The following statements about Lordship Salvation are from a sermon preached by Dr. McGee titled “What Can Believers Do in Days of Apostasy?” While guest preaching at Pastor David Jeremiah’s church in southern California in the mid 1980s, Dr. McGee stated:
“But the new thing that’s happened today is, liberalism is just about dead. But in our conservative groups, heresies are coming in. At least, I’ve labeled them heresies. Some think I ought not to, but many of these men have been friends of mine in the past. Let me just mention them, and I’m not gonna belabor this point either, because all I want to be sure of [is] that we’re in days of apostasy – that in conservative churches today a new gospel is being preached, and that’s the Lordship gospel, the Lordship Salvation – that you are not saved until you make Jesus Lord. And I said to a friend of mine that teaches that, and he’s in a seminary, and I said to him, ‘What do you do with the thief on the cross? Did he make Jesus Lord?’ Why, all he did, or asked, was, ‘Remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ That’s all he did; he just had faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I can imagine that old tough Philippian jailer that came in that night, and he was ready to kill himself because Rome would’ve done it for him. And Paul says, ‘Don’t do yourself harm. We’re all here.’ And then this man said, ‘What shall I do to be saved?’ And if anybody needed to make Jesus Lord, it was that old rough Philippian jailer! But he didn’t mention that. He said, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.’ . . . and you can always recognize that they add something to what Jesus did for us on the cross. Jesus paid it all. He doesn’t want my two bits. He doesn’t want anything I do. And He doesn’t want my commitment because He’s found out that I lied about that two or three times. And don’t you look at me that way because you’ve done the same thing. May I say to you, thank God tonight for a Savior who did it all! And I can know I’m saved, because I trust Him. I trust Him. And that’s what He told me to do.”[1]
Reference:
[1] J. Vernon McGee, “What Can Believers Do in Days of Apostasy?” (time stamp: 14:30 - 16:20 and 19:41 - 20:28).
6 comments:
I agree. What LS proponents consistently fail to do is define how much sin disqualifies one as a believer, or how many "good works" there needs to be to qualify. the vast majority of LS teachers fail to even meet their own vauge standards of "having eternal life"!
Yes, I've noticed that too (in regards to your point about how LS proponents consistently fail to define how much sin disqualifies one as a believer).
It also seems like LS proponents either don't want to discuss the doctrine of the carnal Christian (like Wayne Grudem in his book against Free Grace Theology where he avoids discussing the topic of the carnal Christian) or they deny the doctrine completely (like John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, and other Reformed theologians). But in 1 Corinthians 3, the apostle Paul is clear that the Corinthian Christians were "yet carnal" (1 Cor. 3:3). Paul does not question their salvation (i.e. justification); he addresses them as "brethren" (1 Cor. 3:1). Instead, Paul warns that they will "suffer loss" (1 Cor. 3:15) of reward at the judgment seat of Christ, "but they will be saved, yet so as through fire." While it's true that every Christian will bear spiritual fruit somewhere, sometime, somehow and thus "each person will have praise from God" (1 Cor. 4:5) at the judgment seat of Christ, it's also true that some Christians will have almost nothing to show in terms of good works (i.e. very little spiritual fruit) because they lived in carnality for extended periods of time and God had to chasten some of these carnal Christians with physical death such as the apostle Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 11:29-32 (where "sleep" in 1 Cor. 11:30 is a metaphor for physical death, cf. 1 Cor. 15:6, 15:20).
Exactly. The only ways they can claim to know how much disqualifies one is to say"if you sin at all, you're not born again!", or "a born again person will always 'repent'(turn from his sins) when he sins". but the problem with the 1st is there's verses that say if we claim to have no sin, we decieve ourselves (1 John 1:8). and besides, can they truely, honestly say they heven't sinned since they've been "born again"?
the problem with the second interpretation is as you said, Paul didn't question the Corinthian believer's salvation, even though they were carnal and didn't turn from their sins until Paul rebuked them. If repentace was automatic, Paul would have told them they aren't saved, but he never said that.
Good points! I think realizing that we as Christians have two natures really helps to interpret the book of 1 John. As the apostle Paul says in the book of Romans when he talks about the two natures, he says, "it is no longer I who do it, but the sin which dwells in me" (Rom. 7:17). Reformed people like to say that in 1 John, the apostle John is talking about tests of eternal life, or how we can know if we have eternal life or not. But that interpretation I think fails to factor in the fact that Christians have two natures, we still have the sin nature which indwells us, as the apostle Paul says in the book of Romans. So just because we do evil doesn't mean we don't have eternal life, it just means that we still have the old sin nature residing in us, and when we sin we are out of fellowship with God. 1 John is about tests of fellowship, not tests of eternal life.
I think it's unfortunate that you have proponents like Ray Comfort preaching Lordship Salvation. It feels like they get so close to the truth but miss the mark.
Yes I agree. I remember a friend of mine used to watch their "Way of the Master" program on TV, and my friend commented that it's too bad they are wrong on the gospel because they seem like such nice guys and their program can be interesting to watch.
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