Question : "Who can declare what are the essential doctrines of
soteriology?? All the doctrines are
interconnected. The Scripture cannot be broken. So, anyone denying one doctrine, denies them all."
My response:
There are TWO issues here.
1st -- as you said, anyone who repudiates any of the essential doctrines of the Scripture is actually repudiating God.
This is my whole point about ASSURANCE of salvation. The Scripture says over and over again that ALL believers "ARE justified", "will NOT come into judgment", "ARE born of God", etc.
Anyone praying to be justified/regenerated is admitting that they are NOT a believer. In fact, to say that you believe in the Resurrection of Christ, but to question your own salvation is to try to SEPARATE what God has joined together. God says, "if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that God raised Him from the dead, YOU SHALL BE SAVED." How could anyone possibly believe in the Resurrection and not be perfectly assured of their own salvation by Christ's finished work? Can someone believe God when He speaks about the Resurrection, but call Him a liar when He speaks about salvation for all who believe?
The 2nd issue -- Clearly, there are some doctrines which believers can be confused about. For instance, the Corinthian believers for a while had a complete misunderstanding about the Lord's Supper. The rich were feasting and neglecting the poorer believers.
Yet Paul calls these Corinthians "brothers" in Christ. Why? The Corinthians behaviour was sinful, but it did not prove that they were believing a false gospel. Contrast this, however, with those denying the Resurrection of the Dead. To deny this, is to deny Christ's Resurrection.
1st -- as you said, anyone who repudiates any of the essential doctrines of the Scripture is actually repudiating God.
This is my whole point about ASSURANCE of salvation. The Scripture says over and over again that ALL believers "ARE justified", "will NOT come into judgment", "ARE born of God", etc.
Anyone praying to be justified/regenerated is admitting that they are NOT a believer. In fact, to say that you believe in the Resurrection of Christ, but to question your own salvation is to try to SEPARATE what God has joined together. God says, "if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that God raised Him from the dead, YOU SHALL BE SAVED." How could anyone possibly believe in the Resurrection and not be perfectly assured of their own salvation by Christ's finished work? Can someone believe God when He speaks about the Resurrection, but call Him a liar when He speaks about salvation for all who believe?
The 2nd issue -- Clearly, there are some doctrines which believers can be confused about. For instance, the Corinthian believers for a while had a complete misunderstanding about the Lord's Supper. The rich were feasting and neglecting the poorer believers.
Yet Paul calls these Corinthians "brothers" in Christ. Why? The Corinthians behaviour was sinful, but it did not prove that they were believing a false gospel. Contrast this, however, with those denying the Resurrection of the Dead. To deny this, is to deny Christ's Resurrection.
12 Now if Christ
is being heralded that He has been roused from among the dead, how are some
among you saying that there is no resurrection of the
dead?
13 Now if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been roused.
14 Now if Christ has not been roused, for naught, consequently, is our heralding, and for naught is your faith.
35 But someone will be protesting, "How are the dead being roused? Now with what body are they coming?"
36 Imprudent one! What you are sowing is not being vivified if it should not be dying.
13 Now if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been roused.
14 Now if Christ has not been roused, for naught, consequently, is our heralding, and for naught is your faith.
35 But someone will be protesting, "How are the dead being roused? Now with what body are they coming?"
36 Imprudent one! What you are sowing is not being vivified if it should not be dying.
This is not a major point of controversy with most Calvinists.
The REAL debate surrounds the nature of saving faith. Most Calvinists are COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY IGNORANT about the simplicity of faith. They make faith emotional, mystical and into a work. It's impossible for them to have assurance of salvation. After all, how can they ever know they possess saving faith, if it is such an obscure, un-definable "act of the soul"??? If faith is intellectually un-definable and un-knowable, we cannot identify it in ourselves, and subsequently NEVER know whether or not we are justified.
Then there are those who have not fallen into this snare of the devil. The know that faith is simply belief. And belief is to credit/assent/ be convicted / know a proposition.
Therefore, saving faith is simply to believe the bare truth of the gospel, i.e. Christ has fulfilled the Law and been sacrificed for the Sheep.
Faith is simple and definable. The gospel is simply and definable. This means that both can be IDENTIFIED in the mind easily. This is why Paul could say that ANYONE who cannot identify the doctrine of Christ in themselves, is lost. "Know not Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are disapproved?" Likewise, Christ said that believers will "NEVER thirst", but they have "a well of living water springing up to everlasting life." He says that not only does He know the Sheep, but He is "KNOWN OF MINE." For, even the faith of a mustard seed moves mountains, i.e., is without doubt. He that doubts is damned. For let not him that wavers/doubts expect anything from God !!! (James 1). Doubters are unbelievers.
And this is why when Paul wrote to the Ephesians he addressed his epistle to "the saints and faithful" at Ephesus. The believers at Ephesus MUST have had a full assurance that they were saints. Otherwise, how would they have known the epistle was addressed to them??
Full assurance is the privilege of every believer.
Andrew Bain
Sydney, Australia
http://www.xanga.com/andrew_c_bain
