Someone on Facebook asked what were some Free Grace distinctives. Here are ten things that I think make Free Grace distinct from other traditions. There are different schools of thought within the Free Grace movement. These ten things reflect our corner of the movement:
1) Saving faith is persuasion that the saving message is true, and this totally excludes works from the definition of faith itself. First you understand the saving message; then you believe it. There are not different kinds of faith (all faith is persuasion), but there are different objects of faith.
2) God promises eternal salvation, meaning eternal security is the saving message, not something in addition to it.
3) Assurance is the essence of saving faith because assurance is simply being persuaded that the saving message is true “for me,” and that Jesus is “my” Savior.
4) People are born able to believe—total depravity does not include total inability.
5) Growth in the Christian life is expected but not guaranteed. Born again people can remain carnal and even depart from the faith and still be eternally saved. But all believers are expected to grow in experiential holiness.
6) There is a strong emphasis on rewards, such as ruling with Christ, in the Millennial Kingdom and beyond in the eternal state.
7) There is an emphasis on understanding the Christian life in terms of “fellowship with God” and “abiding in Christ.”
8) There is an emphasis on God’s judgment and wrath in this life, up to, and including, the physical death of the believer as a result of divine discipline.
9) There is an emphasis on being a Biblicist—that the Bible is our highest and final authority. Traditional Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant creeds are rarely cited as authoritative.
10) We tend to be part of the believer’s church tradition—practicing believer’s baptism and emphasizing a regenerate church membership. That is, we do not practice infant baptism or infant church membership. Only believers are part of the Body of Christ. This stems from our emphasis on salvation by “faith alone.”
Timothy Grady
Fabulous and clear Shawn .
Not 10 Commandments but ‘Distinctives’.
Catchy .
Slight addition : no durative requirement for reception of everlasting life beyond a moment in time .
James
Permit me to restate the essential tenants of self-styled Free Gracers (especially of the Hodges-Wilkin variety), to get at the root of the matter:
Part 1
1) Arminianism (notwithstanding the one area of inconsistency holding to eternal security, where man’s will is apparently not sovereign after all). As clearly seen in your own point # 4 (the essence of Arminianism): “total depravity does not include total inability”—in direct contradiction of the Word of God; e.g., Rom. 8:7-8 and John 6:44, 65, and many other Scriptures
2) Denial that repentance, as the other side of the same coin of faith, is required for salvation (contra the Word of God: e.g., Acts 11:18; 17:30; 26:20; Luke 24:47; 15:7,10; 5:32; Rom. 2:5)
3) Denial that the glory of the Person, the death and the resurrection of Christ are essentials of the Gospel that must be presented to sinners for faith unto eternal life (1 Cor. 15:1-4)
4) Denial (in your point #1) of two kinds of faith, one of purely human origin and thus fleeting and worthless (which Scripture calls “dead” faith, James 2:17, 26), and one engendered by the Spirit of God in the heart, which thus never perishes (unlike even gold, 1 Pet. 1:7), however much we might stumble, err, backslide
Shawn Lazar
So Calvinists and Arminians say people are born naturally unable to believe in God. You quote Rom. 8:7-8 and John 6:44, 65 to show the doctrine is Biblical. Neither support total inability.
First, Rom 8:7-8 is not about natural abilities. It’s about a mindset. A mind focused on the flesh cannot please God. No argument there. That’s true of believers and non-believers. If you set your mind on the flesh, you can never please God that way.
Second, the verses in John do teach total inability…without God’s help. That’s not only true of believing, that’s true of anything. We can’t do anything without God. But in the case of faith, we do have God’s help. No one can come to God without God’s drawing, but God is drawing everyone (John 12:32), therefore all can come. Man is able, not unable.
I encourage people to look up all the other verses cited by James in his comments, on our website, for a non-works salvation understanding of them.
Timothy Grady
Exactly Shawn .
Here we have the heart of theological determinism in a hybrid form , minus some incidentals .
Faith becomes it’s opposite : an irresistibly imposed infusion that (mostly ?) perseveres in works (never quantified) until death . Simply put , James only has recourse to subjective guesswork that he too is one of the arbitrarily lucky ‘elect’ . It always and only remains a fixation on performance/behavior/attitude/fruit/works .
