Study – Grow – Know

I am Amazed at the Division Eschatology Creates!

July 14, 2009 at 9:18 AM 2 comments

What is tragically amazing is how people not only adopt a particular Eschatological view, but they then often turn around and condemn others who do not agree with their viewpoints!  Over the course of the past few weeks, I’ve had some interesting conversations with a posttribulationist.  This individual has of course, every right to his opinion.  The difficulty though is that he spends a great deal of time condemning and castigating those who are of the belief that a Rapture will occur prior to the Tribulation period.  He calls this teaching a false teaching and those who believe it, “damnable.”

The overriding problem here is not the difference of opinion, but on the emphasis that people who believe that the Bible teaches a Pretribulation Rapture may in fact wind up going to hell because of it!  This same individual derides the doctrine of election and eternal security for the believer.  Though in his belief statement (from his webpage), he tries to emphasize that salvation is NOT earned, his verbiage overrules that.

I also always find it interesting when people like this feel they are being attacked (usually because someone has the temerity to question their beliefs), they normally respond in full attack mode themselves!  Gone is any sense or semblance of love, or patience, replaced with unmitigated anger, sarcasm and frustration.

Folks like this tend to use declarative statements like “Pretribulation Rapture is a false doctrine created by false teachers who would usurp the authority of the Bible,” or “the false teachers who believe and teach the unconditional eternal security of the believer should be damned to hell because of it.”  Of course, they fully believe that what THEY are teaching is THE truth and will even refer to themselves as “prophets” because of it.  They cannot handle the idea of anyone even deigning to disagree with them.  There is no room for that in their vocabulary or set of beliefs.  They are right and that’s all there is to it.  Everyone who is not in agreement with them is in danger of hell.

Salvation is THE issue that needs to be kept straight, allowing nothing to circumvent God’s goals through it.  Not only that, but salvation must be kept pure, with people fully understanding that it is a work of God in its entirety.  While the so-called “prophets” referred to above state this, the truth remains that they firmly believe that people can (and DO), lose their salvation.

I do not see this taught in Scripture.  I see people who we might often refer to as “professing” Christians, walk away from the Church.  As such, while it appears that they have been actual Christians, it would appear from the fact that they walked away, that they were not.  I do not see a contradiction here with this teaching and the Bible.

It seems reasonable enough to conclude that since God initiates salvation and the writer of Hebrews refers to Christ as the Author and Finisher of our faith, that the oneness is on God to complete that which He began.  The individual, while cooperating with Christ, nonetheless is not responsible for the possibility of losing salvation, because that does not square with what is taught in Scripture.

Paul’s letters to the various churches, while seeming to at least question this notion, actually do not.  When Paul writes a letter to any church, he obviously cannot be sure that everyone in that local body is an actual Christian.  Obviously, he would have considered that there were in fact people who merely professed to be Christians, but in actuality were not Christians.  He did not know the hearts of all people, and it was not his job to know.  He went by what he saw and when he saw something that was amiss, he did his best to correct it.  This is why there are times when it appears as if he is stating that people can lose their salvation.  In reality however, those who are professing Christians never had salvation to lose.  He is warning these people to make their calling sure.  He is urging them onto completion in Christ.

There is a good deal of rancor, name-calling, vitriol and ad hominem arguments today within the visible Church.  Much of it is over Eschatology and some of it is over other areas such as eternal security.  The one thing that separates true Christians from non-Christians is their salvation in Christ.  Nothing else is as important as this.  Eschatology is one of those areas in which people have room to disagree.  Salvation is not based on a person’s view of Eschatology.  It is based on a spiritual transaction which takes place when an individual surrenders their life to Christ, and the Holy Spirit seals them with His seal, guaranteeing that seal as a deposit of the actual salvation that they will fully experience after death.

God is not an “Indian-giver” in that He can or will take what He has given.  There is NO way a person can live a life on their own effort that will allow them to gain salvation in the next.  This was proven by the need for Christ’s death on Calvary’s cross.  If man could live it, Christ would not have needed to die.

Those who teach in any form that salvation is really not attainable without  consistently living it every step of the way in this life, really make a mockery of Christ’s atonement.  They also seem to place a great deal of emphasis on the work or effort by the individual, as opposed to the salvific work completed by Christ.

My sin- past, present and future – has been dealt with on Calvary’s cross.  While I certainly need to confess future sin as they occur, I do not need to ask forgiveness, but I had better have a very thankful and humble attitude with respect to what He has done for me.  Salvation is entirely a work of God.  Because people accuse some of living licentiously does not mean that God’s work of salvation becomes null and void.  It means that the individual Christian has gone overboard, and misunderstood God’s work.

The Christian is saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.  There is NO work that anyone can do that adds to or completes the process of salvation.  Those who teach that are in essence guilty of adding to God’s work.  The fact that they say salvation is a complete work of God, BUT…are no different than the Judaizers that Paul dealt with in Galatians.

Stay far away from these people!

Entry filed under: Religious - Christian - Prophecy. Tags: allegory, as it was in the days of noah, christianity, covenant, dispensationalism, earning salvation, end times, eschatology, great tribulation, israel, jew, jewish, literal hermeneutic, literal method of interpretation, man of lawlessness, postribulationism, posttribulation, pretribulation, pretribulationism, salvation, second coming, tribulation, works.