The Dangers of the Deserted Island Scenarios, Pt. 9

Danger # 8: Both scenarios are based on the assumption that certain facts of the gospel take the focus off Christ.

Zane Hodges says: "Notice how the approaches I have objected to so far tend to blur the necessary focus on the Person of Christ as the object of faith. In the case of 'believe that Jesus died on the cross' the focus is on an action He performed (admittedly an indispensable one). In the two-step scenario we approach Christ first by believing certain facts about Him. The simple truth is that Jesus can be believed for eternal salvation apart from any detailed knowledge of what He did to provide it."¹
   
Tom Stegall says:  "The first reason why at least [the resurrection appearances] are technically not part of the gospel is because this would make the gospel a message that revolves around the numerous disciples...rather than a message centered upon the Lord Jesus Himself...Once a person insists that the gospel extends through [1 Corinthians 15] verse 5, presumably to have some post-resurrection appearances included in their gospel, then the gospel becomes a man-centered message, a saving message at least about Cephas and the twelve and possibly others."² It makes me wonder what Stegall does with John 3:16 when the Bible says, "For God so loved the world". That sounds "man-centered" and "about...others" too!
   
Hodges thinks that the facts of Christ's death and resurrection take the focus off Christ and so he excludes them from his saving message. Similarly, Stegall thinks that the facts of Christ's burial and appearances take the focus off Christ and so he excludes them from his saving message.³

A Double Standard

It's important to point out that Stegall's logic in regards to 1 Corinthians 15:5 is completely self-refuting and fallacious. Notice that Stegall bans verse 5 from his gospel because he says verse 5 is "man-centered" and "about...others." But Stegall apparently has no problem with 1 Corinthians 15:3 in regards to Christ's death "FOR OUR SINS". Yet according to Stegall's reductionist reasoning, 1 Corinthians 15:3 is also "man centered" and "about...others"! Stegall has even made statements to this effect.⁴ Is he now going to ban 1 Corinthians 15:3 from his gospel because verse 3 refers to other people besides Christ? Stegall is selectively applying his logic to 1 Corinthians 15:5 but not to 1 Corinthians 15:3. This is the logical fallacy of special pleading, i.e. a double standard.

1 Corinthians 15:3-5 Centers on Christ

It's important to understand that the person of Christ is the subject of all four verbs in the sentence in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5. Thus, there's no incongruity between believing that Christ "died for our sins" (v. 3) and believing in Christ. Likewise, there's no incongruity between believing that Christ "appeared to [His disciples]" (v. 5) and believing in Christ. In other words, Christ is still the subject in verse 3 and in verse 5 even though others are mentioned in context.
   
Free Grace expositors and also other Bible scholars recognize the exegesis of 1 Corinthians 15:3ff and affirm that Christ is the subject of the sentence in verses 3-5:

• William R. Newell writes: "The gospel is all about Christ. Apart from Him, there is no news from heaven but that of coming woe! Read that passage in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5: 'I make known unto you the gospel which I preached unto you: that Christ died, Christ was buried; Christ hath been raised; Christ was seen.' It is all about the Son of God!"⁵ 

• Raymond F. Collins writes: the "credal formula which [Paul] uses on 1 Cor 15:3-5 has Christ as its subject."⁶

• C. K. Barret writes: “The first stage [of faith] is hearing the Gospel; the next is being obedient, that is, hearing with faith…It is important that faith is response to a preached, proclaimed message. This leads to a further consequence. Because the preaching has a specific content (e.g. 1 Cor 15:3-5, 11) faith also has a specific content and can be expressed in a confession of faith which is specifically related to the eschatological event of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. In Romans 10:9 (‘If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved’) there is the confession of faith which, from the believer’s responsive side, corresponds to the proclamation summarized in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8. CHRIST CRUCIFIED[.] From this point we may proceed at once to the next main division of the substantive presentation of Paul’s thought. Paul sums up the Christian proclamation in traditional terms in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8. Here it is asserted that Christ died for our sins; that he was buried; that he was raised up to life; and that he appeared to Cephas and a number of others. The subject of every verb is Christ. The content of the proclamation, which is the ground of Christian existence (15:1, 2) is the historical event of Jesus Christ."⁷

