Pastor John,
I just left a construction site and in hindsight, I think this is one of the saddest things that I have ever experienced.
The superintendent and I became engaged in a conversation about our walk in Christ. In summary, this is the doctrine he is defending: He is a sinner, that has to sin, but he is saved and raptured right now.
No one has to, or even can live right and to commit multiple and willful acts of murder (His words), will never change the fact that he is going to heaven. The very act of trying to live right is to deny the free grace that God has given to men. God cannot see sin anymore.
It is sin to have hope in Christ and a hope of salvation. “Hope” is sin, it denies the fact that he is saved already.
I think this next one is possibly the saddest of all.
To have an experience with God is to be in communication with Satan, because there is no such thing as an experience with God. An “experience” would undermine the whole point of God’s grace.
He told me, regrettably and sincerely, that my experiences with Jesus are actually experiences with Satan himself, and that my new birth experience, and the tongues that came with it, are the Devil’s.
Pastor John, this man is so effectively insulated by this filthy doctrine, that he cannot consider my testimony, that I shared with him. He is insulated from God’s voice, even if he hears it!
Is this Satan’s crowning achievement?
Christianity has taught this man that “God is actually Satan”. Then that begs the question, “Who is Satan in that religion?”
I have never met a person so thoroughly boxed in on all sides. I’ve heard about it, and read about it. There was not a crack in which I could attempt to help him. There was no point at which we could even begin to reason together. All I did was make him angry when I spoke. So I stopped.
The evil that beguiles him is bigger than me. I cannot do anything against it. And I cannot help him. I don’t know how.
May Jesus rescue him, just the way he rescued all of us.
Jerry
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Hi Jerry.
No, that man’s doctrine, clever as it is, protects him against anything we may do to try to save him, but it is far from “Satan’s crowning achievement”. Satan knows better than what that foolish man believes. His greatest achievements will be accomplished among those who have many experiences with God (and become proud of it), not among those who deny them.
That poor guy’s doctrine is just silly, schoolyard logic. And he will lose his soul because of it.
Pastor John
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Hi John,
I presume when you say “schoolyard logic” that you mean it’s ridiculous and “illogical”…like children trying to rationalize a wrong idea by using their own version of “logic”. Right?
That must have been a very tense situation for Jerry.
It reminds me of how people can become so insane with their schoolyard logic. I spoke with a woman once about my new birth experience and she was so insulted by my implication that she was not born-again, that she tried to tell me she WAS born again—because she had given birth to a baby and that meant she had a born-again experience! She got so furious when I explained about the Spirit and the necessity of speaking in tongues she stormed out of the room, screaming, “Don’t tell me I haven’t had a born-again experience. I’m a mother of two children!!!” The light exposes the darkness and there is no reasoning with some people.
Another previous work associate of mine who does have the holy ghost, defends her “saved now” doctrine because she couldn’t imagine waking up each day not knowing she was safe in God, because her father was so abusive to her in her childhood that she needs to feel saved now or she just couldn’t function. Thus, she would not accept my testimony that our salvation is a future hope— that only the faithful will receive. She wants to feel “saved”, here and now, so that’s just what she is going to believe, so she can sleep at night.
Brad
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Yes, something like that. Those two strange examples are about as logical as early Christians, Gentiles, claiming Peter, a Jew, as their first Pope. Paul was the apostle for the Gentiles. Peter’s gospel was never intended for them. Go figure.
Seems easier to me just to believe the truth and love it. Let’s just do that.
Pastor John