I Felt Like I Drank Water from a Fire Hydrant

There was a time I thought John F. MacArthur taught "works salvation" because a lot of stuff were taken out of context and misrepresented. It's a very common practice to take things out of context. A lot of people have done that to the Bible which is God's Word so the can also do it to just anyone. But I thought of one thing that after reading some of MacArthur's books (and I started with "Fool's Gold"), I felt like I was drinking water from a fire hydrant because I drank a lot of spiritual truths I needed to know all at once after I spent several years reading conspiracy theories so I missed a lot of stuff. I felt like I missed a lot in my Christian growth and now the time has come for me to really catch it up.

The one book I felt I needed to read was "The Gospel According to Jesus". So I finished "Fool's Gold" and "The Jesus You Can't Ignore". I needed to read "The Gospel According to Jesus" and "Hard to Believe". These are two books contain the essential truths that's missing today. Other truths like that can also be found in Ray Comfort's "Hell's Best Kept Secret", "True and False Conversion" and "Revival's Golden Key". Some critics have called them as "promoting works salvation" because they addressed the vital differences between true converts and false converts. Today, most people don't want to know the differences. Worse, they have called preachers who warn of the possibility of false conversion to be Pharisees and frustraters of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Many think that the Gospel was "under siege" so they supposedly "correct it". While claiming to correct this Gospel, they actually watered down the message. Repentance isn't emphasized, no preaching of the Law, false converts are accepted and no test for genuine conversion is ever done. Anybody who insisted in doing so was immediately labeled whatever names they could think of like a Pharisee or closet Roman Catholic. But the Bible warns in Matthew 7:16-20 that by their fruits will people be known. John 15:1-8 describes that the Christian life will bear fruit and that genuine converts abide in Christ. But today, the vital truth of a sanctified life as a result of getting saved is so under attack. I had very little idea of that siege until there were several controversies such as the Lordship controversy. I even had no idea that I was dragged into it. Then I realized that the controversy is so great that I really needed to be restored to the right path. 

I remembered the time I soon doubted my salvation not because of my struggle with sin but because I started stuff that weren't biblical. The "Easy Christianity" crowd teaches that teaching repentance of salvation from sin was required for salvation was works salvation. They also teach that a Christian can remain barren for the rest of their lives. The moment I realized that such people who taught that Christians can remain barren for the rest of their lives then I knew something was pretty wrong. It's safe for anyone to assume that these people are Antinomians in denial. The Gospel talks about receiving Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, not just Savior. It also taught salvation is freedom from sin not freedom to sin. If one danger is to add works to salvation, the other is to remove the truth that salvation results to good works. Either way, a Gospel that adds works to salvation and a Gospel that teaches a license to sin are both sure roads to Hellfire.

I read the books and kept agreeing with them even if I still have problems transferring to Calvinistic Theology. I don't need to be a full Calvinist to preach true and false conversion as some teachers MacArthur mentions and quotes aren't Calvinists. I can agree with the reality that true and false converts will have differences. One of these areas is their attitude towards good works. True converts do good works as a result of having been under grace and no longer under the law. False converts may think good works are either necessary to keep one's salvation or that they're not part of the Christian life. Any wrong attitude towards good works is fatal because if one decides to either deduct them as an inevitable result of the Christian life or as something needed to contribute to one's salvation then it's an attack on God's grace.

I really felt like I wasn't alone in my desire to preach the Gospel as it should be preached to people. I always felt that only false converts would dare teach you have a license to sin. I was too used to attacking works salvation and conditional security I forget about Antinomians. I don't really care too much if those followers of "Easy Christianity" decide to try and attack me. I suggest they better read their Bibles properly because they just keep quoting verses out of context. Changeless Christianity is definitely not possible because 1 Corinthians 6:11 declares people are delivered from their sinful lifestyles once they're saved.