Sound Theology?

Sound Theology?

The following is from Spurgeon's sermon,"Plain Words with the Careless" No. 778. Luke 8:28.

A man may know a great deal about true religion,
and yet be a total stranger to it.

He may know that Jesus Christ is the Son of
God, and yet he may be possessed by a devil;
no, he may be a den for a whole legion of devils.

Mere knowledge does nothing for us but puff us up.
We may know, and know, and know, and so
increase our responsibility, without bringing
us at all into a state of salvation.

Beware of resting in head-knowledge!

Beware of relying upon mere orthodoxy, for without
love to Jesus, with all your correctness of doctrine,
you will be a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.

It is well to be sound in the faith, but the
soundness must be in the heart as well
as in the head.

There is as ready a way to destruction by the road of orthodoxy as by the paths of heterodoxy.

Hell has thousands in it who were never heretics.

Remember that the devils "believe and tremble."

There are no sounder theological believers than
devils, and yet their conduct is not affected by
what they believe, and consequently they still
remain at enmity to the Most High God.

A mere head-believer is on a par therefore with
fallen angels, and he will have his portion with
them forever unless grace shall change his heart.

Blogger Time Out

I was originally going to take some time off from blogging during July and August in order to read and enjoy some books and to get some things done around the house - and also to just enjoy the Summer. Well, a new twist has been added to my non-blogger summertime experience. You see my wife works in the Human Resources department where I work. As it turns out yesterday, while at work, she overheard a conference call between two of her supperiors, and SHE was one of the topics of their conversation. Yes they were tossing around the idea of laying her off this coming Tuesday when this latest round of layoffs draws to a close. Having been there twice myself I was able to know the feelings she was experiencing - feelings of not being wanted anymore. She has received rave reviews from bosses and fellow employees over the years, but business is so very bad right now that many heads, including hers, must roll. Please pray for my dear wife.

P.S. I will be shutting down this blog for those two months in just a couple of days. The comments will be shut off. I will read emails a couple times a week. My blogger partners on this blog can call me anytime they wish. I'd be HAPPY to hear from you. Let's not lose contact, k?

Back to Normalcy?

Well, I've got to go into work one hour early today. The reason is we have a grief counsellor coming in today to show us how to be around our boss as he comes back to work after burying his eighteen year old daughter. He's planning on coming back either tomorrow or Thursday. All I could do at the funeral parlor this past Sunday was give him a bear-hug. He wasn't expecting that from me, but it came from my heart. Now we all must be instruments in his life to get him back to "normalcy". I just can't imagine...

Over In An Instant

I just got some sad but expected news this morning: My boss's daughter died from her injuries sustained in a terrible car accident this past Saturday night. She was just 18 years old - the same as my son. In fact they both graduated highschool at the same time almost exactly one year ago. She was a freshman in college this year. I saw pictures of the car yesterday. There was almost nothing left of it. I can't imagine what my boss and his family are going through...

Challenge for Gary McNees

Gary,
I came to the Doctrines of Grace wholly independent of the writings of Calvin or Agustine, or anybody else for that matter. It started with Romans 8-9, just the plain reading of those chapters. From what I see you are pretty weak in the scriptures. I challenge you to go without appealing to extra-biblical writings to defend your position. I challenge you to go without quoting the works of other men to defend your anti-Calvinist position. I'll do the same in defense of the Doctrines of Grace. Are you up for it? Do you have the courage? It will be just you and me. man to man.

Okay, Alvin and Gary McNees

The following was a post from my blog way back when...

Tuesday, April 11, 2006Spurgeon on Assurance "The Holy Spirit, who enabled me to believe, gave me peace through believing. I felt as sure that I was forgiven as before I felt sure of condemnation. I had been certain of my condemnation because the Word of God declared it, and my conscience bore witness to it, but when the Lord justified me, I was equally certain by the same witness. The Word of the Lord in scripture saith, "He that believeth on Him is not condemned," and my conscience bore witness that I believed, and that God in pardoning me was just. Thus I had the witness of the Holy Spirit and also my own conscience, and these two agreed in one."

Taken From C.H.Spurgeon Autobiography: Vol.1 "The Early Years" page 92

In this same paragraph Spurgeon goes on to put down the teachings of a certain Dr. Johnson who held to the idea that no man could have assurance of faith. Spurgeon said that such a man was no reliable judge of theology. He added that Dr. Johnson should have studied his Bible a little more, and have a little more enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, then he too would have come to know his own pardon. I whole heartedly agree!


