Today I read a touching testimonial from Dr. Tony Evans, about his wife Lois who recently passed away from cancer. He wrote about how Mrs. Evans saw glimpses of Heaven before she passed. She claimed to see her mother sitting by a fireplace. She appeared to converse with the spirits of the righteous on the other side, regarding the right song to play at her memorial.
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A question came up in prayer meeting last night about the people and nation of Israel. The subject more-or-less was, what is Israel's role in God's plan right now? The answer in the New Testament is that God has temporarily set the Jewish people aside because of unbelief, but one day He will restore them to their rightful role in the world.
There are some strongly conservative Christian churches who follow a movement named "Christian Patriarchy".
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| I was recently asked about eternal security. I believe that a true Christian cannot permanently or totally lose his faith (but note those adverbs). However, I also serve in a denomination that chose, long ago at our founding, not to make belief in eternal security -- or disbelief in it, for that matter -- a breaking-point for fellowship, membership, leadership, or participation in the Lord's Table. This is a sub-set of our decision to be neither an Arminian nor a Calvinist denomination. Can we harmonize these two principles? I think we can. First is to recognize there are boundaries to our church's doctrinal flexibility. The Free Church is not a liberal church. We have a conservative, Bible-based, Protestant/evangelical statement of faith, and we require adherence to it. You can find it on this website, as well as at www.efca.org. So, even though we want to gather in fellowship around the core basics of the Gospel, and its essential foundations (such as Biblical inspiration and authority), there are definite points where our doctrinal inclusion ends. One end-point is whether good works justify us of our sins. Good works do not savingly justify us prior to faith in Christ; and they do not savingly justify us after faith in Christ, either. That very idea is condemned by the Lord through Paul back in his letter to the Galatians, specifically Galatians 1:6-8. Good works are the result and proof of true saving faith (see James 2:18 and following). That proof is to other people; God doesn't need it, He knows our hearts. A good tree always produces some good fruit. The Gospel seed, when it has a true faith-root, always produces a crop of righteous living. Maybe only thirty-fold, but something (see Jesus' parable of the four soils in Matthew 13). A different, opposing end-point can be found on the pro-eternal-security side. These would be teachings that say it's possible to trust in Christ without repenting of sin; or that faith in Christ doesn't renew the moral nature of the person's heart; or that we can never question a person's profession of faith because of wicked behavior. Faith in Christ and repentance of sin are two sides of just one coin. Christ died for our sins, specifically, so if we still love our sins we won't be interested in what He did. Faith in Christ causes a new creation, a rebirth of one's self (Romans 6:6). 1st John 3 says that people who walk in righteousness show they have God as their Father, and those who walk in wickedness, like Cain, have Satan as their father. To use two doctrinal terms, you have legalism perched at one end of the eternal-security issue, and antinomianism (lawlessness) perched at the other end. The first, legalism, contradicts Ephesians 2:8-9. The second, antinomianism, contradicts James 2:14-26. Neither legalism or antinomianism are okay in the Free Church. But inside those hard boundaries, there's some room to study, think, discuss, and move around. In practice, this broader approach to church fellowship requires the discipline of courtesy. We can't insult people, or say, "Oh that's a stupid idea!", or roll our eyes at people, when someone says something with which we disagree. We also can't just assume everyone in the room agrees with us. Instead, using courtesy, brother sharpens brother like iron sharpens iron. We also recognize that pastors and elders also have opinions. An elder is conscience-bound before God to preach or teach what he truly believes a Bible passage says. So, attenders should not get upset if and when a leader preaches something with which they don't agree. This conservative, Gospel-centered breadth of fellowship doesn't mean that leaders have to be muzzled. I knew an odd, funny case where some new attenders became upset because a baby was baptized during their morning service. But they were attending.... a Presbyterian church! Presbyterians baptize babies. What sort of church did the new attenders think they were? Did they not read the sign outside? An individual church will have distinct teachings and practices. Each person will need to pray and think through what they can live with, you might say. However, I do think it's possible to preach on disputed secondary topics. One way is not to overdo it. A church that feels like it has to mention predestination or tongues every week is, in my opinion, imbalanced. A second tactic is to teach truths without hammering on the people. It's also important to characterize other views fairly, and not ridicule them. Courtesy goes a long way, in this regard. I believe in eternal security (I think the Lord has helped me build a little more nuanced view than what I was taught as a young Christian), and at the same time we have members who do not. If you are interested in the teachings of the Free Church, I encourage you to read our statement of faith, located here on our website. |
The apostle Paul, in 1st Timothy 1:18-20, warns us that a true Christian can shipwreck himself spiritually.
