Apostasy From the Holiness of the Gospel
By John Fast
For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame. – Hebrews 6:4-6 (NASB)
We live in a time when despite all the money and effort expended by modern Christianity to make itself successful, relevant, and popular, fewer and fewer people see or feel any need or value for faith and religion in general, and for true Christianity in particular. Every year we are told by pollsters and statisticians that fewer people identify themselves as being Christian, and every year more people identify themselves as having no religious affiliation whatsoever. Coinciding with this devaluing of faith and religion in general is a growing hostility and indifference toward and willful ignorance of the doctrines of Christianity to the point where even Christians who self-identify as Evangelical (even though most today have no idea what the word “Evangelical” means) are now either ignorant and ambivalent of fundamental Christian truths and doctrines, or hold erroneous beliefs that contradict fundamental truths and doctrines; doctrines without which there is no true Christianity. But why is this? There have always been people who distort or who are hostile or ambivalent to the truths and doctrines of Christianity, but what is it about the age in which we currently live that has multiplied such people until they now comprise the majority of even professing Christians? Why do the ubiquitous annual religious surveys reveal year after year the sad truth that the vast majority of even self-identified Evangelicals are doctrinally and theologically ignorant and biblically illiterate, as if we needed a survey to tell us what is patently self-evident? I confess it is difficult to see how someone who does not even know what a Christian is can truly understand what it is to be Christian.
Therefore, I want to begin this study by asking a simple question. It is a question that is rarely ever asked today and even more seldom answered correctly. The question is, what is the specific purpose and design of preaching? For many today the purpose of preaching is to entertain, or to tell people how to get something they want, or how to have their felt needs gratified, or to promote some social, political, or humanitarian cause, or to be an uplifting and encouraging message that affirms people in a sense of their own self-importance and their own innate goodness, and that minimizes the sinfulness of sin, and assures that Jesus loves and accepts them no matter what they believe or how they live, or to arouse an emotional feeling and physical response, or to manipulate people into giving money, or to impart some new and novel insight or extra-biblical revelation. But what does the Bible say is the specific purpose and design of preaching? Is it an institution invented by man or is it a divine institution ordained by God? If it is an invention of man then its purpose and design will be primarily man-centered, earthly, therapeutic, and humanitarian. But if it is a divine institution then its purpose must be a divine, eternal, spiritual, and God-centered purpose: “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe” (1 Cor 1:21). But saved by what message, and saved from what, and from whom?
All true Christians will acknowledge that the primary purpose of preaching is to proclaim the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It will also be acknowledged that the central feature of the gospel is the message of redemption, but what do the words “Redeem” and “Redemption” mean, and redemption from what? What are the specific doctrines that comprise this message of redemption; doctrines which if watered down, distorted, or omitted leaves us with another gospel, not the gospel of redemption; not the gospel of Jesus Christ. A gospel without all of its doctrines, and the true meaning of the words which make up those doctrines, is not only not a gospel of salvation, it is a gospel shorn of its life-transforming power. It is the whole gospel, not an edited, diluted, man-centered, partial, and distorted gospel, that is the power of God unto salvation (Rm 1:16). Christianity first and foremost teaches sinners how to be saved, but saved from what? Low self-esteem? A sense of purposelessness? Immorality? Self-destructive behavior? A particular sin? Injustice? A sense of unimportance and powerlessness? A lack of self-fulfillment and self-worth? Loneliness? Fear? Depression? This may be the message of modern Christianity, but it is not the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
For most ‘redemption’ means deliverance from some particular and unpleasant sin or circumstance or situation, but according to the true gospel we are saved from the guilt, condemnation, and power of sin, and from the wrath of a holy and offended God. We are redeemed, that is, purchased, “from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers” (1Pt 1:18; cf. Rv 5:9). Having been purchased by the blood of Christ, we are no longer are own, “For you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor 6:19, 20). God has “delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col 1:13). Having died to sin we are no longer to live in sin (Rm 6:1, 2). We are now slaves of Christ and of righteousness, not of self and sin (Rm 6:11-13). The purpose for which Jesus “bore our sins in His body on the cross,” was so that “we might die to sin and live to righteousness;” (1 Pt 2:24). According to true Christianity, sin is not merely something of which we are a helpless victim, a mental illness, a psychological disorder, a disease, or syndrome, or imperfection of some kind, a human weakness, a minor character flaw which God is willing to overlook; rather it is our very nature, it is opposed to the very nature of God, it is an enemy of God and hostile to God and His Word, it is lawless rebellion against the sovereign authority of God, it is deserving of God’s just wrath and eternal punishment in hell, it is total ruin in every sense of the word. The gospel is the message of the only means by which sinful man can be redeemed and reconciled to a holy, just, and offended God (2 Cor 5:18-21).
Sin, besides being deserving of God’s judgment and condemnation, has severed the original relationship of man to God, and until we are reconciled to God on His terms, we are under the just condemnation of God and deserving of nothing but His divine wrath. Nothing we can do, no religious rituals, no good works, no action on our part, can ever reconcile sinful man to a just and holy God. Jesus Christ came into the world to actually save sinners (1 Tm 1:15), not merely to make salvation possible provided we fulfill some condition, but to actually purchase and redeem for Himself a people for His own possession (1 Cor 6:20; Rv 5:9); “who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” (Tit 2:14). We are not saved by good works, but unto good works: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10). No one becomes a good person by doing good deeds. Good works do not make anyone a good person in the sight of God. No one saves themselves by being a good person or by doing good things for others; rather, “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,” (Tit 3:5).
Many who want to be redeemed by Jesus do not want to be purified by Jesus, that is, they want to continue to live in some sin without having to suffer the consequences of sin; they want to be redeemed from the consequences, but not from the sin itself, or they want to be delivered from some particular sin, not from the power of sin in general. They want God to love them even while they continue to willfully rebel against Him. They want Jesus to save them from hell, but not from the sin they love. Many are willing for Jesus to be their Savior but not their Sovereign Lord and Master. They are willing for Jesus to keep them from going to hell, but they are unwilling to have Him rule and govern their lives. They want Jesus to make them happy, but not to make them holy. They profess Jesus to be their Savior while insisting that He tolerates and even approves of their sins, or even more blasphemously, insist that God is glorified by their sin. They conform themselves to this world and walk in its ways, yet persuade themselves that God is merciful, and that Jesus has died for their sins and freed them from death and damnation. They are convinced they are Christians, yet are unable to give a reason for the hope that is in them (1 Pt 3:15). They are content to acknowledge Jesus as their Savior, but never once strive to cleanse themselves “from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor 7:1). Whatever they profess in word, the tenor of their lives demonstrates that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, and that they trample His precious blood under their feet (Hb 10:29). They want salvation on their terms, not on God’s terms, and so they are never truly saved from the wrath of God. Like Judas, they are disloyal to Jesus and His Word, yet they cloak their betrayal with a pretended loyalty so as not to betray their reputation of being a loyal disciple of Christ. They do not betray Jesus by stabbing Him in the back, but with a kiss: “Those who hate the LORD would pretend obedience to Him;” (Ps 81:15).
