In my first challenge to Time Salvation back in September I stated that there were certain buzzwords which shroud this system. Some of the primary ones are saved, faith, perish, everlasting, or some comparable expression. He who adheres to this doctrine will become familiar with these words which make up the time salvation vocabulary as they are the life-blood of his erroneous assertions, becoming the source of manipulation when he goes to the scripture to interpret it in the light of his anti-means prejudices. The strategy of time salvation in its extreme form is to take passages, containing these buzzwords which seem to place emphasis on the human side of salvation, and to explain it in a way different than that of Calvinistic and/or Reformed theology. If a virtue or disposition is discovered to be necessary for salvation, one thing facing the “interpreter” is to determine if it should be designated a subconscious or cognitive experience. If the former, then it becomes a subconscious condition for eternal salvation. If the latter, then it MUST be an optional temporal condition applicable to this life only. Furthermore, if there be a declared condemnation mentioned in the verse, the task becomes as well to determine if it is an eternal or temporal judgment. If the condition mentioned was deemed to be subconscious, then an eternal judgment may be allowed; cognitive, then it must be a temporal judgment. A third component enters the mix if there is a promised blessing contained within the text. Then it must be determined as well whether this should be considered temporally or eternally. The determining factor as to which of these is "correct" is neither context nor sound hermeneutics, but preconceptions against those things peculiar to the gospel-means pattern for salvation.
This is the realm within which advocates of time salvation must operate; and if you can master the above “hermeneutics” then you can receive your time salvation certification.
And to think that one adherent told me when I left this teaching that I was walking away from the “simplicity that is in Christ”!
What makes this way of discerning God’s Word dangerous is when the key words around which time salvation pivots appear together in a single passage. By dividing up many of the virtues in the Bible into the two categories of “‘subconscious and necessary” and “cognitive and optional”, considerable room for differing interpretations has been granted to our innovators. To this add the current tendency of distinguishing God's temporal versus His eternal judgment, and the receiving of temporal versus eternal life, and our innovators have much latitude when it comes to interpreting a passage of scripture. There is so much freedom granted in certain passages when these concepts appear together, that the "interpreter" can make the verse mean sometimes two or three different things, and still remain within the borders of time salvation. The problem facing our innovators at this point, though, is how to determine which particular term should be the focus of the time salvation twist. Should the condition, the judgment, or the blessing be that which is manipulated and given its one-of-two definitions? I can still remember when I used to teach this doctrine, and how I always juggled such questions in my mind when certain texts were confronted. Do I make the faith out to be seed faith, and allow the condemnation and blessing to be eternal? Or, should I make the faith to be cognitive, and the promised blessing be fulfilled in “coming into the kingdom”, with only a temporal judgment to face if I fail to do so? When I realized that I received the freedom to choose from as much as two or three interpretations of a passage based on the latitude granted by following a “system of two’s”, and yet still remain safe from what I thought an error, a growing conviction settled over me that I was not handling the Word of God honestly. It is our plea that those entrenched in this system would come to see the same.
What we've asserted above will make more sense once we demonstrate the latitude which promoters of this heresy have by looking at certain key scriptures. Each of them contain key words which today's Hardshells have learned to split up and say that there are two kinds of each.
First, we have Mark 16:16:
“He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”
There are two things of note in this passage: the condition of faith and the promised fate. As both believeth, saved, and damned have two permutations each based on the latitude granted by time salvation, the following interpretations can be maintained:
1) He that believeth subconsciously and is baptized shall be saved eternally; but he that believeth not subconsciously shall be damned eternally.
or...
2) He that believeth cognitively and is baptized shall be saved temporally; but he that believeth not cognitively shall be damned temporally.
Next, John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
With the latitude granted by time salvation, these two interpretations can be had:
1) Whosoever believeth cognitively should not perish temporally, but have temporal life.
or...
2) Whosoever believeth subconsciously should not perish eternally, but have eternal life.
Flabbergasted is probably the word to best describe the Christian community were they to hear that the most popular passage in the Bible is not to be understood in the way they've always thought! Save it for our modernists to tell us that God sent His Son into the world that whosoever believed in Him should not die temporally, but have a better life here on Earth! I can still recollect an Elder who took pains to make a distinction between everlasting and eternal all to show that John 3:16 was speaking of time salvation, thereby allowing for unbelievers to be saved.
Contrary to this, however, the latitude of the time salvation buzzwords would allow one to turn right around and say something completely different by placing the twist on faith instead. He could say that eternal death and eternal salvation were under consideration and that seed faith is what is necessary for salvation.
The latitude of faith, perish, and everlasting combined together in a passage thus allow for Hardshell elders to disagree as to the single correct interpretation of it, but yet remain in accord in their opposition that true faith in the mind and heart are necessary for eternal salvation!
Third, we have John 3:36:
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
There are three key words in the passage which ring the time salvation bell: believeth, everlasting, and wrath.
Our modernists have the following wiggle-room by maintaining either:
1) He that believeth cognitively on the Son hath temporal life: and he that believeth not cognitively the Son shall not see temporal life: but the temporal wrath of God abideth on him.
or...
2) He that believeth subconsciously on the Son hath eternal life: and he that believeth not subconsciously the Son shall not see eternal life: but the eternal wrath of God abideth on him.
Fourth, John 6:40:
“And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Here again two interpretations are available from which our modernists may choose. It could be read as…
1) Everyone that seeth the Son subconsciously, and has seed faith, may have eternal life.
or...
2) Everyone that seeth the Son cognitively, and has cognitive faith, may have temporal life.
Fifth, John 8:24:
“I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am [he], ye shall die in your sins.”
Available interpretations:
1) I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die temporally in your sins: for if ye believe not cognitively that I am he, ye shall die temporally in your sins.
or...
2) I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die eternally in your sins: for if ye believe not subconsciously that I am he, ye shall die eternally in your sins.
Who can believe such nonsense? Only if one went to the Bible determined to defy the fundamental teaching that faith in Christ is necessary for eternal salvation would he ever so slice and dice the scriptures!
We might could provide further examples demonstrating this treacherous partitioning of the Bible, but this should suffice for making our point. Wherever multiple buzzwords of the time salvation scheme occur together within a passage, this latitude is available for our extremists to play with. Of course, the correct interpretation of the above verses is that faith is cognitive, and both the promised blessing and judgment are matters of an eternal nature!
The reader might be asking what the purpose is behind all this. The intent is to make salvation possible for men who really don’t believe in Jesus Christ. The chief aim behind time salvation is to make an unbeliever into a "believer". It makes it possible for it to be said of those who really don’t believe in Jesus Christ in their hearts and minds, that they are nevertheless believers in some sense. And if they fail to so believe in Christ, they will only be the subjects of God's temporary displeasure.
No comments:
Post a Comment