I was a first-year student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1983 when Professor Dale Moody was called on the carpet by certain influential leaders in the Arkansas Baptist State Convention.  The issue at hand was the chapter on apostasy in his systematic theology textbook, The Word of Truth.

Moody was a man of immense intellect and astonishing Bible knowledge. He also was a debater – tenacious as a bulldog, relentless as a bulldozer. But while his critics may have been overmatched in knowledge, they certainly were no less tenacious or relentless.

The meeting, unfortunately, turned out to be a debate, rather than a dialogue. Neither side listened to what the other was saying. Neither made any real effort to understand the other point of view. It was what one author has called “duologue” – picture two television sets facing each other, both blaring their message, neither listening.

When Moody’s critics heard him talk about apostasy, they understood it to mean “losing your salvation,” an unbiblical notion rightfully opposed with all diligence. Moody, however, was not arguing that a Christian could “lose” his salvation. His position was more akin to “throwing away your salvation,” though he did not use those words.

Dale Moody was not a man inclined to keep explaining himself to people who insisted on arguing with him. His opponents were not the sort of men to give quarter to anyone who disagreed with them. Neither side thought there was any ground on which they could stand together. The result that day was a resolution demanding Moody’s termination, to which the seminary responded by pressuring the professor into retirement.

The tragedy of that conflict – and of the division that has persisted among multiple generations of evangelical churches – is that there is a place to stand together. There is no contradiction between the biblical doctrine of apostasy and the equally biblical teaching that Baptists and others call “the security of the believer.”

I’ve wrestled with these thoughts for years. I’ve read the commentaries – and been frustrated with the theological gymnastics many writers resort to when they try to put a “once saved, always saved” spin on passages that warn about taking God’s gift of salvation too lightly. The notes I’ve made go on for pages and pages and pages. I’ve finally come to the point where I want to put it all down in writing.

And, like my old editor used to say, “You never finish unless you start.”

So, the thesis is that:

(1) Christians who genuinely seek to follow Jesus – I call them “believers” – have no reason to worry about their security in salvation.

(2) Christians who are ungrateful for the costly gift of salvation, who insist on living their way instead of God’s, have no reason for confidence about their eternal destiny.

(3) Believers who resolutely turn their backs on Christ can expect nothing better in eternity than any other enemy of God.

I already have telegraphed the metaphor I believe opens the door for understanding what apostasy really is – and how it differs from mere backsliding – by tagging these posts “Divorcing Christ.”

We’ll see where this takes us.

*****
Although these chapters originally were written as a series of blog postings, this is an online book, not a random collection of thoughts. The chapters were written in a particular order to present these difficult issues in a way that promotes understanding.

Please read through the chapters in sequence. Jumping into the middle of the series is likely to be confusing and leave you with questions that were answered in previous chapters.

To assist you in reading straight through, a link to the next chapter is posted at the bottom of each page. The categories at the right list each chapter in sequence.

I’m leaving these entries open for comments because I think the Holy Spirit teaches us better when we are in dialogue than when we muddle about in isolation. Constructive critiques are welcome; uncivilized excretions will be flushed. If you have questions, they may be addressed to divorcingchrist(at)gmail(dot)com.

Other essays on this subject are posted at divorcingchrist2.wordpress.com.

Next installment

Chapter 2
Nagging questions

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Copyright © 2007, Kainos Press. All rights reserved.

I’m a preacher’s kid. Church was a 24/7 proposition for us. And I’ve worked for churches and church organizations most of my adult life. For those two reasons, I’ve had the privilege of knowing some of the finest Christians ever to walk the face of the earth.

I had grandparents who laid a foundation of faith. My own parents are two of the most genuine, most selfless servants of Christ I will ever know. I’ve had godly friends and co-workers – too many to list. There were Christian teachers in my various (public) schools who were the only caring influence some of my classmates knew. There were long-suffering teachers at church who put up with way too much nonsense from a smart-alecky preacher’s kid. (All of whom need to know that “what goes around” did indeed come around, just like you said it would!)

