Friday, January 17, 2014

Free Grace, Lordship Salvation, Arminianism and Calvinism

Free grace is the concept that you receive eternal life immediately and can never lose it after believing that Jesus is Lord and Savior. Because eternal life is the greatest gift anyone could ever receive, the definition of belief here seems critical. Many understand "belief" to mean intellectual acknowledgment of something you cannot see or "credence", e.g. "I believe Santa Claus exists". However the Greek word for belief "pisteuo" goes beyond credence, this is Strong's definition of pisteuo:
Pisteuo means not just to believe, but also to be persuaded of; and hence, to place confidence in, to trust and signifies, in this sense of the word, reliance upon, not mere credence, hence it is translated "commit unto", "commit to one's trust", "be committed unto".
So pisteuo means to trust or to "commit oneself to". Some scholars have likened it's use to "clinging" on. e.g. we need to cling on to Jesus! 

How much do we have pisteuo Jesus to inherit eternal life? A plain reading of John 3:16 seems to imply we only need to believe once, but the use of pisteuo in verses like John 3:16 is in the present continuous tense "pisteuodon". So the implication is one has to remain trusting and committing oneself to Jesus in order to inherit eternal life, which free grace seems to go against since you only need believe once in a lifetime to receive eternal life forever. However some who adhere to free grace theology will concede that if you "truly believe" once, you'll also continue to do so until the end of your Christian race.

Lordship Salvation teaches that you have to go further than credence and confess Jesus as Lord not in name only but also in your living. So you actually have to surrender every aspect of your life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Lordship Salvationists say if Jesus is Lord in name only but not in your heart, then you lie by confessing Jesus is Lord. Free grace contends that this is adding works to salvation because grace is unmerited favor and not something you work for, they define surrendering your heart to Jesus counting as works whereas Lordship salvationists seclude surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in the area of free will which does not count as works.

Within Lordship Salvation are adherents of Arminianism and Calvinism. Those are the two well known extremes and there are many that adhere to a combination of each, or are simply undecided because there is so much scripture supporting both positions.

Arminianism teaches that salvation can be gained and lost. They use the parable of the sower as evidence. The seed that fell on the rocky place is the believer that believed and received the word with joy but perished because it had no root. They view this as a person who lost their salvation. For example in John 15, Jesus says that the only way we can bear fruit and not be cast in the fire is to remain in him and his words. Eternal life is thought of something that is only in Jesus Christ, so we have to remain in him until the end in order to inherit eternal life. There are bunch of verses to this regard which suggest that one is only saved if they "endure" to the end (Matthew 24:13, Ezekiel 18:24, Hebrews 3:14, 2 Peter 2:20-22, Hebrews 6:4-8). They also view falling into sin as something that will put you in eternal danger even after a born again experience (Hebrews 10:26-27, Galatians 5:19-21, Ephesians 5:3-5, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

Calvinism teaches that once a person is truly saved, God's grace will preserve them until the end, this is known as sovereign grace, or irresistible grace. They agree on the same conditions for persevering until the end and not living in sin similar to Arminians, the difference is they stress the grace of God guaranteeing God's elect to overcome whereas Arminians focus on man's exercise of free will and God's foreknowledge of who will overcome. 


Among Calvinists, there are many different views on what constitutes being truly saved. Some say it's when you are born again after surrendering your all to Jesus, others say theres no way you can tell you are God's elect until you die and find yourself in heaven (experimental Calvinism). Calvinists view Christians who commit suicide or die in unrepentant sin as those who were never saved or born-gain to begin with, unlike Arminians who believe such people were saved but lost their salvation. As I describe this you can start to tell that it's largely a debate on the semantics of what salvation means.

1 John is perhaps the most Calvinist book in the NT. For example 1 John 5:4 says he who is born of God overcomes the world. 1 John 3:6 says whoever continues in sin has neither seen him or known him (they were never born again). In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus says depart from me you workers of lawlessness, "I never knew you", etc. These people were never born again, they were deceiving themselves by living as mouth professing Christians who knowingly transgressed his laws by practicing sin.

While lauded as a theological system that is consistent with all scripture when understood correctly, the drawbacks of Calvinism is that it can be easily abused and misunderstood. Some may be tempted to rest on the assurance of salvation provided by perseverance of the saints and irresistible grace and start sinning when they were never born again to begin with. Others who struggle with sin and addiction can feel hopeless concerning their salvation because they may feel that because God has not chosen them they are destined to end up in hell no matter what they do because they are not God's elect. There are actually cases of atheists who skirted with the idea of repentance at their deathbed but gave up because of their misunderstanding of the Calvinistic belief system, thinking that it predetermines their destiny to hell.


Bringing things back to the Lordship Salvation versus Free Grace controversy: Some free grace believers adhere to a kingdom exclusion doctrine like Watchman Nee taught which is the teaching that you can enter the kingdom of God after being excluded from the millennial kingdom. Lordship Salvationists all hold that outer darkness is for eternity. They believe when scriptures mention The kingdom of God or heaven, it is the equivalent of inheriting eternal life and not the millennial kingdom.

The kingdom of God is often juxtaposed against going to hell in many places in scripture.

Examples are Mark 9:47
And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell,

Matthew 18:9
And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

Notice how "life" and kingdom of God are used interchangeably in the same verses of two different gospels.

Also in 1 Cor 15:50-58, Paul talks about the the righteous being resurrected to eternal life in the context of entering the kingdom of God.

This is significant because of verses like these:

Galatians 5:19-21
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Ephesians 5:3-5
But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.


Most bible scholars have lively debate over Arminianism and Calvinism, however the theology that seems least defendable in light of scriptures is free grace and the millennial kingdom exclusion. Regardless of your beliefs on grace, if you've only said the sinners prayer and believed in Jesus once but haven't fully repented of your sins and made Jesus Christ your Lord from your heart, don't take any chances! Surrender your whole heart to Jesus and make him your Lord, why take any chances on your eternity?

No comments:

Post a Comment