A Letter of Concern Written to a Young Christian Friend

My dear young friend and brother,
I still remember the day that I spoke to you regarding my great concern I had when I learned that you were going to enroll at David Lipscomb University to obtain a graduate degree in Bible. As an older friend who loved you and wanted the best for you, I encouraged you not to attend DLU because of some of the faculty members who were teaching doctrines that were foreign to New Testament Christianity (See the article, To Whom Will You Trust The Minds Of Your College Age Young People?). You said that you would be just fine and that you would be on watch for such teachings. I left with sadness in my heart knowing how young people can be easily led astray by older, knowledgeable instructors. I do appreciate your frankness in your reply to me regarding your understanding of the scriptures concerning the “journey” of conversion and salvation. This is a portion of what you wrote to me:

“You mentioned that you were sad. I don’t understand what you are saying, but I assume it has something to do with me thinking differently about (the) church. Truth is, I have found great freedom in Christ and want all to know the joy and deep implaications (sic) of living in Christ. Jesus refuses to let me stay where I am—in my life and my beliefs concerning Him. There is no theology exhaustive enough that gives me a right to judge and exclude anyone who confesses Jesus as Lord. I accept any and all who God accepts. And, the beautiful thing about it all, is that He accepts me and you where we are along the journey. When I learn something new, I do not think that I have not been pleasing up to that time, and believe this is true of all believers. The kingdom of God is larger than our fellowship and the Spirit of God certainly is bearing fruit in the lives of many who are not a part of our heritage. We are all on the journey—together. This I believe to be the truth our fellowship must finally accept.”

I have always taught that conversion is a process and that sanctification is certainly a process and/or a life long journey as you would state it. After one is “born of water and the Spirit”, he is to “desire the pure milk of the word” in order to grow spiritually (I Peter 2:2, NKJV). The apostle Peter also exhorts us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18 ). Peter instructs Christians to grow in the characteristics becoming to a person who is conforming to the image of the Son of God. He concludes these thoughts by saying, “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (II Peter 1:5-11). When Jesus said, “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” one can readily understand that the Christian life is one life-long journey that will finally conclude only when this life is over (Matthew 5:48 ). In the matter of conversion, the seed or word of God is planted in hearts of good and honest people and it produces faith (Luke 8:11 , 15; Romans 10:17 ). An active faith causes an individual to repent of sins and confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (Acts 2:38 ; 8: 37 ). The penitent sinner is then baptized into Jesus Christ for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38; Mark l6:16). As you can readily see, conversion is indeed a process. And, it must be noted that the apostles and other men who were inspired of the Holy Spirit instructed men and women where they were on their spiritual journey and led them to the desired end in order for them to receive forgiveness of their sins. If a person did not know or believe in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit led men taught him/her of the Savior in order to produce faith in his/her heart (See Acts l6:30, 31; Romans 10:17) If people were believers in Jesus as being the Christ, then the Holy Spirit inspired person (Peter in this case) instructed them what they lacked in the process of conversion and that was to “repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (See Acts 2:36-38). Saul of Tarsus was certainly a believer after the Lord appeared to Him on the road to Damascus . He also manifested repentance in that he did not eat or drink for three days and was in constant prayer during this time. Ananias, a disciple of the Lord informed Saul what he lacked in order to be accepted by the Lord when he told him to “Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22:16 ). It was at this juncture that a change was made in Saul’s spiritual journey. He was no longer a “stranger” but now a “pilgrim” in the kingdom of God (Ephesians 2:12 ; I Peter 2:11 ). The baptized believers were “conveyed…into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Colossians 1:13 ). Now, did the Lord add the saved or unsaved to the church on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:41 , 47)? If saved, when were they saved in the process of conversion/salvation? Was it not when they acted upon their faith and obeyed the commands of the Holy Spirit as spoken by the apostle Peter (Acts 2:38 )? If the Jews on Pentecost had refused to repent and be baptized, what “exhaustive theology” would you use to prove that these individuals, on their spiritual journey, were not accepted by the Lord? If you esteemed them unacceptable to God by their refusal to repent and be baptized, would you not at that point become judgmental? Or, if you considered the ‘believing Jews’ on Pentecost as being saved without obeying the commands of the Holy Spirit to “Repent and let everyone of you be baptized”, would you not be judging them acceptable to God? Either way, there is the matter of including or excluding individuals on their spiritual journey/process of conversion/salvation, predicated not on human judgment but rather upon what the Holy Spirit has revealed to us through His Word. That is, unless we base our judgment simply upon such subjective feelings as, “I feel that certain individuals are acceptable to God because of their loving attitudes and good works.” It is then that we are no longer led by the Holy Spirit in this matter of salvation and who is acceptable to God. Do we not become judges when we declare that a person is saved and acceptable to God, when, in fact, that individual has not complied with the teachings of the Holy Spirit on how to be saved? Jesus is the Judge and all of us will either be saved or lost eternally according to the manner in which we have treated His Word (Acts 17:30 , 31; John 12:48 ).

