The Best of 2006

Dear Guests of IDOTG:



Looking back once again I am going to share what I believe are The Best of 2006.

In 2006 I heard of blogs, but I was not sure exactly what a blog was. Once my book In Defense of the Gospel was released I found out what blogs were very soon after. My book began a great deal of online discussion and debate. Friends informed me of these on line discussions at blogs and web sites and so I began to look in and participate.

The long story short is that I finally decided that a blog needed to be opened to provide what would be a home for In Defense of the Gospel. Not simply a home for my book and my personal desire to defend the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but to become a kind of safe-haven and place of resources for those who either were unsure of or had come to reject the works based, man-centered Lordship Salvation interpretation of the Gospel.

It was not until mid-2007 that I began a joint effort to address the Grace Evangelical Society’s Crossless gospel. This is, of course, the reductionist assault on the Gospel i. e., the content of saving faith which was originated by the late Zane Hodges. *The Crossless gospel is arguably the most extreme form reductionism that has ever been introduced to the New Testament church by one of its own.

Because I did not enter that discussion until 2007 none of the articles that address the Crossless gospel appear in this The Best of 2006. You can, however, view many samples in The Best of 2007 & The Best of 2008 series.

With that said, let’s take a retro look back to what are IMO the best blog articles of the 29 that were published in 2006.


Introduction by the Author

This was the very first and is partially excerpted from my book IDOTG. Ironically, this article attracted one of the advocates of the Crossless gospel. Here is a brief excerpt from the article, which has been edited in the new edition of IDOTG. I have posted the revised version in the thread of the article.

“First, many have been alarmed at the increasingly meaningless presentation of a gospel that seems to ignore the person of Christ, the sinfulness of man and the pending judgment of God. This gospel calls men to salvation when they have been given only a vague idea of just what they need to be saved from. This is the so-called Easy-Believism gospel. Let me say I do not hold to an Easy-Believism approach and would admonish those who seek quick, easy decisions for Christ to rethink their position. My book, however, has been produced to address the other extreme, namely, Lordship Salvation.”

The Relationship Between God’s Grace & Lordship Legalism. This is an article by Brother George Zeller, who has made several contributions to the original and upcoming revised and expanded edition of IDOTG.

“Those who teach Lordship salvation are forced to redefine saving faith. It means more than just simple, childlike faith in Jesus Christ. They might say something like this: ‘We believe in Acts 16:31 just as much as you do, but you need to understand what the word ‘believe’ really means. ‘Believe’ means more than just believe. Saving faith involves much more.’ What does it mean to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Lordship salvation teachers would say that it involves the following: It means surrendering to His Lordship. It means turning from sin. It means submitting to His authority and to His Word. It means obeying His commands, or at least having a willingness to obey. It means fully accepting all the terms of discipleship.”

Impossible Decision: John 16:7-11

“Lordship Salvation adds a commitment to discipleship (i.e. ‘take up your cross, losing your life for my sake, etc.’) which requires a decision from a lost man, which is impossible for him to make. (John 15:5). This kind of Gospel message, which Dr. MacArthur advocates, frustrates grace (Gal. 2:21). The Holy Spirit does not yet indwell this lost man, he is not regenerated. He cannot make a decision of surrender to the Lord because he does not yet know the Lord.”

John MacArthur’s Discipleship Gospel

“Lordship Salvation conditions the reception of salvation on a lost man’s upfront commitment to what should be the results of salvation. A commitment to perform the ‘good works’ (Eph. 2:10) expected of the disciple of Christ is Lordship’s requirement FOR> salvation. The lost man is expected to make a commitment toward what he will do, or become, in ‘exchange’ for what Christ has done for him.”

Lordship’s (Out-of-Order) Salvation

“ The regeneration before faith view under girds the Lordship gospel of submission, full-surrender, self-denial in exchange for salvation. The Lordship advocate believes the lost man has been regenerated (given new life, born again) prior to repentance, faith and belief. To reiterate, he does not believe in a chronological order, but he will insist regeneration has the ‘casual priority’ over, and is the trigger for: repentance, faith, and believing.”

A Question Left Unanswered Read and see why the question has been left answered.

Well, those are my choices from 2006. I may add more in upcoming days, but I trust you will find these a helpful resource from the beginning days of the IDOTG blog.


LM

*Bob Wilkin, through the GES continues to perpetuate the egregious errors of the Crossless gospel, but with far less effect since their reductionist assaults on the Person and work of Jesus Christ have been exposed and biblically refuted.