Impossibility Of Apostasy Is "Foolish Preaching"
We shall now continue our series of articles on "The Foolishness of Preaching vs. Foolish Preaching." For the past several articles we have been considering the theory of inherited depravity and related subjects. We have pointed out that the theory of inherited depravity is the mother of the doctrines of predestination, the direct operation of the Holy Spirit in conversion, Mourner's bench religion, and sanctification as a "second work of grace." In this article we shall consider the doctrine of the impossibility of apostasy.
Like other "foolish preaching" we have considered, the doctrine of the impossibility of apostasy is a direct descendent of the theory of inherited depravity. In fact, the whole system of Calvinism is based on the idea of the inability of man to do anything for himself in the matter of salvation. Before he is converted, he is so totally depraved that he cannot think, see, hear, believe, understand, or do anything pleasing to God. He is totally dead and is wholly passive in conversion. Nothing short of a miraculous direct operation of the Spirit can reach him to save him. Then, after he is saved, he is still wholly helpless, completely passive, unable to disbelieve, decide, or to do anything to damn his soul. When he was in the service of the Devil, he could not get out if he wanted to, and he was so completely dead that he could not even want to get out. God took him by a miracle, and he is now so completely under God's control that he cannot get out if he wants to. At first, he could not quit serving God, even with all the aid the Devil can give him, because God just will not permit it.
Bro. G. C. Brewer once illustrated it by the old story of a slave who was standing in the streets of Nashville, Tenn., during the Civil War, when a company of Federal soldiers came marching down the street. An officer addressed the old man after this manner: "Say. you black rascal, why don't you get a gun and help us fight? Don't you know that we are fighting for your freedom? Why aren't you fighting with us?" The old slave replied: "Boss, is you evah seed two dogs fightin' ovah a bone? Well. you know the bone don't fight. You and the Rebels is fightin' ovah the slave. The slave is the bone; he don't fight!" This is exactly the logic of the calvinistic position. They make God and the Devil the "dogs" and man "the bone." They assume correctly that God is the stronger. and, therefore, they assume that He will have "the bone" when the fight is over. The Devil will be unable to get "the bone" away from His possession.
Now that we have seen the relationship between our subject and those subjects discussed previously, we shall give more specific attention to the doctrine of the impossibility of apostasy. It is sometimes referred to as "the perseverance of the saints." or "once saved, always saved." or "the security of the believer." That you might see the doctrine in its hideousness. I quote from a tract by Sam Morris. "Do a Christian's Sins Damn His Soul?" Mr. Morris. a Baptist preacher, says, "We take the position that a Christian's sins do not damn his soul. The way a Christian lives, what he says, his character. his conduct, or his attitude toward other people have nothing whatever to do with the salvation of his soul..... All the prayers a man may pray, all the churches he may belong to, all the services he may attend, all the sermons he may practice, all the debts he may pay, all the ordinances he may observe, all the laws he may keep, all the benevolent acts he may perform will not make his soul one whit safer; and all the sins he may commit from idolatry to murder will not make his soul in any more danger . . . ." That is the doctrine commonly called "once saved, always saved." The doctrine says that the sinner can not do anything good, because he is totally depraved; but after the Holy Spirit operates and removes that depraved nature, he is regenerated and he cannot sin. This doctrine puts a premium on, and gives license to sin. If a man, who believes this doctrine, is moral, it is against his doctrine.
In fact, in debating with Bro. W. Curtis Porter in Memphis, Tenn., Mr. Hoyt Chastain admitted as much. Bro. Porter said. "According to Baptist doctrine, if a man has been born again, he could forsake his family, elope with a sixteen-year-old girl, and live in adultery with her the remainder of his life, and go to heaven." Mr. Chastain replied, "I don't mind stating it, and take it any way you want to." He then went on to say that if a Christian should "desert his family and marry a sixteen-year-old girl and live with her in adultery the rest of his life it would work together for his good. Amen. There is such a thing as good, better, best. It would be best if I didn't do it. But if I do I'll get good out of it, for God will overrule it for my good. He will whip the socks off me and I will get good out of it even then. I am not evading the issue, I'm walking right up to it."
It seems as if any honest, straightforward thinking man, woman. boy or girl could see that such is "foolish preaching" if the Bible didn't even say a thing on the subject. A man who says that a Christian can commit all the sins in the catalogue, from idolatry to murder, and still be acceptable to God surely doesn't realize what he is advocating. If people lived like these preachers claim they can live and still please God, there would be no morality left among them anywhere. I am happy to know that there are many among the Baptists who do not believe in this foolish doctrine.
But, what does the Bible say? The Bible teaches without a shadow of doubt that it is possible for a child of God to so sin as to he finally lost. In 1 Cor. 10, the apostle Paul showed how the ancestors of the Jews of his day had transgressed God's law and had fallen in the wilderness. He concludes with this warning, "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth. take heed lest he fall." If it were impossible for a child of God to so sin as to finally he lost. why did Paul warn those early Christians to take heed lest they might fall?
In Gal. 5:4. we find, "Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would he -justified by the law: ye are fallen away from grace." Not man,' years ago. I heard the same Hoyt Chastain. mentioned above reply to this passage by calling attention to Gal 3:11. "Now that no man is justified by the law before God is evident" and he reasoned (?) like this: Since Gal. 5:4 says "Ye who are justified by the Law. ye are fallen from grace" (K.J.V), and Gal. 3:11 says. "No man is justified by the Law," then he was safe in saying that one couldn't fall from grace. Bro. Porter simply showed that the American Standard Version reads, "Ye who would be justified by the law . . . ." The ASV correctly translates the conative present here, which puts emphasis on the attempt. Those who attempt to be justified by the law are fallen from grace. Another interesting thing about this verse is that the verbs translated "severed" and "fallen away" are both aorist, the force of which tense is punctiliar. They are effective aorists and represent the consequences of the attempt to be justified by the law as instantaneous, meaning "Ye are then and there shut out from Christ." Truly, none can be justified by the Law, but the apostle is saying that those attempting to be justified by it are cut off from Christ.
In Heb. 3:12 we read, "Take heed, brethren, lest haply there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God." You will notice in this verse: (1) that the writer was addressing this statement to "brethren," children of God; (2) that it was a warning, "take heed," or be careful, "lest haply there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief;" (3) that the brother could have an evil heart of unbelief, or the believer could become an unbeliever, and thus fall away from the living God. As long as the Epistle to the Hebrews remains, there will be the solemn warning contained in this verse.
Preachers who preach "once saved, always saved" will read such passages as Porn. 8:38-39 and try to make people think it teaches their theory. Paul said, "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life. nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." What such teachers need to find, and what they cannot find on the pages of God's Word, is a passage which says that nothing can separate one from God. God will continue to love man and he long-suffering toward him, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. The failure is not on God's part, but on the part of man.
(more to follow)