• Ralph Norwood writes: “WHAT IS THE GOSPEL? 1 Cor. 15:3-5 ‘For I delivered to you as of first importance what I received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then the twelve.’ 1. There are 4 verbs. a. Christ DIED, b. Christ was BURIED, c. Christ was RAISED, d. Christ APPEARED. [It is in the passive voice.] 2. Note the subject of each is the same....‘CHRIST’”.⁸

• Roy E. Ciampa writes: "Christ is the subject of all the verbs from v. 3b to v. 8 except for the two in the relative clause of v. 6b (regarding the five hundred witnesses)."⁹

In contrast to what Zane Hodges and Tom Stegall would have us believe, the basic facts of the gospel "that Christ died for our sins...and that He was buried...and that He was raised...and that He was seen..." (1 Cor. 15:3b-5) are all Christ-centered. Each fact puts the focus on Christ and fills in the "blank spots"¹⁰ in a person's knowledge of the gospel.

< Part 8                        Part  10 >

FOOTNOTES:

¹ Zane Hodges, "How To Lead People To Christ, Part 2: Our Invitation To Respond," Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society 14 (Spring 2001): p. 12.

²  Thomas L. Stegall, The Gospel of the Christ (Milwaukee: Grace Gospel Press, 2009), pp. 564, 567, ellipsis added.

³ Stegall does not explicitly say that Christ's burial takes the focus off the person/work of Christ as the object of saving faith, yet this seems to be the implication of several of his statements. Following are three examples:

     1.) Stegall says that "belief in the person of Jesus Christ as the object of saving faith does not include His burial as part of the required content of saving faith." (Stegall, The Gospel Of The Christ, p. 696, italics his.)

     2.) Stegall says that "we are not requiring people to know and believe that Christ's death occurred at a place called 'Calvary' or for that matter that He was buried in a 'tomb.' [cf. Acts 13:29.] The critical content [as opposed to uncritical content?] that must be known and believed involves what happened at Calvary and what happened inside that tomb - He died for our sins and He rose from the dead. The actual location of His crucifixion and resurrection did not provide the grounds of our redemption - what transpired at those locations did provide the basis for salvation." (Stegall, The Gospel Of The Christ, p. 309, italics his.) Stegall's statement is a straw man argument because no one in the Free Grace gospel debate is saying that an unsaved person has to know the location of Christ's "tomb" in order to go to heaven! By focusing on the location of Christ's tomb, Stegall is sidestepping the real issue which involves the action of Christ being "laid"/"buried" in a tomb (Acts 13:29; 1 Cor. 15:4).

     3.) Stegall says in regards to Acts 13:41 that “Christ’s being…buried, and then seen by men were technically not ‘works’ done by Christ, though they were all true of Christ”. (Stegall, “THE TRAGEDY OF THE CROSSLESS GOSPEL, Pt. 9,” The Grace Family Journal [Special Edition 2008]: p. 21, ellipsis added.) But Stegall provides no scriptural support for his claim that Christ's burial and resurrection appearances are not His "works"! Actually, the context of Acts 13:26-41 argues against Stegall’s unsubstantiated assertion because the apostle Paul clearly does “describe” (Acts 13:41) not only Christ’s death (Acts 13:28) and resurrection (Acts 13:30), but also His burial (Acts 13:29) and appearances (Acts 13:31) – all together. Furthermore, since Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, and appearances were all predicted by the Prophets (Ps. 22:1-22, 40:1-3, Isa. 53:1-12, etc.) and foretold by Christ Himself in answer to a request for “a sign from You” (Matt. 12:38-43; cf. Jn. 2:18-22, 12:23-24, 20:19-21:14), it’s simply false to assert that Christ’s burial and appearances are not His “works”.