We are reconciled to God by faith in the death, resurrection, perfect righteousness, and person of Jesus Christ alone. Not faith in just any Jesus, not a Jesus of our own or someone else’s imagination, but faith in the person of Jesus as He has actually revealed Himself in all of Scripture. This faith was itself purchased by the death of Christ on the cross, thereby making it certain that all whom the Father has given to the Son will come to Him in saving faith because they will be granted saving faith as a gift of God’s grace secured for them by the death and resurrection of Christ (Jn 6:37-40; Eph 2:8). He Himself is both the author and perfecter of faith (Hb 12:2). Faith itself is a fruit of the new birth, a work of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon the sinner at regeneration, a gift of God’s grace purchased by Jesus’ substitutionary atonement on the cross. This faith is a purifying faith, a “holy faith” (Jude 20). Justification is indeed conditioned upon faith in the person of Jesus Christ as He is offered in the gospel, but faith itself is an unconditional gift of God’s grace. It is to Jesus Christ alone to whom we must flee from the wrath to come (1 Th 1:9, 10), and to seek a true salvation. Those who truly see and feel all their own righteousness as nothing but filthy rags, who know and feel themselves to be hopeless and helpless to do anything to save themselves, who see and feel the guilt of their sin, who know they are deserving of God’s just wrath and judgment, and who see their need for a righteousness greater than their own, will not refuse to trust in the perfect righteousness of Christ, just as a starving man will not need to be pleaded with to eat the bread offered to him. There is no need to entreat and manipulate a Zacchaeus to joyfully trust in Christ and gladly receive Him (Lk 19:5, 6).
Thus, this being the design and purpose of preaching, no preaching can be worthy of the name Christian which does not make the whole gospel of Jesus Christ, all of its doctrines, exhorting sinners to be reconciled to a just, holy, and offended God, the first and highest priority. True reconciliation involves thankfully living a life that is pleasing to the one to whom we are reconciled. It means joyfully submitting ourselves in loving obedience to the sovereign authority of the One who has redeemed us. To profess to be reconciled yet still live in willful sin and rebellion is not only self-contradictory, it is treasonous. It is like telling an adulterous husband he can be reconciled to his wife yet still continue to commit adultery. A professing Christian who willfully continues to live in known sin, excusing, justifying, and redefining it rather than repent of it as sin, never striving against it and laboring to crucify it, contrary to the nature and standard of holiness which the gospel teaches, produces, and requires, simply shows they are still enemies of God. Preaching which leaves sin in the background, and deals with people as if they were merely broken but basically good, or victims of sin instead of guilty perpetrators, and fully capable of effecting their own salvation if they just make the right choice or fulfill some condition, is defective in the most essential of all the doctrines of the gospel. It is like telling a blind man you will redeem him from all his debt on the condition that he sees. It is to make the gospel humanitarian, not redemptive. It is to tell people to be saved before they know and feel themselves to be hopelessly lost, and to tell them Jesus loves them before they know and feel themselves to be under the holy wrath of God. Better to have no preaching at all than preaching that does not, as its first priority, solemnly deal with people as lost sinners under the wrath of a holy and offended God, who have no ability to deliver themselves from the wrath of God, summons them to true repentance, faith, humility, obedience, and holiness, urges them to flee to the only One who can save them, and beseeches them on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:20).
Role of the Bible in Preaching
This leads us to a second question. What use and purpose is the Bible designed to be for the preacher? How is the Bible to be viewed and taught so as to accomplish the design and purpose of preaching? Preaching itself, to be true preaching, must be biblical, not merely in that it superficially references and deals with a few verses of the Bible, or bases its message on particular verses taken out of their historical and grammatical context, but in that it is a true and faithful exposition of God’s revelation, and that it clearly and accurately explains, expounds, and applies the true meaning and implications of God’s revelation and the true nature of God revealed only in His Word. The Bible itself gives us a very explicit answer to the question, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Tm 3:16). Since all Scripture is profitable, there is no such thing as superfluous Scripture. The Bible not only teaches us how to be saved, but the effect which true salvation always has on the life and behavior of all who are truly saved. The Bible not only teaches how we become Christian, but what it is to be a Christian. The unequivocal command of Scripture is to “preach the word” (2 Tm 4:2), that is all of it, its true meaning, its commands, warnings, principles, and precepts, not a political, social, or humanitarian speech, not some human ideology, not a motivational message, not the Word mixed with and corrupted by human wisdom, not emotional and psychological manipulation, not highfaluting philosophical reasonings, not the Word divorced from its biblical context, not the Word watered down to be commercially viable, not claims of new revelations from God or new and novel interpretations of Scripture, not mysticism, not our own opinions, not arguments that undermine the inerrancy and authority of Scripture, not denominational dogma, not the doctrines of men, not another gospel and a different Jesus, not a humanitarian, therapeutic, man-centered gospel, not a social justice Jesus or feminist Jesus or self-esteem Jesus or progressive Jesus, but the entire unadulterated Word of God, all of its unpopular and pride-destroying truths, and all of its authoritative commands and doctrines. The nineteenth century Scottish theologian William Garden Blaikie summed it up well when he wrote,
“The Bible is the authoritative record of God’s revelation; it is the record of that Divine Voice which at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, and in these last days has spoken to us by His Son. It is God’s own repertory of all the truths and aspects of truth which it is essential for man to know and follow. It is the revelation of the new and living way to God, and it is an exposition, in a thousand varied forms, of all that is involved in a right relation to God; how that relation may be obscured and hampered, and how restored; what influence it is to have on the life and character, including all the aspects and relations of life, personal, social, ecclesiastical, and national. To the preacher, the Bible is at once an authority and a storehouse. It is his authority; for nothing that is not there can be spoken as a message from God. Not only so, but it is a great part of his business to get men to recognize and use the Bible as the authoritative record of God’s will.” [1]
The same high view of Scripture was held by the nineteenth century British pastor Daniel Wilson,
“The high value of deep religious knowledge in the best sense of the expression, is incalculable. It qualifies a minister of religion to speak with the authority becoming his office. It enables him to meet the infidel fully acquainted with his subject, and with the evidences of the religion which he preaches. It assists him in guiding and directing his people in the course of their difficult and varied duties and trials. It gives him the facility of discovering plausible but dangerous innovations in doctrine and practice. It leaves him the full use and advantage of each Scriptural topic which he has to treat …. No part of the Bible is superfluous. Everything is stated there in the best possible manner, and for the very purpose of being employed by the ministers of religion. To strip the truths of Christianity of these necessary defenses, to divest them of their proper ornaments, to expose them naked and unprotected to the vain fancies and abuses of man, is to preach another gospel. Such a doctrine is truth no longer.” [2]
Just as there is no such thing as uninspired Scripture (2 Tm 3:16; 2 Pt 1:20, 21), or fallible Scripture (Mt 5:18), or insufficient Scripture (Jn 20:30, 31), there also is no such thing as unauthoritative Scripture (Tit 2:15). Undermining, nullifying, denying, and refusing to acknowledge the Bible’s absolute and sovereign authority, either in word or practice, does not lessen or negate its sovereign authority; it just means we refuse to submit our heart, mind, and life to its sovereign authority. It means we have no love of the truth so as to be saved (2 Th 2:10). It is the Word of God recorded in all of Scripture by which we will be judged at the last day (Jn 12:48-50), not the words, opinions, pretended superior wisdom, and traditions of mere men or of other religions. True saving faith is a faith that rests on the sovereign authority of Scripture as being the very Word of God, not on any evidence or wisdom of man that “proves” Scripture is true. No amount of external evidence, no amount of rational arguments and philosophical reasonings can produce saving faith, for, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead” (Lk 16:31). It is the pure, unadulterated, and undistorted gospel alone, not a truncated gospel that has been stripped of most or all of its distinctive doctrines, that “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rm 1:16).