As a preacher’s kid and, later, a deacon, I also was in a position to see the less-ideal aspects of church life – ranging from curious sights, like the organist who made a point of balancing her checkbook during the sermon, to appalling glimpses of the seamy underbelly of the Christian religion. You know the stories: a lay leader who cheats customers at his store, a member who loudly mutters a racial slur in the hearing of little children as they get off the church bus, a treasurer who skims the offerings, a church pianist with a barely secret drinking problem, a boys’ Sunday school teacher who takes members of his class on “camping trips,” a youth pastor who takes sexual advantage of a moonstruck teenage girl, a pastor who corners women in a basement storage room, the deacon chairman who for years had been the epitome of warm-hearted Christian servanthood until he suddenly became obstinate, controlling, harshly critical, and habitually unlike Christ.

The good news, of course, is that Christ died for all our sins – past, present, and future. I grew up trusting – and still trust – the promise that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39 KJV)

I treasure the assurance that “my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” (John 10:27-29 NAS)

I grew up in churches that believed, in the words of the great reformer, John Calvin: “Once saved, a person is always saved.” We always talked about salvation in the past tense: “I was saved when I was 6.”

While some church members sniffed at the waywardness of others, I understood no one can say for certain that any other sinner is beyond God’s grace. I can’t see into the depths of another heart – sometimes I don’t even understand my own. I don’t know what future revival of spirit God may have in store for anyone. I certainly can’t see what happens to anyone beyond the grave.

When I finally got around to really reading the Bible for myself, however, I was struck by the way God spoke to the Israelites when they became obstinate. I was stunned by all the things Jesus had to say about disobedient sons and trees that didn’t bear fruit. And I trembled at the thought of what happens to willful sinners who “fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31 NAS)

The more I read, the more Scripture I discovered that was ignored in both pulpit and classroom.

And I was left with nagging questions:

What sort of person is it who “drinks the rain” and is “tilled” for God’s sake, yet “is worthless and close to being cursed, and ends up being burned” because he yields only “thorns and thistles”? (Hebrews 6:7-8 KJV)

What does it mean that “the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers”? (Luke 12:46 NAS)

What is the difference between those “who shrink back to destruction” and those “who have faith to the preserving of the soul”? (Hebrews 10:39 NAS)

If a Christian is “once saved, always saved,” why are there dire warnings in the Gospels that are directed to the disciples – and in the epistles that are addressed to the congregation?

If I was saved at 6 and want nothing more today than to faithfully serve Christ, why am I also keenly aware that it is easy for me to betray him – and why does God’s Word seem to tell me that such a betrayal could be an irretrievable insult to the one who died to set me free?

Next installment

Chapter 3
This is not about ‘losing your salvation’

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Copyright © 2007, Kainos Press. All rights reserved.

Before we walk any farther down this path, I want to be clear about two things:

– We are not talking about “losing your salvation.”

– The teaching commonly called “the security of the believer” is absolute Bible truth.

No one should walk away from this discussion saying I believe a Christian can lose his salvation.

That choice of words – “losing your salvation” – is unfortunate at best and at worst is a gross distortion of Scripture and an insult to God and Christ. It implies that salvation can be misplaced like a key or a cell phone. It suggests that a person who wants to keep his salvation might instead lose it forever – that God might take it away.

The Bible is clear that this is impossible.

Consider two key passages I quoted in the previous installment:

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” (John 10:27-29 NAS)

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39 KJV)

Add to that:

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 NAS)

“If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.” (2 Timothy 2:13 NAS)

“I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5 NAS)

“God has given us both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can take new courage, for we can hold on to his promise with confidence.” (Hebrews 6:18 NLT)

God is both able to keep what we have committed to him and absolutely faithful to keep it. Even when we are without faith, he can be trusted to stand by us because it is against his nature to abandon us. The Lord can no more turn his back on us than he could commit a sin.

There are some Christians, however, who teach that a follower of Christ can “lose” his salvation. The way some tell it, the loss might even be accidental, as if a conscientious Christian could commit a sin and be unaware of it – a “sin of omission,” as they say – then die in his sleep and wake up in hell. As I said in the first installment, that is an unbiblical notion that ought to be strenuously opposed.

