Free Grace Movement
Do any of you have experience with the Free Grace Movement?
http://faithalone.org/magazine/y2014/What-Is-Free-Grace.pdf
Pertinent quote:
First Essential: Faith Alone
Everlasting life is a free gift (which the Lord Jesus fully paid for by His death on the cross for our sins) which is received by faith alone in Christ alone, apart from works of any kind.
Not faith plus works. That is the Arminian position.
Not faith that works. That is what many in the Reformed or 5-Point Calvinist camp say.
Both believe that perseverance in good works is required to make it to heaven. Arminians say if a believer fails to perseverein good works, then he loses eternal life and he goes to hell. Many (but not all) Calvinists say if a believer fails to persevere in good works, then he proves he wasn’t a “true believer” in the first place and he goes to hell.
There isn’t any practical difference in these views. They both end in doubt.
The portion I underlined is important to understanding this teaching.
- 3 views
I’ve experienced some from that mindset before, but I haven’t studied it. I’ve seen no need to, I think the verse in James alone is direct and powerful, leaving no doubt this is wrong.
What it creates is false converts, because they believe they can remain completely the same - even after supposed conversion, and still go to Heaven. Quite the contrary, our sin is intended to make us question if our conversion is true. 2Co 13:5-7
In the quote above, the problem is that he’s seeing naturally. He’s seeing the practical effect comparing those two camps and their use of works; either way, you have to ‘be good.’ He’s not seeing spritually, that in the second case we’re not doing the good things in our own power; we’re doing it by help from God and our new nature.
Yes, J, James 2 would seem to clear things up. But no.
Over the last week, I spent some time with a book called Reign of the Servant Kings by Dillow [disclaimer].
Turns out that James 2 has nothing to do with salvation. Rather it has to do with the temporal benefits of the Christian life.
In that book, you’ll find that many of the things you thought you knew need to be re-understood. For instance, “the marriage supper of the Lamb” and “the kingdom of heaven” aren’t really talking about heaven, or even being saved. They refer to an inner circle of Christianity. And that inner circle is obtained by works. Take Luke 13:22-30. Some people will be surprised that they are cast out where there is weeping and nashing of teeth. These people had faith but not works. They are heaven-bound. “Outer darkness” with the teeth-nashing and weeping is actually part of heaven. But not such a good part. If you have faith you’re saved - but if you don’t do [enough] good works, you’ll go there, so heaven won’t be so nice.
/!!!!!!!
Wolves, men.
Shoot me a PM, if you would. I’d like to get some of this for a Theology Thursday excerpt. Very important stuff.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
I question whether it’s valuable to debate with those who are so far gone. They clearly refuse to see, could anything we say change their minds? At this point, I give up on reason and rely on prayer.
What do you think?
Debate might not be helpful, but it is always helpful to understand why people believe the bizarre things they believe. It challenges you to evaluate your own position. Speaking for myself, this is the entire point with the “Theology Thursday” offerings.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
[TylerR]Debate might not be helpful, but it is always helpful to understand why people believe the bizarre things they believe. It challenges you to evaluate your own position. Speaking for myself, this is the entire point with the “Theology Thursday” offerings.
I mostly agree. For example, I’m a premillenialist - but amillenialism is something I’d like to learn about. But, amil (AFAIK: limited knowledge) isn’t utterly off the wall.. Do you ever draw the line and compare an idea with that of a crazy person talking about space ships, and unworthy of our time? (not the person, but the idea.) For me, that seems to be what’s going on here.
Note that I’m not trying to tell you what to do, just friendly convo. :)
It depends. There are scholarly Free Grace folks who are not heretical. Then, there are bizarre people who deny that repentance is part of the Gospel. So, there is a spectrum!
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
If this is thread hijacking, I’ll send a PM instead:
What do you see repentance as? Some say it’s repentance from evil deeds, others that it’s repentance from unbelief/rejection of Christ. If the former, what verses do you use?
I’m about to dash off to a meeting, but I would say people are commanded to repent of their rebellion against God; this encompasses their rejection of Christ and their sins. I would go to the early chapters of Acts and the Gospels for this. At the heart of things, you have these three truths:
- all wickedness is active rebellion against God,
- every moment you refuse to submit to God’s rule and authority as your Creator (cf. Psalm 2), you are in active rebellion against Him
- every moment you refuse to repent of your sins and believe the Good News of Christ’s perfect and substitutionary life, substitutionary death, resurrection and ascension to be the High Priest for all who obey the Gospel command, then you are in active rebellion against God
Basically - it all comes down to repentance from deliberate rebellion against God, and that umbrella concept encompasses a whole host of issues. You could consider what Christ’s life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension accomplish for all who repent and believe the Gospel, and form reasons to repent based off this list, if you wish. That would be a worthy project!
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
How do you come to the phrase ‘repent of sins?’ I used to tell people this, but it seems to be a conglomeration of other theology. When I was challenged and tried to prove it, I wasn’t able to.
It seems repentance is repentance from unbelief. Of course, it leads to conversion and sanctification (repentance from sin), but that’s further down the line - hence, combination of other ideas.
Conversion should include counting the cost, and being willing to be made like Christ / forsake our sins. So, very similar to repenting from sin - but an important distinctrion, perhaps?
Discussion