in the ' do it yourself ' kit of salvation by grace ( as long as you
work for it, ) so widely held among the Fundamentalists, the
preachings' central figure is man, not Jesus Christ...
He, Christ, only plays half the part in the Hollywood Gospel.
man must use his personal talents to secure salvation for himself by
applying his good will towards Christ; by ' accepting Jesus as his
Lord and Savior. ' failure to do so results in no salvation at all.
man is the other half of the equation. he must provide the
intelligence and desire to be saved. his intelligence must realize his
need for Christ and his decision making process must make a move
toward Christ in a positive way.
this completes the union of the two. Christ did His part; man does
his part. for his efforts man is rewarded with eternal life. it is a
gospel for the smart, only... good works redefined as grace.
a different gospel all together saves infants and the unborn. they
are automatically saved because they haven't got the intelligence nor
the faculties of will to make decisions for Christ.
this Hollywood Gospel is glamorous because you get a award for your
talents. you can stand on a stage and boast of yourself for the doing
as the TV Evangelists do. you can even go so far as to boast of
' leading someone to Christ '.
the gospel of the unaltered Bible is completely different from the
Universalists Hollywood Gospel.
at the center of the gospel of the Bible is Jesus Christ, Eternal
Son of the Father; the Savior of all those given Him by the Father
( Joh. 6:37. ) these were formerly dead in sin ( Eph. 2:1-3 )
incapable in and of themselves to will themselves into forgiveness of
sins ( Joh. 1:12,13.)
but by the mercy, love and grace of God, these were made alive in
Christ ( Eph. 1:3-14; Eph. 2:4-9; ) were given faith in Him unto
salvation solely by the hand of God ( Acts 13:48; Eph. 2:8.9 )
for the purpose of knowing Him ( Joh. 10:14 ) and sharing in His life
( Joh. 10:10. )
all of the glory for the doing rests in God since Christ came to
seek and to save those whom the Father gave Him.
Lk. 19:10 cp. Joh. 6:37
the gospel of Christ, then, has the Lord Jesus doing the saving, and
the saving is of men who are lost ( Lk. 19:10, ) not men who claim
they've talentfully decided to follow Him by some mythical act of
positive volition they've mustered up while dead in sins.
the gospel of the Bible is ridiculous to the lost ( 1 Cor. 2:14, )
and is so designed to turn away the non-elect ( Joh. 6:65,66 )
the pretenders to the faith of Jesus are in it for the money and for
self-glory, serving with feigned obedience only ( Ps. 66:3, ) being
blind guides leading the blind.
" this is the work of God that you believe in Him... " ( Joh. 6:29 )
to take the credit to oneself for believing in Christ while Christ
Himself claims that work, demonstrates an innate rebellion against the
revealed Person and work of God the Father.
the elect do not do such things. these are saved by grace, not by
works.
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