The idea that a believer could lose his salvation is not only an insult to the faithfulness of God but also to the one who voluntarily laid down his life to set us free from the penalty of sin and the power of death. The Letter to the Hebrews pleads with the Jewish Christians not to turn their backs on Christ because his sacrifice of his life is the only one adequate to make us acceptable before God “once for all time … perfected forever.” (10:10) The cost of a sufficient sacrifice is precisely why the writer warns them not to “neglect so great a salvation” (2:3). Such an insult is impossible to take back, because it would require them to “again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put him to open shame.” (6:6)

The truth is – and there are many more passages of Scripture that could be quoted – Christians who genuinely seek to follow Jesus have no reason to worry about their security in salvation.

Now, what about the others?

Next installment

Chapter 4
Mortal danger

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Copyright © 2007, Kainos Press. All rights reserved.

There are passages in the New Testament that warn of the eternal danger facing people who resolutely insist on living their way instead of God’s. Some of the passages refer to people who are part of a congregation. Pick up almost any popular evangelical commentary written since the early 1900s, and you will find those passages explained by saying they refer to people who were “never saved” or were “almost saved but turned back.”

I find that pretty unsatisfying.

For one thing, it begs the question. Those commentaries are written from a viewpoint that says apostasy can’t happen to a genuine follower of Jesus. Passages that warn about the danger of apostasy must therefore be speaking to someone other than genuine followers of Jesus.

A neat solution, and very correct – unless the writers are wrong about apostasy. If they are mistaken, then they have misled the faithful and exposed trusting souls to mortal danger.

One problem with that solution is that it’s not clear why – if those passages are only addressed to the “almost saved” and “never saved” – why don’t they speak specifically to those audiences?

Why, for example, doesn’t …

— 2 Peter 2:20 say, “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ but stopped short of being saved, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first”?

— 2 Thessalonians 2:3 say, “Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy of those who were never really saved comes first”?

— Hebrews 12:25 say, “See to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will they escape who were almost saved but turn away from him who warns from heaven”?

— Hebrews 3:12 say, “Take care, you who are almost saved, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God”? Instead, it says, “Take care, brethren ….”

Perhaps the reason warning passages aren’t addressed specifically to the “almost saved” and “never saved” is because they really are intended to speak to the entire congregation. Perhaps apostasy actually is a danger every believer needs to be wary of.

Having said that, I have to add that I’m not particularly concerned whether anyone agrees about apostasy. I am far more concerned that everyone understands the very real dangers of what we used to call “backsliding.”

It’s no way to be saved
Many lay people have heard the “once saved, always saved” preaching and concluded they can be complacent about obeying Christ’s commands. After all, if I have God locked into a contract that requires him to save me, why would it really matter whether I actually do all that “discipleship” stuff – Bible reading and memorization, prayer, teaching, witnessing, missions, ministry, and so on? As long as I try to live a pretty good life (at least in public) and give a little money to my church, I’m OK, right?

Wrong. And the church leaders who let you live with that misunderstanding will share the blame – and the punishment – when we all stand before the Judge.

When we dismiss warning passages as applying only to the “almost saved” and “never saved,” we deprive genuine followers of Jesus of the truth that there are serious – even severe – consequences for failing to obey the Lord’s commands.

Leave to one side the question of whether such passages warn of apostasy. Let’s at least tell people the frightening truth about what the Bible has to say about the danger of backsliding.

God’s people persisted in disobedience in the wilderness, and they paid a horrible price. Paul warns believers that our choices also determine what we will experience from God’s hand: “Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.” (Romans 11:22 NASB)

Paul counseled ministers like Timothy to be wary of “foolish and harmful desires” that plunge some people into “ruin and destruction” and because of which some “have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.” (1 Timothy 6:9-10 NLT)

He also warned of a day when the quality of our life’s accomplishments will be tested with fire. Lives built with gold, silver, and jewels will survive and the builders will receive rewards. Lives built with wood, hay, or straw will be burned up. “If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builders themselves will be saved, but like someone escaping through a wall of flames.” (1 Corinthians 3:12-15 NLT)

I don’t know about you, but that’s not the way I want to be saved.