Paul exhorts his spiritual son Timothy to wage the good warfare against Satan. How do we do that? By means of faith, and maintaining a good conscience. We build up our trust in Christ, so that it is a whole walk and not just a moment of conversion. A turning-point leads to a life. We learn to avoid sin, and also confess it when we commit it (1st John 1:9).
However, Paul and Timothy both knew some who had rejected faith and a good conscience. I believe these people are different from the people described over in Hebrews 3-4. In Hebrews 3-4, Paul exhorts certain readers who had not yet exercised faith in Christ to do so. He warns them not to be like the traveling Jews in the wilderness, just along for the ride, enjoying the benefits of Exodus deliverance but still worshiping their idols. In the end, they dropped dead under the wrath of God before they reached the promised land.
In this case, however, Hymenaeus and Alexander at one time had faith and a good conscience. I say this because you can't, in the strict sense, fall away from a belief you never had accepted; and more importantly, they had been members of the church (Paul says he delivered them over to Satan, which is very similar to his counsel about disfellowship in 1st Corinthians 5-6). This presupposes they had been baptized, since an unbaptized Christian church member in the 1st century was unheard-of.
Hymenaeus and Alexander hadn't been dithering indecisively around the gang-plank of Christianity. They were both already sailing, and then, by their own laziness and self-centeredness, they rejected faith and a good conscience, shipwrecked themselves. Paul holds out their example as something that can happen to any Christian, if we don't take the pains necessary to avoid it.
Paul doesn't speak to the question of their eternal destiny in the afterlife. He doesn't address "eternal security" here at all. If you want Paul to exposit here on security and assurance, you are disappointed. He made one simple point, which was a warning: for a Christian, spiritual shipwreck is possible. You cannot be assured that everything ahead will be smooth sailing. Your Christian life is not like a Tesla self-driving car.
The responsibility of building up your faith and godliness rests on you.
Paul exhorts his spiritual son Timothy to wage the good warfare against Satan. How do we do that? By means of faith, and maintaining a good conscience. We build up our trust in Christ, so that it is a whole walk and not just a moment of conversion. A turning-point leads to a life. We learn to avoid sin, and also confess it when we commit it (1st John 1:9).
However, Paul and Timothy both knew some who had rejected faith and a good conscience. I believe these people are different from the people described over in Hebrews 3-4. In Hebrews 3-4, Paul exhorts certain readers who had not yet exercised faith in Christ to do so. He warns them not to be like the traveling Jews in the wilderness, just along for the ride, enjoying the benefits of Exodus deliverance but still worshiping their idols. In the end, they dropped dead under the wrath of God before they reached the promised land.
In this case, however, Hymenaeus and Alexander at one time had faith and a good conscience. I say this because you can't, in the strict sense, fall away from a belief you never had accepted; and more importantly, they had been members of the church (Paul says he delivered them over to Satan, which is very similar to his counsel about disfellowship in 1st Corinthians 5-6). This presupposes they had been baptized, since an unbaptized Christian church member in the 1st century was unheard-of.
Hymenaeus and Alexander hadn't been dithering indecisively around the gang-plank of Christianity. They were both already sailing, and then, by their own laziness and self-centeredness, they rejected faith and a good conscience, shipwrecked themselves. Paul holds out their example as something that can happen to any Christian, if we don't take the pains necessary to avoid it.
Paul doesn't speak to the question of their eternal destiny in the afterlife. He doesn't address "eternal security" here at all. If you want Paul to exposit here on security and assurance, you are disappointed. He made one simple point, which was a warning: for a Christian, spiritual shipwreck is possible. You cannot be assured that everything ahead will be smooth sailing. Your Christian life is not like a Tesla self-driving car.
The responsibility of building up your faith and godliness rests on you.
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