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Vol. 12 No. 3 March 2010 |
Page 4 |
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Vol. 12 No. 3 March 2010 |
Page 4 |
Satan has a number of weapons to wage spiritual warfare against humanity. One is false teaching. False teaching results in false ideas, false beliefs, false convictions and false practices. Satan has no interest in God being either fairly or accurately represented. He is the master of distortion and misrepresentation. The objective Satan has in view is to drive a wedge between men and God, thus breaking man’s fellowship with God. The ultimate aim is the destruction of every man, woman and young person.
Jesus praised the Ephesian church in Revelation 2 for properly identifying false apostles. John warned about the seductive work of the anti-christs who had withdrawn themselves from God’s faithful children. John urged his brethren further to test the spirits in view of the fact many false prophets had gone out into the world. God has never been the authority behind the deceitful working of the false apostles, false prophets and anti-christs. While many today apparently think false teachers are as rare as an animal on the listing of endangered species, their actual numbers are legion.
John Calvin’s third major tenet is known as the “Limited Atonement” doctrine. The idea put forward by John Calvin is the atonement made available by the suffering and death of Jesus Christ is limited exclusively to those Mr. Calvin identified as “the elect.” According to the doctrine, Jesus did not come to die for the “non-elect.” As a result, the benefits of Jesus’ shed blood cannot even possibly be applied to a certain segment of the world’s population. Does Calvin’s doctrine accurately represent the will, the plan and the working of God?
The following Bible passages show the breadth of outreach God made in sending His Son into the world: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6); “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29); “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:16-17); “…these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2).
According to Isaiah, God laid on Jesus the iniquity of how many? In John 1:29, Jesus came to take away the sin of how many? According to Jesus in John 3:16 and 17, the Father sent Jesus to save how many? In 1 John 2:2, John wrote that Jesus’ blood is the propitiation for the sins of how many?
John Calvin’s doctrine brings indictment against God, and has turned countless souls away from the God, who truly cares about them and desires their salvation. How sad that most denominations today are founded upon and continue to promote such flawed theology.
Satan advocates that men have no choice in their destiny—that we are merely as puppets on a string. Yet in contrast, Jesus challenged His would-be disciples to “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be with go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it (Matthew 7:13-14). Joshua, too, centuries before, challenged people to choose the true God and follow him. Choose you this day whom ye will serve (Joshua 24:15).
[Though the vicarious death of Jesus Christ and the benefits thereof, namely salvation, are not limited in potential application, the sacrifice of our Lord and the salvation attached thereto are conditional upon obedience (Hebrews 5:8-9). Obedience is not perfection, but obedience is attempting to do the will of God (Matthew 7:21; Romans 2:13; 1 John 3:7). Then, human, imperfect obedience is augmented with God’s grace (Ephesians 2:8) and mercy (Titus 3:5). That obedience can manifest itself in complying with the stated plan of salvation in the New Testament, Christian worship as stipulated in the New Testament, Christian living according to New Testament instructions and Christian service. In addition, most Christian doctrine is fairly easy to understand if it is not overshadowed with denominational doctrines, contemporary political correctness and human preferences. ~ Louis Rushmore, Editor]