Exposing the False Gospel

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)

I believe it is that light that enables us all to have equal opportunity to exercise free will in either heeding that small still voice of the Holy Spirit or ignoring it and/or denying it. … Unconditional choosing is so totally unscriptural it is mind-boggling. It is an absolute ignoring of all the scriptures that point out we have a say in the decision of our eternity. … Irresistible grace is also totally non scriptural. …There is the free will to choose God or not to choose God and it is evident from Genesis to Revelation.

The Catholic Church announced the concept of prevenient grace during the Council of Trent. The Bible states that all men are spiritually dead and will not, because they cannot, seek God. “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” Romans 3:10-11. But under the prevenient grace gambit, all men are given an initiating grace by God, called prevenient grace, which frees a person to either accept or reject the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Catechism of the Catholic Church § 154 states that faith is helped by God, but it requires the free will decision of man. “Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. But it is no less true that believing is an authentically human act.” Under the prevenient grace rubric, man is not spiritually dead; he is only spiritually sick and can, by his own free will, decide to either believe in Jesus Christ or reject him. The Catholic Church’s Council of Trent explains the prevenient grace concept:

The Synod furthermore declares, that in adults, the beginning of the said Justification is to be derived from the prevenient grace of God. … may be disposed through His quickening and assisting grace, to convert themselves to their own justification, by freely assenting to and co-operating with that said grace: … in such sort that, while God touches the heart of man by the illumination of the Holy Ghost, neither is man himself utterly without doing anything while he receives that inspiration, forasmuch as he is also able to reject it.

Before salvation, we are dead in trespasses and sin, such that Jesus must supply the faith for our salvation.  That’s right, he is not only the object of our faith, but he is also the source of our faith.  Everything for our salvation is supplied by and through Christ.  Our faith in Christ is the faith of Christ.  See e.g., Romans 3:22; Galatians 3:22; Revelation 14:12.

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. (Galatians 2:16 AV)

When John 1:12 is read in context, we see that the very next passage (verse 13) explains the source of that saving faith through which one is born again.  “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:  Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12-13 AV)  John 1:13 makes it crystal clear that we are saved by the will of God alone, and not by our own will.  

The Bible is in direct contradiction to Les Feldick’s free-will doctrine.  If God chooses some for salvation, that means that those not chosen for salvation are, in turn, chosen for damnation.  “Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?”  John 6:70.

The helplessness of man, of his own unregenerate will to believe in Jesus without first being born again by the sovereign election of God, is revealed by Jesus in John 10. Jesus states: “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” John 10:11.  The Jews later approached Jesus at Jerusalem and asked him if he is the Christ, to which Jesus states:

I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.  John 10:25-30.

Jesus states that his sheep are elected by him through faith.  Notice that Jesus did not say they are not his sheep because they don’t believe; he instead states that they don’t believe because they are not his sheep.  Such passages, found throughout the bible, impeach the Arminian theology.  Jesus is the good shepherd who gives his life for his sheep.  Those who do not believe that he is the Christ are not his sheep.  Jesus did not lay his life down for those who do not believe in him.  In John 15:19, Jesus makes the point that he chose those who would believe in him “out of the world.” Jesus’ sheep do not choose him; Jesus chooses his sheep. John 14:13.  The great love Jesus had of laying down his life for his friends is limited to only those who are his sheep, his chosen.