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18/02/2025

What Is the Gospel?

The goal of this book is to “get the gospel right.” The word ‘gospel’ means ‘good news,’ so it is crucial to make sure that the message really is 'good news' for those who respond to it. It is the good news that the Lord Jesus and His Apostles proclaimed to a lost world of sinners-Jew and Gentile. The essence of the gospel is the person and work of the Lord Jesus and how the benefits of His life, death, and resurrection are realized in the lives of individuals. Most evangelical Christians agree about the person and work of Christ: that He was God incarnate in human flesh to provide eternal life to a spiritually dead humanity through His death and resurrection. However, many who accept this statement might not agree with each other as to how a sinner can be saved. Indeed, there has been a serious polarization among Evangelicals in regard to salvation truth.

It is the thesis of this book that the gospel is that any sinner can be saved by grace only through explicit repentant faith in the finished work of Christ alone. This means that the gospel is a valid offer for every last human being, available by God's unmerited favor, apart from human performance either before or after conversion. Christ is the only way of salvation, that is, no one can be saved apart from explicit trust in the merits of His saving death and resurrection. Although the new birth and right standing with God are given instantaneously upon the exercise of saving faith, there is a process by which unbelievers come to trust in Christ for salvation. Also, it is the privilege of every true believer to have assurance of ultimate salvation.

It is clear that many mainline Protestants would no longer agree with Evangelicals about even the deity and passion of Christ. This book will only briefly deal with those issues. Traditional Catholics and Eastern Orthodox might agree with Evangelicals about His deity and passion, but they would not accept our teaching about how people can be saved. This was the crucial issue of the Protestant Reformation. However, within a century after the Reformation a sharp division developed among Protestants. Martin Luther and John Calvin had followed Augustine in a deterministic approach to salvation, with doctrines of unconditional election (absolute predestination) and irresistible grace. It is widely recognized that Calvin's successor in Geneva, Theodor Beza, developed a more extreme form of Calvin's doctrine by adding the notion of limited atonement-that Christ died only for the elect.

A century after the Reformation a reaction against this extreme Genevan Calvinism developed around Amsterdam pastor and theologian, Jacob Arminius (1560-1609). After Arminius' untimely death, some of his followers, called Remonstrants, pressed his denial of Calvinism in five points. At the Synod of Dort (1618-19) the Arminians were banished from the Netherlands Reformed churches by the extreme Calvinists, who set out their doctrine in five opposing points, the famous acronym, TULIP. Most Protestants, except Lutherans and the Anabaptist-Mennonite heritage, can trace their lineage back to either the Calvinism or Arminianism.

It is the burden of this book to show that both Calvinists and Arminians have got it half right and half wrong, with the truth being in the middle. Diligent inductive study of the whole Bible, without traditional or philosophical preconceptions, confirms the above definition of the gospel message. A middle or mediate view is also confirmed by the views of the early church fathers* and a score of evangelical movements which reacted to the determinism of the Reformers. It is also harmonious with the Great Commission of the Lord Jesus to His church. British scholar, I. Howard Marshall expressed this goal so aptly: “The full Arminian position is as much open to error as is extreme Calvinism. My aim is to reach beyond the Calvinist-Arminian controversy to a position which is biblical, and which therefore accepts whatever is true in both Calvinism and Arminianism.”

What Are the Various Views?

Moderate Calvinism.

The essence of Calvin's theology, which he got from Augustine a millennium earlier, is in the doctrines of unconditional election and irresistible grace. According to this view, God predestined some individuals to be elected to salvation based upon His own hidden reasons. God then sovereignly gives the new birth and faith only to those elect individuals. Christ died for all mankind, without exception or discrimination, but only the elect will respond to the gospel and be saved. This view is commonly referred to as four-point Calvinism.

Extreme or Hyper Calvinism.

Calvin's successors extended the implications of Calvin's views to become the five-points of the Synod of Dort and the Westminster Confession. The acronym TULIP stands for these points.

T is for Total Depravity, which means that mankind is so depraved that sinners can do nothing to please God, including repentance or faith. Spiritual death means total inability to respond to God, so God must give faith to the sinner.

U is for Unconditional Election or predestination.

L is for Limited Atonement, that Christ died only for the elect and not for the “non-elect.” (Some prefer the term, “particular redemption.”)

I is for Irresistible Grace, which means that the elect are sovereignly given regeneration to enable them to believe.

P is for Perseverance of the saints, which means that the truly elect prove their election by perseverance in faith and obedience to the end. Section III deals with issues raised by extreme Calvinism.

Classic Arminianism.

Some Christians would go back to the moderate views of Arminius himself. They reject eternal security, although Arminius only had doubts about this doctrine. They reject the other points of Calvinism. Four chapters of this book deal with eternal security.