⁴ For example, Stegall in on record as affirming: “The Gospel of salvation centers in a specific accomplishment, namely that Christ died ‘for our sins’. (Stegall, “THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTED CHRIST,” Miscellaneous Message [Milwaukee: Word of Grace Bible Church, March 27, 2005], underlining added.) Similarly, fellow groundless gospel advocate J. B. Hixson has said: “But in essence, the Gospel is the good news that God loves man and has sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for man’s sins. Christ accomplished this when He died on the cross at Calvary as man’s substitute.” (Hixson, “What is the Gospel?,” [2001], pp. 2-3, underlining added.) This statement by Hixson is quoted approvingly by Stegall in his article “THE TRAGEDY OF THE CROSSLESS GOSPEL Pt. 1,” The Grace Family Journal (Spring 2007): p. 16.

⁵ William R. Newell, Romans Verse-By-Verse (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publishers, 1994), p. 6.

⁶ Raymond F. Collins, Studies on the First Letter to the Thessalonians (Leuven: University Press, 1984), p. 340. Elsewhere Collins affirms: "Paul presents Christ as the object of the creed." (Collins, First Corinthians [Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1999], p. 530.)

⁷ C. K. Barrett, Paul: An Introduction to His Thought (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994), pp. 102-103, ellipsis added.

⁸ Ralph Norwood, “The Pure Gospel, Galatians Chapter 1,” Bible Readings for Believers website, http://biblereadingsforbelievers.com/doctrine/232-the-pure-gospel-galations-chapter-1.html, emphasis, brackets, and ellipsis his.

⁹ Roy E. Ciampa, Brian S. Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2010), p. 744.

¹⁰ Adapted from Zane Hodges, “How To Lead People To Christ, Part 1: The Content of Our Message,” Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society 13 (Autumn 2000): p. 10.

THE PURE GOSPEL: Galatians Chapter 1

THE PURE GOSPEL: Galatians Chapter 1

by Ralph Norwood.¹

I. INTRODUCTION

1. I want to talk about the book that teaches that you "CANNOT PATCH UP LEGALISM"....

2. Background: There were many Galatian churches, but this was written to the church at Galatia....Paul had taken to them a very pure gospel....within a short time, they lost the pure gospel.

3. This book has one of the shortest and most terse introductions in Epistles.

4. These people questioned the authority of Paul....He makes it clear that when he speaks, it is the same as the Lord speaking.

5. Then he registers his amazement at their change....1:6 "I am utterly shocked"....They had departed from the true gospel.

 

a. Note: whenever there is a problem among believers, then go back to the basics and you most likely will find their problem. The problem of these people was the SIMPLICITY OF THE GOSPEL....which they had deserted.

 

b. Note v. 7....where it teaches that there is ONLY ONE GOSPEL. There is no such thing as COMING CLOSE to the real.

 

c. How about v. 8....may he be damned. [THIS IS NOT VERY ECUMENICAL.] Some would say that this was not very loving....Paul would tell another angel who preached another gospel...to GO TO HELL....

6. Paul mentions that he was NOT TAUGHT THE GOSPEL but received it by revelation. [He was the only person who was not taught the gospel.]

WHAT IS THE GOSPEL? 1 Cor. 15:3-5 "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then the twelve."

1. There are 4 verbs.

 

a. Christ DIED

 

b. Christ was BURIED

 

c. Christ was RAISED

 

d. Christ APPEARED. [It is in the passive voice.]

2. Note the subject of each is the same...."CHRIST"

3. Comments:

 

a. Christ died: definite event...

 

b. Christ was buried: definite event [in the aorist tense]

 

c. Christ was raised: definite event [with a line following it...with lasting results]. Why was the tense of the verb changed on the resurrection?²

4. NOTE THE COUPLETS.

 

a. Christ died and how do you know he died? HE WAS BURIED.

 

b. Christ was raised and how do you know He was raised? BECAUSE HE APPEARED....HE WAS SEEN.