Next installment

Chapter 5
Oversimplifications

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Copyright © 2007, Kainos Press. All rights reserved.

In the previous installment, I said it doesn’t make sense that warning passages would be addressed only to the “almost saved” and “never saved” because they don’t speak specifically to those audiences.

Another problem with that interpretation is that it oversimplifies the context.

When Jesus taught the people gathered around him, or when an apostle wrote a letter to a congregation, the audience almost always included people who were at different points in the journey of faith. That means a warning meant somewhat different things to different people, depending on where they were on the journey.

The same thing is true when we preach or teach the Bible today. Each group, of course, includes people who fall into a category I call the Enduring Faithful. Other members of our audience, however, could fall into several categories:

– Nominals. Baptized as infants, Nominals completed catechism, attend church on occasion (or even regularly), but keep their Christianity in a box. There is no evidence that faith in Christ makes any real difference in their day-to-day lives. And there is an evangelical version of this too – people who were raised in church, walked an aisle because it was expected, and learned how to play church.

– Strugglers. There are many who choose Christ but struggle to be faithful. They find themselves continually making mistakes spiritually. Some quit trying, while others doubt, wondering whether they ever were “really saved” to begin with.

– Drop-outs. These are people who receive Christ and experience tremendous joy in their new freedom but never have a foundation for Christian living built under them. They are overcome by difficulties and hardships, lose their joy, and drop out of church life.

– Runaways. These folks have had traumatic experiences and harbor deep anger toward God and Christians. Perhaps they came to Christ as teenagers but were not accepted by church folk. Perhaps church members didn’t help when a family member died. They have sworn, “If that’s Christianity, I want no part of it.”

– Backsliders. These Christians can share genuine testimonies about coming to Christ but their lives now show little evidence of God’s transforming power at work. Some drop out; others may be regular in churchly habits but don’t obey the Mission mandate.

– Almost saved. Many people indeed come close to accepting Christ but for various reasons stop short and eventually turn back. They may attend regularly and join in some activities, blending in with the crowd, but they are in actuality mere observers.

– Never saved. Many churches have for generations accepted people into membership without seriously inquiring about their journey with Christ. Many young people are baptized because of peer pressure or tradition – and some of them even become pastors or missionaries who serve for years before realizing they had never actually given over their hearts and lives to Jesus Christ. The result is that many church members have not actually been born again, though some “talk the walk” in a convincing manner.

This list is not exhaustive. You may have your own categories to add. But I think there is yet another group.

Next installment

Chapter 6
This fire consumes

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Copyright © 2007, Kainos Press. All rights reserved.

I can think of many reasons why a person would fall short as a follower of Jesus. I can offer firsthand testimonies of several myself.

You can categorize us in any number of ways: Nominals, Strugglers, Drop-outs, Runaways, Backsliders. None of us are exempt – not even the Enduring Faithful. The Bible says, “We all stumble in many ways.” (James 3:2 NAS)

Some church people, to be sure, never really started following Jesus in the first place. Others began well, then backslid, and it remains to be seen how they will finish.

But there are some believers whose lives aren’t adequately explained by these categories. There are some passages of Scripture that seem to warn us of a danger far more serious than backsliding.

I believe we need to add another category to the ones I suggested earlier:

Apostates. These are genuine believers who at some point not only stop living like a follower of Jesus, but whose lives are then marked by continuing, intentional disobedience to the Master, to the degree that at some point they choose to divorce themselves from Christ.

I’m thinking in particular of a deacon chairman who had made a profession of faith as a young person. He was for many years a faithful, active Christian involved in community outreach. He fasted and prayed for missions teams. Then something happened. One day, he walked into his pastor’s office and announced: “God told me he wants me to be the administrator of this church. I’m going to hold you accountable.” He then proceeded, week by week, to accost the pastor and harshly criticize his sermon. He began to resist involvement in ministry and personal evangelism and opposed changes in the church that come with bringing in people newly won to Christ. He became obstinately disobedient, continually unfaithful, and habitually unlike Christ.

