Grace Abuse (eBook)

One of the Greatest Hinderances to Genuine Revival

Pastor Dean Odle (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 1. Auflage
192 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3509-0467-3 (ISBN)

Pastor Dean Odle originally published Grace Abuse in 1998 after much study and prayer on the subject of 'eternal security' which is also know as 'once saved, always saved no matter how you live.' This book examines the apparent contradictions created by the errors of Calvinism. You will see from Scripture that a born again believer CAN fall away from God and be lost forever.

Pastor Dean Odle originally published Grace Abuse in 1998 after much study and prayer on the subject of "e;eternal security"e; which is also know as "e;once saved, always saved no matter how you live."e; This book examines the apparent contradictions created by the errors of Calvinism. You will see from Scripture that a born again believer CAN fall away from God and be lost forever.

CHAPTER 1

The Common Experience

In the summer of 1991, I was asked to lead the singles ministry in a fairly large Assembly of God church in Alabama. I was not on staff, but I was doing the job of a “single’s pastor.” After teaching a three-month series on spiritual warfare and prayer, the Lord directed me to lead our singles group and a college ministry from another church to the streets of our city to preach the gospel.

In the days that followed, we prayed about where to go and how to approach this new outreach. Naturally, the Lord was faithful and gave us a strategy to reach the lost. Part one of His plan was that we were to have all-night prayer meetings every other Friday night which would be followed by actually going out and witnessing together on Saturday night. In the beginning, we went to the malls and then later to the inner city. This combination of prayer and evangelism proved to be very effective as we began to see dozens of people accept Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.

One of those weekends, we went out witnessing with the other singles/campus ministry in their city. They were from Auburn, Alabama which is the home of Auburn University. By this time, it was fall and school was back in full swing. That particular day we did not arrive until late Saturday evening, so we decided to go to the fraternity parties and tell people about Jesus.

I broke up the large group and sent them out in pairs. I always tried to put an experienced person with a less experienced person, so that there would be at least one bold leader who would initiate conversations with people. After I assigned partners, we all went in different directions to find some lost college students.

Later that night, I walked up to one of our teams just as they were finishing a conversation with a young man and his girlfriend. As I approached, the couple walked off into a wild fraternity party with a cooler full of beer and their arms wrapped lustfully around each other. After which, our witnessing team shared the exchange they had with that couple.

They explained to me that as they began to tell this couple about Jesus and how they had to turn from their sin, the young man spoke up and said, “Look guys, my dad is a Baptist preacher and I was saved when I was a little boy. So, I know that I am going to heaven because I’m once saved, always saved.” The fact that he was going to get drunk and party with a bunch of lust-filled college students did not seem to bother him at all. From what he said, it is obvious that the teaching of “once saved, always saved” had influenced his decision to live in sin, and he was the son of a minister.

Truly, this situation is awful, but the horror of it all is that I have had this type of scenario happen too many times over the years. Unfortunately, it has become a very common experience. I have personally discovered that multitudes are deceived by the error of “once saved, always saved” because almost every time I go out witnessing on the street, door-to-door, or on a college campus, I run into people who believe that they will go to heaven while they live in sin.

These people enthusiastically assure me that they accepted the Lord Jesus sometime in the past and that they “know” they are going to heaven. But these same people are still fornicating, drinking, cursing, lusting, hating, committing adultery, killing babies through abortion, and even selling drugs. And, to the thrill of the devil, they have believed a lie which has insulated them from the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the true message of repentance.

Now, I am not saying that a baby Christian will do everything perfectly when they are saved, nor will they when they become a mature Christian. But there will not be a careless, stubborn, pursuit of sin which the Bible calls “walking after the flesh.” On the contrary, there should be a persistent pursuit of Jesus in the life of a believer, especially after a person has been a Christian for a number of years.

The doctrine of “unconditional eternal security” or “once saved, always saved” has destroyed millions of souls because it subtly subverts a person’s heart away from Jesus by giving the individual a sense that there is an unbreakable safety net under them. The “once saved, always saved” teaching gives the believer a false sense of security by turning the grace of God into a license to sin. When this is done in a “religious” setting, it is very successful in searing the conscience of the believer who has fallen away.

This is the primary reason why the “once saved, always saved” doctrine is one of the main roadblocks to genuine revival. It is also the reason why the Holy Spirit moved so powerfully upon Jude and inspired him to exhort us “… to earnestly contend for the faith.” Let’s look at what he said and the context in which it is found.

“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:3-4).

The Greek word used in this verse for ‘lasciviousness’ is the word ‘aselgia’ which is defined as ‘licentiousness or incontinence.’ (Strong’s Greek Dictionary, #766) The Webster’s Compact Dictionary defines licentiousness as a ‘disregarding of sexual restraints.’ The root word of licentiousness is the word ‘license’ which means: to give legal permission to engage in some activity; or the irresponsible use of freedom.’

Now, the Creator’s commandments and common sense are perfect examples of sexual restraints. Therefore, to disregard sexual restraints is to disregard God’s commandments and that is precisely what the doctrine of “unconditional eternal security” does in the lives of many people who accept it as being the “gospel.” To put it plainly, the “once saved, always saved” doctrine produces an attitude that will excuse sin and abuse the grace of God, as we saw in the case of that young college couple.

It is in this context that we have been exhorted to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints. We have been commanded to fight for the faith when we see the grace of God being turned into lasciviousness. Again, this is the context of Jude’s command to fight for the faith. Grace was never intended to be used as an excuse for Christians to continue in sin, but rather grace should be the means by which we overcome habitual sin.

Some say God’s grace is His “unmerited favor” but it is so much more. In Hebrews 10:29, the Holy Spirit is referred to as the Spirit of Grace and it is He that the Father has sent to assist us and to lead us into all truth. So, we see that grace is not some passive mystical force that God just bestows indiscriminately upon any wicked person. On the contrary, God’s grace is a Person who has come alongside us to help us accomplish the will of God. And, without doubt, we know that it is not God’s will for His people to continue in sin. Therefore, when we see the Spirit of Grace abused in this manner, we are supposed to fight for the faith once delivered to the saints. This truth is also repeated in the book of James.

“Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins” (James 5:19-20).

Now, for the purpose of clarity and understanding, we are going to examine this passage more intensely so that we will not miss what the Spirit of God is saying to the churches. First of all, James started out by saying “brethren” which lets us know without a doubt that he was addressing born-again Christians. Secondly, he said, “…if any of you (born-again Christians) do err or stray from the truth…” which reveals that a Christian can stray from the truth. And, just common sense tells us that a person cannot stray away from the truth, unless they had known, understood, and experienced the truth.

Furthermore, this passage calls the backslidden brother a “sinner” who needs to be converted. The word ‘convert’ does not mean that the individual has to be born again a second time, but rather, he or she must be turned around or brought back. The Greek word here for ‘convert’ is epistrepho, from Greek 1990 (epi) and Greek 4762 (strepho); which means ‘to revert (literal, figurative or moral) :- come (go) again, convert, (re-) turn (about, again).’ (Strong’s Greek Dictionary #1994).

But the most devastating revelation we receive from these verses is the fact that a godly Christian can bring back or convert his fallen brother or sister, and in the process he or she has saved a soul from death. This reference to...

Erscheint lt. Verlag	22.5.2023
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Christentum
ISBN-13	979-8-3509-0467-3 / 9798350904673

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