Gospel Under Siege...cont'd
From
this website:
- [FONT=CG Times,Times New Roman]What is the relationship between saving faith and good works? Hodges insists that good works are not the necessary outcome of saving faith.[/FONT][FONT=CG Times,Times New Roman][/FONT]
- Can a true believer totally abandon Christ and the faith even to the point where he no longer believes in Christ and denies the facts of the gospel? Hodges insists that this is possible and even cites an example of this which will be discussed later in this paper.
- Can a person who habitually lives in sin [even as a homosexual or as an adulterer or as a drunkard or as a murderer] claim full assurance of salvation? Hodges insists that this is possible because, according to his view, assurance of salvation is based upon the promises of God and has nothing to do with how a person lives. Hodges seems to teach that it is wrong to ever call into question the salvation of any person who professes faith in Christ, no matter how wickedly he may live. He may live like a child of the devil, but as long as he claims to be a child of God, we should believe him.
- If a person truly has eternal life, will this life be evidenced in any way? Hodges insists that it is possible that there will be no evidence at all. In other words, a person can KNOW he is saved but he need not SHOW that he is saved. Hodges teaches that the grace of God is able to save a person but it may or may not transform a person
Item No. 1 = I think we need to define what the "good works" are. Are the good works being charitable, religious, kind, considerate, and all those things that the world marks as standard behavior that separates good men from evil men ? If these are the good works meant, then I agree with Zane Hodges, because I have friends and acquaintances, and we all know people whom we would rather have as friends and guests in our dinner table over some people who call themselves "Christians" and sing in our churches, or shake our hands, and hug us. In other words, "worldly" good works is something not far from the capability of fallen, totally depraved man.
On the other hand, if by good works we mean a view of God which is filled with awe and wonder, respect and love, reverent fear and the consciousness of one's sinfulness vis-a-vis the absolute holiness of God, resulting in a relationship to fellow believers that reflects this view, then I disagree with Zane Hodges because only the quickened spirit is capable of these kinds of good works.
There are a lot more that can be said about this, but for now this is where I stop.
As to Item Number 2 = I will have to
absolutely disagree with Zane Hodges and company. If one who is a child of God is brought by God into the company of His saints here on earth, professes to be a child of God, joins the local congregation, receives gospel instruction, and turn away and abandon his brethren to the point of openly denouncing the Savior he once professed to know and to have known him, then I point to this scriputre:
"
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. "
1 John 2:19.
Note that I am referring to going out of (1) the local church to which he belonged, and further (2) going out of Christendom in general.
This is far different from leaving, say, the so-so Baptist church to join the so-so Bible church (which is not Baptist) or the so-so full gospel church because of offenses in the former church/es. This one is an immature child of God, but a child of God nevertheless, assuming, of course, that his name is indeed known of God.
On the other hand, if he leaves so-so church and goes and becomes a Muslim, or goes and joins himself with Wicca, uhhhhmmmmm.....any oppositions ?
Item Number 3 - On the surface, I will have to disagree with Hodges here, but only because I myself hold the position that God is able to quicken and bring to repentance those whom He loves even at the last nanosecond of life. Eventually, we need to come to terms with the fact that while the Bible exhorts us to live a life worthy of the Name by which we are called, living that life does not result in salvation, but rather a manifestation of that grace that is in us.
Therefore, if someone who habitually lives in sin but
never professed to know Christ, or never joined a church, or
never referred to himself as a believer, and
never received gospel instruction, dies,
as far as my eyes can see, and as far as my limited perception goes, he died hell-bound, but, eventually and ultimately, it is God who knows.
However, if he received gospel instruction as a member of a gospel church, called himself Christian, professed to know Christ, and YET continually lived in sin, even practiced homosexuality, I will have my doubts about him, from the very beginning.
Item number 4 - The problem with this is that when the critic begins a sentence with, "in other words.....", then he is injecting his interpretation of what the other person is saying, which may very well not be what the other person is saying.
I agree with Hodges that it is possible that there will be no evidence (to us and our eyes) of this eternal life the child of God possesses, and that the grace of God is able (to me, it is the grace of God saved, not just "is able") to save a person, and not transform that person
IF he receives no gospel instruction at all. In Romans, Paul laments the fact that those among Jewry who are of the true Israel (therefore the true children of promise) are still untransformed (unconverted, if you will) and caught up in the religion of Judaism, observing laws and rituals, having a zeal of God but not according to knowledge.
These were all children of God, the true Israel within Israel, but going about their ways establishing their own righteousnesses because they have no one preaching the gospel to them.
Okay, fire the ack-ack guns, boys.