Was this fellow an apostate or just a backslider? None of us can say with certainty, of course. As I said earlier, no one can see into the heart or future of another, and no one can see what happens to a wayward Christian beyond the grave. But I will not dismiss him as “never really saved.” The witness of his life as a believer was too strong.

Hebrews 10:26-31 comes to mind:

“For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and ‘the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.’ Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (NAS)

This is one of the passages commentators say refer to “almost saved” or “never saved” people. They argue that the passage says the sinner only received “the knowledge of the truth.” They say that stops short of being saved.

But notice the author says “if we go on sinning willfully.” He is speaking to the entire congregation. And notice he says the person in danger “was sanctified.” How can that be said of someone who was only “almost saved” or “never saved”?

One commentator’s reply: “He means that this person’s life was cleaned up by his association with Christian people. He does not mean this person himself actually was sanctified in salvation.”

Now, that’s hard to reconcile with a plain reading of the verse. If that’s what the author means, why not simply say that, like Paul did in 1 Corinthians 7:14? Why say he was sanctified by “the blood of the covenant,” if the sanctifying was done by association with church members?

The truth is, a believer places himself in grave danger when he begins to insist on living his way instead of God’s. Verse 28 says he treats Jesus like a doormat and insults the Spirit that showed him grace. Verse 29 says the punishment he deserves is more severe than “death without mercy”!

This is not a Christian who “will be saved, but like someone escaping through a wall of flames.” (1 Corinthians 3:15 NLT) This is a believer who has made himself, once again, an adversary of God.

This fire doesn’t save. It consumes.

Next installment

Chapter 7
Danger, Will Robinson!

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Copyright © 2007, Kainos Press. All rights reserved.

If you’re running a CalvinShield Systematic Theology Protection System®, pop-ups already have warned you about possible infection by the Arminius1610 worm. Your CPU has been locked down and main memory quarantined. The handful of you running CalvinShield Pro® also have been warned about the older but more malicious Caelestius411 virus.

False positives, I assure you. Implementation of the Oldenbarnevelt Technique is unnecessary. Let’s all keep our heads, shall we?

Enough geeky church history humor … such as it was.

Theological conflict over “predestination” and “free will” dates back at least 1,600 years. The undercurrent of secular political intrigue beneath centuries of arguments and church trials casts a pall over the whole discussion, right up to the 18th-century debates between John Wesley and George Whitefield. Not everyone, however, has been oppressed as badly as Johan Van Oldenbarnevelt, who was beheaded for his convictions on May 13, 1619, in (ironically) The Hague.

It is customary, of course, to choose sides in theological debates. I refuse to do that in this case, despite my feelings about the zealotry that forced Dale Moody into early retirement almost 25 years ago.

One faction in this argument wants you to swear allegiance to the concept that Jesus only died for the people God already had chosen to save. They want you to further swear you will not consort with heretics who say such a view is contrary to both the Bible and what John Calvin actually believed.

For their part, the opposition wants to tattoo “Live Free Or Die” on your forearm and requires you to sign a petition asking the American Psychiatric Association to list Hyper-Calvinism as a mental disorder. (I hear the odds are pretty good that will happen at the next APA convention.)

I don’t want to play that game, not for either side.

Yes, the Bible clearly teaches that, before the foundation of the world, “God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son.” (Romans 8:29 NLT) No one should shrink back from teachings that may not sit well with popular opinion, like “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14 NLT) or even the scandalous declaration about “vessels of wrath prepared for destruction.” (Romans 9:22 NAS)

At the same time, the Bible also clearly teaches that all people have a choice about honoring God and following Jesus – and that God holds us responsible for our choices. God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9 KJV) “Whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16b NAS) If choices did not matter, why did Jesus preach, “Repent and believe the Gospel?” If salvation is only a matter of God’s election, why is it “through faith” that we are saved by grace? (Ephesians 2:8-9)

I’m not fond of clubs that require prospective members to ignore entire themes of Scripture in order to be accepted. I’m skeptical of people who insist on forcing the mysteries of God’s ways into the neat little categories of human logic. Twenty centuries have not resolved paradoxes like the doctrine of the Trinity or the teaching that Jesus was both fully God and fully man. If the election/free will debate has lasted 1,600 years, maybe we ought to classify it as paradox too.

