exaggerations, lies even?

Initially, through His grace, God gives to new believers:
Jesus’ righteousness, redemption, reconciliation, etc. and salvation.
However, this grace/salvation is NOT guaranteed to last forever!
Because ONLY their old-past-former sins have been forgiven (2 Peter 1:9).
And because NT verses warn about the possibility of losing salvation.

Some believers became “estranged from Christ”
… they had “fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4).

Some believers are “of those who draw back to perdition” (Hebrews 10:39).

And there are many more warning verses.

An atheist picked up on your thread but given this is in a Christian only area you will have to defend your views on the atheist created thread.

Apparently he’s confused on the Gospel as you have put more stipulations on Christians than the Gospel teaches.

Here you go:

Why did God make Gospel so confusing?

Good luck.

 

[topher694]

Most churches today teach false doctrines for several reasons:
ignorance, unbelief, for popularity, for financial benefit, etc.
Only a few churches are teaching correct doctrine these days.
There is more to correct doctrine than “Jesus is Lord and Savior”.
Many Spirit-filled Christians are warning, “The church is fast asleep!”

Grace-only, cheap-grace, hyper-grace, easy-believism …
are all called antinomianism! This is the notion that a one-time
justification saves … apart from sanctification. But, this is an
incomplete understanding of God’s wonderful free gift of grace!

The problem with easy-believism is that it allows
those who are living in hypocrisy, disobedience, and sin
(i.e. those who are NOT walking in obedience)
to live comfortably with a false assurance of salvation!
This leads to the tragedy described in Matthew 7:21-23 (for example).

“… some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches,
saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives.
… they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (Jude 4-5, NLT)

NOTE: We are talking here about believers who have received the Holy Spirit.

There are at least 10 NT verses for each of the following truths

Believers prove they have true saving faith:
1 -- by their obedience
2 -- by practicing righteousness
3 -- by living holy lives
4 -- by having a healthy fear of God
5 -- by repenting of their occasional sins
6 –- by overcoming sin, the world, Satan, persecution
7 –- by enduring in the faith to the end of their lives

Re: #4 … If people are believing and trusting in grace-only, cheap-grace,
hyper-grace, easy-believism, etc., HOW can they be fearing God?

So, all of these verses PROVE the road to eternal life is indeed narrow,
and believers are responsible for playing their part in their salvation!

Or, shall we view these verses as merely bluffs, exaggerations, lies even?

Initially, through His grace, God gives to new believers:
Jesus’ righteousness, redemption, reconciliation, etc. and salvation.
However, this grace/salvation is NOT guaranteed to last forever!
Because ONLY their old-past-former sins have been forgiven (2 Peter 1:9).
And because NT verses warn about the possibility of losing salvation.

Some believers became “estranged from Christ”
… they had “fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4).

Some believers are “of those who draw back to perdition” (Hebrews 10:39).

And there are many more warning verses.

I despise hyper-grace, however, you have no idea what most churches are teaching.

How about just pointing to the truth rather making broad unsubstantiated negative generalizations about other Christians and ministries. Such attacks are just as wrong and unbiblical as hyper-grace.