Remonstrant Arminianism.

The Remonstrant successors to Arminius not only rejected all five points of Calvinism, but many also denied that Christ's death was as a substitute for sinners. This denial was an attempt to explain how Christ could die for all sinners without all mankind being saved.

Wesleyan Arminianism.

Over a century after Arminius, John Wesley (1703-91) restored an “Evangelical Arminianism.” He rejected the extreme views of the Remonstrants by holding to a stronger view of human depravity and God's sovereignty, which was important to his very fruitful evangelism. However, he began to teach that believers can attain sinless perfection, which became the basis for the subsequent ‘holiness movement.’

Mediate theology. The Synod of Orange (AD 529) affirmed Augustine's emphasis upon grace, but rejected his doctrines of unconditional election and irresistible grace, which could be called a semi-Augustinian view. Over a dozen movements after the Reformation rejected the determinism of the Reformers and sought to find a middle position. Hundreds of theologians, Bible commentators, and church leaders in recent centuries have held to election being conditioned on repentant faith alone, while also affirming the eternal security of the true believer. Research for this book has confirmed this mediate position as the biblical one.

Biblical Doctrine Is Foundational

Since God uses true Christians in all of the above movements, why should we be concerned about which one is right? Many Christians have the notion that doctrine divides and is unimportant in the life of the individual or of the church. Nothing could be farther from the truth!

In his first letter to Timothy, the Apostle Paul emphasized repeatedly the importance of sound doctrine and teaching. He showed great concern for the truth of the message which Timothy was to preach and teach and spoke frequently of the imperative of holding to “the faith” as an objective body of essential truth. He encouraged Timothy to stay on in Ephesus to deal with false teachings in the churches there (1 Tim. 1:3-11). In emphasizing God's desire that all men might be saved, he makes their coming “to the knowledge of the truth” synonymous with this (2:3-4). Therefore it is essential that local church leaders be “able to teach” (3:2) and must hold “to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience” (3:9), since the church of the living God is “the pillar and support of the truth” (3:15).

Paul warns that “in the latter times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” (4:1), and that to “be a good servant of Christ Jesus” Timothy will not only have to be “nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine” but also have to point out this apostasy to the brethren (4:6). Paul exhorts him to “prescribe and teach” that “the living God... is the Savior of all men, especially of believers” (4:10-11), and twice re- minds him that by giving attention to his teaching he will insure salvation for his hearers (4:13, 16). In the concluding section, Paul shows a great concern that Timothy teach “doctrine conforming to godliness” and warns those whose lifestyle is moving them away from “the faith”(5:8, 17; 6:2-3, 10, 17). Paul's letter to Titus emphasizes these same concerns (1:1, 9-14; 2:1, 7, 10).

Based on the preceding, it is no overstatement to say that biblical doctrine is foundational to the life, witness, and ministry of individual Christians, and to the life of the church. Yet today, we see little concern for doctrine in most evangelical churches, and music is fast becoming doctrinally vapid. This situation is so serious that it must be called a crisis.

—Pages 1-4, Getting the Gospel Right, A Balanced View of Salvation Truth by G. Gordon Olson, Foreword by Tim LaHaye

To read the whole or entire Book, Click and Follow this Link:

13/02/2025
Two Years ago from Today February 5, 2025 marks the Beginning of God's Amazing Grace to our Local Congregation, by the A...
05/02/2025

Two Years ago from Today February 5, 2025 marks the Beginning of God's Amazing Grace to our Local Congregation, by the Authority of our First Sending Church, Resurrection Bible Baptist Church, Historically traced back to Baptist Bible Fellowship International (BBFI) led by Rev. Jed B. Resurreccion who sent out Pastor Aljun T. Guilaran in the Mission Field of Sto. Niño, Carmen, Davao del Norte which was once a Children's Outreach Ministry which we Gratefully owe to Pastor Danny Pareja, also an RBBC Missionary. It was this very day when Pastor Aljun was laid hands upon by the Deacons and the Senior Pastor of RBBC to be the Missionary Pastor of the said particular place of Ministry. July 15, 2023 when an American Baptist Association (ABA) affiliated Church, Faith Missionary Baptist Church, Des Arc, Arkansas USA chose an Ordaining Council of Missionary Baptist Pastors who Ordained in the Ministry of the Gospel, Pastor Aljun. The work since then continued and bore fruit of more than 12 initially Biblically Baptized Members of the Local Scriptural New Testament Church. God has been so Faithful despite all trials, struggles, pains, challenges and sacrifices we all had both Leaders and Members of this Local Mission Church. But we survived and still continue by the Grace of God now for Two Strong Years an Onward. God has never failed to sustain and provide our needs to sustain the Body of Christ. Pastor Aljun and Mam Michelle his wife with their Daughter Rachel Dawn continues now to faithfully serve Jesus Christ our God and Savior as Fellowshipping Member of the Sector 3 of the Fellowship of Fundamental Baptist Churches in Southern and Eastern Mindanao of the Association of Fundamental Baptist Churches in the Philippines. Thanks to the Sovereign Providential Care of our Triune God through our Three Solid Biblical Baptist Roots, the BBFI or Baptist Bible Fellowship International (Bible Baptist), ABA or American Baptist Association (Landmark Missionary Baptist) and Lastly and Currently, we are related to ABWE or Association of Baptist for World Evangelism (fellowship of Filipino Fundamental Baptists). Soli Deo Gloria! To the LORD our God Almighty Alone Be All the Glory in the Church Forevermore! Praise God! Hallelujah!

