By Jason Charles on 7/21/2015 (9 years 138 days ago) Theology & Religion
The old saying the "devil is in the details" is especially true when it comes to the false doctrine of "Unlimited Grace." Like most false doctrines they sound reasonable and even spiritually pure on the surface, but when examined in the light of God's word we realize that they have destructive qualities. It is this hidden destructive nature that the devil simply loves to utilize, like a cupcake that masks the taste of rat poison it can bring ruin upon Christians who unwittingly partake.
This false doctrine of "Unlimited Grace" has become a core principle behind the modern seeker friendly church and as a result has caused untold amounts of damage within the church body and in the lives of Christians all over the world. This doctrine has so thoroughly corrupted Christian thinking the best way to describe it is sadly through example. Think back to the last conversation you had with fellow Christian believers about some controversial topic like gay marriage, abortion, unjust wars, etc, etc. Almost inevitably one of the people in the discussion says something akin to "we must love the sinner, hate the sin" or "God calls us to love everybody and it isn't our place to judge." Immediately upon hearing this your spiritual alarm should sound, this is someone who does not know the Bible and what it teaches.
Grace is Something only God can Extend to Us
When it comes to any teachings on God's saving grace we must recognize that so much of what we hear today is based around scriptures that have totally been taken out of context. A simple study of the word grace in the New Testament reveals that grace is not something we extend to others, no far from it, we as sinful humans can not extend grace to anyone, we don't have the authority or power to do so. The ability to extend grace is God's gift and His alone through his son Jesus Christ who died that we might experience His gift of eternal salvation. All humans that deny Jesus are dead, they are walking, talking corpses on their way to hell. That is the sober truth according to scripture. It is our job to tell them that harsh reality that they too might accept the grace of God, but we can't give their sins a free pass.
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:" Ephesians 2:8
When you do a word study, listen to how Paul and the other Apostles use this phrase in their epistles, it is almost always used in acknowledgment of God and his gift of salvation. So when you say we must extend grace to other people for their sins as he has us, you are caught in the act of heresy and blasphemy. You as a sinful human being can not extend grace of any sort to your fellow humans it is not possible. Most likely people who say things like this are absolving themselves from the responsibility of confronting sin in their own lives or someone else's life.
What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Romans 6:13
Read Romans chapter 6, grace is never an excuse to sin, nor is it an excuse to turn a blind eye to sin at any time whether in our own lives or in the world. We are to be servants of righteousness, correcting the errors of sin, that is what we are charged to do as the sanctified body of believers who have accepted and testify to the grace of God through the death of his son Jesus Christ.
The Bible Instructs Christians to Judge and Discern Everything
As far as the Bible is concerned we are to bring everything before the light of scripture, anybody who tells you not to judge your fellow man on the basis of their sin is a fool. They simple don't understand how the acceptance of sin of any degree can bring about the ruinous collapse of a healthy God fearing man, family, church, society and government. Ask a carpenter or an engineer what happens to their intended creation when a calculation they made along the way turned out to be in error. The smallest faulty measurement left unchecked can render an entire system useless.
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.1 John 4:1
The Bible, through proper use and application tunes human life towards righteousness, and towards God, it also gives examples of lives ruined by people who not only ignored God's recommendation and laws but flat out violated them to their own hurt and the hurt of others.
Next time you hear someone say we are not to judge people, family, institutions, and even governments with righteous judgment realize that they are bringing damnation on themselves and society. Evil grows exponentially in a vacuum of good God fearing people, James without mincing words said people who let sin slide are themselves just as guilty.
Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. James 4:17
The Impact these False Doctrines have had on the Seeker Friendly Churches
Have you ever driven by a church that had a big sign or banner that reads "Sinners Welcome" I have and it stands the hair on the back of my neck on end. Nothing is more despicable than the shepherd putting their sheep in harm's way, and the pastors that condone this type of thinking do exactly that.
You may ask well how do we win new souls to Christ if we don't invite the sinners into our churches? Well first we have to realize and discern in scripture when Jesus or the apostles are instructing disciples or instructing non-believers to answer this question. This is of critical importance, the vast majority of scriptures pertaining to loving one another have to do with how we are to act towards our fellow believers. We love and forgive our fellow Christians as Christ instructed us to. A good chapter to read is Ephesians 4. This chapter instructs us to act in love and long suffering kindness towards one another as diverse members of the Body of Christ, it goes on to say that we must put away all of the things of the world and have no part in them, Paul then ends this chapter by saying:
And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32
God has not forgiven the un-believer, they are still dead in their sins, he has forgiven us not for our sakes but Christ's sakes. Boom. Sinners are still slaves to their flesh and have no place in the church. The discord among believers Satan can use well enough, just think how he can use un-believers that don't have the Spirit of God in their hearts
If you want a sad example of a first century church that invited sinners into it's midst like all these modern seeker friendly churches are doing read the Book of 1st Corinthians. Here is a church that had to be chastised by the Apostle Paul for an untold amount of wickedness time and time again. The tone he takes in it is the same tone a father would take when disciplining rebellious children. It is quite a disconcerting read, but the sad result of non-believers and believers co-mingling under sorry pastoral leadership.
It is easy to forget that these epistles are internal letters to churches and to the congregation of believers that they were addressed to. Applying scripture on how we deal with one another as believers in the same way we deal with the people of the world that are caught up in the evils of the world is not what they are intended for. Yes there is good advice pertaining to how we work with un-believers, but we must always keep in mind the context. The Body of Christ is a scared place reserved for those who have professed Christ and disciplined their spirits that we all might rejoice in the manifold GRACE of Christ Jesus as His spirit works to purge of us of our sins, not make us comfortable in them.
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