5. Only ONE of the 4 verbs has the phrase "FOR OUR SINS" added to it...."FOR OUR SINS" is not connected to the BURIAL, RESURRECTION OR APPEARANCE....It is connected only with HIS DEATH.

 

a. His death dealt with our sins; The burial, resurrection and appearing did not. He was NOT raised for our sins...HE DIED FOR OUR SINS....

 

b. He died FOR which means ON BEHALF OF our sins.

ENDNOTES:

¹ Ralph Norwood, "The Pure Gospel: Galatians Chapter 1" (Oct 19, 2015), Bible Readings for Believers website. Reprinted by permission.

² In 1 Corinthians 15:4 the phrase "was buried" is in the Greek aorist tense, while the phrase "was raised" is in the Greek perfect tense. The aorist tense indicates an action that occurred at a point in time; the perfect tense indicates an action that has abiding or lasting results. This signifies that Jesus was raised from the dead "never to die again" (Rom. 6:9). He is "alive forevermore"! (See Rev. 1:18; cf. Psa. 16:10-11.) Editor.

The Dark Side of Duluth Bible Church

"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them." (Eph. 5:11, NKJV)

Pagan symbol

Stegall's symbol

Tom Stegall's "amazing triangular testimony to the contents of saving faith"¹ does indeed have an amazing triangular testimony: TO PAGANISM!

"Don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ." (Colossians 2:8, NLT)

FOOTNOTE:

¹ Thomas L. Stegall, The Gospel of the Christ, p. 19. Stegall is the former pastor of Word of Grace Bible Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After being exposed as a false teacher, he left Word of Grace Bible Church to become the new publications director at Duluth Bible Church in Duluth, Minnesota. (Duluth Bible Church was Stegall's home church in the first place.) Pastor Dennis Rokser of Duluth Bible Church wrote the "FOREWORD" to Stegall's book – calling it a "scripturally-sound, exegetically-based volume by my dear friend Thomas Stegall." (Dennis Rokser, The Gospel of the Christ, p. 15.) It's very revealing that no one besides Stegall's friend and fellow groundless gospel advocate endorsed his book. For a detailed expose of his pagan gospel see the article: "The Strange Beliefs of Stegall's System". 

The Very Core of the Gospel Message

"1 Corinthians chapter 15...starts out as we read and we’ll look at again, that Paul says: ‘I make known unto you brethren the gospel’. And what that means as he begins to unfold this for the Corinthians and then we enter into this is the fact that when Paul and really the Spirit of God is trying to reveal and kind of unload the message of the gospel to us, he doesn't do it like we would in our age. If we wanted to really think about a very, very serious subject I might take a young person by the hand and say, ‘Hey let’s go to the university lecture halls and really get someone to give us some deep [insights]....’ Paul doesn't do that, and neither does the Spirit of God. He doesn't take us to some scientific laboratory and say, ‘Let’s kind of just look at all the elements in a worldly sense.’ He doesn't set us down in a psychologist's chair and say you know: ‘How do you feel?’ Paul takes us to the empty tomb. This is the very core of the gospel message. This is what makes the gospel message real, and forever powerful in our life. He takes us to the place where the angel said: ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen indeed.’”¹

¹ Don Myer, “Truths to Value – ‘The Gospel’ 1 Corinthians 15:1-5,” Northwest Community Church, transcribed from a sermon dated January 24, 2010.

The Dangers of the Deserted Island Scenarios, Pt. 8

Danger # 7: Both scenarios are based on the assumption that the saving message excludes the burial of Christ.