We are neither A-Arminians nor C-Calvinists but B-Balanced, Biblical or Biblicists and Baptists. Please Read until the e...
08/06/2024

We are neither A-Arminians nor C-Calvinists but B-Balanced, Biblical or Biblicists and Baptists. Please Read until the end and Learn the Truth!

THE EXTREME SOVEREIGNTY VIEW—Calvinism
God's Control
This position understands sovereignty in the strong sense of divine control over and determination of the entire universe and of all actions in it. God is in complete charge of all that happens and will happen, including all free choices of His creatures. Nothing we do can change His fixed plan, which He preordained from all eternity. The future is not open to being “helped” in its formation by our free actions.

God's Foreknowledge
God knows with certainty everything that will happen in the future, including all free actions. Nothing can change this; it is fixed and immutable. Since God is omniscient, He cannot be wrong about anything. Hence, if He knows what's going to happen and He knows everything that's going to happen then it must happen exactly as He foreknew it would happen.

God's Predestination
God can make infallible predictions—ones that must come to pass. Indeed, He has predetermined from all eternity every event in the universe, including the salvation of the elect and the damnation of the non-elect. Predestination is not based on His foreknowledge; His election of some to salvation is a free choice of His mercy, based only on His will. This is an unconditional election of some to salvation and of leaving others for damnation.

Man's Fallen State
Fallen human beings, dead in sin, do not even have the ability to receive the gift of salvation unless God first works in them by His Spirit and gives them, and them alone, the faith to believe in Him. Thus, regeneration comes before faith, and only the regenerate can believe. The rest are dead and incapable of belief. The rest are dead and incapable of belief.

God's Grace
Human will plays no part in our salvation; we are saved by God's will and God's will alone. Salvation cannot be sought, attained, or even received as a gift—it is wholly and completely of God, whose saving love is a voluntary act of mercy. Because of man's sinful state, God did not have to save anyone, but out of sheer grace He decided from all eternity to save some. These, and these alone, are the ones for whom Christ died. Only these are operated on by God's irresistible grace and brought to ultimate salvation.

Man's Free Choice
What we call “free choice” actually is determined by God; we can- not act contrary to His sovereign will. Even those who “freely” reject God do so in accordance with His sovereign will. Hence, the elect are predestined by God to heaven and the non-elect to hell (or, at least, were not chosen by God for heaven). True freedom is not freedom to do good or evil but only to do good. God is free and cannot do evil. Therefore, the ultimate freedom (attained only in heaven) is freedom from evil, not any freedom to do evil. Freedom means “doing what we desire,” and only God can give the desire to do good; any desire to do evil comes from our own evil nature. Fallen humans have no free will in the sense of having a self-determined choice to accept God's gift of salvation. In short, this view places sovereignty over free will. Any act of free will with regard to salvation comes only as a result of God producing it by His grace. Even the will to reject God is not self-determined but, rather, is an act ordained by God for the condemnation of the wicked, just as an act for Christ is one given by God for the salvation of the elect.

THE EXTREME FREE WILL VIEW—Arminianism
God's Control
This position maintains that God does not have rigid control of the universe; He gave away some of His sovereignty to His creatures when He gave them free choice. God does not determine human free acts; He reacts to them as He becomes aware of them. The future is not fixed—it's open to our free choices to help determine it. What we decide can change the future.

God's Foreknowledge
God knows with certainty only what flows from a necessary order of causes. Since our free actions are not necessary but based on choices, God cannot know them for sure. So the future is not immutable. Omniscience is limited to what is possible for God to know, and it is not possible for God to know future free choices that free creatures will make. Since His knowledge about the future is not infallible, He can make predictions that do not come to pass; what He foretells can have only relative degrees of probability. Nonetheless, because of His great knowledge, God is highly accurate in His forecasting.