Many today have divided the Bible and its teachings into “essential” and “unessential” doctrines, but by what authority do they make such a distinction? Who determines what doctrines are essential and which ones are not; which are superfluous and which are indispensable? Who determines what parts of the Bible we need to believe and what parts we do not, and at what point do we begin to believe the Bible is true, and why do we begin to believe it at that point? A faith that only believes parts of the Bible is not saving faith, because true saving faith is “faith in the truth” (2 Th 2:13), and receives “the love of the truth so as to be saved” (2 Th 2:10). When the Word powerfully convicts the conscience of sin, righteousness, and judgment, when it reveals the wicked thoughts and intentions of the heart, when it exposes all of our best works as having no more value than filthy rags, when it refutes and corrects sinful, unbiblical, and erroneous beliefs and practices, when it crushes all our pride and perceived goodness into the dust and strips us of all our imagined self-righteousness and pretended self-sufficiency, when it reveals all our pretended wisdom and intellectual superiority to be foolishness, when it is opposed to all our worldly self-interests, when it exposes us for the vile and polluted sinners we really are, and yet the heart still receives, obeys, and loves it as the very Word of God, this is to have a love of the truth so as to be saved.
The Bible is not only the sole source of objective and authoritative truth in regards to morality, right and wrong, and good and evil, it is also the sole rule and authority for the nature and content of saving faith, for the truths, commands, and doctrines which comprise the gospel of Jesus Christ, for true Christian experience, for holiness, and for what it means to be Christian. Today the gospel has been reduced to a rote and scripted thirty-second sound bite which consists of nothing more than telling people Jesus loves them and died on the cross for their sins, and that saving faith is simply believing Jesus died on the cross for their sins. Exactly why it was necessary for Jesus to die for their sin, or what His death actually accomplished, of this they are profoundly ignorant or confused or indifferent. No mention is made of what sin has done to the nature of man, of our being by nature a child of wrath and under the condemnation of a just and holy God, of our need to be reconciled to a holy and offended God, of our need for a perfect sacrifice to redeem us from the curse of the Law, of the necessity and nature of a new birth which we have no ability to affect for ourselves, or of the necessity and nature of true repentance. Nothing is heard of “righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come” (Ac 24:25), no mention is made of the holiness and obedience which is the fruit of all true salvation, not a word is heard about Jesus not only being our Redeemer, but also the pattern and example to which our lives are to be conformed, in other words, none of the doctrines which make up the gospel declared by Jesus, the Apostles, and the New Testament. As a result, very few who call themselves Christians know what a Christian is, and among the few who do know, very few of them know what it is to be Christian.
For many, John 3:16 comprises the entirety of the gospel. It is all the gospel they know or care to know, so they have an incomplete and partial gospel, and a lopsided understanding of the gospel, not the whole counsel of God. They do not know that the entire New Testament is the gospel. The gospel is designed to control and govern every aspect, every area, and everything in our lives, not just bits and pieces of our lives. Sadly, most professing Christians today are like the character ‘Ignorance’ in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress who, when warned by ‘Christian’ and ‘Hopeful’ that his faith was not true saving faith, replied, “That is your faith, but not mine: yet mine, I doubt not, is as good as yours, though I have not in my head so many whimsies as you.” [3] Ignorance’s faith brought him right to the gate of The Celestial City, imagining he would be quickly welcomed and admitted, only to be refused entrance, and instead was bound hand and foot and cast into hell. John Bunyan concluded his Pilgrim’s Progress with this sobering statement, “Then I saw that there was a way to hell even from the gates of heaven, as well as from the City of Destruction”. [4]
Like Ignorance, most professing Christians today lack the one thing necessary, a true saving faith in the truths, doctrines, and person of Jesus Christ revealed only in Scripture. No one can believe truths and doctrines of which they are ambivalent and ignorant. Yet, for anyone to have the audacity to question the genuineness of anyone’s profession of Christianity, and to compare their profession and practice with the clear doctrines of the gospel, is today tantamount to sacrilege. Apostasy is not only a falling away from the authority and sufficiency of Scripture’s moral teachings, but also from the authority of its truths, doctrines, principles, holiness, and its definition of what it is to be Christian. The true Christian should know what a Christian is and why they are a Christian. Ultimately, then, every person must be ruled and governed either by the sovereign authority of Scripture or by the sovereign authority of their own personal judgment. If the Bible contains inaccuracies and errors then it requires a sovereign human authority to distinguish between what is true and what is not true in Scripture; it requires every statement of truth in the Bible to be regarded as true by the human critic before it can be accepted as authoritative truth. These, then, are the only two alternatives available to us as we come to the Bible, either the clear and plain meaning of Scripture is the ultimate inerrant authority, or else we ourselves are the ultimate inerrant authority.
Two Examples
The true Christian is not only to know what they believe and why they believe it, but also the implications of what they believe. Here is where the minds of so many professing Christians are led astray. They do not think through and work out the implications of what they believe and do. Paul had to oppose Peter to his face “because he stood condemned” (Gal 2:11), that is, by withdrawing and holding himself aloof from the Gentile believers Peter was guilty of denying the very gospel he was preaching (Gal 2:14). Now Peter certainly did not want to do that, he did not want to deny that salvation was by grace through faith in Christ alone. But Peter needed to understand the implications of compelling the Gentile Christians to live like Jews. By his actions he was teaching that something else in addition to faith in Christ – some human contribution, some religious ritual – is necessary for salvation. He did not think through the implications of what he was doing, and so was in danger of preaching a different gospel. We must always work out the implications of what we say and do. I’ll mention just two of the innumerable examples of this apostacy from the holiness of the doctrines of the gospel that are so prevalent today.
First, in order for someone to affirm that Roman Catholicism or Mormonism or any number of quasi-Christian systems and beliefs are truly Christian, or to affirm that God loves all people unconditionally in the same way regardless of what they believe, how they live, and how they respond to His Word, they must either be very untaught and profoundly ignorant of fundamental and elementary doctrines of the gospel, which, sadly, describes most churches, pastors, and professing Christians today, or they must base their belief on something other than, or in addition to, the sole teaching and authority of Scripture. They must redefine and alter, by one means or another, the doctrines of the gospel and the Bible’s clear teaching concerning the nature of God, the nature of man, the nature of salvation, and for what it is to be Christian.
Likewise, someone who rejects the biblical doctrine of creation, namely, that God created everything out of nothing in six literal twenty-four-hour days, for some form of Theistic Evolution or Intelligent Design or some other erroneous doctrine of creation that accommodates the eons of time required by evolutionary dogma, must base their belief on something other than the clear and authoritative revelation of the Bible. In doing so they do not just reject that particular doctrine, but the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible has revealed Himself as creating everything out of nothing in six literal twenty-four-hour days (Ex 20:11; Hb 11:3; Rv 4:11). Any other god is not the God of the Bible, but the product of someone’s imagination. They must reject the historical accuracy of the Bible, thereby denying its inspiration, inerrancy, and its authority. They critique the Bible as if its origin and authorship is human and not divine, and as if modern learning is wiser than the wisdom of God. Their sovereign authority is not Scripture, but evolutionary dogma and ideology and their own human wisdom and reasoning. Why is it that evolutionists never attempt to harmonize their theories of evolution with the biblical doctrine of creation, but there is no end to the attempts by professing Christians to harmonize the biblical account of creation with the theories of evolution?
