Tag Archives: professing christianity

Apr 22 2013

John Piper on “Once Saved Always Saved”

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“Once saved, always saved” has become an evangelical cliché which grossly misrepresents the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. It has unfortunately been used by immature Christians and perhaps even unsaved “Christians” as a license to sin.

Here’s what John Piper has to say about the subject in his book Future Grace (via Delight in Truth friend Gabe Bogdan):

“A few years ago I spoke to a high school student body on how to fight lust. One of my points was called, “Ponder the eternal danger of lust.” I quoted the words of Jesus–that it’s better to go to heaven with one eye than to hell with two–and said to the students that their eternal destiny was at stake in what they did with their eyes and with the thoughts of their imagination…

After my message… one of the students… asked, “Are you saying then that a person can lose his salvation?”

…This is exactly the same response I got a few years ago when I confronted a man about the adultery he was living in…

I pled with him to return to his wife. Then I said, “You know, Jesus says that if you don’t fight this sin with the kind of seriousness that is willing to gouge out your own eye, you will go to hell”…

As a professing Christian he looked at me in utter disbelief, as though he had never heard anything like this in his life, and said, “You mean you think a person can lose his salvation?”

…So I have learned again and again from firsthand experience that there are many professing Christians who have a view of salvation that disconnects it from real life, and that nullifies the threats of the Bible, and puts the sinning person who claims to be a Christian beyond the reach of biblical warnings.

I believe this view of the Christian life is comforting thousands who are on the broad way that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13)…

The main concern of this book is to show that the battle against sin is a battle against unbelief. Or: the fight for purity is a fight for faith in future grace.

The great error that I am trying to explode is the error that says, “Faith in God is one thing and the fight for holiness is another thing… The battle for obedience is optional because only faith is necessary for final salvation.” (John Piper, Future Grace pg. 330-331 and 333)

It is a grave error to separate obedience to the Word from an initial conversion type event. Disobedience, lack of striving for holiness, and lack of perseverance in the faith may be indicative that the professing Christian is not saved.

Feb 13 2013

Was Mark Driscoll Right in Calling Out Obama’s Faith?

On Inauguration Day, Pastor Mark Driscoll tweeted this controversial quote:

“Praying for our president, who today will place his hands on a Bible he does not believe to take an oath to a God he likely does not know.”

Driscoll took a big risk in tweeting this direct attack on the president’s faith. Since then, a multitude of progressives, atheists, and liberal Christian leaders have been ripping Driscoll to pieces over the tweet, but also other well respected Christian figures have labeled it as insensitive.

Regardless how one feels about Driscoll and his tweeting, is there truth in the message?

Obama is a professing Christian who believes in Jesus as a “role model” based on how he describes his Christianity. Christian author and theologian A.W. Pink would call him a professor based on the way Pink describes people like Obama in his 1300 page “Exposition on Hebrews.”

The President takes a number of unbliblical positions on important social issues which validates the first part of the quote:

1. He supports the abortion platform vehemently, despite multiple biblical passages demonstrating that unborn babies are persons who feel joy, who can be filled with the Holy Spirit, and their life and servitude is planned out by God before they are born. Obama previously said he would not want to punish his daughter with a baby if she made a mistake and became pregnant. He may have hinted that pre-marital sex is ok, as long she takes the necessary precautions not to get pregnant.

2. He supports the gay agenda despite multiple Bible texts which speak against homosexuality.

3. He accepts an unbiblical view of marriage by supporting same sex marriage.

4. In a TV interview Obama made clear that he embraces the idea that all religions lead to heaven and that Jesus is not the only way to salvation. He makes clear that following the moral code of other religions can lead to salvation, which is really a salvation by works and not by grace through faith.  Such statements are against the Bible, further supporting Driscoll’s claim that he does not believe the Bible.

As for the second part of the quote, Driscoll knows the issues listed above and that is why he states that the president probably does not know the God, Jesus Himself, revealed in the Bible, Who stated the He is “the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through [Him]” (John 4:16). The president disagrees with this statement, and this leads me to conclude that he believes in a different god than the One revealed in the Bible.

No one can be sure about anyone’s salvation but we can make educated guesses based on the things they say and do, in other words are the fruits of the Spirit in their life…?

Is president Obama a Christian? Yes, he is a professing Christian.

Is he a born-again Christian? No.

Was Mark Driscoll insensitive in this tweet?  Probably.

Was Driscoll correct in his assessment? Yes.

Truth is controversial. Truth hurts sometimes.

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