You mentioned that the “Spirit of God certainly is bearing fruit in the lives of many who are not a part of our heritage.” If this is indeed the case, did they receive the “Spirit of God”, before or after they became children of God? Please read carefully the words of John (who was guided by the Holy Spirit), “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” ( 1:11 , 12). Please observe that the ones who believed in “His name” were granted the “right” (authority) to “become children of God”. The apostle Paul (who wrote by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, II Timothy 3:16,17), makes it very clear as to when and how a believer in Jesus Christ becomes a child of God as recorded in Galatians 3:26,27, “For you are all sons (children) of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” I would understand from your writing that you believe that the Holy Spirit personally indwells all religious people who confess Jesus Christ as being the Son of God. However, Paul clearly states in Galatians 4:6 that the Holy Spirit is given to those who are children (sons) of God: “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Now, are all religious people who confess Jesus as Lord and who bear fruit in their lives children of God? When did they become children of God, simply by faith in Jesus Christ or when they were immersed into Christ for the remission of their sins? If simply by faith, then the Holy Spirit did not know it because He had Peter to require repentance and baptism in order for the Jews on Pentecost to be saved and to receive the “gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Consider the example of Cornelius as mentioned in Acts 10 & 11. He was a “devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always.” He was “a just man” and had “a good reputation among all the nation of the Jews” (10:1, 2, and 22). He certainly was bearing fruit as a good man. Cornelius was sincere and a truth seeker. He was progressing on his journey to salvation. But we understand that he was yet lacking something and that is why Peter came to teach him and all those gathered together of Christ and words by which they could be saved ( 10:34 -40; 11:22 ). The apostle Peter, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, “commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord” ( 10:48 ). Don’t you know that Cornelius and his household realized that it was at this ‘mile-marker’ on their spiritual journey that they had been saved from their sins? There are moralists among us who do many good deeds and possess wonderful attitudes toward family members and their neighbors. Are these people recipients of the gift of the Holy Spirit? By what ‘exhaustive theology’ would you say that the Holy Spirit does not indwell them? And at that point would you not become their judge? You see, we cannot be guided by subjective feelings as to who is acceptable or who is not acceptable to God. We must allow the Holy Spirit to determine the acceptability of a person in the sight of God. And, the only way that can be done is by the teaching of the Holy Scriptures through which the Holy Spirit leads us today in these matters.