Contrary to popular belief and practice, it is not the Bible’s infallible and authoritative account of creation that needs to be harmonized with flawed and fallible modern science, as if modern science and not the Bible is the ultimate authority. The authority of Scripture is not to be put on a level with human theories, wisdom, reason, and opinions. If death existed for millions of years before the rebellion of man into sin, then death is not the wages of sin (Rm 6:23), but a natural process, and salvation is no longer redemption from the curse and wages of sin, and all mankind is not by nature evil (Mt 7:11), and an object of God’s wrath (Eph 2:3), by virtue of Adam’s original sin against God (Rm 5:12). The entire gospel and its doctrines are based on the biblical account of creation and mankind’s subsequent rebellion against God. Even atheistical evolutionists understand this, as the following quotes will clearly show, and if they understand it, what excuse can a professing Christian have for trying to harmonize darkness with light, namely, evolutionary ideology with the biblical doctrine of creation. It must be they are dreadfully untaught and do not understand the implications of rejecting and distorting this doctrine, or something other than Scripture is their ultimate authority and their mind is still blinded by the god of this world to the divine authority of Scripture and to the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They, like Judas, ignore the implications of their betrayal, and continue to go right ahead and betray (Mt 26:24), while at the same time attempting to preserve their reputation as a loyal disciple of Jesus. As I said, even atheistic evolutionists understand the implications of denying and undermining the biblical account of creation:
“And what about the authority of the writers of the books of the New Testament, who, on this theory [i.e. the biblical doctrine of creation], have not merely accepted flimsy fictions for solid truths, but have built the very foundations of Christian dogma upon legendary quicksands? …. If Adam may be held to be no more real a personage than Prometheus, and if the story of the Fall is merely an instructive ‘type,’ comparable to the profound Promethean myths, what value has Paul’s dialectic?”
Thomas H. Huxley, Science And Hebrew Tradition Essays, pp. 207, 208, 236, 1897.
“It becomes clear now that the whole justification of Jesus’ life and death is predicated on the existence of Adam and the forbidden fruit he and Eve ate. Without the original sin, who needs to be redeemed? Without Adam’s fall into a life of constant sin terminated by death, what purpose is there to Christianity? None. …. The day will come when the evidence constantly accumulating around the evolutionary theory becomes so massively persuasive that even the last and most fundamental Christian warriors will have to lay down their arms and surrender unconditionally. I believe that day will be the end of Christianity.”
- Richard Bozarth, The Meaning of Evolution, American Atheist, p. 30, September 20, 1979.
Strange reasoning indeed that imagines Christianity will be forced to surrender unconditionally to the authority of evolutionists when evolutionists refuse to surrender anything to the divine authority of Scripture, thereby deifying themselves and setting up evolution and their own human theories and reasonings as the sovereign authority. How idiotic to imagine God must surrender to man: “Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar,” (Rm 3:4). To suggest that God must someday surrender to evolution, or to any godless, unbiblical, and demonic ideology, is the same as saying Jesus must someday bow down and worship the devil.
These are just two of the numerous examples which show that the doctrines of the Bible are not isolated, but are inseparably connected. The same could be said of rejecting the doctrine of eternal conscious torment of all unbelievers in hell. To deny this is not just a rejection of this doctrine, but it is to deny the nature of God, the sinfulness of sin, the true nature of man, the clear teaching and authority of Scripture, and the necessity and nature of Jesus’ sacrificial suffering and death. If there is no hell, then from what are we redeemed by the blood of Jesus? If hell is not eternal but only temporary punishment until we have suffered enough before we are annihilated, then our own sufferings are enough to eventually satisfy the wrath of God. This is no different than the Roman Catholic false doctrine of purgatory. The questioning and rejection of this doctrine is not the result of an accurate and faithful exegesis of Scripture, but of a dislike for the clear teaching of Scripture and of setting up our own minds, emotions, and opinions as the ultimate authority. After all, it was Satan who first said, “Indeed, has God said,” (Gn 3:1).
The Bible is not just a record of what was said and done in the past, but the meaning of what was said and done. The record of the facts is history, the meaning of those facts is doctrine. If the historical record is not factual and accurate, then no meaning and doctrine can be based upon it, and all we are left with is a non-doctrinal religion of our own making, or a religion composed of doctrines that have no basis in the facts of Scripture. This describes most of what today professes and pretends to be Christian. True Christian faith is based on the authoritative and objective historical facts revealed in Scripture and on the meaning and implications of those facts (cf. 1 Cor 15:12-19), not on made-up stories, the teachings of men, and our own subjective feelings, opinions, and experiences. Jesus Himself compared His being in the grave for three days and three nights to the account of Jonah being “three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster” (Mt 12:40). If the account of Jonah is simply a made-up story and not a historical fact, then is the resurrection of Jesus also merely a made-up story invented by His disciples, which is precisely what the Jews claimed it to be (Mt 28:12-15). A fact cannot be based on a fiction. If faith is not based on a fact and the true meaning of that fact, then it is a false faith.
Theological Jenga
In trying to remove from Christianity every doctrine that could possibly be objected to by the unregenerate mind, modern Christianity has abandoned everything that is distinctly Christian. No wonder fewer and fewer people see any purpose to what today passes for Christianity. No wonder most professing Christians today have no idea what it is to be Christian. No wonder most self-identified Evangelicals are biblically and theologically illiterate and ignorant. Once we start removing threads from the fabric of Scripture it is only a matter of time before it all totally unravels and what we are left with is not Christianity, but a different religion that still calls itself Christian. It is a Christianity divested of all sound doctrine, and that very often will not tolerate sound doctrine. It is a Christianity without any understanding of the need, necessity, and nature of regeneration; it is a salvation without redemption, justification, and sanctification; it is a morality without holiness, a conversion without any conviction of sin, a faith that has no biblical foundation, an emotion without any love of the truth, a Christianity that provides no end of opportunities for religious busyness, experiences, and humanitarian activities, but teaches nothing of the true nature of God and of what it is to be Christian. This absence of sound doctrine is not so much the consequence of opposition but of decades of neglect, distortions, and compromise, which inevitably leads to opposition. Any attempt to introduce sound doctrine into this religion that today still calls itself Christian is usually derided and stigmatized as narrow, exclusive, dogmatic, and divisive. “Nothing is easier”, wrote J.C. Ryle, “than to get up a prejudice against a truth, by giving it a bad name. Men deal with doctrines they do not like, much like Nero did when he persecuted the early Christians. They dress them up in a hideous garment, and then hold them up to scorn and run them down”. [5] For anyone to say they care nothing about doctrine and dogmatic truth is the same as saying they are not a Christian. Take away doctrine and you take away Christianity.
Most people today come to the Bible as if it were a game of Jenga. They selectively remove doctrines they find offensive to their human pride, or incompatible with their own human reason, or their own religious beliefs, or their fleshly and worldly goals, lusts, ambitions, ideologies, pride, and agendas, or with popular opinion, thinking they can remove them and still maintain the integrity of the entire superstructure. But the doctrines which make up “the whole purpose of God” (Ac 20:27) and “sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness” (1 Tm 6:3), are not like the individual pieces in a game of Jenga or individual threads in a garment; rather they are one long interconnected chain of truth. One cannot be removed without taking others with it and bringing down the entire superstructure, or unraveling the whole garment. This is what J.C. Ryle warned against when he wrote,
“Oh, learn to know what you mean when you talk of believing the doctrines of Christianity. Be able to give a reason for your hope. Be able to say what you think true, and what you think false in religion. And never, never forget that the only foundation of soundness in the faith, is a thorough knowledge of the Bible. I entreat you … to observe how one error in religion leads on to another. There is a close connection between false doctrines. It is almost impossible to take up one alone …. He starts with a theory for which no single plain text of Scripture can be alleged, and before this theory he tramples down plain passages of the Bible by the score. They interfere … with his favorite theory, and therefore cannot mean what common sense tells us they do!” [6]
This is what characterizes modern Christianity; it is a jumbled hodgepodge of discombobulated beliefs and terms that have been divested of any biblical foundation for those beliefs and terms, many of which never had any biblical basis to begin with. It is dismissive of any plain teaching of Scripture that interferes with its idea of what it is to be Christian. It is a system of religion that prefers a diluted, misty, unholy, and generic Christianity to a pure, holy, and biblical Christianity. It is a generic Christianity stripped of any doctrinal distinctives, therefore, stripped of anything that might cause offense and that would distinguish it from anything else that pretends to be Christian. Its faith, such as it is, is a generic faith, and its Jesus is a generic Jesus that is compatible with virtually any system of religion that professes to be Christian. Its theology is more in keeping with the spirit of the world and the thinking and feelings of fallen human nature. The word “faith”, like the word “Christian”, has today become a generic term for virtually any system of belief. We have faith-based organizations, faith-leaders, the Muslim faith, the Mormon faith, this faith and that faith. But none of these are the faith that is the fruit of regeneration and the gift of God; they are not saving faith; they are not faith in the truth; they have no love of the truth so as to be saved.
