Free Grace Alliance Sponsors Panel Discussion on the “Crossless” Gospel

Greetings:

This week (Oct. 15-17) the Free Grace Alliance is conducting their national meeting. Among the various workshops is a special panel discussion to be held this evening. The discussion is being billed as an Academic Forum. Following is the question for discussion “Is explicit belief in Jesus’ death and resurrection necessary for salvation?”

For the Grace Evangelical Society’s “Crossless” gospel Jeremy Myers and Tim Nichols will take the platform. Tom Stegall and Ken Wilson will represent the Free Grace community position.

I might have suggested the Forum question be postulated this way, “In this dispensation, Is explicit belief in Jesus’ death and resurrection necessary for salvation?”

One element that, in my opinion, should be included is the GES view that the Lord’s titles, “the Christ” and “Son of God” do mean or infer his Deity.

In the Open Question to Bob Wilkin thread Jeremy Myers stated that neither the titles “the Christ” nor “the Son of God” involve Deity. In fact, he typed Christ’s title “son of God” (lowercase). If the title “the Son of God” does not refer to Christ’s unique relationship with the Father in which He is equal in Deity, what is the meaning of the term, “the Son of God?”

The “Crossless” advocates go way beyond claiming a lost man does not need to believe in the death and resurrection of Christ for salvation. They teach and allow for a lost man to have any kind of “misconception” about, and/or including a conscious rejection of the Lord’s Deity, death and resurrection and still claim he can be born again.

The corruption of the Gospel by Zane Hodges, Bob Wilkin and the GES has done serious damage to the cause of Christ. Many of us are thankful that over the last few months the egregious errors, of Hodges, Wilkin including their abuse of the Lord’s titles, have come to light. It appears they will no longer have open and free reign to spread this crossless/deityless teaching, which is antithetical to Scripture.

There several of us who are praying that the errors of “Crossless” gospel and its inherent dangers be made clear tonight. We are praying that men in leadership within the FGA will not simply recognize the dangers of the “Crossless” gospel, but take a proactive stance against it so that others in the FG community are not swept into its errors.

We are praying specifically for Jeremy Myers. It is our hope and prayer that he can be recovered to an orthodox position. At his blog Jeremy posted an article titled, Who Is The Christ? Jeremy stated,

“By way of full disclosure, I do not yet know where this study will lead… Many people today teach that the terms “Christ” and “Son of God” refer to the divinity of Jesus…However, if in my study, I find that this traditional view best fits Scripture, I will believe and teach it to the best of my ability.”

We are hopeful he is sincere in his claim to be open to what the Scriptures teach.

Twice I have written Jeremy to tell him that I am praying for his recovery to a balanced position on the Gospel and Deity of Christ. I am praying for Jeremy to be sensitive to the ministry of the Holy Spirit, that his heart and conscience will be pricked as he (Myers) hears the Scriptures opened to him this evening.

Pray that the truth of the Gospel be proclaimed and defended this evening. Pray that the Spirit of God reveal truth from the Word of God for the recovery of those who have been lead into error. Pray for others who are teetering on the fence and may be about to fall into the errors of the “Crossless” gospel.

Later this evening I hope to have a report from the FGA conference on the discussion.

In Defense of the Gospel,


LM

Please see the following articles for reaction to the Panel Discussion.

Dennis Rokser on the FGA Panel Discussion

Tom Stegall on the FGA Panel Discussion