I believe Scripture says apostasy is a real danger to genuine believers. I contend the teaching doesn’t contradict the equally biblical truths of election and eternal security. In fact, I believe a biblical teaching on apostasy heightens the significance of those doctrines and sheds light on many Scripture passages previously regarded as puzzling.

If you’re even the least bit curious about how the parts of this puzzle fit together, hang around and we’ll talk.

Next installment

Chapter 8
Security is for believers

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Copyright © 2007, Kainos Press. All rights reserved.

The zealots who forced Dale Moody into early retirement did have some cause for complaint against him. Like his critics, he was guilty of an “either/or” mentality that kept him from seeing the whole truth: Believers are secure in salvation yet can choose to divorce Christ and be lost in eternity.

Both sides thought the doctrine of the believer’s eternal security was incompatible with the doctrine of apostasy – but for different reasons. Both sides were wrong – for the same reason.

Moody’s critics were convinced that no genuine believer can or will turn his back on Christ and be lost in eternity. For them, salvation was a matter of being justified and reborn in Christ and did not depend on obeying God and enduring in faith. They would have been hard pressed to explain why the authors of The Five Points of Calvinism say:

“Too many people have been led to think that if they have ever made a profession of faith, or ever prayed a ‘sinner’s prayer,’ or were baptized and joined a church, they can rely on their having been ‘once saved and always saved.’ Insufficient emphasis is given to God’s requirement that we must persevere to the end in a life that seeks after holiness.”

Such perseverance, in some minds, is merely evidence that salvation has occurred, not an integral part of a process of salvation as well.

Moody, for his part, was equally hardheaded and did not recognize the difference between the unbiblical teaching of “once saved, always saved” and the biblical teaching of eternal security – that if I am trusting Christ with my life, I have no reason to worry about his ability “to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return.” (2 Timothy 1:12 NLT) In The Word of Truth, Moody in one breath dismissed the “exegetical hop-scotch” that denies the possibility of apostasy and condemned the doctrine of eternal security as a “dogmatic theory.”

Half right is also half wrong.

Both sides of the argument misunderstood the eternal security of the believer because they were preoccupied with the “eternal security” part and didn’t stop to think carefully enough about the “believer” part.

Rather than dismissing eternal security as merely a “dogmatic theory,” Moody would have done well to remember that being a believer is a journey on a narrow road that leads to a small gate. (Matthew 7:14) He taught that such a journey has a beginning, a middle, and an end – salvation is an event in my past, the experience of my present, and the reward in my future. But perhaps he was so caught up with proving the Bible says a person can leave the narrow road for the wide one that he was distracted from what it is like for the person who chooses to stay on the narrow road. For that believer, eternal security is a fact because Almighty God himself has made the promise of salvation.

The zealots gave Moody the martyrdom he demanded, but they were just as blind to the “believer” part of eternal security. Salvation is not just what happened to me when I walked the aisle at age 6. That was my rebirth in Christ, the first step of my journey on the narrow road. But the rest of the journey also is part of my salvation, as is my arrival at the destination. I was saved, but I also am being saved, and I will be saved.

If I choose to leave the narrow road that leads to salvation and get on the wide road that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13), won’t I arrive at the same destination as the ones who were never on the narrow road to begin with?

And if I keep choosing, day by day, to stay on the narrow road, don’t I have God’s promise that I will arrive at my destination?

Jesus’ promise to those believers who face persecution in the last days is good for the rest as well: “The one who endures to the end … will be saved.” (Mark 13:13b NLT) You won’t find Jesus saying that believers who don’t endure to the end will be saved anyway.

That’s because a believer who quits enduring isn’t a believer any more.

Next installment

Chapter 9
A 17th-century kind of belief

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Copyright © 2007, Kainos Press. All rights reserved.

It’s hard to accept the idea that a believer who quits enduring isn’t a believer any more.