Today we hear people and political organizations telling us to “practice our faith”, but what do they mean? Mormons and other cults practice their faith. Muslims practice their faith. Buddhists, Hindus, and Taoists practice their faith. Catholics practice their faith when they superstitiously pray to Mary, light their candles, recite their Rosary, and worship a piece of bread. Jews practice their faith. Liberals practice their faith. None of these, however, is the faith that is the gift of God. They are not faith in the person of Jesus revealed only in the truths and doctrines of Scripture; they are not the faith taught by Jesus, the Apostles, and the New Testament; they are not “faith in the truth” (2 Th 2:13). When we talk about faith we are not talking about just any faith, or a generic faith, but a specific faith, namely, “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). True Christian faith begins not with an experience, a feeling, not with an act of the will, but with a true knowledge of Jesus Christ. Satan does not care what faith we practice, what Jesus we believe in, what we call Christian, or what gospel we trust in, just as long as they are not the faith, Jesus, Christianity and gospel revealed in Scripture. Every Christian truth and doctrine has its counterfeits. An almost Christian and Christianity serves Satan’s purpose just as effectively, if not more effectively, as no Christianity at all. The most effective way by which Satan blinds the minds of the unbelieving is by means of a false confidence in a counterfeit faith.
The Bible does not instruct us to practice just any faith or a counterfeit faith, but “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). There is a “whole purpose of God” (Ac 20:27) revealed in Scripture of which it is necessary for Christians to have a right and true understanding. Most today have no idea of the nature, the importance, the place, and the significance of the various doctrines which make up the whole of the gospel. If truth be told, they are profoundly ignorant of and indifferent to these doctrines. Their theology is vague, misty, inconsistent, disjointed, and bewildered. It is a jumbled concoction of Arminianism, some Pelagianism, some Charismatic, some Catholicism, some Universalism, some antinomianism, their own opinions, the latest pop theology, and for good measure, some mysticism. Failure to give truth in its right order and place only confuses other truths, such as when people place saving faith before regeneration and make faith the cause rather than the fruit of regeneration, or when they emphasize the love, grace, and mercy of God to the exclusion of the holiness, sovereignty, justice, authority, and righteousness of God. Scripture tells us that Apollos “was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus” (Ac 18:25). The “things” which Apollos was speaking and teaching included much more than the message that Jesus loves us and died on the cross for our sins. The Greek word translated “accurately” (akribos) means, “strict conformity to a norm or standard in both detail and completeness”. This standard is of course Scripture, because Apollos also “powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ” (Ac 18:28). But as accurate as Apollos was, he still needed to have the way of God explained to him “more accurately” (Ac 18:26). He was never inaccurate, he just needed to be more accurate.
Such accuracy is in sharp contrast with the shallow, superficial, frivolous, vague, lukewarm, man-centered, inclusive, incomplete, psychologized, mystical, ecumenical, worldly, and inaccurate teaching and preaching that characterizes most of what calls itself Christian today. Most teaching and preaching today eschews such doctrinal accuracy and precision as too exclusive and unnecessarily divisive. Scripture, however, takes a different view. It pronounces an anathema, that is, devoted to eternal destruction, on all those who “want to distort the gospel of Christ” (Gal 1:7). The Greek word translated “distort” (metastrepho) only occurs two times in the New Testament (cf. Ac 2:20), and means “to turn or change”. Those who want to distort the gospel and its doctrines attempt to turn the gospel into something it never was nor was ever meant to be. They turn the God-centered gospel into a man-centered gospel. They change the meaning of grace and turn it into a cloak and covering for sin. They distort the nature of true biblical love. They call evil good and good evil. They change the meaning of biblical words and terms. They distort the nature of God and the person of Jesus. They change the content of the gospel; they change the nature of regeneration and saving faith; they change the nature of man and of sin; they distort the doctrines of justification, sanctification, holiness; they misrepresent what it is to be Christian; they change the order and place of biblical truths.
The Apostle Peter stated that it is the “untaught and unstable” who “distort” the Scriptures, that is, they torture and twist them so as to produce a false and inaccurate meaning (2 Pt 3:16). The untaught person is one who is ignorant of the truths and doctrines of Scripture, and the unstable person is one who has an erroneous and inaccurate knowledge of the truths and doctrines of Scripture. Both alike twist and distort the Scriptures in order to produce a false and inaccurate meaning, and they do so “to their own destruction” (2 Pt 3:16). Paul instructed Timothy to “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth” (2 Tm 2:15). Today such diligent accuracy is not only scarce, it is diligently and intentionally avoided, belittled, and treated with contempt. This is why the Bible and its true and accurate meaning is the sole norm, rule, and standard for the content of the gospel and for saving faith. Any gospel and faith that comes short of or is contrary to this rule is not the faith that is the gift of God; rather, it is the doctrine and faith of demons that if practiced will result in our eternal ruin and condemnation, not salvation.
If everything that professes to be and calls itself Christian today is Christian, then there is no such thing as true Christianity. An ancient, organized, and systematized heretical and apostate form of Christianity, such as Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy, is just as heretical and apostate as the many new forms that make up most of what professes to be Christian today. An ancient false doctrine is just as false as a new one; in fact, most new ones are just recycled old ones. An ancient distorted gospel is just as false as a recently distorted gospel. J.C. Ryle was correct to ask, “whether it is possible for a minister who takes the Bible for his rule of faith to avoid giving warnings against doctrinal error?” [7] Today such warnings, if not totally silenced, are muted to an extraordinary degree. We can be certain that Jesus, the Apostles, the Bible, Irenaeus, Athanasius, the Reformers, the Scottish Covenanters, the Puritans, the preachers of the 18th century Great Awakening, Charles Spurgeon, J.C. Ryle, J. Gresham Machen, John Murray, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and all of Christian history teach us it is not possible. Today, however, accuracy in doctrine is stigmatized and disparaged as being too divisive; warnings against doctrinal omissions, distortions, errors, and inaccuracies are dismissed as theological hairsplitting; distorted gospels shorn of all of the true gospel’s distinctive doctrines are heralded as “clear gospel presentations”; anyone who makes clear distinctions between Christianity and almost Christianity is contemptuously ridiculed as a theological nerd. Doctrine, instead of being viewed as the indispensable content of the true gospel, and without which there is no true gospel, is today regarded as a hinderance and stumbling block to the gospel. This view, however, is the direct opposite of that of the Bible and all of Christian history, as J.C. Ryle made so clear,
“I say that the advocates of dogma can turn boldly to the whole history of the progress and propagation of Christianity, from the time of the apostles down to the present day, and fearlessly appeal to its testimony…It was dogma in the apostolic age which emptied the heathen temples, and shook Greece and Rome. It was dogma which awoke Christendom from its slumbers at the time of the Reformation, and spoiled the Pope of one-third of his subjects. It was dogma which…revived the Church of England in the days of Whitefield, Wesley, Venn, and Romaine, and blew up our dying Christianity into a burning flame…It is doctrine, doctrine, clear ringing doctrine, which, like the rams horns at Jericho, cast down the opposition of the devil and sin.
