Sectarian Inconsistencies

W. Curtis Porter

I have never known a sectarian preacher who could preach or write without contradicting himself. His contention at one point is in direct conflict with what he preaches about something else. His declamations are characterized by sectarian inconsistencies. For example, note the following:

"If Adam did not have the power to choose to disobey, then God's command had no meaning, nor point. Certainly God will not command me to refrain from a thing he knows I cannot do! "-C. O. Baker in Orthodox Baptist Searchlight.

I wish you to notice especially that last sentence: "God will not command me to refrain from a thing he knows I cannot do." Who said that? A Baptist preacher. Yet this same preacher in the same article says:

"I do not believe that a person who is saved by grace can apostatize."

If, that is so, then God will not tell him to refrain from falling, since he will not tell a man to refrain from a thing that he cannot do. But the two points are inconsistent. If a child of God cannot fall, then God does command a Christian "to refrain from a thing he cannot do," for God tells Christians to refrain from falling. Note the Statement of Paul in 1 Cor. 10: 12: "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." This was written to Christians. It records what God, through an apostle, is telling Christians and he tells them "to refrain from falling" to "take heed lest they fall." Is he telling them to refrain from something that is impossible for them to do? Or again: "Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." Heb. 4:11. Certainly it would be absurd for any man to say that God would tell Christians not to do a thing when it is utterly impossible for the man to do the thing forbidden. If they cannot do it, there is no need of being so foolish as to tell them not to do it. But God tells Christians not to fall! It is possible, therefore for them to fall, and C. O. Baker contradicts both himself and God when he teaches the impossibility of apostasy.