After all, ‘believe’ means “to accept something said or proposed … as true,” according to Chambers 21st Century Dictionary. A person can believe in Christ, and even if he doesn’t live like a Christian ought to, that doesn’t change the fact that he believes, right?  Doesn’t John 3:16 promise that “whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”? (KJV)

The problem is that ‘believeth’ meant something very different 400 years ago when King James’ scholars were translating the Bible into English. Back then, ‘believe’ didn’t have anything to do with agreeing a statement was true. The word meant “to cherish” or “to hold dear.” It was rooted in a German word that meant “to love.”

More importantly, the meaning of the Greek word those men were translating stood even farther from the idea of 21st-century belief. That word, pisteuo, means “to entrust.”

The problem the translators faced was that pisteuo is a verb. They translated the noun form, pistis, as ‘faith.’ But English didn’t have a verb form of ‘faith’ like Greek did, so they chose the English word that came closest: ‘believe.’

Not a bad choice – for their day. But today “believing” means something far different than the depth of emotion and determination it stirred in 17th-century English souls – and from what it meant to early Christians to “faith” Christ.

When Romans 10:9 (NAS) says “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved,” it isn’t telling you to agree with a factual assertion about the resurrection. It’s telling you to “faith” God to keep his promise to you, just like he kept it for Jesus when he raised him from the dead. It’s telling you to trust God so much that you take the risk of living life his way, instead of continuing to live the way you are inclined.

Churches – evangelical and otherwise – are full of people who sincerely agree that what the preacher says about Jesus is true, but they aren’t “faithing” Jesus – living their daily lives by the challenges Jesus laid down. In the sanctuary, they may call Jesus “Savior” and “Lord,” but when they step out the door, they go back to living like the rest of the world.

That’s one reason many “Christian” people aren’t any different statistically from the “lost” people around them when it comes to sinful behavior. Their pastors have told them all they have to do to be saved is sincerely agree with a proposition about Jesus.

Jesus has a somewhat different idea: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter.” (Matthew 7:21 NAS)

Going to heaven is connected to doing, not sincerely agreeing.

This isn’t about being saved by works. It’s about the kind of “perfected” faith described in James 2 – a lived-out faith that saves, as opposed to a “dead and useless” faith even demons can have.

Living that kind of faith involves making godly choices, and not just one choice, but a lifetime of choosing God’s way over your own.

It’s not a faith derailed by one or two bad choices, however. James says “we all stumble in many ways.” (3:2) Hebrews 11 cites a long list of decidedly imperfect people who nevertheless “received God’s approval because of their faith.” That kind of faith compels us to “run with endurance” so we receive “the prize at the end of the race.”

And what a prize it is: “If we continue to endure, we shall also rule with him.” (2 Timothy 2:12a TEV) Now that’s salvation!

But the “if” is a big one: “If we continue to endure.”

The “believer” is the one who runs the race of faith with endurance, all the way to the finish line. The one who quits enduring denies Christ – he stops being a believer. For him, there is another “if” – “If we deny him, he also will deny us.” (v.12b)

The reward for enduring in obedience is what every human heart yearns for – and the consequence of disobedience is the most nightmarish of terrors: “All who believe in God’s Son have eternal life. Those who don’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life, but the wrath of God remains upon them.” (John 3:36)

Believers are the ones who endure – finishing the race and receiving the reward – but it requires a 17th-century kind of belief, not the 21st-century kind.

Next installment

Chapter 10
‘Stumble,’ ‘fall,’ and ‘fall away’

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Copyright © 2007, Kainos Press. All rights reserved.

If you haven’t already concluded that some of us have accepted too many easy answers on the subject of security and apostasy, this is the end of that road. This subject is nowhere near as simple as some people seem to think.

Please bear with me on this one. We can’t even scratch the surface in this venue. If you finish reading this and aren’t sure what to think, just re-read the final two paragraphs and move on to the next chapter. You could spend the rest of your natural life sorting this out.

As strange as it may seem, the biggest problems in resolving disagreements about security and apostasy are not presented by the verses that speak clearly to the issue but the passages in between – the ones whose meanings aren’t readily apparent.