Well says Martin Luther: ‘Accursed is that charity which is preserved by the shipwreck of faith or truth, to which all things must give place; both charity, or an apostle, or an angel from heaven.’ Well says Dr. Gauden: ‘If either peace or truth must be dispensed with, it is peace and not truth. Better to have truth w/o public peace than peace w/o saving truth.’ [8]
Today zeal for and adherence to the dogmas of political, moral, and social conservatism has come to be regarded by many as the equivalent of saving faith, and as long as they are politically and morally conservative it matters little what else they are. Conservatism, while no doubt much preferred to godless Marxism, Liberalism, and Progressivism, is by no means the equivalent of Christian faith and holiness any more than mere moralism. Being a good Catholic, or good Protestant, or a good anything else, is not the equivalent of being a true Christian. It is not difficult to stir up and energize people to contend for a political and social cause, whether that cause is good or evil, religious or secular, but it is very hard to motivate them to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. In fact, to do so would be damaging to the cause. No one can attract and retain the number of people necessary to sustain the momentum of a social, political, or religious movement and still accurately speak and teach the things concerning Jesus. If Jesus Himself did not, I doubt we will be any more successful than He was (Jn 6:66). One will always be sacrificed for the other. The first will attract and welcome people of every belief, no matter how contrary it is to sound doctrine, just as long as they support the cause, but the second will be stigmatized as divisive and narrow-minded. One is willing to sacrifice the truths and doctrines of the Bible for the sake of the earthly and worldly cause, whereas the other will sacrifice the cause for the sake of the truth, even if that means they must stand alone. One is willing to betray Jesus and His Word for the sake of the worldly cause, whereas the other is willing to die rather than betray Christ and His Word. Such people understand the words of the apostle Paul, “For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ” (Gal 1:10). Such people take to heart the words of Jesus, “For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Mt 16:26). We can either be faithful to Christ, His gospel, His Word, and its doctrines, or we can be successful, admired, and popular, but we cannot be both. We must choose one or the other.
The attempt today is to make Christianity a universal religion and a social and political force to be reckoned with by distorting the gospel and divesting it of all its distinctive and distinguishing doctrines, and by prioritizing ecumenical and political unity over doctrinal accuracy, purity, and fidelity. Where numbers, success, popularity, political and social influence, and money are the priority, doctrinal accuracy and purity must be sacrificed. If the goal of Christianity is to instill a sense of meaning, purpose, self-fulfillment, self-worth, personal empowerment, acceptance, and to promote humanitarianism, morality, and conservative values, then people can have all of this without encumbering themselves with all the doctrines and demands of true Christianity. In such an environment, the only belief that is inviolable is that the Christian profession of all involved must not be called into question or examined too closely by the clear doctrines of the gospel. All that matters is that we have a shared profession and religious experience, not a shared faith in the clear doctrines of the gospel. The Apostle Peter addressed his second epistle “to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours,” (2 Pt 1:1), thereby making a clear distinction between true faith and all other kinds of faith. When the faith taught by Jesus, the Apostles, and the New Testament is compared with the faith taught, professed, and practiced by most of what claims to be Christian today it becomes abundantly clear they are not the same kind of faith. The first is true Christianity while the second is Christian in name only. However appealing and essential a generic, distorted, ecumenical, and inclusive gospel and Christianity may be to the pursuit of some earthly cause, it is not the gospel of Jesus Christ, but a dangerous and demonic deception. A broad, man-centered, ecumenical, inclusive, and unholy gospel will definitely be more popular than the true, narrow, exclusive, and holy gospel of Jesus Christ, but we all know where the broad road and wide gate inevitably leads (Mt 7:13). Great battles have been fought over little things. It only takes a little leaven to corrupt the entire lump of dough. Only a pure, undistorted, accurate, complete, and holy gospel is a saving gospel, or, in the words of B.B. Warfield,
“The chief dangers to Christianity do not come from the anti-Christian systems. [Islam] has never made inroads upon Christianity save by the sword. Nobody fears Christianity will be swallowed up by Buddhism. It is corrupt forms of Christianity itself which menace from time to time the life of Christianity. Why make much of minor points of difference between those who serve the one Christ? Because a pure gospel is worth preserving; and is not only worth preserving, but is logically … the only saving gospel.”[9]
All we need to do is honestly ask ourselves, does the bulk of what passes for Christian preaching and teaching today promote a true knowledge and understanding of the doctrines which make up the gospel of Jesus Christ, or confusion, error, ignorance, superstition, and mysticism; does it promote sanctity or sanctimoniousness; earthly or spiritual-mindedness; holiness or worldliness; faith or false assurance; self-denial or self-love, self-fulfillment, and self-deception; humility or self-importance; love of the truth or shallowness, ignorance, and indifference to the truth; the spirit of Christianity or the spirit of the world? The answer is obvious to anyone with eyes to see and who has the honesty to admit what is obvious. The entire history of Christianity shows how quickly the true spirit of Christianity decays and withers away under worldly and unholy influences. Such have been the dominate influences within Christianity for over one-hundred and fifty years, beginning in the early nineteenth century, as one Scottish theologian of that time warned against,
“Can it be supposed that in an age of abounding worldliness, the spirit of religion [i.e. true Christianity] will survive and triumph if it have no stronger nourishment that the influences of modern thought? no deeper view of sin than as a pardonable weakness, an ugly blot, an unfortunate dislocation of the symmetry of the soul? no mightier impulse to do the will of God than the desire to advance that evolution of goodness and beauty which is forever to carry the human species onward and upward and nearer to the goal? …. He is surely a blind preacher who does not find himself in these times face to face with a great and serious problem: How to reach to the depth of the human heart, and how to turn its strongest energies from the idolatries of the world to the service of the living God.” [10]
It is painfully obvious that the greatest concern for most denominations, churches, and pastors today is how to integrate, assimilate, and harmonize the idolatries of the world with service to the living God; how to harness the idolatries of the world so as to entice and retain more and more people into their buildings and enlarge their budgets; how to make the ungodly ideologies of the world compatible with a profession of faith in Jesus Christ; how to reject unpopular beliefs and doctrines yet retain a credible profession and reputation for being Christian; how to better market and pattern themselves after the world’s business models; how to participate in rather than expose the unfruitful deeds of darkness; how to redefine and distort biblical words, terms, and passages to serve their own self-interests; how to instill a false assurance and sense of self-importance; how to make a divine message appealing to a worldly heart and mind; how to misrepresent the nature of God; how to create an artificial spiritual experience; how to better entertain people who easily become bored and are unaccustomed to thinking deeply about spiritual truths; how to water down and avoid any truths and doctrines that people in their church might find offensive or “too controversial”; how to justify unbiblical practices and teachings; how to avoid convicting anyone of the utter sinfulness of sin; how to define the word “Christian” in terms so broad so as to include virtually anyone except a true Christian. These and many more things just as repugnant to the true spirit of Christianity are what preoccupy the time and strongest energies of most of modern Christianity.
