Trivial & Fatal Misconceptions of “Crossless” Theology

At *Rose’s Reasonings a frequent visitor here named Glenn posted the following to Antonio da Rosa’s attention. The note from Glenn appears in the thread under A “Crossless” Call (1/22/2008 @ 10:10PM)

“As for why have I moved back towards the position of my youth, namely that one must believe that Christ died as their substitute in order to be saved? The reason has to do with the question of whether a Mormon can be saved by believing that Jesus provides eternal life in spite of their misconceptions. Here is your now famous quote: ‘At the moment that a JW or a Mormon is convinced that Jesus Christ has given to them unrevokable eternal life when they believed on Him for it, I would consider such a one saved, REGARDLESS of their varied misconcetions and beliefs about Jesus’.” Is Christ's Deity Essential By Antonio, at 6/13/2007 12:25 PM

Antonio, in part, replied to Glenn as follows,

“What misconceptions are fatal and what are trivial, Glenn, and who would be the arbiter of such considerations?”

On the morning of Jan. 23 I was halfway to my vacation destination, knowing I would have little or no Internet access. From the hotel lobby I hurriedly posted this (revised) reaction to Antonio’s comment above. (See 1/23/2008 @ 9:22 AM)

Antonio:

It has been widely noted you believe that a lost man can be saved no matter what misconceptions he may hold. You said any “misconception” about the Lord’s deity should be “put on the back burner.”

That statement is all inclusive. We know from numerous notes by you and select “Crossless” advocates that this includes not just “misconceptions,” but open, conscience rejection of the deity of Christ.

Your stating, “The Mormon Jesus and the Evangelical Jesus are one and the same” clearly shows the depths to which you will go to run down and negate the Deity of Jesus Christ to uphold the reductionist teachings of Zane Hodges on the “Crossless” gospel.

My new contributor, Phil Evans in his article, The Hollow Gospel of the GES, documents that Hodges considers the cross, resurrection and even the deity of Christ “excess baggage” in a Gospel presentation.

These teachings are fatal to the Gospel and reduce your “Crossless/Deityless” message to a non-saving proposition to the detriment of the lost.

The judge (arbiter) of these egregious errors you have adopted and seek to spread is the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ whose name and Gospel the Hodges message has assaulted. Your interpretation of the Gospel has been “consistent;” consistently wrong! The GES’s abuse and twisting of the many clear passages of Scripture are on record and fully evidence the departure from a balanced biblical theology that the GES “Crossless” faction of the Free Grace community have gone.

Antonio, you ask what is “trivial.” The teaching of Hodges has trivialized the Lord's finished work on the cross. Trivialized the Lord Jesus Christ by the assault on His titles (the Christ & Son of God). You personally trivialized the Lord by equating Him to (as David Wyatt noted) a “cultic” Mormon Jesus.

The Hodges/GES “Crossless” gospel has been trivialized down to a “fatal” message for the lost, in that it does NOT save.

That was my reply, whch I did not want to leave buried in a thread outside my blog.


LM

*Rose’s Reasonings is a blog that is often sympathetic to and supportive of the Crossless gospel and its advocates.