God's Predestination
God has not predetermined individuals to heaven or hell. Election is corporate, not individual; each individual must choose his own salva- tion. God has predestined the bus (Christ) for heaven—people can get on (salvation) or off (reprobation) by their own free choice. Predestination is based on God's foreknowledge of who will choose Him and who will not. Hence, His election is conditional—it is conditioned on our accepting or rejecting Him.

Man's Fallen State
Fallen human beings are spiritually dead in that they have no spiri- tual life. However, God's image is still present in them. As such, they are able to hear His voice and respond to His offer of salvation, and they must believe before they are regenerated. All people are capable of this belief that brings salvation.

God's Grace
God's saving love is for all people. Christ died for all humankind, and God is trying to save everyone. His grace, however, is not irresistible: Some accept and are saved, while some reject it and are lost (though some proponents of this view deny any eternal conscious punishment). We cannot work for our salvation, but we must work from it. Those who do not perform the proper good works can lose their salvation, for if salvation can be gained by a free choice, it likewise can be lost.

Man's Free Choice
Free will means the ability to do otherwise. Humans are truly free, having the power of contrary choice. God's choice of some to salvation is based on His foreknowledge that they would believe in Him. True freedom here on earth is the freedom to do good or evil. Only in heaven will there be freedom from evil; here we are free to reject God and His gift of heaven. Indeed, the free choice to accept salvation can later be used to reject and lose it. In short, this view places free will over sovereignty. God does not completely control the universe. His work on free creatures is persuasive but not coercive. In the final analysis, our destiny is determined by our own free choices. God's sovereignty is limited by the free creatures He has made.

THE BALANCED VIEW—Biblical or Biblicist
A third view attempts to balance sovereignty and free will, accepting both as basic biblical truths and seeking to reconcile them without making one or the other dominant to the exclusion of the other. The extreme Sovereignty view is held by extreme Calvinists. The extreme free will view is embraced by extreme Arminians (also called Open Theists). The balanced (or middle) view is maintained by moderate Calvinists and moderate Arminians. This is not to say there are no differences between moderate Calvinists and moderate Arminians. For example, moderate Calvinists believe in eternal security (once saved, always saved), and moderate Arminians do not. However, they hold many things in common, including their views on the following.

God's Control
According to the balanced (middle) view of sovereignty and free will, God is in “control” of the universe of free creatures by His foreknowledge. He does not force anyone's freedom, but He knows in advance from all eternity exactly what everyone is going to freely do and how much persuasion will be needed for them to do it. Further, God was free to create or not create, to create free creatures or not create them. Knowing exactly what would happen in every possible world, He freely chose to create this one to achieve the greatest good. His omniscient foreknowledge assures that it's going to come out exactly as He knew it would.

God's Foreknowledge
God knows with certainty what flows from a necessary order of causes. But He also knows for certain what free choices we will make.
So, in advance, He infallibly knows the entire future of the universe; it must come to pass as He knew it would, otherwise, He would have been wrong, and an omniscient mind cannot be wrong. Since God's knowledge about the future is infallible, His predictions must come to pass—they are not “probable forecasts.” The future (including free choices) is determined from the standpoint of God's foreknowledge but free from the vantage of our free will.

God's Predestination
God has predetermined some individuals to heaven. Election is not merely corporate; it is individual. Election of an individual is based on (or else according to) God's foreknowledge of their free choices. He never predestines anyone contrary to their free will but elects only those He foreknew would accept His saving grace. There are no conditions for God giving the gift of salvation, but there is one condition for getting it—one must receive it by faith.

Man's Fallen State
Fallen human beings are spiritually dead in that they have no spiritual life. However, God's image is still present in them; hence, they're able to hear His voice and respond to His offer of salvation. They must believe as a condition for being regenerated, and everyone is capable of exercising this belief that brings salvation. But no one ever believes who has not been persuaded by God's grace to do so.

God's Grace
God's saving love is for all people. Christ died for all humankind, and God is trying to save everyone. His grace, however, is not irresistible; it is persuasive but not coercive. Those who accept Christ are saved, and those who reject Him are lost. We cannot work for our salvation, but we must work from it. Man's Free choice in this life means “the ability to do otherwise.” Humans are truly free. True freedom here on earth is the freedom to accept or reject God's offer of salvation. In heaven we will be free from evil; here we are free to do evil.

-Chosen but Free by Dr. Norman Geisler

22/11/2023

Our faith does not require us to abandon logic and evidence; rather, we can follow the abundant evidence that points to God!

06/09/2023

"Intimate knowledge of God is possible if we habitually search His Holy Scriptures and translate what we find into obedience." — George Muller

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