Christians, much less Christian pastors and teachers, are not to be sheep in wolves’ clothing. There is to be a real and obvious, not just a superficial distinction between the Christian and everything that is not Christian, and between the children of God and the children of the devil (1 Jn 3:10). This distinction is what the Bible calls holiness. The true Christian is to be “like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Pt 1:15, 16). God’s primary purpose in salvation is not to make us happy but to make us holy, which is nothing else but conformity to the holy Law of God. The practice of true Christian faith includes continually cleansing “ourselves from all defilements of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor 7:1), and to “put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph 4:24). It was no passing idiosyncrasy of the first century that Christianity was “spoken against everywhere” (Ac 28:22), and Christians were slandered as “evildoers” (1 Pt 2:12). The Christian faith has always been at its strongest when its opposition to error, evil, and unbelief is most unambiguous and discriminating, when its spirit is not of this world, when it exposes rather than participates in the unfruitful deeds of darkness (Eph 5:11), when its entire trust does “not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” (1 Cor 2:5), and when it accurately proclaims “the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;” (1 Pt 2:9). When there is no longer any clear distinction between the practices, values, beliefs, thinking, and behavior of those who profess to be Christian and the rest of the world, then no wonder fewer and fewer people see any purpose to Christianity. When the salt losses its saltiness it becomes good for nothing, “except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men” (Mt 5:13), which is precisely what we are seeing today, not just by unbelievers, but by self-professed Christians who will no longer endure sound doctrine.
Apostasy from the Holiness of the Gospel
In addition to an apostasy from the truths and doctrines of the gospel, there is also an apostasy from the holiness which the gospel and its doctrines teaches, produces, and requires. The gospel not only teaches us what truths and doctrines we are to believe, that is, the content and object of saving faith, but also what effect those truths are to have on our life, that is, what is the fruit of true saving faith, “Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness” (2 Pt 3:11). Any Christian who truly believes the doctrine that Christ is coming again to judge this present world in righteousness should bear evidence of that belief by living a life of holiness and godliness, because “everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 Jn 3:3). A Christianity, church, or professing Christian that spends most of their time polluting themselves with sin and the things of this present world, that is, its values, ideologies, worries, priorities, acceptance, and practices, instead of purifying themselves from them and keeping themselves unstained by them (Jm 1:27), simply show their faith and hope is not fixed on Jesus Christ, but on the things of this present world. A faith which calls Jesus “Lord, Lord”, yet does not sincerely desire and strive to obey what Jesus says and commands is a dubious faith (Lk 6:46). The most immature Christian who is mistaken and ignorant of many spiritual truths will still enter into the kingdom of God, but without sanctification – which is nothing else but continuous growth in holiness, godliness, and conformity to the Law of God – no one will see the Lord (Hb 12:14). God’s will and purpose for all true Christians is their sanctification; “For this is the will of God, your sanctification;” (1 Th 4:3). A faith that does not produce the fruit of saving faith is no better than the faith of demons (Jm 2:19, 20); it is a dead, not a living faith. A ‘grace’ that affirms, condones, approves, and legitimizes evil and ungodliness is not the grace which is the gift of God; rather it is a satanic counterfeit. The true grace of God produces a life of holiness by “instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age,” (Tit 2:12).
All living things grow. A living faith grows and increases in the fruits of faith, “For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pt 1:8). All the New Testament epistles teach not only doctrine, but the practical implications of that doctrine for all who profess and call themselves Christian. The gospel is not just something to be believed, but to be obeyed, “And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation” (Hb 5:9; cf. 2 Th 1:8; 1 Pt 1:2; 4:17). The Christian life is after all just that, it is a life, but more specifically, it is a life of holiness. Christianity is not just a religion, it is not just a philosophy, it is not just a world-view, it is not just a teaching that we subscribe to and try to put into practice. It is all that, but it is something far greater than all that. According to the teaching of the entire New Testament the very essence of the Christian life is that it is a life of holiness, produced by the indwelling power of God, “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13; cf. Eph 1:19; 2:20). The Christian is a person who has received a new life, a new self, “which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph 4:24). This is the cardinal doctrine of the New Testament. Holiness is not mere knowledge; it is not simply a profession of faith in Jesus; it is not great acts of humanitarianism; it is not religious devotion; it is not morality; it is not conservatism; it is not mystical and emotional experiences; it is not evangelism. Many people, such as Judas, Demas, the rich young ruler, have done all these things and more, but they were not holy. Holiness does not consist of things like these. A person can do all of these, and still never see the Lord. It is not within the scope of this paper to give a comprehensive definition of holiness, the Bible does that. However, I will simply mention some of the main features of which holiness consists:
- Holiness is having our minds transformed and conformed to the mind of God as He has revealed His mind and His will in the truths, commands, principles, and doctrines of Scripture (Rm 12:2). It means our minds are no longer to be conformed by and to this world and its ideologies, theories, reasonings, values, and pretended wisdom. It is to have the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16), which is the same thing as having a mind governed by and conformed to the truths and doctrines of Scripture, not conforming Scripture to the authority of our own minds. It is to hate what God hates and love what He loves, judging everything in this world by the authority of His Word.
- Holiness is the habit of constant watching and praying against all known sin, the subtle deceitfulness of our own hearts, the cunning deceptions of Satan, and the enticements of the world (1 Cor 16:13; 1 Th 5:6; 1 Jn 5:21; 2 Jn 8). It is avoiding all people, situations, and occasions that might draw us into sin and error and striving to keep ourselves unstained by the world (2 Cor 6:14-7:1; 1 Tm 6:20, 21; 2 Tm 3:5; Jm 1:27).
- Holiness is setting our minds on the things above, not on the things of this world (Col 3:1, 2). It is seeking to be pleasing to God rather than to please and flatter the minds and pride of men (2 Cor 5:9; Eph 5:10; Col 1:10; 1 Th 4:1; 1 Jn 3:22). It is a life characterized not by the practice of sin, but by the practice of righteousness which is nothing but a sincere practical obedience to all the known will and commands of God (1 Jn 3:7-10; 5:3).
- Holiness is a habitual desire and practice of striving to imitate the example which Jesus left for us to follow (1 Cor 11:1; Phil 3:17; 1 Pt 2:21-23). It is a life of self-denial, not self-fulfillment and self-will. It is taking up our cross, and following Jesus wherever He goes (Phil 2:5-8).
There are many other things which could be mentioned in describing holiness, but most would fall under the heading of one of these main features of holiness. It is true that we are not saved by being holy, but holiness is the only sound and reliable evidence that we have a true saving faith in Jesus Christ. Holiness is, writes J.C. Ryle, “a great reality. It is something in a man that can be seen, and known, and marked, and felt by all around him. It is light: if it exists it will show itself. It is salt: if it exists, its savor will be perceived. It is a precious ointment: if it exists, its presence cannot be hid.”[11] To say that someone is saved by Jesus from the guilt and condemnation of sin without being saved by Him from the power and dominion of sin in their hearts and minds is to teach a different Jesus, a different gospel, and a different Christianity.
An apostasy from the holiness of the gospel is, in many respects, more terrible and deadly than a partial apostacy from its truths and doctrines. This is because it is usually more subtle, insidious, unnoticed, overlooked, extenuated, and universal; therefore, it is usually more irreversible and irretrievable, because most people, once they have fallen into it, become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Its commonness and normalization will desensitize and sear the conscience to its sin and evil. The great nineteenth-century Scottish preacher Robert Murray M’Cheyne once remarked that the greatest need of his people was his personal holiness. An unholy Christian is a contradiction in terms, and an unholy pastor is a corrupting, not a sanctifying influence on his people. “Holiness in a minister”, wrote Charles Spurgeon, “is at once his chief necessity and his goodliest ornament.” [12] Odds are that an error against the truths and doctrines of the gospel will be noticed by one or more faithful men who will refute it and warn others against it. But allow virtually all of mankind to normalize and live in sin, evil, and ungodliness, let them legitimize sin by giving it respectable names, let them call evil good and good evil, let them immerse themselves in their lusts and the pursuit of their worldly interests and pleasures, let the lives of most people be characterized by speech and behavior that is as contrary to the nature of true regeneration and the rule of the gospel as darkness is to light, and let sin and evil be sanctioned and protected by human laws, just as long as they profess to be Christian, affirm they believe in Jesus, and are regarded as a ‘good’ person, it will be impossible for anyone to avoid being labeled a legalist, narrow-minded, conceited, hypocrite, or extremist who points out that such a life is inconsistent with a true work of the Spirit of God in the heart, mind, and life. Calling what is not Christian, Christian, does not make it Christian, rather it simply exposes the inability and unwillingness to make any distinction between the holy and the profane (Ezk 22:26), and reveals an apostasy from the holiness of the gospel.