You write that the “ kingdom of God is larger than our fellowship” and that the “Spirit of God certainly is bearing fruit in the lives of many who are not of our heritage.” When you say our “fellowship” and “heritage”, do you consider the church as being a denomination that was begun during the first part of the 19th century? When you say that the “kingdom of God is larger than our fellowship”, are you saying that the church of Christ is simply a part of the whole, that is, the church is just another denomination that comprises the “kingdom of God”, along with thousands of other denominations? May I kindly ask you, can a person be a member of the church of the Lord today as individuals were in the first century without being a member of a denomination? If one believes in Jesus Christ as being the Son of God and obeys the Holy Spirit’s commands to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for remission of sins, can he not be a member of the church of our Lord as did those Jews on Pentecost (Acts 2:36-38, 47)? On earth and during this dispensation of time, are the terms kingdom and church referring to the same entity? Did Jesus refer to this organism in Matthew 16:13-19 by the terms “my church” and “the kingdom of heaven”? If so, when did the kingdom-church begin? Was it not begun on the first Pentecost after the resurrection of Christ and as recorded in Acts 2? How many kingdom/churches did the Lord established? Are sincere religious people today members of this kingdom/church if they have not been obedient to the same commands given by the Holy Spirit to believers as recorded in Acts 2:36-38? If not, does the Holy Spirit indwell them? And if the Holy Spirit indwells those who have not complied with the directives given by the Spirit of God, by what objective truths as found in the Holy Scriptures can you prove that belief? The Holy Spirit speaks of “one body” in Ephesians 4:4. He also says through Paul that “the body” is “the church” in Colossians 1:18. Therefore, it must be understood that the body (church) is one and that it is not divided into hundreds of denominational organizations.

My fear is that many of our young people like yourself have been adversely affected by the teachings of brethren Rubel Shelley and John Q York in their book, THE JESUS PROPOSAL, when they speak of salvation as being a “process” in the sense that salvation from past sins cannot be found in any one “event” (Chapter 7, “Being God’s Child: Event or Process?). Brother Shelley even states when he gets to heaven “maybe I’ll want to ask God when I was really saved. Was it when I got clear on the Holy Spirit at about twenty-one or two? Was it when I finally grasped the grace-nature of the gospel in my thirties? I suspect he will tell me there was no “moment at which” I was saved—but that he sought and found me through the entire process” (page 130). It appears that one of the objectives of the authors is to lessen the importance of the essentiality of scriptural baptism for remission of sins. Yet, the apostle Paul declared in Romans 6:17, 18 that it was at the point when the Romans “obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine” that they were “set free from sin” and had become “slaves of righteousness.” That “form of doctrine” they obeyed was in the likeness of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The brethren had died to their sins in repentance and had been “buried with Him through baptism into death” and “was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father” into “newness of life”. Please note that Paul spoke of their spiritual condition prior to this time as being “dead” and, after this “event” as being a “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:1-4; Colossians 2:12, 13). The King James Version of the Bible in I Peter 3:21 makes it very clear of the importance of baptism in regards to when a person is saved from sin, “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us, (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” While it is accepted that all the requirements of the Lord to be saved is of equal importance, it must be recognized that it is in the “event” of immersion that the person’s relationship is changed from a lost condition to a saved relationship in Christ Jesus. The teaching of salvation being a “process” in the manner that is being advocated by various preachers and educators, that is, we cannot say that we are saved at one “event” is not new to the religious world. Please observe carefully the teaching on this subject as is found on the official website of the United Methodist Church :

Does baptism mean that I am saved?
No, salvation is a lifelong process during which we must continue to respond to God's grace. Baptism offers the promise that the Holy Spirit will always be working in our lives, but salvation requires our acceptance of that grace, trust in Christ, and ongoing growth in holiness as long as we live.

Please know that I have written to you with love and kindness in my heart and a great concern for your spiritual well being. May God grant us strength to enable us to grow spiritually and in our knowledge of the Word of God.

Your brother and friend in Jesus Christ,
Raymond Elliott

2 comments:

David A. Paher said...

Brother Elliott, this is a wonderful article dealing with the illusive ideology that God is somewhere out there, whom we will find along our journey to self-awareness. The teaching that you have exposed is dangerous because it neither represents biblical truth, nor helps anyone grow closer to God. Truth liberates (Jn. 8:32), but this teaching confuses and clouds biblical facts. Great job for lovingly presenting the truth and for thoroughly exposing these concepts, which are strange to God's word.

Jeff Custer said...

Not only do I find the content of your letter accurate, but I especially appreciate the attitude. Speaking the truth will always be important but if we don't do it in love we will do more harm than good. You obviously belive this and practice it in your writings.