I grew up in the First Assemblies of God denomination. The Assemblies are a Pentecostal denomination. I first “experienced” God at an Assemblies church. I was about 4 years old. My parents were new believers. My mother had converted from Catholicism, and my father had no prior church experience. He was a deacon, or an usher. I’m not sure. He wore a suit every Sunday and I would watch him diligently polish his black leather shoes every Sunday morning. We lived in San Jose, California, and the church we attended was set atop a tiny hill in a suburb.
I remember watching the movie "666", which was based on a book by Salem Kirban. The movie remains the most terrifying experience of my life. The heroine in the movie wakes up one morning and finds that her significant other has vanished while shaving. The world is in chaos. Millions of people have inexplicably disappeared. Soon the events described in Revelation become reality. Plagues, destruction, world government, the Mark of the Beast, all of it. But that’s not the terrifying part. The governing authorities, now a tool of the AntiChrist, begin to hunt all the Christians who refuse to accept the Mark. The movie ends as the authorities lead the heroine to the guillotine and execute her, who then wakes up from this nightmare to find her boyfriend has vanished.
This movie scarred me, and for years, whenever I was lost, or I couldn’t find my parents, I naturally assumed God had abandoned me, Christ had returned, and I was not worthy.
There’s no time to change your mindThose words are actual song lyrics. I believed them. What did I know? I was a toddler. I understood words well; I just didn’t understand God well.
The Son has come
And you’ve been left behind
Pentecostal and other Charismatic denominations frequently use fear to motivate Christians. They believe that if they teach Christians about the grace and love of God, then Christians will abuse God’s grace and live in sin. For them, fear keeps Christians in line. Charismatic denominations traditionally believe that a Christian can “lose” their salvation. If you sin enough times—we don’t know how many times, but God does—then you will fall away from God and burn for eternity in hell. You have abandoned God. These churches have “altar calls” and “rededication ceremonies” every week. Catholic churches have similar ceremonies, called “confession”. There are a lot of theological similarities between Catholic and Charismatic churches.
Charismatics, Catholics, and many other Protestant denominations believe that a Christian can lose his salvation by a simple choice. They believe this because they believe the Christian originally decided to choose to believe in Christ. If he can freely, through his own volition, believe in Christ, then he can freely choose to stop believing. It’s a perfectly consistent belief. It’s just not biblical.
The core of the problem is this notion of free will. Freedom is very Western, but not very biblical. God is not a westerner. He is not Socrates or Plato. He wasn’t created with the birth of Athens and he doesn’t subscribe to our beliefs. He commands us to submit to his, and the first notion that we must accept is that, because of Adam, we are dead in our sin.
I do not deny that we all make choices. Every day, every one of us makes choices. Our choices are limited by certain factors, however. Our environment limits our choices. All of us do not choose to walk to school, or to wear warm clothing throughout the year, for example. Our personality limits our choices. I will never choose to use hallucinogens or run shirtless through the mall. Our will is not absolutely free, yet we are free to make many of the choices we want to make: where we live, what we eat, who we love, etc.
The theological controversy surrounds our ability to believe in God. Do we freely choose God, or does he sovereignly (some say arbitrarily) choose us? The implications of both options present different dilemmas. If we freely choose God, then what does God do? God responds to our wishes, and we effectively become the Initiators of this Divine Covenant. We decide who God loves and doesn’t love. We hold life and death in our will, eternal salvation or eternal damnation. If God chooses us, then what about those he doesn’t choose? Why does he choose some and damn others? What about our freedom? What about his love? Does he even love everyone?
Many Christians believe that the controversy regarding free will is largely irrelevant to the whole of the Christian life. Most Christians remain completely unaware that there is a controversy at all. The truth is that what a Christian believes about free will and election relates directly to what they believe about sin, grace, and redemption. Free will places in man a spark, however small, of original righteousness. Free will says that we are not sinners at our core, but saints, for we choose to trust in God not by his Spirit, but by the strength of our moral character. With this belief, we become righteous at our core, apart from Christ. Consequently, we need neither grace nor redemption.
Free will flagrantly elevates man to a position equal with God. Theologians who believe in free will not only believe that man can thwart the plans of God, but that God is subject to the whims of man. Free will ventures beyond placing man and God on an equal plane; the doctrine of free will places man in a superior position to the God of the universe.
When a Christian believes that he is responsible for his salvation through the glorious strength and magnificence of free will, he assumes responsibilities that only God can be responsible for. This believer is now responsible for his continued justification, lest he deny God through ongoing sin and lose his salvation; for his sanctification through daily acts of prayer, Bible study, worship, etc.; for the salvation of his loved ones, and for the Gospel command of making disciples of the entire world. Only God has the power and wisdom to accomplish these and guide us through them. We are responsible to trust in God, and to act obediently through this trust, but only God can keep us in salvation, bring us through sanctification and present us holy before him, and guarantee the salvation of those he has elected.
If we believe that we choose God, rather than he choose us, we remove his sovereignty. God sits and waits for us to choose him. He becomes passive. Scripture does not describe God in this way. God sovereignty rules the universe in absolute sovereignty. He builds, he tears down, he uproots and he plants not only men but entire nations.
The Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whom he wishes, and sets over it the lowliest of men.
Daniel 4.17If we remove his sovereignty, we set ourselves in his place. We now rule our destinies, and we decide who enters the Kingdom. Many theologians believe that God willingly removes his own sovereignty to respect our free will.[1] If God is not sovereign over the will of man, none of his promises can be trusted, for his promises involve the world, and the world is shaped and influenced by our decisions. If God is not sovereign, God is not God.
This absence of sovereignty allows entire denominations and even the entire Catholic Church to create whatever doctrine they see fit. If God is not sovereign, then his word cannot be trusted. Scripture cannot be trusted. Therefore, we can change, twist, add, subtract, or rewrite as we see fit. The Catholic Church, among many other unscriptural teachings, teaches that we are saved by faith and works. Many denominations ordain practicing homosexuals. The so-called Prosperity Gospel teaches thousands (possibly millions) that God acts as a personal wish-granting machine. If God is not sovereign, man is, and within the church that teaches free will, men have become their own god.
[1] This is the whole point of The Grace of God and the Will of Man. Clark Pinnock, editor, Bethany House Publishers, 1995.
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