In times when many follow the sensual teaching of false teachers, then “the way of truth will be maligned” (2 Pt 2:2). It is a favorite tactic as old as Christianity itself practiced by heretics, imposters, deceivers, and the self-deceived to profess support and belief in the truths and doctrines of Christianity while simultaneously practicing and affirming beliefs and behaviors that deny the very doctrines they profess to believe, or, as the apostle Paul stated, “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him,” (Tit 1:16). Yet, notwithstanding the clear teaching of Scripture regarding the holiness which true saving faith always produces and which the gospel requires, most today imagine that someone can habitually live and die unrepentant in known sin, having never strived to cleanse themselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, never having had a love of the truth, and never bearing the least fruit of true saving faith in their life, as long as they were a ‘good’ person, then they will automatically go to heaven when they die. Call this belief Antinomianism, Universalism, Carnal Christianity, Monergistic Sanctification, No Lordship, Liberal, Progressive, Inclusive, or any other name you like, but it all amounts to the same thing; an avowed attempt to overthrow true Christianity, the true gospel and its doctrines, and to replace them with a religion that is Christian in name only. It is the attempt to substitute one set of doctrines which have no basis in Scripture for another set of doctrines which are clearly taught by Scripture.
An apostasy from the holiness of the gospel is inseparable from an apostacy from the doctrines of the gospel. It is at least as destructive, if not more destructive, than an apostasy from the doctrines of the gospel, and is to be exposed, opposed, and warned against just as vigorously. Both are equally destructive to the souls of men and women, and both trample underfoot the Son of God and put Him to open shame. The New Testament expressly warns that both will be widespread “in the last days”. Of the one we are repeatedly warned, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn their ears away from the truth, and will turn aside to myths” (2 Tm 4:3, 4; cf. 1 Tm 4:1; 2 Pt 2:1; 1 Jn 4:1; 2 Jn 10). We are also repeatedly warned of an apostasy from the holiness of the gospel, when the grace of God is turned into licentiousness (Jude 4), and when “in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lover of self,” etc. (2Tm 3:1-5). What Paul teaches in this passage is that in the last days men and women under an outward profession of faith in the gospel will give themselves up to the pursuit of the vilest and most ungodly lusts and to the practice of the most abominable sins. This is an accurate description of most that today calls itself Christian. Now, both of these things, namely, an apostacy from the doctrines of the gospel and an apostasy from the holiness of the gospel, are dangerous and wicked in their own right, especially in their tendency and nature, particularly when they coincide in their attempt to undermine and overthrow the glory and honor of Christ and His gospel, and deceive the minds of professing Christians. Yet, these warnings and prophecies concerning them ought to be very profitable to the sincere Christian if they pay attention to them and act on them.
First, when we see this twofold apostasy pressing in upon us from every side, we ought to be extra vigilant to watch over our own hearts and minds, and to be on our guard. When a virulent and deadly disease is widespread, people take extra precautions to prevent their becoming infected. How much more ought we to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 Jn 4:1). When we see that we are living in evil days, we must do everything the Bible commands if we are to resist and stand firm (Eph 6:13). How much more should we “conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth” (1 Pt 1:17). This was the exhortation of Peter whose overconfidence almost led to his utter ruin. It is certainly not a time for any who desire to be preserved from this fatal error to be careless, self-confident, presumptuous, and secure. No one can say they have not been warned of this danger and told how to guard against it. When Jesus told the disciples that all of them would fall away because of Him, no one protested more than Peter, yet he not only fell away, as did all the disciples, but he denied Jesus three times (Mt 26:33-35). “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor 10:12).
God uses various means to produce this holiness. The primary means is His Word, “Sanctify them in the truth, Thy word is truth” (Jn 17:17). He teaches and instructs us by means of the great truths, doctrines, principles, warnings, examples, and commands that are taught in the Bible. He has given us the Holy Spirit of truth to guide us into all the truth (Jn 16:13). It is by means of “the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation” (1 Pt 2:2); “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness,” (2 Tm 3:16). He has given us His infallible, sufficient, and authoritative Word by which we can test the spirits to see whether they are from God (1 Jn 4:1). But if we will not learn and obey the things God teaches us in His Word which are His primary means of making us holy, then He will use other methods. These are God’s various ways of disciplining and training us. If we will not be obedient to the instructions of God’s Word, we must not be surprised if we begin to experience God’s loving fatherly discipline (Hb 12:5-11).
Secondly, when we see these things happening all around us, there is no reason we should “be disturbed by these afflictions” (1 Th 3:3), or “quickly shaken from your composure” (2 Th 2:2). Given the state of Christianity today, we may be inclined to echo the complaint of the prophet Micah, “The godly person has perished from the land, and there is no upright person among men” (Mic 7:2). But we have been forewarned in Scripture that such things will happen in the latter days. Since our faith is rooted and grounded in the authority, sufficiency, and infallibility of Scripture and its prophecies, promises, commands, doctrines, and warnings, the temptation to apostatize from the holiness of the gospel would be greater if we did not see what Scripture plainly prophesies would come about in the last days. The fact that we are seeing this apostasy makes it self-evident that we are in the last days. The truth is, there never was any belief more destructive than the belief that churches, denominations, this or that church, Christian institutions, or any person, are not, or is not liable or in danger from these decays, drifting, corruptions, and apostasies, or that any can be preserved from them without the utmost diligence in watching and guarding against them, and the faithful use of the means which God has provided for our preservation and perseverance. All we have to do is consider how quickly the Galatian Christians deserted the true Jesus and the true gospel (Gal 1:6), or five of the seven churches of Asia (Rv 2:4, 5, 14-29; 3:1-3, 14-22). All we have to do is compare the Christianity taught by Jesus, the Apostles, and the New Testament with what professes to be Christian today.
In the next study I will consider what is the nature, the causes, and the occasions of this apostasy from the holiness of the gospel, both in churches and individual people.
[1] William Garden Blaikie, The Preachers of Scotland From the Sixth to the Nineteenth Century (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1888), 338.
[2] Daniel Wilson in Private Thoughts on Religion (Ames, IA: International Outreach, 2000), ix, x.
[3] John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 1973), 180.
[4] Ibid, 199.
[5] J.C. Ryle, Old Paths (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2013), 455.
[6] Ibid, 472.
[7] J.C. Ryle, Knots Untied (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2016), 372.
[8] Quoted in Iain Murray, J.C. Ryle: Prepared to Stand Alone (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2016), 248.
[9] B.B. Warfield, Selected Shorter Writings, vol 2 (Nutley, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1973), 665-666.
[10] William Garden Blaikie, The Preachers of Scotland (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1888), 303.
[11] J.C. Ryle, Holiness (Moscow, ID: Charles Nolan, 2001), 47.
[12] Charles H. Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students (Ross-shire, Great Britain: Christian Focus, 1998), 20.