This is the opposite of John 3:16 .
Based on his view that an Unconditional Election proceeds from an unknowable Decree – irresistibly infused with a repentant faith – then why attempt to persuade us with what we have been ‘unconditionally’ determined to believe ? Absent ability to do other than determined , this is like blaming a double amputee for not winning the Boston Marathon .
This logically reduces to an absurd fatalism . This is logically and biblically impossible .
Charlie Eipper
To say that God is drawing people to the Savior is a true statement. However, It’s an incomplete statement. The “how is God drawing” is what is being taught in John 6. Why is verse 45 of John 6 always left out of the context. It’s crucial here. These people are actually drawn to Jesus but Jesus exposes them for their carnal response to His miracle earlier in chapter 6:26-27. They are drawn to Him in order to get more grub! Jesus’ miracles are considered special revelation from the Father that confirms Jesus is the promised Messiah. Jesus would also preach about Himself and the Kingdom of God in conjunction with miracles. Of course, Jesus’ words are also special revelation and “Spirit” and “Life” (John 6:63-64). Now, Look at verse 45 where Jesus says, “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.” In my humble opinion, Jesus is teaching that the Father is drawing people through His Spirit, the Word of God, Who points people to the Savior Jesus. Those who “hear and learn” respond to the special revelation in faith that Jesus is the Messiah. These are the ones who are being drawn by the Father. So, these folks in this passage are drawn to Jesus, but not by the Father because they are not believing in Jesus as the Messiah even after being exposed to God’s Word.
Charlie Eipper
James, Would you agree that an unbeliever could rent a hotel room, find the Gideon Bible inside the drawer of the table, read the book of John, and believe in Jesus Christ to receive eternal life? The interesting thing is the book of John is absent of even one use of the word repent, which literally in the Greek means to change the mind. Because the entire book of John and other crucial passages involving the question on how to be saved from Hell (like Acts 16:30-31) are absent of the word repent, it’s logical to interpret this as the “change of mind” is inherent in faith. If it were so urgent in the gospel presentation, then it would be present in every instance or passage that explains how to be saved from Hell. Repent, to change your mind about whatever you think about God and Jesus to believing the Gospel. There’s a logical change of mind from any other belief to believing in Christ as one’s personal Savior. Remember, even God repented in Exodus 32:14 when He changed His mind about destroying Israel after Moses’ supplication and Paul said the Corinthian believers repented after reading his harsh letter ( 2 Corinthians 7:8-12). I would never attempt to change your mind. I just like to present things in a logical way for consideration.
Timothy Grady
Hi Charlie ,
James does not hold a view that we have the capacity to change our minds . He promotes an unknowable Unconditional Election irresistibly infused with a ‘repentant’ faith that perseveres inevitably until death .
This all presupposes that we are completely insensitive to any/all things related to salvation post fall (total depravity=total inability) .
Picture a dead corpse , or an inanimate objects like a rock .
On this view , ‘god’ does it all – including the ‘irresistibly infused faith’ , and perseverance in good works .
Incidentally , GES does not hold the ‘change of mind’ view on repentance . Nor do I .
Here are a couple articles that explain why that may be helpful for you:
Shawn Lazar https://faithalone.org/blog/does-salvation-require-a-change-of-mind/
Bob Wilkin
https://faithalone.org/journal/1998i/Wilkin.html
Michael
Good points, Timothy. I also like Charlie’s hotel room example of coming to faith. Receiving everlasting life can be as simple as he describes in his example.