alvin said...
Hi Mark I also want God's blessings for you, and what I mean by that is that you would come to the knowledge of the truth. Just that short quote you gave by Spurgeon shows that he was deceived in thinking that someone could be saved without knowing they were. If Spurgeon was saved it was in spite of Calvinism. I have read he did not preach consistent Calvinism but was still married to it. God is not obligated to ones who believe biblical language even if they are sincere. As I brought up Max Locado who is dearly loved by many people but has bought into a lie. It's only when we believe biblical truth that God is obligated to keep His promise. Calvinism is a man-made system which makes God out to make "Horrible Decrees" which is neither consistent with His love for all people and His provision for all people in giving a sincere call for anyone who desires to take of the water of life freely and live! Mark you do not believe that God would really give a gift of eternal life without getting back some kind of return in this life. That is what Calvinism is all about "works" that MUST happen if one is truly saved. The Scriptures show clearly that ones were taken home early who were making a mockery out of discipleship either by getting drunk and the Lord's table or lying to the Holy Spirit. I lived pretty much for myself from age 12 to age 38 and you would have had a hard time by my works proving I was saved. Of course God let me do it my way if that's what I wanted to do by learning the hard way that His way was best. I work with a Mormon who would make most Christians look bad. He treats everyone kindly and is just a great guy but rejects a free gift and is working his way to heaven. Anyone looking at his life would think for sure he is saved by his fruit . . . .he looks just like a Calvinist little lamb. I don't see any difference they are both deceived in thinking they can't just take the water of life freely but theirs MORE to it and it's called WORKS. Mark if you believed what we are saying here you would not be fighting against it would you? So your not fooling anyone but yourself. The sufficient proposition we are putting forth here is that anyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And the word believe means just that, to believe Jesus is stating the truth in a verse like John 3:16. No word games or pouring the water down ones throat. alvin
June 10, 2009 2:24 PM

Gary said...
Hi Alvin:I started to respond to Mark twice and twice I decided that I didn't have the right thing to say.You are perceptive. Lets see what if any response we get from Mark.If he is ANY kind of Calvinist he will reject what you said.Gary McNees
June 10, 2009 3:41 PM

Novelty?

The following is from that latter comments on"Free Grace Theology Blog". They are from a man who claims to know Calvinism backwards and forward, a man who claims that Calvinists follow the man Calvin instead of the Bible. Let's see if you can pick up on the irony here -

"This is very easy to say. Just think about the fact that nearly EVERY, pastor, teacher, commentary, systematic theology, confession, of EVERY Christian denomination teaches doctrine which would make it impossible for anyone to ACCEPT what we teach! Just think that there are hundreds of verses in the Bible which SEEM to contradict Free Grace Theology, and ALL of them are "explained" in such a manner by almost all that they rule out the Free Grace interpretation. Further, even the very few denominations, (Once Saved Always Saved Baptist churches are one exception), still in the large part teach a "muddled gospel." Even most of them teach that if one apostatizes completely, and denies Christ, he was not saved, although this is contradicted by their Once Saved Always Saved doctrine. Refined Free Grace theology is a very rare teaching. I fully believe that Free Grace Theology is the only true soteriology, but I do not think that the very good exegesis of verses which SEEM to deny Free Grace Theology are easily come by. I believe that Zane and Bob and others at Grace Evangelical Society have been a real gift to the church, a gift which by the way, is either not known or rejected by most of Christendom. "

"This is what I mean. The same is true of John 11:25-27. The truth that Zane pointed out is obvious AFTER it is explained. The same is true of I John 5:1. I think that millions upon millions have read John 3:16, and I John 5:1 and considered that they believed them. I know I did. I didn't see the obvious in these passages even after I was saved for a long time. It has not been until recently, (in the last few years: that the obvious has become obvious.) Grace Evangelical Society's major goal has been to teach the obvious - that eternal life is given by faith alone in Christ alone. There have been numerous JOTGES papers directed to this point. Hundreds of pages have been spent exegeting verses which SEEM to deny our Free Grace understanding. It seems very likely that a person who is sincerely seeking light on this subject could have a very difficult time reaching the truth when every commentary, systematic theology, Bible teacher, and preacher is teaching that it is not true. After all, there are lengthy passages which SEEM to contradict our understanding of all these verses. Sure, they can be explained, by good exegetes, like Zane, Bob, and others from Grace Evangelical Society but the reasoning is certainly not trivial nor it is obvious."

"I guess I should rephrase my position. I believe that millions of professing Christians THINK that they believe John 3:16 who don't. And they will never come to that realization until we confront them show them that they really do not believe it. BUT it is not John 3:16 in isolation which will ever change their minds. They are too deeply embedded in error. To be convinced of the truth they need to have teaching about the "one drink," never thirst. Eats bread never hunger, etc. There are Greek "experts" which teach that the present tense of "believe" pisteuo, means "continue to believe," which supports Arminianism and Calvinism. A very recent book, "Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics" by Daniel B. Wallace, professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, teaches this error. And of course, almost ALL other Greek grammars also teach this error, Since both Arminianism and Calvinism and almost every other denomination teach this. In one of Zane's talks, (papers) he cites an older Greek authority who shows that this is wrong."

A Classic Colin Quote

BTW: Don't let the doctrine of reprobation frighten you. It simply means that those who show that they never wanted to be saved and who loved darkness rather than light and their sins rather than God were passed by and given their heart's desire. It really is as simple as that.