The strange scenarios proposed by Zane Hodges and Tom Stegall are "joined at the hip"¹ in assuming that the saving message excludes the burial of Christ. Notice what each man says in this regard:

A New Twist to 1 Corinthians 15:4

Hodges writes: "Our object is to lead [people] to believe in Christ to provide their eternal salvation. The gospel message [in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4] about His death, burial, and resurrection is the normal context for our presentation of this core objective. But at the end of the day, anyone who trusts Christ for eternal life is born again."² Hodges labels the gospel truths of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection "excess baggage".³ Elsewhere he call these truths "the facts surrounding the gospel message"⁴ and says that they tend to "cloud the issues" when making appeals to faith in Christ.⁵ Hodges believes that the saving message excludes virtually all the historical facts of the gospel. Thus, along with Christ's death and resurrection, out goes the burial of Christ! In view of Hodges' belief that the saving message excludes the burial of Christ, it's not surprising that he isolated John 6:47 in his Deserted Island Scenario rather than 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. While 1 Corinthians 15:4 specifically mentions the burial of Christ, John 6:47 does not.

   
Tom Stegall also admits to preaching the maximum consisting at least of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, but requires something less than this to be believed.⁶ Stegall acknowledges that "it is quite common for Christians to reference 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 and then state that the gospel is the message that 'Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again'...since the burial happens to fall in-between these two pillars, it gets included each time this passage is quoted".⁷ Stegall goes on to argue: "The death and resurrection of Christ are the two key events/works repeatedly emphasized throughout Scripture as an inseparable couplet necessary for salvation, not His burial."⁸ Like Hodges, Stegall believes that the burial of Christ is the normal context for the saving message but not part of the saving message itself. Stegall labels the gospel truths of Christ's burial and resurrection appearances "additional details in 1 Corinthians 15".⁹ Elsewhere he calls these truths: "extra details in Acts 13,"¹⁰ and "additional details...but they are not in themselves elements of the saving gospel."¹¹ In view of Stegall's belief that the saving message excludes the burial of Christ, it's not surprising that he isolated the book of Galatians in his Galatians-Only Scenario rather than 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. While 1 Corinthians 15:4 specifically mentions the burial of Christ, the book of Galatians does not.¹²

Getting the Gospel Straight

The assumption that the saving message excludes the burial of Christ is simply not according to the Scriptures. For example, the prophet Isaiah includes the burial of Christ in his "evangelistic message"¹³ - his gospel (Isa. 53:1-12; cf. Rom. 10:15-16).¹⁴ The apostle Peter includes the burial of Christ in his sermon on the day of Pentecost when the church first began (Acts 2:22-32, 40) - and 3,000 souls were saved (Acts 2:41)! The apostle Paul includes the burial of Christ in "the message of...salvation" to the unsaved Galatians (Acts 13:26-41). The apostle John includes the burial of Christ in his "evangelistic" narrative (John 2:13-22, 12:1-8, 23-24, 14:18-19, 16:16-22, 19:38-42).¹⁵ Most importantly, Paul includes the burial of Christ in his definitive declaration of the gospel to the Corinthians, reminding them of what the content of the gospel really is - the message they believed and by which they are saved (1 Cor. 15:1, 3-5; cf. Rom. 1:16; Eph. 1:13; 2 Thess. 1:8-10).¹⁶

   
In light of these biblical truths, let me be more specific in highlighting the strange similarity between the teachings of Zane Hodges and Tom Stegall: Both scenarios wrongly assume that the saving message excludes the burial of Christ.

< Part 7                         Part 9 >

FOOTNOTES:

¹ Adapted from Lou Martuneac, "Lordship Salvation and the Crossless Gospel: 'Joined at the Hip.'" In Defense of the Gospel blog, November 23, 2009, italics his.

² Hodges, "How to Lead People to Christ, Part 2: Our Invitation to Respond," Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society 14 (Spring 2001): p. 9.

³ Ibid., p. 17. Hodges does not explicitly say this. He says: "All of the excess baggage that we bring into our encounter with unsaved sinners is just that, excess baggage!" (Ibid.) Although in the immediate context Hodges is speaking against "Inviting People to Believe" by praying a prayer, in the broader context of the article he is also speaking against what he calls "Doing the Two-Step" - that is, inviting "people to believe the basic facts of the gospel, and then...ask them to appropriate this truth for themselves." (Ibid., p. 12.) Hodges says that such a technique "bothers" him. (Ibid.)