Much of the confusion centers around the New Testament verses about “stumbling,” “falling,” and “falling away.” If you look at the Greek words behind the English text, you find that sometimes the same English word is used in different passages to translate entirely different Greek words, which can cause a person to think there are connections between verses that may not be there. At other times, the same Greek word is translated in various passages into different English words, making it very difficult to see potential connections without looking at the Greek.

Here is where a tool like an “Englishman’s concordance” is especially valuable. A regular “exhaustive concordance” will show you where the same English word appears in the Bible and which Greek words are translated into that English word. But an exhaustive concordance will not let you easily discover the various English words that have been used to translate the same Greek word. An Englishman’s concordance, like the one in the NAS Electronic Bible makes it easy to search by Greek word, allowing you to see relationships between verses you can’t see by looking at the English text.

It is not a simple matter, however, of seeing the same Greek word translated into different English words. The same Greek word still can mean somewhat different things in different contexts. For example, the same word may be translated ‘fall’ in one place where it means something more serious than stumbling or backsliding, but in other places that word does not represent as serious a problem.

The difficulty can be illustrated by looking at examples of three key words, starting with ‘stumble.’

I have not yet found a New Testament passage where ‘stumble’ means apostasy. In daily life, stumbling usually is an accident, nothing more than an ordinary misstep. Apostasy, on the other hand, is not common – and it is not an accident.

Stumbling, for its part, is a failure we all know only too well. James 3:2 reminds us “we all stumble in many ways.” (NAS)

The Greek word translated ‘stumble’ in that verse is ptaio. Stumbling isn’t as serious as falling, as seen in Romans 11:11 – “I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they?” (NAS)

The Greek word translated ‘fall’ in that verse is pipto, yet pipto is not a word that necessarily implies apostasy. Revelation 2:5 says, “Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place – unless you repent.” (NAS) The problem plaguing the church at Ephesus is serious, but the situation is retrievable.

A related word, ekpipto, seems to indicate an even more serious situation. It means “to drop away,” “to lose,” “to become inefficient” and in the NAS is variously translated: failed, fall, fall away, fallen, falls off, fell off, run aground. A verse like Galatians 5:4 – “You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace” (NAS) – leaves one thinking that perhaps such a situation is not retrievable.

Another significant word is skandalizo, which is translated in various ways, including both “fall away” and “stumble.” When Jesus tells his disciples, “You will all fall away because of me this night,” (Matthew 26:31 NAS) he obviously did not mean they would make an eternally fatal choice. Those disciples went on to take the Gospel to the ends of the known world and gave their lives for Christ’s cause.

Yet skandalizo also is the word used in Mathew 24:10, where Jesus talks about a “falling away” in the end times. Skandalizo also is the word used in Mark 4:17, where Jesus tells a parable about seed falling on rocky soil to describe believers who “fall away” in time of trial or temptation. Some believers might be inclined to think that stops short of apostasy, yet in Luke’s parallel passage the Greek word behind “fall away” is aphistemi – the root from which the Greek word for apostasy is drawn.

So is skandalizo a fatal choice or not? You won’t find a categorical response to that question. The answer must be found in the context.

We must be careful to not oversimplify or read too much into a particular passage. We must never jump to conclusions about the meaning of a particular verse. In some verses, the terms used are not clearly defined. In some, the ultimate consequences of the situation are not spelled out.

For example, in 1 Timothy 1:18-20, Paul encourages Timothy to “fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.” Are the eternal consequences for the spiritual castaways readily apparent? What does ‘shipwreck’ mean, after all? People survive shipwrecks, don’t they? But isn’t a ship destroyed when it wrecks?

The point here is to not assume what a passage means. Look carefully at every word in the verses, at the context, and at the Greek words behind the English text. Allow passages that are clear in meaning to shed light on unclear ones. Watch for elements that don’t fit with what you think the passage means. Don’t be dogmatic about passages that can legitimately be interpreted in different ways.

You will do well to remember that “we all stumble in many ways” and that a person does not fail to finish the race just because he falls down. The one who fails to finish is the one who falls down and chooses to stay down.

Next installment

Chapter 11
Look who is ‘close to being cursed’!

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Copyright © 2007, Kainos Press. All rights reserved.