However, Charlie states that repentance (as a change of mind) is inherent in faith. Often I hear that repentance and faith are synonymous, that they are two sides of the same coin. In my understanding, Scripture does not teach such a concept. I found this GES blog post to be instructive on the subject: https://faithalone.org/grace-in-focus-articles/repentance-and-faith/
Charlie Eipper
Great point, Michael! I can’t turn to any scripture that teaches that repentance, literally to change the mind, is inherent in initial faith in Christ. Charlie Bing has a great article on repentance that is also a must read. My point was that if the command to repent is not urgent enough to be placed in all contexts involving initial faith to regeneration, then repentance must logically be something that naturally precedes faith and as a result be inherent in the process of believing the Word of God. However, I am humble and open to another idea how one can become regenerate by reading the book of John, which has no occurrences of the word “repent”. It’s interesting that sometimes the scripture adds words that we usually wouldn’t use in the sentence because they naturally precede other actions such as:
“Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:” (Matthew 5:2) Of course He opened His mouth. It’s tough to speak and teach without opening your mouth. haha
Charlie Eipper
Thank you, Timothy! Yes, I am very familiar with the reformed TULIP doctrine. We, Grace Church in Wichita Galls, Texas, are Free Grace folks as well. I’m fact, we recently have changed our minds from an Antinomy view of God’s Sovereignty and Man’s Responsibility to the Free Grace view. Therefore, we are completely free from any TULIP influence. I’m new to this particular conversation so I don’t know everyone. My passion to is influence others to think critically and use the logic of the scriptures to arrive at an interpretation rather than holding a death grip onto a group opinion. Thanks again!
James
Part 2
5) Denial that Christ’s intercessory ministry in preserving Peter’s faith (Luke 22:31-34) is also true of every believer. (Thereby suggesting that what our Lord prayed for Peter is isolated to him! As if the Lord’s intercessory ministry is capricious, without purpose, and in a manner that is a respecter of persons [!], rather than all-wise and purposeful and directed to meet the every need of every one of His own.)
6) Denial that true believers cannot apostatize (contra the Word of God: e.g., 1 John 2:19; 2 Pet. 2:20-22; Heb. 6:4-6; 10:26ff; 1 Pet. 1:5, 7)
7) Denial that all true believers will manifest some signs of the life they possess in the Son (however much we might stumble and err, and fall into a poor, unhealthy, carnal state of soul), as set forth in 1 John
8) Denial of “sonship” (the position as sons in Christ) to all believers (contra Rom. 8:15; Gal. 3:26; 4:4-7; Eph. 1:5; Heb. 2:10-12; 12:5-9, 23), and thus teaching salvation in part by works (horrific legalism!)
James
Part 3
9) Denial that all believers are viewed as “overcomers” before God, in Christ the Overcomer (John 16:33), as set forth in Rev. 2-3 (however much we might stumble and err, and backslide), contra the Word of God: e.g., Rev. 21:7-8; 1 John 2:13, 14; 4:4; 5:4-5; Rom. 8:37 (“we more than overcome through Him who has loved us”)
10) Denial that no real believer can be or will be “cast into outer darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth” (contra the Word of God which shows that such a fate awaits the false professor/unbeliever alone)
11) Making of rewards at the Bema of Christ the motivation for godliness/obedience, rather than the love for and glory of our Saviour. [In Scripture, the reward is set before us, not as an object, but as encouragement to endure in the midst of suffering and opposition. It is Christ alone that can hold our affections and become the object of all true service. As one has well said, “Rewards will follow by and by, but saints follow not the rewards but the Lord.”]
James
Part 4
12) Engendering of SELF-occupation (as to whether one will qualify to “inherit the kingdom” as an “overcomer,” and has done enough to earn/merit “sonship” and “reigning with Christ,” etc), with such “rewards” as the motivation in the Christian life, which breeds delusional self-righteousness; otherwise it should most certainly instill (for those who rightly recognize no good thing in the flesh) awful fear and doubt especially of being cast into to outer darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth.
13) Denial that the reception of eternal life has anything to do with the forgiveness of sins … suggesting that lost sinners are in no need of the forgiveness of sins as part of the salvation they receive at the moment of faith. (This stems from Wilkin’s wicked theology that the Cross has wiped out the sins of all men except the sin of unbelief. Hence there is no need for the forgiveness of all your sins, as those committed while unsaved have already been blotted out. As twisted and false such a notion is, he is even inconsistent in not requiring at least the “forgiveness” of one “sin”, i.e., that of unbelief, as part of the reception of eternal life.)
Tim Fohey
James
You are a false teacher and you are spreading lies. If you don’t like the true message of life, go somewhere else to spread the false message of lordship salvation.