⁴ Ibid., p. 11.

⁵ Ibid., p. 12.

⁶ This point is discussed further in the article "Getting the Gospel Right," p. 21 in the PDF file.

⁷ Stegall, The Gospel Of The Christ, p. 559, italics his.  There are several things to notice about Stegall's statement in regards to his reductionist reasoning:  
  (1) Stegall's reasoning is incongruent. He is including supposedly non-saving truth in his saving message.
   (2) Stegall's reasoning is intellectually dishonest. He is including Christ's burial in the gospel as well as excluding it. He says that "it is quite common for Christians to reference 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 and then state that the gospel is the message that 'Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again'...since the burial happens to fall in-between these two pillars, it gets included each time this passage is quoted". Amazingly, Stegall is saying that even though the burial of Christ is being "included" in the gospel, it is really being excluded!
   (3) Stegall's reasoning is postmodern. Notice that Stegall is ascribing his own beliefs to others and then using that scenario as his basis for truth. In other words, Stegall's basis for truth is not what the Bible says, but what he says other people say!
   (4) Stegall's reasoning is found wanting. It fails to explain why it is also quite common for Christians to reference 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 and then state that the gospel includes three or even four points - one of which is specifically the burial of Christ. Similarly, Stegall's reasoning also fails to explain why it is quite common for Christians to reference 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 and then state that the gospel is the message that "Christ died for our sins, was buried, was raised, and appeared". If the burial and appearances are not part of the gospel (as Stegall contends), why confuse people by including them in the gospel - especially verse 5?

⁸ Stegall, "Proposed Change" to the "SOLE CONDITION FOR SALVATION," Word of Grace Bible Church handout (2007), underlining added; cf. Stegall, The Gospel Of The Christ, p. 588. Elsewhere Stegall writes: "the Lord's burial and appearances are not the required content of saving faith...they are not technically part of the gospel" (Stegall, The Gospel Of The Christ, p. 589).

⁹ Ibid, underlining added.

¹⁰ Stegall, "THE TRAGEDY OF THE CROSSLESS GOSPEL Pt. 9," The Grace Family Journal (Special Edition 2008): p. 21, underlining added; cf. Stegall, The Gospel Of The Christ, pp. 375-376.

¹¹ Ibid.

¹² No wonder Biblical Greek scholar J. Gresham Machen writes: "The First Epistle to the Corinthians must be allowed to cast light upon Galatians."  (Machen, The Origin of Paul's Religion [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Printing Company, 1925], p. 125.) Machen goes on to emphasize: "The epistle to the Galatians must always be interpreted in the light of 1 Cor. xv. 1-11." (Ibid., p. 145.)

¹³ C. I. Scofield, What Do the Prophets Say?, pp. 57-58.

¹⁴ For further discussion see the article "The Romans Road Leads to Isaiah 53".

¹⁵ Hodges states: "The Gospel of John is the only book in our New Testament canon that explicitly declares its purpose to be evangelistic. Of course, I am thinking of the famous theme statement found in John 20:30-31, where we read: 'And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." (Hodges, "How to Lead People to Christ, Part 1: The Content of Our Message," Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society 13 [Autumn 2000]: p. 6.) One might have expected Hodges' to name John 6:47 as "the famous theme statement found in John" - but surprisingly he doesn't! This is significant. Notice Hodges just admitted that the "evangelistic...theme statement" of John's Gospel comes only after the substitutionary death, burial, resurrection, and manifestation of the risen Christ have been shared. In other words, John's famous "evangelistic...theme statement" comes only after the apostle John has shared the biblical gospel.

¹⁶ NOTE: The word "saved" in 1 Corinthians 15:2 can refer to both first and second tense salvation, i.e. justification and sanctification. See Rokser, Let's Preach the Gospel (Duluth: Duluth Bible Church, no date), p. 23; cf. S. Lewis Johnson, The Wycliffe Bible Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1962), p. 1255.