Michael
No surprise James showed up for this blog post. And he presented yet again in his becoming-all-too-common modus operandi: Commenting on a post in four separate parts at one time so he does not have to reply to responses to his comments because he knows that he’s limited to four comments/replies per post. Quite clever, James.
Brady Pollitt
1.Didn’t Jesus tell Nicodemus when he believes he shall NEVER PERISH, but get everlasting life?
2. Is Jesus telling Nicodemus how to get everlasting life by only believing in Him? YES YES YES!!!
3. Jesus is telling Nicodemus how to be saved, for that’s what Jesus said to Nicodemus that when Nicodemus/whosoever believes in Him they gets everlasting life.
4. Jesus mentions ONLY one condition in the book of John (believe in Him) to get everlasting life.
5. What all did Jesus ask only Nicodemus/whosoever to do to get everlasting life in every chapter and every other chapter in the book of John? To only believe in Him.
Timothy Grady
Amen .
Objectively verifiable .
Brady Pollitt
James has in EARLIER post ADMITTED he is following another MAN’s teaching of the word of God instead of actually doing his own study of what God says and too disregards the rules of grammar and laws of CONTRADICTION.
TO THE SLAUGHTER?
WHO ARE YOU REALLY WORSHIPPING? A CHURCH or God and His Word?
* Most get Emotionally attached to a pastor or church before knowing what God’s word really says. And that can be a prescription to hell.
I find most people when QUESTIONED about what their church believes takes offense. I find most people KNOW more about what a church teaches than they actually KNOW what God actually says in the Bible.
Brady Pollitt
No single statement of truth is to be preferred to some other statement, the concept of absolute truth is severely discredited when doing so.
* Don’t you know Scripture never contradicts Scripture. Whatever is said in one verse/passage is NEVER contradicted in another. THEREFORE, John 3:16 is ENOUGH as Jesus said it was!!!
Tim Fohey
Hey Shawn. I appreciate so much what you, Bob, Ken and the rest of the Ges family do to make the message of eternal life so clear. I feel so blessed to be able to use the vast number of resources available at Faithalone.org and love being able to recommend them to other people as well. I’ve been sharing Ges on my facebook feed and have been seeing some interest. One area that I would like for you guys to touch on would be the area of works. I know you, Bob and Ken, have dealt with this some in the past. I would like if you could to devote a radio program and a blog if possible to this subject. I feel like it would be helpful to point out what would constitute works and why a person cannot be saved by their works. Anyways thanks again and God bless.
Vince
As Shawn’s advice to all, regarding James’ points against free grace, look up the references yourself, just like the Bereans did, in order to see whether the references are actually saying what James said they’re saying.
There are also some terms used that are not used in Scripture. For example, James, please cite where the Bible insinuates such a thing as, “true believers”, or, “real believer”, as opposed to just, “believer(s)”.
It seems that your requirements for the “true believer” are impossible for even you to fulfill. For example, do you always do works only to glorify God, or sometimes to make sure you don’t end up in hell? Therefore, how could your message ever be Good News to you, yourself, let alone anyone else? Yet the Gospel is intended to be good news to all. So, there seems to be something wrong with your picture.
Tim Amoroso
This is a very helpful blog. It’s a gem of God. Thank you for taking the time to write it. God bless.
Alvin
James is speaking things he doesn’t understand because he does not know how to divide the word of truth so that it does not contradict God.
God Himself told Israel, ‘You shall not show partiality in judgement’ (Duet 1:17a).
Yet James has God being partial by commanding everyone to believe the Testimony Of God concerning everlasting life (John 3:16-18). And even though Scripture is clear that God desires all men to be saved (1 Tim 2:4), James makes God out to be partial by only saving some when He could save all.
James “god” demands that all men believe, which they can’t. So, his god cast them into the Lake Of Fire at the Great White Throne Of Judgment because his god picked some over others and zapped them.
Of course what James teaches is false because that would clearly make God contradict His own word. God would not do that, instead He has made every single person savable by taking away the sin of the world (John 1:29). God loves everyone, and desires everyone to believe in Him for everlasting life (John 3:16).
And God would never command everyone to believe, and then eternally condemn them because they couldn’t even if they wanted to.